Oppo Digital made a big name for themselves just awhile back with their first entry into the DVD player market: the 971H. That budget player was one of the first to combine a Mediatek MPEG decoder with the popular Faroudja FLI-2310 de-interlacing/scaling chip. What resulted was a player that had an outstanding core video section, excellent de-interlacing, and a great price. But the 971H had its issues. For one thing, it would only do de-interlacing and scaling via its DVI output, leaving component video users in the cold. The Faroudja-based video processing also has issues with some displays causing “macroblocking” artifacts that can make the playback of DVD near unwatchable depending on how bad the interaction between the display and player is. The DVI output is also an issue for some. DVI was originally intended for PC applications, so it is a bit limited in its overall capability. But for those who looked past these issues, the 971H was a steal. Now, Oppo Digital has released an even bigger steal, the DV-970HD. This new player incorporates even more features and flexibility, at an even lower price!
The 970HD is based on the popular Mediatek (MTK) MPEG decoder, just like its predecessor, but the implementation is different this time around. Oppo Digital has eliminated the Faroudja processing and is relying solely on the processing inside the MTK chip. While this does result in a hit in overall video de-interlacing performance, it eliminates the risk of macroblocking artifacts if your display is susceptible to those issues.
The changes don’t stop there. The 970HD doesn’t use a DVI output, but rather the new HDMI standard. This means you can output digital video AND audio. It also means you have choices for output color space and support for high-resolution audio via a single connector. And because HMDI supports 480i video signals (DVI is limited to 480p and up), the 970HD comes in as a very attractive digital transport for feeding an outboard video processor. The 970HD also adds support for progressive playback via the component outputs and SACD support, making it a true universal DVD player. This is without a doubt the most complete feature package I’ve seen from a player at $150. Universal players are normally twice that price at the low end.
Like the 971HD, there is a lot of support for extra features in the 970HD. On the video side, you’ll find support for DIVX, MPEG4, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD Video. There is also smartcard and USB support on the front panel. On the audio side you’ll find support for MP3 and Windows Media Audio, along with both high-resolution audio formats: SACD and DVD Audio. The 970HD supports the new HDMI v1.1 specification, so DVD Audio’s high-resolution multi-channel PCM sound can be output digitally via HDMI. This is also the only player I’m aware of that allows SACD’s DSD sound format to be converted to high-resolution PCM (88.1kHz/24bit) and transmitted via HDMI as well! End users should be aware that your receivers or surround processors need to be HDMI v1.1 compliant as well to use this feature.
From a usability standpoint, the 970HD is about the same as the 971H. Oppo packaged the same remote control that was later offered to 971H owners. While it is still not the best remote out there, it is A LOT better than their old design and gets the job done. The player’s set-up menus are very easy to navigate and have options for setting up the picture and preferences for audio output, including adjustments for audio output levels, crossover, and delay. The 970HD lets you pick between bitstream and PCM for the HDMI output. Unfortunately if you pick PCM, all Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks will be converted to PCM for output. I’ve never tested a player that has done this before. You can work around this by using the standard digital output for DVD movie soundtracks and the HDMI for high-resolution audio if you intend to use this player for DVD Audio or SACD.
A bug that I ran into with the 970HD is playback of DVD Audio and SACD via HDMI. I am currently using the Anthem Statement D2 A/V processor in my system, and it is HDMI 1.1 compliant. But for some reason, the only way to get the full output support of DVD Audio and SACD is if I set the output of the 970HD to 1080i. Otherwise it is truncated in both resolution and number of channels present. Anything other than 1080i results in stereo only playback, even if 5.1 sound was selected. I informed Oppo and Anthem of the issue, and it is being looked into. Oppo has tested this feature on numerous receivers that support HDMI 1.1 and apparently some have this issue and some don’t, so if this is an important feature to you, make sure you check it out if you purchase this player. Oppo’s customer support is superb, so I am quite sure that they will do anything and everything they can to help.
The speed of the 970HD is outstanding. Disc loads are extremely fast, chapter skips are almost instantaneous, and the layer change is completely seamless. Absolutely no complaints in this department!
I was excited to see how the 970HD would test in our benchmark. I realized right up front that the MTK MPEG decoder would only do so well in our de-interlacing tests, but I was looking at this player more from the transport standpoint, so its core video performance was the most important aspect to me. And Oppo hit a home run here.
When I first received the 970HD, I immediately tested it with an output resolution of 480i. This is the resolution I was the most interested in as I have several outboard video processors at my disposal and a few of them accept 480i via HDMI. Immediately I found a problem. The Mediatek had severe CUE issues when outputting 480i. This was strange, because I’ve tested lots of MTK based DVD players before, and chroma performance is usually near perfect. When I switched the player to 480p, all of the CUE issues went away! Now that is REALLY bizarre. The player did the correct upsampling with a progressive output, but not interlaced. I talked to Oppo about it, and they relayed the information to Mediatek to see if it could be resolved. A few weeks later I got news from Oppo that a firmware fix had been developed! After installing the firmware (software download), I re-checked and sure enough the problem was completely solved! Just another reason Oppo Digital has continued to impress me over and over again with their product support!
The rest of the core video performance testing went quite well. The only limitation I found was the selection of output color space. DVD is mastered in YCbCr 4:2:0, and most (if not all) MPEG decoders upsample this to YCbCr 4:2:2 for output. Unfortunately, the engineers at Mediatek have noticed issues with the 4:2:2 output, so selections for this chip, and the 970HD, are limited to RGB and YCbCr 4:4:4. While not a huge deal by any means, I still like to see support for 4:2:2. Both color space outputs are mapped correctly and pass below black and above white information.
For pixel cropping, I measured all output resolutions for both the HDMI output and the component output. The HDMI output had different results with every resolution. 480i had 1 pixel cropped from the bottom, 480p had no cropping, 720p had 2 pixels cropped from the right side, and 1080i had only 1 pixel cropped from the right side. While we like to see no pixel cropping at all, less than 2 on any side and 2 or less overall for any output resolution isn’t too shabby. The component output was a different matter. The 480i output was the same as the HDMI 480i output, but the 480p output was cropping 4 pixels from the top, 1 from the right, and 3 from the left. Definitely a bit more excessive on this output, and our suggestion is to use the HDMI output if possible.
Another issue I found when I initially got the player was the default white level for the component outputs. It was on the high side, but lowering the player’s contrast setting to -3 fixed the issue. Oppo came through again with new firmware which adjusted the output level to the appropriate level by default. The component output measured in at exactly 100 IRE as it should.
Neither the HDMI output nor the component output suffers from Y/C delay. I measured the component output using a bowtie pattern and a digital oscilloscope, and Y/C timing was perfect. For HDMI, I used a Y/C delay test pattern from the new Anchor Bay Technologies VRS test disc.
The Mediatek MPEG decoder did as I expected with our de-interlacing tests. This chip is slightly better than average, but it can be a bit sluggish when it comes to locking on to a cadence. It does trip up with a few of our more difficult tests, but I expected as much from an all-in-one chip solution. What did surprise me though was the Mediatek’s diagonal line processing. Using the “3 angles” test from the HQV Benchmark DVD, I was pleased to see that Mediatek has developed some type of diagonal line processing for video-based material. While it wasn’t quite to the level of popular solutions like the Realta HQV or Faroudja DCDi, it did a very commendable job with the lines.
The Mediatek chip did a fine job with the majority of our 3-2 based cadence patterns, including incorrectly flagged ones, video flagged, and high detail. It also supports a 2-2 cadence pretty well with no obvious artifacts in our test using the Natural Splendors DVD.
Overall, I would say the Mediatek did an above-average job in our de-interlacing tests for an all-in-one solution, but it still does not live up to the bar set by the higher line video processing chips out there now. Keep in mind though, this player costs a fraction of the price of players normally incorporating those chips.
Conclusions
Once again, Oppo Digital has proved that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get an outstanding product. The 970HD would make an excellent digital transport for feeding a standalone video processor, but it also holds its own very well too. Support for both DVD Audio and SACD via HDMI is just icing on the cake. If you are looking for a solid transport, then add the DV-970HD to your short list of capable players. If you are looking for a great budget DVD player, this may just be your ticket.
