The crew at OPPO can be quite helpful - they may be able to help get your research started if you e-mail them or give them a call. I've traded e-mails with them before and after buying my 971, and they're a good group - much like Scott, Steve, and the crew at Outlaw, they'll help you out with good information both about their equipment and in general.

I took your advice and called the folks at OPPO. They confirmed what you said "the Faroudja chip (used by the 971 but not the 970) is prone to exhibiting macroblocking on large digital displays, whereas the 970's Mediatek chip is not susceptible to the condition"

He further explained that the issue is with DLP! LCD and Plasma displays are not susceptible. With careful calibration the effect can be minimized but not eliminated. I have been reading through a number of threads on other forums and it appears to be an issue with a number of people with DLP's.

Given that I am more of an audiophile then videophile it wasn't difficult to choose the 970. The list of audio features is outstanding for the price range. I would concede the “DCDi by Faroudja" technology and video chipset by Genesis/Faroudja will provide for better video (except issues noted with DLP). However I think the difference is subtle at best and not worth taking a chance with the macroblocking issue.

I pulled the trigger and ordered the 970.

From all I've read, I think you made a very good choice. If you get a chance, let us know what you think of SACD and DVD-A with the 970 (I'm eyeing the 970 or the planned replacement for the 971 as a candidate for replacing my Yamaha).

Gonk wrote I'm eyeing the 970 or the planned replacement for the 971

Of course I'll check with Oppodigital, but are you aware of what the replacement's will be or its model #? I would imagine that Oppo will want to rid itself of the macroblocking issue.

edcon -- Thanks for reporting back what Oppo said about the Faroudja chipset. I have never noticed macroblocking with my Denon 1920 (which uses the same chip), but my HDTV is the 40-inch direct view Sony XBR700. I wish the Oppo 970 had been out when I bought the Denon -- I could have saved a few bucks. Enjoy!

nfaguys, I'm not sure if they've announced a model number for the 971's replacement yet. I've traded a couple e-mails with them after lurking around in some AVS threads, and it sounds like the replacement won't be out until August or so (at least that's what some of the 970 beta testers at AVS are guessing). It will retain the Faroudja, I believe, but will use HDMI instead of DVI and will add SACD as well as the analog refinements that the 970 has.

RCF051, my 971 has been free of macroblocking on my display, but like you I've got a direct-view CRT display (32" Zenith/LG HDTV with DVI input) - I haven't seen it paired up with a DLP display.

Yes via phone OPPO gave me the impression that the 971's replacement was in the works and will have SACD added to it. Sounded like a few months before it would be avalible.
As you know my Samsung 841 shot craps and left me w/o the SACD player. Actually the SACD on the Samsung was ok, but I am looking forward to compairing it to the OPPO 970.
If I was not needing the sacd right now I may have waited for the 971's upgraded model that OPPO says will include SACD along with Faroudja chip.
As you know OPPO said that the 970's video will be about the same as my broken samsung 841, and it was a respectable picture off my Sharp dlp projector on a 8ft screen. OPPO did give me the impression that the Audio on the 970 compared to the samsung 841 will be much better.
In that the OPPO 970 was shipped this past Tuesday I hope to give my input to you soon.
My ultimate goal is to have a hd-dvd type player that would also play my SACD's. If anyone hear's about such a beast please let me know. In that the 990 has 1 set of 7.1 channel inputs I need a all on one player for Blu-ray,hd-dvd video hi-res audio sacd etc.

With the DLP, you may end up being better off with the 970's MediaTek chip than the 971's Faroudja, anyway (or at least just as well off). I look forward to reading your impressions of the 970's SACD. Di you have any DVD-Audio discs as well?

Last I heard, LG had announced plans to pursue a combination HD-DVD/Blu-ray player, which would at least offer a foundation on which to build a "do it all" sort of player. Samsung had also talked about trying it, but apparently they got into the engineering and licensing a bit and decided not to do it for now. So far the few HD disc players we've seen have been focused just on getting the new formats on the market - I've got spaces in my HD disc player chart for DVD-Audio and SACD, but so far there's nothing coming (at least from the information I've scrounged up so far).

My Dad couldn't resist any longer and recently bought a 37" Panasonic plasma HDTV. The Panny has a every input option including two HDMI, component, S, and composite. His old DVD didn't have progressive scan so I suggested he get an OPPO 970 knowing it had HDMI output. The video in my system is all component so I was anxious to see if there was a difference between component and HDMI on the new Panny. Well, the HDMI video was signifcantly better than the component. Images were much sharper; the colors were not "smeared" where they changed. Now I didn't do any set up; my test was right out of the box with factory settings using Star Wars II. Regardless, for $150 plus shipping the HDMI video performance is terrific.

I plan on borrowing the 970 to test its SACD, HDCD and DVD-A performance. I can't take advantage of the digital video as my 3-year old plasma only has component video inputs, but I'd like to compare the 970's component output to that of my Pioneer 45A. In the meantime my Dad is very happy with the 970 and not likely to let me borrow it for an extended period of time!

Guys I'm also very interested in the 970's performance with SACD and DVD-A, but does anyone have any PAL disc to see how well they work?