I have the Oppo 970 with the firmware that came with it, "05.00.01.07 Batch 3A-0916" is there a newer firmware I should be upgrading to? I'm using this with a component connection.

How do you make it Region Free?

Finally has this player been out long enough for anyone to test it with some PAL disc?

There is a newer official firmware version available here (adding gapless SACD playback and fixing SACD track number display) as well as a slightly newer still beta firmware here (fixing SACD on-screen track number display, adding the alternate remote code that I described in this thread , and adding a noise reduction feature that they suggest may be useful for older TV shows or home videos shot with a CCD camera).

To make the player region free, make sure playback is stopped completely (so you just see the blue OPPO screen) and follow these instructions taken from the 970HD brain dump thread at AVS:
It has been used with PAL discs a fair bit (I have a Ukranian co-worker who owns one and has used it with a number of PAL discs). OPPO generally recommends the 981HD (or the discontinued 971H) as a better PAL player, but the 970HD reportedly does a solid job with PAL playback - my co-worker was pleased with it on his 42" plasma.

You might also be interested in this AVS thread regarding the 970HD's firmware and component video outputs...

Good I'll update using the first firmware but is it advisable to wait on the beta until it's official?

If you aren't using a non-learning universal remote (which would benefit from the alternate remote code) and don't listen to SACD's often, then you could probably live without the beta. OPPO's betas are pretty stable generally, though - I'm running a beta on my 981HD. The firmware that still has unpleasant warts doesn't generally get posted to their site.

Thanks I appreciate the info!

Gonk I've never did this before but when I download the firmware and burn it to a cd using Nero (Burn Image) I'm not sure I am getting the right end product. Oppo says when I put in the cd (just to check it) it should contain a 935.BIN file but what I'm getting is a file that says "935 elby.VCDMount.1, 1413KB, is this the same thing?

I've got a DVD-R burning in the drive right now, but when it's done I'll toss one of my 981HD firmware discs in the drive and tell you what I see.

EDIT: If you want to, you can grab DVD Decrypter from my "Gonk's DTD" page and use that to burn the ISO file to a CD-R. If you follow the directions near the end of my DTD page , it's a pretty sure-fire process. I've also got some notes in the "Firmware Update" portion of my 981HD review .

Gonk updating went smoothly and was easy thanks to your help. While on the subject of the Oppo 970 I have what is maybe a dumb question but anyway it confuses me.

I'm running a digital optical cable to my Outlaw 990 for the audio connection so when your looking at the the "Speaker Setup Page" of the Oppo what should the "Downmix" be set to since my SPDIF Output is set to "Raw"?

Also how do I set the speaker settings, the same as I have them set on my 990?

With digital output set to "raw" the speaker setup page settings don't really matter because the 970HD does not perform any audio processing. If you were using the multichannel analog output, I'd recommend "downmix" to "5.1 CH," the speaker sizes to "large," the sub to "on," the distances to "0," and leave the channel trims set to "0db" because the 990 will apply necessary settings to the multichannel analog input - but with just the optical connected, none of it matters.

Okay I believe I understand it now. If I ever decided to hookup the multichannel analog outputs and besides the the above mentioned speaker settings, is there any other changes in the Oppo's settings I would need to make? The SPDIF would still be set to Raw right?

And I've never bought any SACD disc before but if you just wanted to listen in 2-channel would you really need to run more than a RF and LF analog out of the Oppo or is it still necessary to run all six outs?