I see that the new new Panasonic DMP-BD80 has come out. I am mainly interested in this player because it has on board decoding for DTS-HD Master and DD TrueHD with 7.1 analog outputs that will mate with my 970. I see that this unit is going for $335 to $399 on a few sites.

I currently have the OPPO DV-981 which I am very happy with. As most know it does a great job with standard DVD video and can play DVD audio and SACD disc.


I am not concerned with the DVD audio and SACD feature. With this in mind does anyone have an options on such a player VS. the new OPPO Blu-ray player coming out soon. Any advantages the OPPO will have over the Panasonic player. Not to concerned about the OPPO price tag difference.

The only review I have seen on this player is below.


http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Panasonic_DMP-BD80_Blu-ray_Disc_Player.shtml


Any feed back with be great.

I haven't had a chance to use the BD80, so I'm left to speak more to features than performance.

In several cases, they are equal. They both have 7.1 analog outputs, although the BDP-83's is more straightforward (the BD80 has a 5.1 output and a 2-channel output that can be used as rear surrounds, while the BDP-83 has a 7.1 output and a separate 2-channel output). They both are Profile 2.0. They both support bitstream output and have onboard decoding of the new audio formats.

The BDP-83 offers several features, but you may not care about all of them. There's the DVD-Audio and SACD support, including the ability to output SACD as a DSD bitstream or to go directly from DSD to analog. There's also the ABT video processing, which may have negligible impact on Blu-ray but is a very potent benefit for standard DVD. You know how well the trust 981HD does with DVD, right? The BDP-83's ABT chip is another step up from that. And based on the BD80 review you posted, the BDP-83 is faster.

Thanks Gong

I have a few questions and would like to share my system set up.

I know you are up on connections and setting with the 970 process. I think this question would apply to either the OPPO or Panasonic player with on board processing. If I use my 970 7.1 inputs with bass management set to on how should I set the speaker size and delay in the Blu-ray player?

I am also looking at keeping the 981HD in the loop with the Panasonic for blu-ray play connected to the DVD/7.1 inputs on the 970. I currently have my HD sat receiver hooked to the Video 2 input on the 970. Can I use the video 3 input for the OPPO 981HD? My HD video connections are direct to my HD TV.

I would like to share a connection set up I am using to play music. First off let me explain my room layout. I have a very large room which is 27 feet in length. The front part of the room is my home theater set up with a 7.1 speaker/sub arrangement. The back part of the room I have a pool table and side bar where most of my CD music is played. The problem here was that the music listening area is behine the sweet spot. Here is what I did to fix this problem. I added a second powered sub and a set of speakers in the back end of the room. I installed a A/B speaker switch to switch between my back surrounds and the back speakers I added. I ran the RCA speaker outs L/R from my 200 CD changer to the 7.1 inputs on the 970 with a RCA Y's to front mains and back surrounds. Not sure if anyone has tryed this but this a kicker music set up. The subs seem to be much more musical with very tight bass. Much better sound from subs than 7 channel stereo set up. Not sure why this is, maybe bypassing addtional processing in the 970??

Maybe I'am mssing something on an alternate connection for my CD player. I had though about just splitting the mains with the A/B switch in stereo mode but this would put two pair of 8 ohm speakers on my 7125. Not sure if I will get the same response from my subs and speakers with this set up.

I think you know where I am going with this. I will need the 7.1 inputs for Blu-ray connections.

Any thoughts on this?

Since the 970 will be doing the bass management, you should set the speakers to "large" and the sub to "on" (if you have rear surrounds, set them to "large" as well, but if you don't have rear surrounds set them to "none"). This will hold true for either player.
If all you are doing is connecting coaxial or optical to the 970 from the 981HD while the video goes straight to the TV, you could use any input.

I think the BD80's Uniphier chip is a bit better than the one in my BD30 , but unless it's a whole lot better I would certainly understand keeping the 981HD for DVD. If you decide to wait for the BDP-83 (which looks to be getting real close), I'd vote for retiring the 981HD.
This is a unique setup, and you're right that you need that 7.1 input for the Blu-ray player. The 970 doesn't have a second zone, so that rules out rigging up something crazy there. I keep coming back to the idea of the speaker switch on the mains that would normally run just "A" to the fronts but could run "A"+"B" to the fronts and the pool table speakers. You'd get the same subwoofer response in this case because the sub setup would be unchanged. How well the 7125 would handle the load depends on the speakers, but I wouldn't underestimate that amp.

One other thing with this option: you could potentially switch from analog output from the CD megachanger to digital output, and my gut tells me that the 970's DACs are likely to be better than the megachanger's DACs.

Thanks again Gonk

FYI

I got up earlier this morning and have already done some rigging and testing with splitting the main speakers to the pool table speakers. The first thing I noticed is the much lower volume when set to the stereo mode and the subwoofer's base is not as tight as with the 7.1 input set up.

Anyway I can live with the above set up.

Thanks for you help.

You will need to turn the volume up to get to the same volume level in this scenario, so the first part makes sense. How's the sub connected?

My subs are connected to the sub out from the 970. I am using two Dayton 12" 250W powered. One in the front part of the room and the other in the back.

If the subs are hooked to the 970's sub output, what is the crossover point set to for the front speakers? If it is lower than the 80Hz crossover used by the 7.1 Direct input's analog bass management, that could explain why you are hearing a difference in subwoofer output.

I have the 7.1 direct switch set to digital with the front mains crossover set to 60HZ. My front speakers are large - 3 way with 12" woofer. After changing to the digital connection from my CD player to the 970 and adjusting sub volume levels I think it sounds pretty good.

Thanks for your help.

Are your fronts set to "small" in the 970? - if they are set to "large" then you aren't getting bass management, even though you've adjusted the front crossover setting.