JohnW, I have an LCD projector as well and have made the jump from a progressive scan to upconverting dvd player . I will say I did not go with the Oppo . I have looked at it and it seems to be an excellent player though .

My experience in short .
I bought a sony LCD front projector . Hooked up my existing Sony progressive scan dvd player . Used Monster M-1000 component cables . Pressed play and was disappointed in the picture quality . I managed to get an o.k. picture with the component but it sure was not what I had expected . I am lucky in that I can try out components from the store I work at and did so in this case .

I brought home a Samsung HD-931 with DVI output and upconversion to 720p . Through the upscaling of the Samsung I saw a huge and I mean huge difference in quality . This actually surprised me as I had seen the Samsung on several large screen systems from DLP, LCD too rear projection and saw improvement in the sharpness and clarity but nothing like I was seeing here through my front projector on my screen . It was such a large scale improvement that I bought the Samsung HD-931 . I have since upgraded to a Sony Which upconverts through HDMI to 768p . It too has a huge advantage over component or at least in my setup it does .

Whoever told you that it would only show improvement on a DLP or LCOS was a LIAR a FOOL or BOTH .

My old Samsung HD-931 now sits proudly under my mom and dad's Sony 60 inch LCD . They are in there late sixties and both were surprised at how much better the HD-931 was over their Panasonic progressive scan dvd player .

JohnW, if I could have you over and show you I would . At least I can prove I have experience in what I say . Click on my link and you will see my upconverting Sony dvd player . I even have close ups of the HDMI going into the back on page two .

So with that said I think that yes you will have a big improvement in picture quality . And just for peace of mind buy from someone with a return policy . That way you can always send it back .

I also have the Samsung HD-931, and use the DVI port and upscaling (in my case I prefer to upscale to 1080i rather than 720p).

The results are excellent, and I find the picture far superior to the one I get through the component port. This is not a valid comparison however, because the upscaling and highest quality output features available with the Faroudja chipset on the Samsung are only available through the DVI port.

The only major complaint I have with the Samsung is the quality of the audio decoding. This problem goes away of course when you pass the digital signal straight through and use the DACs in the 990.

I am using the Hitachi 65XWX20B as my video display unit.

I'm not very familiar with the Samsung line, but it appears that the HD-931 is no longer available, but the HD-950 is. Here is a reference: Samsung DVD HD950 .

It looks like it's just a minor modification of what you folks have described. Anyone have experience of this with the 990?

Hi there,

I'm using the Denon 2910 (about $600). It plays beautifully in 720P although it does have DVI out and 1080i capability. Read an article recently that said upsampling DVDs to 720p was probably a better experience than up to 1080i...I concur. The Denon plays SACD fabulously, especially with the 990/755 rig I have. Why not get a better player? Well...the Denon is great for the price...and I'm saving up for Blu-Ray Hi Def DVD next year. I didn't want to spend a lot on a DVD player just before the "big" format change next year.

Hope this helps...Marcus

Mike,

I'm using an older Samsung 841. It upconverts (using the same Faroudja chipset) to 720p on a Sharp Aquos panel. I'm extremely happy with it. The difference in picture quality over 480p is startling. I've got it set up so the toslink out goes to the DVD input on the 990. The coax output goes to the CD input of the 990 and that is piped through a Monarchy DIP 24/96 "jitter buster". 2-channel audio is outstanding.

I've never been convinced of the utility of SACD. There are only a small number of titles available and it defeats the purpose of having a nice outboard DAC (since you're forced to use the DAC in the player). Not my cup of tea.

Cheers,

Chris

Gonk,

I noticed you said you have the Oppo, may I politely ask where you found it on sale? I couldn't find the silly thing online, so I thought I would ask.

Thanks,

Bobo45

Certainly, Bob. Try this page to order one from the manufacturer with your choice of DVI-DVI or DVI-HDMI video cable. It's really a quite slick little piece of gear.

I should really smack myself, how the heck did I miss that! *Sigh*.

Thanks Gonk!

Thanks for the recommendation of CJL1138, I ordered the OPDV971H from OPPO this afternoon. Their customer service is really good and quick in answering questions. My 990 will be delivered tomorrow if Fedex is reliable.

I ordered the Oppo and I am very pleased with it. Initially I couldn't get it to switch/upconvert to 720p and Oppo's customer service solved the problem immediately. You cannot switch/upconvert while a DVD is playing. You must press the'DVI' button while the player is stopped.
I also noticed that Oppo has a DVD recorder in the works. When I was comparing upconverting DVD players with DVI or HDMI outputs I noticed that the Samsung models looked very similar to the Oppo. Could it be that they are both based on the same platform? Does Oppo produce the Samsung models that feature DVI/HDMI?