Upconverting players work better with some displays than others. I always tell people to get one on a trial basis and check it out.
I have a 971 and it works great with the best program material (another variable).

On other forums I see a lot of bashing of UC players, mostly from those who never even tried one...but I am the first to agree they will not be the best solution for everyone.

Exactly right - it's simply a matter of knowing (or figuring out by trial and error) which device has the better scaling hardware and software: player or display.

To Gonk and all: Part 990/ part Oppo
Got the new TAS....a pretty big bling for Outlaw to get that recognition....again...
I guess Tas gives the 990 a 'c' in the soundstage department if you read the #150 issue review and the blurb in the latest mag..But I believe it is also a relative 'c'...because at the end of the #150 issue review..the writer comments that if one wants the big goods in soundstaging....buy a Plinius....Really???? I could have bought a Plinius????? I don't remember once when my wallet said I could buy a Plinius....
Anyways...I'll get to play with the new Oppo this weekend....would like to know what you Oppo 971 owners are using for you preferred output for film and video...noticed right off the aspect execution difference over component and over DVI....also noticed lots and lots of options too...I have DVE and just got the latest AVIA release(free!) for calibration using Sony XBR 40" DVI input...aaaaaah! nothing like a huge freaking old school CRT to keep you warm in winter! Cheers and thanks...

Does anybody here by chance use the Oppo 971 with an RCA Scenium HD61W140? I'm very interested in the 971, but have had a bad experience with a cheapo upsampling samsung (from Fry's for $75 or so). I didn't get any signal through the dvi interface on my rca. So I'm slightly hesitant to get the Oppo...

If you buy directly from Oppo, they offer the same 30-day return policy that Outlaw and other online companies use to allow you to try the player out in your system. They also have a strong customer service team (again, following the same sort of business model that Outlaw uses to such great effect).

I did a little googling of your TV's model number. It appears to be a CRT RPTV from around 2002, so it's possible that the DVI input is not HDCP compliant. That would explain why the Samsung wouldn't work - an HDCP-compliant DVI device or any HDMI device (since HDCP's required with HDMI) would fail to establish a handshake with the display and wouldn't send a video signal. The Oppo 971 is not an HDCP device, allowing it compatibility with older DVI displays - it also has been a great fit with my direct-view CRT HDTV (a 32" Zenith).

I found a review by AVGuide.com that went into some detail on this TV. The review indicates that the DVI input is HDCP-compliant, so I don't know why the Samsung didn't work - one possibility would be a default output setting of 480i (a resolution that DVI doesn't support). The review also indicated that the internal scaler is a pretty good one, at least on the upper end of what was offered in HDTV's at the time the review was written (late 2002, early 2003).

Thanks Gonk! You've been busy :-)
I think I'll just have to ty, as you said I can always return it. The fact that it does not have the HDCP might be a good thing for me. I sort-of want to wait for the 972, but that model will be hdcp compliant according to Oppo...

jan

Yeah the 972 will be HDMI and thus will have to be HDCP compliant.

Well, I ordered the 971. I'll post my findings...

I don't know if anyone is really interested in this but there is actually light at the end of the 'HD-player format war tunnel' as NEC just announced the release of a chip that does both HD-DVD and Blue-Ray decoding. They anticipate a monthly output of 300,000 chips. This should open the market for universal HD-players. This might still be unsatisfactory for DVD-A and SACD enthusiatst but who owns these anyway? I don't mean to tick anyone off, it's just that I can't get MY music in this format. Any comments?