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).