I do have a few around the house right now. Both the DV-980H and BDP-83SE are in the two-channel system. There's the BDP-95 in the surround system along with an old Panasonic DMR-E80 DVD recorder. The bedroom has a BDP-80, and I've got a couple spare players in a closet (DV-983H, OPDV971H, and a Panasonic DVD-A310 from 1998). I've also got a Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player, but it's on loan to a co-worker.

I talk about this some in my BDP-93 review. Marvell has been around for a while, actually, and they've established a pretty solid reputation. Like ABT, Marvell has several different tiers of processor offerings. The chip being used by the BDP-93 and BDP-95 is the latest to use their Qdeo video processing software.

The main reason that OPPO looked for an alternative to the ABT2010 or ABT2015 is the introduction of new streaming video services, which was made possible by the new System-on-Chip (a customized version of Mediatek's latest chip). ABT's processing was developed primarily for sources like DVD and Blu-ray, and ABT felt that noise reduction in those cases was of limited value. The real-world performance of the DV-983H and BDP-83 support that idea. Streaming services like Netflix introduce much more compression than DVD and Blu-ray, which brings more compression artifacts and more practical need for noise reduction. Marvell's technology includes some very effective noise reduction tools. That's the main reason OPPO shifted suppliers for this generation. Both are very good products, but the Marvell can provide better results with streaming services while still providing comparable results with DVD and Blu-ray.

That "extra" DV-983H would go well with my 990 up north. You can't use em all anyway.

The 983H is probably the one DVD player that I don't plan to part with...

I'm thinking of the bdp-95 vs the bdp-93. Its really unfortunate that the 95 does not have a digital input because then this would be a no-question buy. Do you guys think the audio is worth the extra 500, especially if I'm going to be using my setup for 60/40 HT/Music. Maybe I should get the 93 and a dac with the extra 500. What do you guys think?

It's so hard to say what value a certain performance increase has, since it's very much a matter of opinion. The BDP-93 is an overachiever for its price range, as is the BDP-95. If you're really not sure, you might get a BDP-93 and use the 30-day return period to try it out and decide if it makes you happy. If it does, you're good to go. If you still feel an upgrade bug, return it and switch to the BDP-95.

I will say that getting a BDP-93 and a $500 DAC would not be as good a solution as getting a BDP-95, mainly because I suspect that any $500 DAC you find will not be as good as the BDP-95 (probably not much better even than the BDP-93) and will only be useful with CD's - there's no way to feed digital audio from Blu-ray, DVD-A, or SACD into such a DAC.

I am pretty much in agreement. Having a HDMI input so that it could process signals from a cable/satellite box through its video and ESS DACs would have been made it a much more attractive device.

Lets not forget what the BDP-95 is. It is not a processor to be the center of attention of a system. It is a PLAYER of material and an excellent one at that. I am surprised no-one has complained about its lack of 9.2 or 11.2 connections. I am sure Audiovox or some other Walmart system has all the devices in one box so we don't have to worry about the individual components and what they don't do. I am sure there are high quality cable boxes out there with great DACs and video processing for about $500 to help us decode all the 9.2 and 11.3 material.

I wasn't forgetting what it is. I was looking at the price difference between the BDP-93 and the BDP-95 and thinking of what could make me "splurge" and get a BDP-95. I was also looking at the various trade-offs between pre-pro costs and player costs. For example, if the 978 or 998 have excellent DAC's equal or equavalent with the DACs of the BDP-95, then it makes little sense in my mind to buy the BDP-95 if the only advantage is the difference in video quality that the Marvell system offers for streamed video only. On the other hand, those with a lessor pre-pro than a 978 or 998 might well be better off with a BDP-95 if it could use it DAC's and video processor on sources like a cable or satellite box. Finally, it didn't strike me as being something that would be that expensive for OPPO to offer.

I agree that the extra $500 for the 95 vice the 93 is a bit much for my blood. I doubt I would hear or see a difference anywhere but my wallet. It just would not be a cost effective solution. The extra cost would be better spent on making the 93 into a combo DVR/Player/Streamer. That way the DACs could be used on the cable/satellite shows. The biggest problem I see with it, is we would be relying on broadcast quality to be able to use the DACs to their potential. Directv and Netflix still do not have the capability to broadcast a signal worth using the higher end DACs to translate. They struggle with 5.1 Dolby much less the lossless codecs we would want from them. Maybe once everyone has 24 MBPS bandwidth it would work.

It would also turn it into a completely different product, with an entirely new layer of control. The logistics of implementing that are significant, which is why neither a coaxial/optical input nor an HDMI input are included.