Thanks for the compliments on my review, Willie, and welcome to the saloon.

For a 42" screen, it is a tough call. I do think that the 980H would be a safe bet, though - the USB connection can be handy (some folks are even hooking up external hard drives), the 7.1 analog output is pretty nice for folks with a 7.1 system, and the aesthetics are definitely OPPO's best to date.

I'm in the same boat as Willie Jackson. Gonk, you've already helped me a quite a bit with this, but I'm still debating. I've been eying Samsungs new LED DLP TV's. I am really interested in the 61 inch. I know the 981 isn't suited for DLP, but the LED engine is completely different the previous DLP engines.

Where my decision is tough is waiting. I don't plan to buy my TV until early next year. My current DVD player crapped out on me, so I'm stuck using a PlayStation or Xbox for video's. My current TV is an old Sony Wega and it doesn't have HDMI and therefore I'd have to use Component or S-Video out. My understanding is that the 980 only supports playing encrypted content through HDMI and therefore all movies I rent wouldn't work with my current setup. I suppose I could go HDMI to DVI to the 990, but can I then go to Component out on the 990?

As Willie said, I want all the goodness of the Faroudja chip and all the goodness of those new DAC's. Decisions Decisions.

No go there - DVI/HDMI to component conversion is something of a sore subject among studios (they've been working so large to close what they see as "the analog hole" and this would sort of re-open it), but even ignoring that issue, the 990's DVI switching is a pure pass-through sort of switch. There is no manipulation of the signal taking place. You can think of it as two parallel roads that never connect - one for analog video (complete with options for changing lanes from the slower composite/s-video "lanes" up to the component video "fast lane") and one for digital video.

Without a DVI-HDCP or HDMI input on your display, the 981HD isn't really a great investment. It's strengths lie in its digital video output, and OPPO has in at least some instances referred to its analog video outputs as being "for diagnostic purposes only." Is your \Vega set HD, or is it just SD? I'm used to thinking of the \Vegas as SD, but I only sort of peripherally keep track of Sony's product lines. If it's SD only and you're six months or more away from an HD purchase, a 980H purchased now would give you good core DVD performance now as well as good DVD-A/SACD, Divx/Xvid, the USB input to play with, and upscaling as a bonus for when an HDTV arrives later. If you did decide to wait or didn't mind using s-video output for six months, I'd feel comfortable pairing the 981HD with a 61" DLP (with the caveat that you need to calibrate - but that's something that'd need to be done anyway).

Thanks Gonk. Perhaps I'll take the wait and see approach and continue using ps2/xbox. My CRT is not HD, it's an old 36" behemoth that takes a small army to move. Everyone keeps asking me why I don't upgrade, but I'm of the sit and wait forever type people. I've watched my brother-in-laws update their TV's two or three times always trying to get the latest and the greatest. I just can't do that, it's more fun to watch and laugh. This generation of HDTV's seems to have it together and right now I don't have anything HD, so the TV will be my first purchase. Then probably DVD player and eventually i'll upgrade the 990, but I'll wait and see what Outlaw comes out with.

Thanks Gonk for the speedy reply. I think I will buy the Oppo 980-H. After writing my comments yesterday I visited HDTV magazine.com and they said "When watching regular DVDs it was a bit tougher to tell the difference between the two(981 & 980) on a 50 inch screen at 720p."

Retup I have a Sony Wega as well, but my TV is 32 inches. I would have replaced it long ago, but it is way too heavy. I am glad I waited though Pioneer claims to be offering the next evolution is Plasma displays.

It is super heavy. I can't wait to get rid of it. Wasn't sure if I would put an ad on Craigslist and offer it for free to whomever moves it or bring it up to the family's cabin in Tahoe and replace the really old POS tv that's up there.

One of the other problems I've run into is with component furniture. The model 990 and my adcom amp run deep. Hard to find furniture that can accommodate them.

My 36" Wega has nearly killed people. I sympathize. It will be the last CRT I own, no question. It's supposedly weighing in @ 270-280 lbs. That's outrageous. I always cringed watching the movers lift it up.

Oooh... 270 pounds? My 32" Zenith is bad enough that I've happily left it in exactly the same place that the delivery guys set it over three years ago (sliding it a little on occasion to take care of some wiring), and I don't think it's not much over 180. Like you, I plan for it to be my last CRT. I'll probably replace the 20" CRT in our bedroom with a 26" LCD this Christmas.

I got my Oppo Dv-980H a few days ago and I'm scratching my head like never before. But let's go a bit in the past.

After I got my Samsung LN-S4095D (40" 1080p) in February, a friend of mine brought his Oppo 981H for a demo and mostly to give me some taste of 1080P (Comcast needed 1 week to install HD, given the fact that I was getting the "triple play" and Verizon was slow in surrendering the phone number).

I was NOT impressed with the Oppo, as my aging Onkyo DV-S535 was giving it a good beating. My aging Onkyo was having only an "enhanced black" option that was blowing Oppo out of the water (definitely this was also stating that the Samsung was also doing a great job upscaling and deinterlacing the 480i coming out of Onkyo). In fact, that's how my friend found out that there was that "green bug" issue with Oppo and installed the fix after comparing his Oppo with my Onkyo.

After the bug fix, Oppo performed better, but still not as well as Onkyo. Consequently, I decided to keep my Onkyo and not go for an upgrade.

But when the 980H came along, I started to itch again, mostly because the Onkyo wasn't accepting any other format but DVD and CD. Not DVD-R, nothing.

I gave Oppo 980H a chance and I found out why I didn't like the "poor" Oppo 981 initially...

In my case, for my TV and my cables, the analog component connection is far superior to HDMI. And I have "el cheapo", $15 3' component video cables.

The picture is vivid, inky and overall superb over component and relatively washed-out and noisy over HDMI. And I couldn't compensate via the TV's controls what was missing...

I compared 480p signal coming out of Oppo via component vs. via HDMI, to keep things equal (Oppo doesn't send out more than 480p over analog connection). Component was superior on all fronts.

My Motorola cable box gave me the same "behavior". 1080i over component looks better than 1080i over HDMI.

Now I have my TV, which has a plethora of inputs, connected to the Oppo via component and HDMI and the same for the cable box. Comparing is as simple as switching the input sources on my TV.

Each and every time, regardless whether the source is Oppo or the cable box, analog component beats HDMI in my system.

What could be the explanation?

The HDMI cables are relatively short, 6'. One of them is the freebie which came with the Oppo, whereas the other one is a bit more "upscale".

With a power conditioner in the system, the difference between component and HDMI when the source is the cable box narrows, but component still has the edge.

At this time I'm "all component", connection-wise and the Oppo is no more than a deinterlacer, outputting 480p. I still like it a lot and I'll keep it though, only it's a shame not to use its upscaling capability which should be better than what the TV set offers.

Any ideas? Anyone else in the same situation where analog component is superior to HDMI even over modest runs of 6'?

It's most odd that component video works best, as your display is a digital device and your source (DVD) is a digital format. I assum ethat you calibrated the TV's HDMI input using something like Digital Video Essentials and we're not seeing a calibration issue between inputs? In my setup (with an analog display device), the cable box's DVI and component outputs were pretty indistinguishable, but the difference between my 980H's component output and HDMI output is pronounced - and in the HDMI output's favor.