The 980H is a better DVD-A/SACD player than the 981HD, as it has the strongest analog section of any of OPPO's players - although if you are using the HDMI connection, that becomes a moot point and the differences between the two fade away. With a 70" SXRD like yours, I'd lean toward the 981HD for video performance. You could use the 980H's 480i output and the 885's Reon to match or possibly even beat the 981HD, but you'd need to change the output resolution anytime you wanted to use the HDMI connection to carry DVD-A or SACD data (audio bandwidth of HDMI is tied to the active video bandwidth, so you can't get multichannel PCM or DSD without running at least 720p video). The 981HD would probably be the more convenient approach.

There is a new OPPO player in development - the 983H will use a pair of Anchor Bay chips for deinterlacing and scaling (the same chips used in ABT's VP30 video processor) and will be based on the 980H's platform (thus HDMI v1.2 with DSD support). It's still a little while off, though. Rumors seem to suggest a couple more months before it's ready, and a price tag between $300 and $400.