Well the folks at OPPO Digital are at it again. This time they have released a new high end Up-Converting DVD player. The DV-983H is the new gold standard in up-converting DVD players. It incorporates Video Reference Series processing (VRS by) Anchor Bay. This is the same technology used in video processors costing $3000 or more.
Well, There is some excellent video made in countries using the PAL standard which are not available in the US. For instance, the excellent Inspector Montalbano series from Italy being sold in Australia is region 5 (I think).
Do you know this for sure? The article says how to make it region free. You select Setup 9210 and then select region 0. If you buy it in the US OPPO cannot tell you how to make it region free. But, that doesn't mean it can't be made region free.
There are sites that tell you how to make most dvd players region free.
I just received my OPPO 983 yesterday. I hooked it up via HDMI two different ways. First I hooked it up directly to the my Pioneer PDP-6010FD 60" Kuro plasma. Second, I hooked it up to my Integra DCT-9.8 surround pre-amp and the pre-amp to the HDTV. Both connections worked without a hiccup and offered near HD pictures on well made SD DVD's. The audio, while without the new lossless audio codecs was still superlative. The ABT chipsets for de-interlacing and scaling were flawless. Far superior to any Faroudja set-up I have ever used.
I next set-up the OPPO 983 to my bedroom Sony XBR2 and switched out my Denon 2910 dvd player. Thedifference in performance was far more noticeable with the Sony, undoubtedly due to the OPPO's superior de-interlacing and scaling. The Pioneer PDP-6010FD is very good on both, so the differences were far less dramatic.
