"Despair all yea that hope for a true high-def movie format before late 2006."I read that in the background of one of the opening scenes in HBO's Rome, which looks utterly fabulous in high-def, by the way. Many videophiles, even the well-heeled ones, find it difficult to justify spending high dollars for a DVD player whose useful lifespan can be measured in months rather than years. With the new HD formats on the horizon (yes, I realize it's a receding one) the appeal of an inexpensive DVD player that can tide them over until the next technological storm is undeniably seductive.

Ultimate AV doesn't regularly review budget priced DVD players. In hard-boiled journalistic jargon, "It ain't our beat."But sometimes a product comes along that generates such divergent opinions that we can't help but get curious. Although its official release was only a few weeks ago, the Oppo OPDV971H has been available on the web for well over a year. Web chatter concerning the $250 Oppo OPDV971H ranges from favorable comparisons to $3500 units, to others calling it, "Just another cheap Chinese DVD player."

Since we're in the truth biz, we decided to add our more dispassionate view of the Oppo player to the web's walla. It can't be both great and crap, can it? Let's find out.

Just the Video Facts Ma'am
Since its introduction, the Oppo has gone through a number of firmware revisions, culminating with revision OP971-2-0412. Ultimate AV's review sample was the most current version.

The Oppo OPDV971H not only provides Faroudja DCDi image processing, but DVI outputs that offer either 480p or upconversion to 540p, 576p 720p, or 1080i. This combination of features separate it from most DVD players priced at under $250. I've even seen $4000 and up DVD players with HDMI outputs limited to 480p.

Many DVD players (most but not all of them more costly than the Oppo) will upconvert the data on the disc to one of several HD resolutions accessible from their digital video outputs. This does not produce a high definition picture on your television. The upconversion adds new pixels to produce a pixel array that matches the horizontal and vertical pixel count of your digital display—its "native rate". But it fills these added pixels with data interpolated from the source material; it can't add any real information that was not in the source to begin with. No matter what resolution the player puts out, that DVD source is still standard definition video.

While all digital displays can perform this native-rate conversion on their own, even from a lowly 480i source (they have to, otherwise the image would not fit the screen!), there may be situations in which the upconversion circuitry in the player will do a better job of it. The inclusion of this feature makes the Oppo OPDV971H very attractive.

The player also offers several picture adjustments of the sort available on only a few DVD players. These include Sharpness, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation and even Gamma.

Unusual Suspects
In addition to its DVI video output the Oppo has component, composite, and S-video connections. According to Oppo, the player is not HDCP-compliant. This should cause no problem—a non-HDCP-compliant source should work fine into an HDCP-compliant display, but an HDCP-encoded sourced into a non-HDCP-compliant display will not. The player is also region-free.

The oddest quirk, however, is that while the Oppo will provide 480p (plus those higher resolutions) from its DVI output, it will provide only 480i from its component outputs. In other words, it won't do progressive scan except via DVI.

Audio
There are on-board decoders for 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS, along with both mixed L/R and 5.1-channel analog outputs. These analog outputs include setup controls for stereo downmix, speaker size, channel level trim and subwoofer on/off.

The player even has a built-in Dolby Pro Logic circuit that can convert two-channel material into derived surround. It features both music and movie modes with panorama, dimension, and center width controls to further adjust its Dolby-enhanced analog audio output.

Most of you, however, will extract the Oppo's audio from its digital audio outputs and feed that into an external pre-pro or AV receiver. That is what I did for most of this review, except as noted otherwise.

Looks are Cheap, Good Remotes are Not
If you judge audio and video components by their weight, mass, and feeling of substantiality, the Oppo OPDV971H will not get a hearty "two thumbs up."It measures less than two inches high and weighs so little you'll think the shipping box is empty when it arrives. Frankly, to me it looks just as cheap as it is priced. The front panel display doesn't help matters any. Its often cryptic comments such as "eIeLe"and "rOOe,"and "LOAd,"will make videophiles anxious, fretting that it's broken.

The Oppo OPDV971H also has the dubious distinction of having the worst remote control I've seen in several years. Sifting back through the primordial ooze of audio/video history I'm hard-pressed to remember a remote with a worse layout. All those tiny identical buttons lined up in a perfect grid, their monotony broken only by a four-way directional control near the bottom third of the remote, make its navigation difficult even in room light. No, it doesn't light up. And yes, even those who've mastered Braille will need a flashlight to find the Menu and Pause buttons in the dark.

For an end run around this remote you can access the Oppo's "Virtual Keyboard,"which places a graphic interface with most of the essential controls on the screen. Then you only need to find the four-way direction arrows and the centrally located enter key to operate the player. The down side of the virtual keyboard is that it's on your screen. Also, finding the Keyboard button on the remote to turn it on and off requires a finely honed spatial memory.

The best solution would be to program your favorite universal remote (which might just cost more than the player!—Ed.} with the Oppo's commands and relegate the Oppo's remote to deep storage. On a positive note, the OPDV971H's remote sensor has a wide angle of acceptance and the player responds quickly to commands.

Although Oppo OPDV971H's menu graphics won't win any awards from the Parsons School of Design, their layout and functionality are more than serviceable. Even without the instruction book anyone familiar with setting up a DVD player should have no trouble configuring the Oppo OPDV971H for home theater.

Walking the Walk
The only logical reason anyone would consider buying an Oppo OPDV971H is because it produces a good picture. And produce a good picture it does.

On objective test material from any of my three primary sources, Video Essentials, Avia, and Silicon Optix'HQV Benchmark DVD, the Oppo OPDV971H's 720P signal from its DVI outputs delivered top-shelf results.

It performed exceptionally well, in particular, on the Silicon Optix disc, the most challenging disc I have for evaluating motion artifacts. This was no surprise, as Faroudja's DCDi processors have performed well on these tests in the past. The two tests for jaggies on this disc—a rotating bar and three oscillating bars of increasing difficulty, were virtually flawless. The same was true on the fluttering flag test, which showed no jagged edges at all. The Oppo also performed well on the Silicon Optix'detail test, and its pixel cropping was well within acceptable levels.

I spent many hours comparing the OPDV971H with the far more expensive Lexicon RT-20 (review coming soon) on conventional, non-test DVDs, and was hard-pressed under those real-world conditions to see any drastic differences in picture quality. Because of its more sophisticated and finely calibrated picture adjustments you may be able to get a slightly sharper picture from a fully tweaked Lexicon (depending on the characteristics of the corresponding controls in your video display), but the Oppo doesn't give up much.

(On a recent visit to Colorado I had the opportunity to see the Oppo on the Optoma H79 DLP projector in Steven's system and found its 720p DVI video performance every bit as very impressive as Steven did. We didn't compare it directly with any other players that evening, but it left very little to be desired in either color or detail on the DVD of Robots.—TJN).

If you can't or won't use Oppo's DVI video outputs don't despair; its component output looks pretty darn good too. I noticed slightly more video noise overall compared to its DVI signal, and the moving zone plate on Video Essentials had a bit of color moiré. But the Oppo's component signal had just as much color saturation as the Lexicon RT-20. The resolution charts on my test disks showed the Oppo can deliver an equal level of sharpness. Again the Lexicon's picture controls allow it to produce a better picture if you're willing to put the time and effort into fine-tuning, but straight out of the box the Oppo can certainly rival the RT-20.

I didn't test the Oppo's S-Video and composite outputs because, frankly, it's unlikely anyone reading this review is still using them for a high quality source. Use the component output if you must, but if you want to fully appreciate the Oppo OPDV971H, the DVI output is the only way to go.

Sonically, the Oppo's digital output is on par with my older Toshiba SD-9200 and SD-3109 players. It doesn't begin to compare with the far pricier Lexicon RT-20 or Meridian 598. On CDs it's dimensionally flat, musically uninvolving, and harmonically threadbare. Audiophiles will not find the OPDV971H's digital outputs adequate for critical music listening. Analog audio output is even more ordinary. Lateral imaging is barely adequate. Depth and low-level detail pale in comparison to even the mid-priced Emotiva DMC-1 pre/pro's D/As. Audio for music is just not the Oppo's forte. There are a number of good-sounding budget players (tech editor Shane Buettner has been particularly impressed by the cost conscious offerings from Sony, Pioneer, and Samsung, though I have not auditioned them), but they don't all offer digital video outputs.

DVDs from the player's digital audio output do sound better. Everything is there, but the sound doesn't have quite as much dynamic acuity and spatial detail as with the Lexicon or Meridian players.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, Where Oh Where Does the Oppo Fall?
Many reviewers use the phrase "superb value"whenever they write up a product with a rock bottom price that actually works. Using their criteria the Oppo OPDV971H ranks as a mega hyper superb value. But judged by Ultimate AV's more rigorous standards the Oppo earns a more conservative rating. The term "well above average"seems to be the best assessment of the Oppo's overall value.

Anyone who wants nearly state-of the art DVD picture quality from DVI will be well served by the Oppo. The player's audio performance certainly is reasonable considering its price, but is not in any way exceptional. When its price is factored in with its video performance the Oppo OPDV971H seems like a no-brainer must-buy for videophiles on a budget. For readers who listen critically to CDs I would suggest a separate, dedicated CD transport or player.

You can certainly use the Oppo from its component output if you currently lack a DVI or HDMI input on your video display, but plan to upgrade. But the primary reason to own an Oppo OPDV971H is for its superb DVI output. And even if you splurge and buy two OPDV971H's, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, you'll still have lots of money left in your pocket for other stuff. So perhaps the phrase "superb value"isn't too out of line after all.

Highs and Lows

Highs
• Excellent DVI video
• First-rate deinterlacing from Faroudja DCDi processor
• Flexible video controls

Lows
• Unexceptional audio quality
• No progressive component output
• Poor remote