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While OPPO says it's on pre-order they HAVE begun shipping them already. Perhaps they have their reasons for placing them on that status.
And YES, I do have a DV-980H. (I did a local pickup, since I live nearby to their Mountain View facility.)
-The picture quality looks slightly better than the 970, which is expected since it's only an improved version of the Mediatek chip.
-The PAL -> NTSC conversion is much smoother than what the 970 could do. Not QUITE as amazing as the flawless full-on "2:2 pulldown" the 981 does, but it looks perfect to me! Great this time for even the moderate PAL user.
-The tray itself is a solid unit versus the thin & flexible one from the 970/981.
-Also the tray ejects fully this time around & you can grab the discs from the side OR by putting your finger through the middle as before.
-The HD-JPEG feature is beautiful. The original 970 would internally resize images to 640x480 & then upscale them to a given resolution. But the 980 displays them in full hi-def glory!
-Also the speed of the USB2.0 when used with my 2GB memory stick is unbelievable! Where the 970 could only do perhaps 3 Megapixel images, the 980 will quickly load images of insane resolutions, such as 4000x2000 !
-The sound should also be better, but it's up in the air as to how much better than the 970/981 it really is. Can't wait till this thing is reviewed by someone like Stereophile magazine like the 970 was in their May 2007 issue. OPPO tells me the unit has a re-designed circuit board, a new MTK chip customized for their use & far beyond what other manufacturers have down with it, an improved Cirrus Logic DAC, & finally higher grade materials (i.e. capacitors.)
-The HDMI 1.2a with support for DSD (as opposed to DSD to PCM conversion for SACD's) is nice....but less than 10 receivers or so on the market support it & it's a matter of debate on whether the pure DSD really sounds any better.
Anyway, love the unit. Let me know if anyone has Q's.
-DB.
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