Oppo DV-980H

We love the inclusion of analogue 7.1 audio outputs, although it's fair to say that 7.1 on a DVD player is overkill. Movies don't generally have 8 channel audio, though you will sometimes find 7 channel soundtracks. If you're looking for DVDs with more audio tracks, keep an eye out for Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES logos, as those both support more channels, but only DTS can boast discrete 6.1 surround sound.

Like many DVD players, the Oppo supports MPEG-4 playback in the form of DivX and XviD encoded video. You can also watch a slideshow of images or listen to MP3s from a USB stick. We're actually very impressed by how the Oppo handles itself -- content downloaded from the Internet worked a treat, and the quality was very good, though this will depend on the source file as you might imagine.

It's pleasing that Oppo supports SACD and DVD-A, which means if you have a high definition audio collection on either format, this machine will play them back. Obviously HD audio is a bit of a niche thing, but it does have its supporters. Having both analogue and digital outputs on this player will give audiophiles a choice of how they send their high quality sound to their choice of amplifier too, which can only be a good thing.

Performance
We'll say straight off that we love the Oppo. Pictures from all DVDs look really good, with a truly wonderful colour balance, lack of noise and plenty of detail. We tested a number of discs, recorded at different bit rates, and were pleased with the picture on our LCD TV.

Our R1 copy of Mallrats, the classic Kevin Smith movie, looked sharp and clear, although it's quite obvious that this movie was made on a shoestring budget from the film stock used. But nonetheless it still looked great coming out of the Oppo.

By far the best example of material we tested was Jurassic Park, with bright bold greens and a good lack of undesirable picture distortion, and even less MPEG noise than the Toshiba XD-E500 we tested recently. We also found our trusty X-Men disc had its usual vibrancy. We did notice that the 980H had trouble loading the DVD menu, but this is a common problem with the X-Men disc -- it seems to have been authored badly.

We took some content encoded in XviD and a couple of MP3s and played them back from a USB stick. Of course, the player can also read these files from a CD or DVD, but the convience of USB makes it quite appealing. Quality was great on the video, and our MP3s sounded particularly good through our Onkyo 2.1 system. The user interface for playing these files isn't the most beautiful we've ever seen, though. Like the rest of the menus, it looks like it's just stepped out of the 80s, but it does the job and video files load quickly and start playing with virtually no delay.

One of the very few disappointments is the menu system. It's functional but the menus just don't have the same build quality as the physical unit. Fonts have aliased edges, too, which makes them look like they were generated by a Commodore 64.

Conclusion
Although this player is expensive by Sainsbury's standards, it's far from outrageous and compared to some of the more expensive high-end players, it's actually great value. Sure, this isn't for everyone, and Oppo doesn't pretend it is. Instead, what it does is fill the need for people who love their DVD collections and want to enjoy them in high quality on their expensive TVs.

In competition with this machine is the Toshiba XD-E500, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, and players from Denon. We think the Oppo beats both in style and picture quality, and, because it's so well made and easy to use, it's the way to go if you're not sure about Blu-ray.

Edited by Marian Smith