Teste do Oppo DV-983H – Pela revista What Hi-Fi

Em 04.01.2009
Preço na Europa: £ 379

Rating: * * *  (três estrelas de cinco)

Oppo’s DV-980H player is a fine all-rounder DVD; the upmarket DV-983H is a victim of that machine’s success, the Blu-ray invasion and the plummeting pound

For
Excellent upscaling; fine sound quality when playing SA-CD discs via HDMI

Against
Unfavourable exchange rates; competition from Blu-ray Disc players; looks a bit cheap

If anyone wonders why we’re facing price-rises in the consumer electronics industry, here’s one answer: a few months back, when it first appeared in Europe, the Oppo DV-983H would have cost you around £280.

But being priced in Euros where it’s sold, in the company’s online shop, means the tag is now getting on for £100 more, thanks to the pound’s plummeting value against the European currency.

That doesn’t do the Oppo any favours at all, especially when the price of good Blu-ray Disc hardware, also able to upscale DVDs to 1080p, is seemingly falling almost as fast as Sterling (even if one has to ask for how much longer this can go on, thanks to those same exchange rate problems).

Blu-ray players offer fierce competition

Under £200 will buy you a very good BD machine these days, meaning that the Oppo looks rather out on a limb in the home cinema source market, 2009-style.

In its favour it offers a similar specification to the less expensive DV-980H, which we rather liked: it’s multiregion out of the box, will play DVD-V/DVD-A/SA-CD/CD and a variety of compressed music formats, and has the advantage of being able to deliver SA-CD sound in its native form, DSD, over its HDMI output to a suitable multichannel amp or receiver.

To the 980H specification this model adds a slightly revised control layout, and an enhanced video processing system, claiming even better upscaling.

The 983H uses the Video Reference System from digital processing specialist Anchor Bay, the supplier of such video technology to upmarket hardware from the likes of Arcam, Denon, Marantz and Yamaha.

Images have bags of definition and detail

That gives this model a wider range of picture adjustments, but the downside of this machine is the frankly cheap-looking menus you have to negotiate in order to get the best out of it.

For all that motion is admirably smooth, and images have bags of definition and fine detail even down in the deepest of blacks.

The sound, too, is particularly good, the player really shining when you load up a well-mastered SA-CD and send the sound via HDMI to a suitable receiver. As an SA-CD transport, the Oppo is up there with some of the very best.

However, SA-CD doesn’t trouble the majority of buyers these days, the player is up against the Blu-ray invasion, and of course those exchange rates have done it no favours whatsoever. It’s good, but a bit of an orphan, really…

Tech Specs

DVD-Video
Yes

DVD-A
Yes

SACD
Yes

MP3
Yes

DivX
Yes

DVD-R/-RW
Yes

DVD+R/+RW
Yes

DVD-RAM
No

HDMI out
1

DVI out
0

Component out
1

RGB Scart out
1

S-Video out
1

Composite out
1

Optical digital out
1

Coaxial digital out
1

FireWire out
0

Phono audio out
1

Six-channel analogue out
1

Dolby decoding
Yes

DTS decoding
Yes

PAL prog scan
Yes

NTSC prog scan
Yes

Video scaling
1080p

Dimensions (hwd, cm)
5x43x27