Beware of DVD: Beyond The Ring R:1

[Webslinger]

How are the Oppo drives? I've hard primarily good things about them but have never had my hands on one.

Oppo 981HDs are the best dvd players under $600-$800. In fact, I feel it upconverts better than the Toshiba HD-A35 (HD-DVD player). The 981HD is easily made region free (via the remote) and converts Pal to NTSC and vice versa (the conversion is very good). For the price, it's a pretty incredible dvd player (provided you have HDMI connections).

The 981HD has won tons of industry awards, but I think the biggest kudos is the award it won from the Secrets of Home Theatre and High Fidelity site. The drive tray is a little flimsy, but that's to be expected for ~$200 dvd player. It's actually pretty mind-boggling how good that dvd player is considering the price.

 

[lostinlodos]

Oppo 981HDs are the best dvd players under $600-$800. In fact, I feel it upconverts better than the Toshiba HD-A35 (HD-DVD player). The 981HD is easily made region free (via the remote) and converts Pal to NTSC and vice versa (the conversion is very good). For the price, it's a pretty incredible dvd player.
.......................

I think the price tag is the reason they never sent me one. For hardware, they don't expect what they send me to survive my torture tests. Only thing that ever did was a Tuffbook (Tough Book) laptop that survived my waterproof test in the dishwasher. They took it back when they heard it survived!