Cheap but good upconverters

cag1125

cag1125

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So my Bravo D1 (a hand-me-down from a friend who availed himself with an Oppo) just broke down.

:cry:

And this is just after I upgraded to a 4x1 hdmi switcher from monoprice so i didn't have to switch between my pc and my upconverter (the other slot taken by my PS3) ...

:bomb:

Anyhoo, I know that my PS3 can upconvert really fine. I just don't want to abuse it much. Ok, granted, it doesn't really get much playing time other than blu-rays, but you get the idea. I want something I can use for everyday dvd upconversion.

I know that a lot of people are reallly into the this one:
http://www.amazon.com/OPPO-DV-970HD...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1186466309&sr=1-1

:drool:

Just a bit too much for me budget, unfortunately. I also found this:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11219356&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|2341|2593&N=4001380&Mo=7&pos=4&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=2593&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10605-Cat2341&topnav=

:whistle2:s

It seems to have what I like, DivX playback, and for less than half the price. I've heard mixed reviews about it though. Nevertheless, I'm considering it.

So, any other suggestions for a cheap but good/highly recommended upconverters? Any constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
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Don't why I didn't notice, but found another one:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11223479&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|2341|2593&N=4001380&Mo=7&pos=4&No=6&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=2593&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10605-Cat2341&topnav=
 
ps3 is going to give you the best performance besides an oppo. The only pq difference between it and the oppo is extra picture noise. Though you do get to skip out on the faroudja chroma bug.

Oh the ps3 also fails 3:2 pulldown detection for dvd.

That phillips player also fails 3:2, and chroma, and blacker-than-black. Also image crops. Video levels are also off.

Stick with the ps3, it's cheaper than having to buy a sub par peice of AV equipment.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=133

for all your dvd player needs. Go with an oppo, they just came out with the 980 (no chroma bug coz no faroudja) and it has usb ports.
 
[quote name='brendan424']ps3 is going to give you the best performance besides an oppo. The only pq difference between it and the oppo is extra picture noise. Though you do get to skip out on the faroudja chroma bug.

Oh the ps3 also fails 3:2 pulldown detection for dvd.

That phillips player also fails 3:2, and chroma, and blacker-than-black. Also image crops. Video levels are also off.

Stick with the ps3, it's cheaper than having to buy a sub par peice of AV equipment.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=133

for all your dvd player needs. Go with an oppo, they just came out with the 980 (no chroma bug coz no faroudja) and it has usb ports.[/quote]



+1

Upconvert is really a black art few get it right, if you don't want to spring for the oppo just use your PS3 its one of the best upconvert DVD players on the market.
 
The ps3 is a crappy dvd player and an average upconverting dvd player. Still better than alot of the stuff that would be in your price range. Stick with the ps3 if you cant afford on oppo. Some of the hd dvd players are actually also pretty good upconverting dvd players, so if you were planning on going hd dvd anytime soon you could kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I did give the Philips DVP5982 a try. The relatively still images look great, but you do start seeing horizontal lines on fast moving images. It's kinda annoying. I didn't notice that with the PS3.

My connections are via HDMI to a Sony KDF-50WE655.

It's a bit of a hassle after all the effort into connecting it, but I think I'm gonna return it. I'll seriously consider an OPPO then, particularly this one that just came out:

http://www.amazon.com/OPPO-DV-980H-...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1186556220&sr=8-4

A bit pricey, but it seems like it'd be worth it, based on user reviews.
 
For what it's worth, Oppo support is freaking great. I was having issues with a DV-981HD and after several e-mail exchanges they setup a RMA for me. 10 days later I had a brand new unit. They couldn't replicate my issue in-house, but they took my word for it based on the e-mails and outright replaced the player. That's what customer service should be.
 
Yea I'll agree with the oppo having amazing customer service. Fast, knowledgable, and courteous.

Trust me, if you like movies buying an oppo is a worthy investment.

I own the 981, and I'm kind of torn between it and the 980, only coz I rarely watch PAL movies, and having a USB port to play divx files off a thumb drive would be awesome. But I love my oppo and wouldn't trade it for the world, unless it were for another oppo.

What GBmanNC said is right about the HD players. They've got Silicon Optix Reon-VX chips (HD-XA2 only) in them which are just about the best scaler/deinterlacers money can buy at this point. Then again if you want 1080p out of an HDDVD player you're going to have to spend 330 minimum.

And you could always blow the bank out of the water on the new Samsung BD-P1200 blu ray player, which is an even better upscaler/converter.

Then again none of these things play divx, have USB 2.0, or playback multi region dvds, except for the oppo.

So if you want 1080p, usb divx playback (also from burnt dvds), region free playback, get an oppo.

If you don't need 1080p, divx playback, or region free, get the HD-A2 from toshiba and get an HDDVD player while you're at it.
 
My Oppo is amazing. I love it.

If you aren't willing to spend money to buy one, the PS3 you have now will work fine unless you're a PQ nazi.
 
I second the HD-DVD player suggestion. The Toshiba A2 has been going for $200-$250 on sale at various places in the last month. It's a very good upscaler and it's a good HD-DVD player. Not to mention that the 5 free movie deal is still going on.
 
I'm stilll looking. I've checked out OppoDigital.com and saw their recommendation matrix:

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv980h/dv980h_comp.asp

So, for 720p/1080i Large Screen (>45 inches) TVs, they recommend the 981HD.
For 720p/1080i Rear Projection (DLP) TVs, they recommend the 980H.

Ok, I have Rear Projection 50" LCD TV. So, where does mine fit? Mine's a large screen, but it's a rear projection TV.

http://reviews.cnet.com/projection-tvs/sony-kdf-50we655/4505-6484_7-30787621.html

It's not really clear cut to me. I'm a bit confused.

Also, I've read somewhere else (AVS Forum?) that the 981HD provides softer, film-like quality with the images, whereas the 980H is sharper. I guess it becomes subjective here. I think I'm gonna prefer the sharper images. 980H is cheaper, so I'm leaning towards that.

Just browsing around some more, and then I found this (Denon DVD557):
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Denon-HDMI-1080i-DVD-Player-DVD557/sem/rpsm/oid/159481/catOid/-12873/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

I don't have a 1080p set (only the 720p/1080i variety :oldman: ), so I wouldn't care much for 1080p, I suppose. For my DivX needs, I think I'll let my PC do that (also connected to my TV), since it was able to play DivX files even my D1 couldn't play. I don't see much use with the USB port for myself, so it's not a major sell for me.

I wish I haven't bought the HD-DVD add-on for my 360 awhile back. Their promos right now are pretty sweet. Plus, once I trade-in my 360 to one of those new-fangled HDMI-enabled Falcon-spec'd boxes, I think I'm good on the HD-DVD side. Ok, granted, I don't have a 1080p set, but this is good future-proofing for me. And I heard that HDMI output is still a wee bit better than component out, even at the same resolution. Oh, yeah, another upconverting option for me, I suppose. Finally, $200 for an up-converter is in the bit-too-pricey range now. Remember, key phrase here is cheap but good.

So, now that all that other features have been taken into consideration, the only question that remains (for me, for now, I hope) is:

Which one provides a better picture quality: Oppo 980H or Denon DVD-557?

For now, the Denon has the price advantage, but I'm ok with the Oppo if it turns out to be the better one.

Although, now that I think about it, my PC did have lip synching issues. Hmmm...

But let's not worry for about that for now. I'm taking out the DivX capbility out of the equation. I'm really just after PQ for now. I was disappointed with the Philipps, so I really want an improvement.

Anyone here have insightful information about both players? Ideally, anyone here have compared the two?

Might I be asking for too much info???

:???:
 
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