Video Asylum

Posted by Joe Murphy Jr (A) on November 13, 2008 at 20:38:24

In Reply to: RE: Sorry Joe, I was just in the process of reediting it from last night; weird coincidence, huh? posted by Audiophilander on November 11, 2008 at 21:15:01

Region coding is pretty much useless for the DVD format these days, so it's kind of stupid for studios to keep using it. Other countries either force the manufatcurers to have their players play region-coded DVDs or force manufacturers to tell their customers how to "hack" the player. The irony is that the only country which suffers through the use of region-coding is the US -- the very country it was "designed" to benefit!

As for oppo, they make some very fine DVD players. Any complaints about their players are either petty or concern users who are in a very niche part of the movie watching crowd. The only complaint I have about the 983 is that the audio delay, when using the analog audio outputs, is not enough for 1080i output. The slight delay reinterlacing the deinterlaced 1080p video is very noticeable on my display. I'm forced to use 720p and, after numerous comparisons, it isn't as sharp as 1080i from the player on my display. Since most people don't use the player in this fashion (most use HDMI or the optical/coax output), I'm definitely in the minority. This is only a temporary setup, so it's not a big deal.

As for oppo support, my mileage did vary. I tried a firmware update not too long after I received the player. I followed the directions line-by-line, step-by-step using a flash drive. The process and the resulting flash/display/player interaction was NOT how they described it on the site. I got the firmware update to work, but decided to send them an email -- just in case other people had the same problem. The email I received back was an unexpected shocker. Everyone and their grandmother has basically bowed at oppo's customer service feet, but I had a very different view of them after the email: the sender basically said I was a liar and what I said appeared on the screen didn't. I'll admit to not having 20/20 vision, but looking at a 50" display from 4ft away and a player's display less than 2ft away leaves little room for error when you're basically just observing what's happening right there in front of you.

Suffice it to say that not until I see that douchebag prick who sent me the reply email from oppo give head to an elephant, and swallow, would I agree that oppo gives their customer's good "service".