Oppo's DV-983H upconverting DVD deck marks the end of the line

If you like to hang on until hardware tech is EOL-ed (End of Life) maximally polished to jump in, now may be the time for you to score a DVD player. The Oppo DV-983H upscaling DVD player announced last week is now officially available. Oppo's going out with a bang, for sure -- the unit has some good looking specs, especially the built in Anchor Bay (a.k.a DVDO) VRS processing. But what's more significant is a bit of info we gleaned from the PR email accompanying the DV-983H release: the unit is the last DVD player that Oppo will be making. The company that made its name in upscaling DVD is moving whole hog into something else, and we're all-in on a Blu-ray spinner. Bring it on, Oppo! Full PR email after the jump.
OPPO Digital Unleashes Flagship Up-Converting DVD Player
Oppo Digital, manufacturers of award-winning up-converting DVD player announced their latest and last up-converting player w/the DV-983H. The DV-983H is OPPO's flagship up-converting player going for $399 with the following features:

• 7.1 Channel Audio
• 1080p full resolution HD
• Anchor Bay's latest VRS
• RS 232
• IR in/out ports

For more on the 983, visit: http://www.oppodigital.com/dv983h/default.asp. If you have any questions, let me know.

[zargon Posted Mar 11th 2008 3:41PM]

I will be keeping an eye out for their Blu-ray player, as it will probably be one of the best and most feature rich out there. Something that Blu-ray could use right now.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 11th 2008 4:11PM]

Yeah, another expensive Blu-ray player on the way, just what's needed.

Nothing they are doing suggests they are going mass-market at all.

They killed off the competitor to try (at huge cost = guess who ends up paying for that, eh?) and lock down high def as a high-margin niche which can't be pirated.

A 'strategy' that's pretty damned stupid on all counts.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 11th 2008 6:22PM]

"Nothing they are doing suggests they are going mass-market at all."

Who are you talking about? Oppo? The amorphous mass of Blu-ray manufacturers you like to lump together?

Within two years, I expect to see only the lowest/cheapest of players be DVD only. Everything from major manufacturers will be Blu-ray with DVD backward compatibility. Within five years DVD players as we know them will almost certainly not exist. Is that mass market enough for you?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 11th 2008 4:29PM]

Though this particular model costs as much as some blu-ray players, OPPO also has the more affordable $169 DV-980H model, which I have. By the time OPPO releases a blu-ray, I'm sure component prices would have fallen and it may even be lower than the current model's $399 tag. While future OPPO models probably would be slightly higher in price than the mass-market models you see in big boxes, they will be very strong in terms of price vs. features and performance.

[KC Posted Mar 11th 2008 5:46PM]

For Blu-Ray to have any shot at becoming really mainstream, they need ALL manufacturers to do this - replace upscaling DVD players with Blu-Ray players

Upscaling players are the next front that Blu-Ray has to fight in the battle and OPPO as always is merely ahead of the curve

[JustinY Posted Mar 12th 2008 11:04AM]

Hopefully, that Anchor Bay scaler doesn't macroblock on plasmas and DLP's like the Faroudja scaler they previously used does.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 12th 2008 2:40PM]

The only thing it's missing is DivX support, which it has had on all of its players.