Mine Panny S54, Philips DVDR3600 and Philips 5996K. And all combined still cheaper than a Denon...

Got mine at SenHeng Sri Petaling at RM379, with the Giraffe HDMI cable. Lucky I knew about the cable or they would have "conveniently" forgot to put it into the box. The cable seems pretty well made, certainly better construction than the free Panny one that came with the PV80. It's not the best deal, but very few shops seem to stock the 5996K so I just went for convenience. Most of them are still trying to clear 5986K stock.

The HDMI 1080p upconversion is better than the DVDR3600 for sure, but the deinterlacer is not as good as the Panasonic S54. I've compared on both a plasma and a LCD.

No stickers on the box, and no notice that there's anything free with it, unfortunately. The Giraffe HDMI cable comes in it's own nice sealed packing. If you get an opened cable, that's not it.

Lucky for this forum, or I won't know there's a free Giraffe cable included. I think the shops can sell it for RM99.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Aug 26 2008, 03:47 PM

Well, I've used it a couple of months. Can't compare it to the Sony (cause I don't have one), but I can compare it to the Philips 5996K.

The S54 deinterlacer and upscaler is better than the PV80s internal one. However color is a little weaker than the PV80s internal scaler, although you do gain a lot of detail. Once you start zooming in, the difference is very obvious. Plus it works with VieraLink and your PV80 remote so that is a big plus. It complements the PV80 well.

Compared with the 5996, the S54 deinterlacer is better. The 5996 sometimes can see scan lines, especially during fast motion. The S54 has a slightly better upscaler too, showing more detail, but you have to look hard to see it. Color depth seems a little better on the 5996 though.

The USB port on the 5996 rocks though and plays many video formats surprisingly well on a large screen, and these are crappy 320x240 videos...

Both play *ahem* DVDs just fine. No problems there.

Both perform well, so if you're a panny fan and want to make full use of vieralink, you won't regret the S54. Likewise, if you enjoy playing USB video files on your widescreen, the 5996 won't disappoint either. Both are fine machines.

Ha ha, when you own those machines and have a lot of free time on your hands to poke around with the settings, you too can see all these for yourself. My first 2 weeks owning these babies, I got to know Tokyo Drift, Cars, Jumper and Elektra really well... well the parts I used to compared with anyway... and I didn't actually finish watching any single movie cause I spent more time playing with settings than watching movies...

1080p is progressive, means 1080 scan lines at 60 frames/sec. 1080i is interlaced, means 540 alternating scan lines at 60 frames/sec.

1080p is more suited to today's FullHD LCDs. Some sets have trouble deinterlacing 1080i well, and you will see scan lines during fast motion sequences or panning shots.

I think if sunauto says the Sony player is good, it probably is. Sony rarely makes duds when it comes to DVD players, especially not on PQ. There's really not much between all the new HDMI players nowadays at a similar price level, except for Samsung and LG sets. From feedback around the net, they seem to have some playability issues, especially with poor quality DVDs.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Aug 28 2008, 11:06 AM

Someone should get an Oppo dealership and start selling them here. I'd run out and buy one.

Panny Plasma use 1080p. Internal algorithm upscales everything to 1080p and then downscales to 768 (+ overscan). So at 1080p you bypass the TV's upscaler. If you feed 720p, the TV will still upscale to 1080p first, so you have a two-time upscale going on, not good for PQ. Test and see on both, zoom to see the difference more clearly. 1080p will look better than 720p for the PV8/PV80.

Don't use 1080i. This is meant for HD CRTs. All plasma/lcd panels are inherently progressive, so you should feed them a progressive signal to avoid the TV having to deinterlace.

The question is therefore, whether the TV does the deinterlace/upscale better then the DVD player. Test on 480i (TV does all the work) and 1080p (DVD player does the work) and see which looks better to you and use that mode. Panasonic TVs have a pretty good reputation for upscaling/deinterlacing recently, so it may actually outperform a low-end DVD upscaler.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Aug 29 2008, 11:48 AM

You may want to reread earlier threads where I gave my opinions on the S54 and 5996 vs the PV80. I don't want to type all that again, so in a nutshell:

PV80 scaler is good. Color is strong.

S54 and 5996 upscales better: details are sharper at under 6ft.

At 10ft+, hard to tell the difference between the DVD players and the TV.

It all depends on the distance you are sitting from your TV vs the size of your screen. That's why there is no point in buying 32" FullHD LCDs unless you're sitting 3-4 feet away.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Aug 29 2008, 03:48 PM

Sony 708 at 328 for sure.

Ha ha i wouldn't mind getting another one at that price. Let us know which shop you are buying from. There are a number of people here looking to get a sony 708 too. Let's share the info and help each other out.

How is the performance of the Oppo so far? What TV model are you using it with?

That is pretty expensive. I got mine some time ago at RM379 at Sen Heng Sri Petaling, and even that was expensive at that time. And yeah, came with a free Giraffe HDMI too.

At least until we get the *ahem* BDs...

RM12 in Puchong.

Oppo's not china-based! They're based in Silicon Valley, California.

Who in their right mind would pay 1.2k for a china brand DVD player???

Does it come with a free HDMI cable?

[WTS]

Brand new Pioneer DV410 Black. Bought from Harvey Norman Sunway on Dec 9, 2008. Full packaging including free Pioneer HDMI cable. 3 year Pioneer warranty. Warranty card still unfilled. Selling for RM339.

Reason for selling: I bought this on impulse (at RM369), brought it home and decided I liked my Philips 5996 better.

Item is like new, only used a few hours to compare PQ.

PM me.

This post has been edited by 99below0: Dec 10 2008, 02:21 PM

I've not tried DivX movies on both. PQ-wise, the Pioneer has stronger colors and contrast and more functional keys on its front but I liked the lighter gamma of the 5996 better (plus I'm lazy to tweak the picture settings on the DV410 - lots you can tweak here).

That simply means that your TV has an equal or better scaling chip compared to your DVD player. A lot of new TVs have pretty decent chipsets nowadays, so the necessity of upscaling DVDs are not so vital. The great advantage of HDMI sets are that the signal is LOSSLESS cause it's digital so you don't have to go stumping around for an expensive branded component cable for good PQ.