well I ordered the Oppo 981HD primarily for video but will put it up against my Denon 2900 once it gets here for audio as well. Would love to get rid of the Denon and slim down to one DVD/CD player/transport. Will report back.
got it today...video is absolutely fantastic. Takes regular DVDs and improves the video by a significant amount. Also plays everything I have thrown at it....from normal DVDs to DIVX, it plays it all without issue....
I need to do an thorough audio comparison between the oppo and the denon 2900, but the good news is, no gaps from what I have put through it (Nero created CDs, Wavelab DVD-As and Audio DVD Creator DVD-As) and sounds good. My initial impression is that while it sounds good, the lowend sounds a little less defined than the Denon unit and the upper end is slightly harsh. Dont get me wrong, it sounds really good...but not as good as what I hear in the Denon 2900. Also to be clear, what I am hearing is mainly on 24 bit DVD-As...CDs sound fantastic with no noticeable difference between the two....
Bottom line though...the unit is worth its weight in gold in terms the video performance....and it definitely sounds really good for audio as well...
Will post as I get more thoughts on the unit after playing with it for a while...