Oppo dvd players available at absolute phase

Thanks Venkipedia...

Your thoughts very much align with my observations....

I still vote for the 980 because of its audio supremacy and its ability to gel well with an external processor and because of the absence of macroblocking(though i dont own a large tv.. mine is a projector.. EPSON TW2000 1080P)
and finally because you dont need the same hardware/features in multiple units ( in this case the upscaler in oppo and in a receiver)

Dear Prithvi.. Please can you get the 980 for me? Else i will have to tug it here from the UK :-(

17000+ 12.5% VAT for a player that costs 229$ from the manufacturer direct? . At 20k, I'd rather build my own HTPC with an ATI HD3650 that kills the 981HD in video quality (ATI HD3XXX scores 105 in HQV bench) and also has the capability to play bluray. A bluray read only drive is down to 6 grand and a writer costs 9 grand.

Hi,

A few days back Oppo 981 was available in the grey market in Delhi. The quoted price was Rs. 10000 (before negotiations).

So it is good to have competitions....

Also saw Pioneer DV310 (the new model with USB) selling for Rs.2600. The Pioneer and some Oppo models (I don't remember the exact model but one can search at google) uses same mediatek chip for video.

I don't think a product available in the gray market can be compared with the same product that is sold with a bill and warranty. Gray market sellers can never provide the service, support, and knowledgeable answers that an authorised dealer can.

I am a user of two Pioneer models - 585K and 686. Both are excellent models in their own rights. But the Oppo's are way above in performance. Even Oppo's implementation of the Mediatek engine is proprietary providing a improved performance in video. The 980 that has the Mediatek engine, was and is a star performer in video and audio well above it's price class.

The other thing I don't understand is how can these people sell at these prices? The 980 is $229 from Oppo. As it is a Net based sale, Oppo will not even talk to you if you negotiate with them. Unless of course, you visit their office and talk about buying a 1000 pieces.

Converted at Rs. 60 to a dollar, the prices works out to Rs.13,740. Why would anybody sell at a loss? Even if you use 40 to a dollar as the conversion rate, the cost comes to 9160 at the least landed in the US. Add transportation, margin etc, you will end much above 10,000.

Take the case of the Pioneer 310. The listed price is US$69. However you convert it, this comes to more than 2600.

I have a strong suspicion, that the products being sold are clear fakes. However you look at it, they cannot be the original. It does not make economic sense, particularly for smugglers who work on large margins.

For people like us who are particular about quality, resolution, accuracy of video and audio, I think looking at such offers is a big risk. To save a few thousands, do you want to curse yourself every time you switch on these products?

Cheers

Do you think that the Indian distributor/s bought it at US$229 a piece? And then they added duties and other expenses so as to charge us Rs.17000 plus local taxes. At least I am not convinced with this...

Last year, I bought 980 in Singapore at a much lower price from the authorized dealer there than the one mentioned at the website....

Also let me add: The Pioneer DVD 310 is made in Thailand.

Do you know that we have free trade agreement with Thailand, Singapore and very soon with ASEAN under which electronic goods manufactured or assembled in these countries could be imported in India without any custom duties.

The prices in the far east for Oppo are much lower than the list price on the US website. A friend of mine got the 970H a long while ago for the equivalent of 7 grand. Its acceptable when the price premium for a product is 20-30% but a 70-80% premium is just ridiculous. Considering at 45 a dollar which essentially is the current going rate, the cost of the player is 10.3k. With VAT, the landed price of the same being sold in India is 19100. I don't see any justification whatsoever for that price. Also building fakes of super popular items like ipods is one thing. I doubt though that any chinese factory would actually build fakes of a boutique DVD player like an oppo . Its just not financially viable. The fake might end up costing more than the original.

If one really wants, one can price it decently. For example look at how well ARN prices the Usher products. The price of the Usher Be-718 in SG/HK is roughly around 72-73k equivalent. The US price for the same is 2895 USD which is significantly more. (granted it has a few extra premium parts.) The indian price for the same including VAT when I purchased it was 98000 which is significantly cheaper and only around 20 grand more than the far east price and that includes 12.5% VAT. If a distributor wants to, he/she can price something well but most distys in India just seem to have one motive in mind - to have their pound of flesh. I don't mean any offence to Absolute Phase at all as they are only retailing. Its the distributors that need to be hammered for such ridiculous pricing.

I agree that prices in India are much higher than the US/Far East ones. Oppo retails for $229, but a gray distributor should be able to negotiate a bulk discount with Oppo. and the gray market doesnt pay duty, so Rs.60 to the dollar is way too high. if you take the discounted price at $200, and the dollar at 42 (the rate a couple of weeks back), then it works out to only Rs.8400/-. the gray can easily sell at Rs.10K even adding on transport costs.
I agree with reignofchaos - making fakes of low priced boutique items doesnt make any sense. if the oppo had been selling in the millions, or if it was price had another couple of zeros, sure we would have seen fakes.

Nice choice on the projector... I was hunting for the Epson TW2000 but the indian dealers just had the TW1000, went for the Panasonic AE2000 instead.
How much did you pay for the TW2000 ?

Guys,

Chill, in the end of the day, if you look at all prices of most imported items , I mean everything is high!

I love hi-end watches, pens etc and have been bitten very badly by fakes, thats why I prefer to pay the indian MRP and have peace of mind, that the product is original and has a warranty. Period.

A few days back I saw a Nautica watch at Safina Plaza which had a price of Rs 8900/-. The same watch on Nautica website was Rs 3999/-. Well thats life.
Thank god we are not in Argentina, where the import duty is 110% on Hi-END products.

As a dealer, its my right to give complete back-up service, installation & warranty on the Oppo DVD players which has a warranty of 1 year. The prices are not fixed by Absolute Phase but by the distributor in India.

How I wish a day comes when there is no import duty in any country and the world has just one single currency! & we have world peace.! Maybe I am dreaming a little bit.

We are happy to say that we already sold quite a few 981HDs in the first day itself.

Agree with some of you that the 980H's audio performance is outstanding. Could not believe my ears when I set up one long time back.