oppo seems to be an inexpensive, interim dvd player.
Did some research on the Oppo DV-980H, mostly on CNET and the readers reviews of the Oppo on Amazon.com. If play station 3 is part of your gaming world, it's seems to be among the best Blue Ray HD-DVD players.
The Oppo seems to an inexpensive way to get enhanced performance on standard DVDs that are played on HD TVs. One additional advantage of the Oppo is that it can be converted into a region free player rather easily, at least according to one of Amazons reviewers who lists the steps in his review. Also, the Oppo was said to do a better job of upconverting old DVDs compared to some popular Blue Ray players.
So until the Blue Ray dvd players and Blue Ray dvds drop in price the Oppo seems to be a reasonable interim alternative for you old collection of standard dvds.