# OPPO Bluray



## Audiodreamer (Jan 11, 2009)

Did any one happen to be chosen for an early adoption of the new Oppo bluray?
For watching movies, and user friendliness would I be better off waiting for the Oppo, should I hold off for the next generation of panasonic?

If I was going to make purchase now, it would have to be between the Samsung 2500 (because of HQV video processor), or the Sony 350, or 550.
What would be my most logical choice?:scratchhead:


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I am still holding out for the oppo player, but I am a good 30-45 days from finishing the HT room, so I can wait a little longer. 

If nothing else, I will hold out for a next generation player.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Considering the $500 - $600 price for the Oppo, if all you want is a video player, you might do as well as far as picture quality with a lower priced player. If you want the SACD and DVD-A capabilities along with the picture quality of the Oppo, then the Denon at $4200 is your only other choice. The selling point for the Oppo is tons of features in one box. If you don't have a need for those features then you have a world of choices. Since the brands you mentioned are usually on display in a local store, you can demo each unit. Use the web to narrow down your picks and then hit the street to see them in action before making a final decision.

Tip: Never get on a forum and ask someone to make a choice for you. Some of these guys just love spending your money for you. :bigsmile:


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

:blink: Having people help you decide what to buy is a good part of what forums are all about. :bigsmile:

I am thinking more like $399 for the oppo player... and what I like about oppo players is their uncanny ability to upconvert SD to very near HD quality. I have tons of SD DVD's that do not plan to replace with the more expensive BD's... save a few of my most favorites. I also admire their overall quality. They are known for problem free players, unlike many of the other BD players that have surfaced for a few dollars less.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Sonnie said:


> :blink: Having people help you decide what to buy is a good part of what forums are all about. :bigsmile:
> 
> I am thinking more like $399 for the oppo player... and what I like about oppo players is their uncanny ability to upconvert SD to very near HD quality. I have tons of SD DVD's that do not plan to replace with the more expensive BD's... save a few of my most favorites. I also admire their overall quality. They are known for problem free players, unlike many of the other BD players that have surfaced for a few dollars less.


The Oppo is being sold to the EAPers for $499, so don't expect it to go for less than that when it hits the market. I have the DV-980, but it's a music player for me. The Toshiba HD-A30 does a much better job with DVDs. It may be because of my TV which is DLP. (read some stuff saying Faroudja and DLP wasn't a good mix) From what I'm reading about the BDP-83 though, it's lightyears ahead of the 980 for DVD video quality. (and music quality)


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

I see that they are expanding the next round of the EAP to 300 vice the 100 they originally planned. Rumor has it that this one will have the firmware update to enable DVD-A.

I have my fingers crossed that I make it into this round, though it sounds like they should be pretty close to general release anyway. They will be sending out emails on Monday, but won't ship the player until Friday in order to update the boxes with new firmware. The new firmware is supposed to fix the bugs found so far and add DVD-A.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

My 980 is every bit as good as my Toshiba XA2 was at upconverting when I had it. I am on a DLP LED Samsung 67" set. My 980 rivals the PS3 Blu-ray when I had it. The PS3 BD was better, but not leaps better and certainly not worth spending the extra money on the BD's just to get that small margin of difference.


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## AverageJoe (Jun 29, 2006)

CharlieU said:


> The Oppo is being sold to the EAPers for $499, so don't expect it to go for less than that when it hits the market.


As one of the lucky 50, I kinda' hope not (sorry). If it goes for less than that, I could have waited for the final product and saved some money.

I've been using this player for a couple weeks now, and I can't find a thing to complain about. Both audio and video performance is extraordinary. So far, I've been particularly impressed with the multi-channel SACD version of Dark Side of the Moon - OK, I confess it's the first time I've heard it, so...

Not so much for performance, but for convenience are the USB ports on front and back of the player. My Yamaha receiver has the port on the front only, so it's nice to be able to connect a hard drive on the back, out of the way. I'm not sure the compressed files sound any better (I think so, though), but the interface is prettier.

Good luck to everyone on the EAP second round.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Sonnie said:


> My 980 is every bit as good as my Toshiba XA2 was at upconverting when I had it. I am on a DLP LED Samsung 67" set. My 980 rivals the PS3 Blu-ray when I had it. The PS3 BD was better, but not leaps better and certainly not worth spending the extra money on the BD's just to get that small margin of difference.


My 980 rivaled my PS3 as far as DVDs were concerned too. That wasn't a good thing.  I have high hopes for the BDP-83 in this area. There are so many factors involved in getting good sound and good picture that one man's nirvana could be anothers dog pile. In this case I'm seeing too many people with diverse setups bragging about the DVD quality not to want to see it in action myself. As of yet, I have not had a problem telling the difference between DVD and HD DVD/Blu-ray with the equipment I own. In truth, that's the way it should be. Right?


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

HD-DVD was spectacular on my Panny 2000, a little better than Blu-ray in my setup, however, both were very very good and definitely better than standard SD-DVD. The XA2 upconversion brought SD-DVD much closer to Blu-ray, not quite as close to HD-DVD. When I moved the PS3 to the great room on the DLP, Blu-ray was still just as good, maybe a tad better on the smaller DLP vs. the 97" pj screen. After getting the 980, I was stunned at how close it is to Blu-ray... it blew the PS3 upconversion away. It is not a matter of being able to tell the difference on my part, I can assure you that. I have seen Blu-ray on no less than 25-30 setups... some spectacular, some good, some not so good. My 980 falls in there with the "some good". It won't match spectacular, but the margin is just not worth it to me at this point. I would rather have the best upconversion I can get and keep buying SD-DVD's. The oppo BD player should do that well enough for me and I'll splurge all along on a BD... and pick up a few on sale or used every now and then.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Oppo must be hitting the bottom of the barrel with the new EAP. I received my invitation this evening. I'll post back with my opinion of DVD playback once the player is in my hands. If this one has the DVD-A playback activated, I'll post my thoughts on that too.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

The bottom must go really deep because I still do not have an invitation. :hissyfit:


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## shift9999 (Mar 22, 2009)

I picked up an oppo the other day on amazon for $299 and I cant really tell the difference. Bluray is still better than plain old dvd.


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## Eric D (Feb 9, 2009)

CharlieU said:


> Oppo must be hitting the bottom of the barrel with the new EAP. I received my invitation this evening. I'll post back with my opinion of DVD playback once the player is in my hands. If this one has the DVD-A playback activated, I'll post my thoughts on that too.


Please remember to vote! The longer you take, the longer the rest of us have to wait! :foottap:

For that matter, Vote early *and* often! :T

:bigsmile:

enjoy,


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Eric D said:


> Please remember to vote! The longer you take, the longer the rest of us have to wait! :foottap:
> 
> For that matter, Vote early *and* often! :T
> 
> ...


My personal opinion is that since they changed this EAP to 300 participants, what I'm going to receive is basically a finished product. The beta testers have probably flogged the DVD-A piece along with the fixes to the bugs reported by the EAP50. I'd be surprised if anyone reports any show-stoppers. Be ready to be ~$500 poorer when April rolls around. (plus whatever you owe to Uncle Sam :sweat


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I am worried more about the Uncle Sam part. :yikes:


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

CharlieU said:


> My personal opinion is that since they changed this EAP to 300 participants, what I'm going to receive is basically a finished product. The beta testers have probably flogged the DVD-A piece along with the fixes to the bugs reported by the EAP50. I'd be surprised if anyone reports any show-stoppers. Be ready to be ~$500 poorer when April rolls around. (plus whatever you owe to Uncle Sam :sweat


I was wrong.

The current implementation of DVD-A is really rough. The player can not be set to bitstream if you want to play a DVD-A and only DVD-A's with a certain type of copy protection will play. There is some problem with the track to track transitions too. The Beatles Love DVD-A really loses its magic with the abrupt cutoff at the end of the track, a pause, then the abrupt start of the next track.

I'm seeing a lot of reports on lip-sync issues. I may not be as sensitive to it as others since I haven't noticed it on any of the movies I watched, but I have seen it on some of the Extras.

Now for the good stuff......

Just taking this unit out of the box, you start noticing little things that indicate Oppo has positioned this unit to be their top of the line player. They put some money into the packaging. The unit looks and feels solid and a press of the Eject button tells you that this is a transport that you won't find in a $199 player.

Comparing Blu-Ray playback to my first gen 60GB PS3, the Oppo was better in picture quality. The load times were fast, but I didn't have any Java or BD Live disks to test. Some have reported problems with BD Live disks though it could just as easily be a problem with their network vice the player.

DVD playback is clearly better better than my PS3, Oppo 980 and Toshiba HD-A30. On the poor quality disks it does a good job of cleaning up noise and artifacts. On the good quality disks it gives me the best picture I've ever seen from a standard DVD. With that said, on a large screen, you will still not mistake a DVD for Blu-ray or HD DVD.

Audio had me scratching my head. The 83 sounds so much better than the 980. The sound is much fuller (more mid-range?) and the soundstage is wider and deeper. If I was using analog inputs, I could understand the difference, but since I'm using HDMI to pass PCM and DSD, it makes no sense. I broke out my RS meter to make sure what I was hearing wasn't related to the volume. The needle bounced around too much with regular music so I used my Rives CD and determined the correct volume level to set my receiver to for the 83 and 980 with the 1KHz tone. After doing that I listened to CDs, SACDs and DVD-As and still came to the same conclusion, the 83 is the better audio player. Maybe someone can explain to me how 1s and 0s can sound different.

I still have more to try with this player before I vote. Right now I'm really undecided. If the vote was for another EAP round, my Yes vote would already be recorded. To release this to the general public in the state that it's in is a much harder decision. As I said before, without even turning this player on, it exudes quality. I think Oppo should do a bit more to ensure this feeling isn't shattered when the customer starts putting disks in it.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Thanks for the review... :T


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## Mr.Lowe (Jan 29, 2009)

I have a samsung BD 1500 hooked up to a 52" Samsung LCD 750. The picture is amazing. I also have a lot of SD DVD's and they seem to be upgraded very well from the player. What is so good about this Oppo. Did I mess up and buy to early? Also does anyone know anything about the picture quality of the new Yamaha 765 reciever? On yamaha's website it says that the v663 and the v863 are HDMI ver. 1.3, but the 765 didn't say it was. I am just curious to see if there will be any change in the picture. I definitly don't want that. Thanks.:help:


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

How are the loading times when using a sd dvd? As fast as a normal dvd player?


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Mr.Lowe said:


> I have a samsung BD 1500 hooked up to a 52" Samsung LCD 750. The picture is amazing. I also have a lot of SD DVD's and they seem to be upgraded very well from the player. What is so good about this Oppo. Did I mess up and buy to early? Also does anyone know anything about the picture quality of the new Yamaha 765 reciever? On yamaha's website it says that the v663 and the v863 are HDMI ver. 1.3, but the 765 didn't say it was. I am just curious to see if there will be any change in the picture. I definitly don't want that. Thanks.:help:


If you are happy with your BD 1500, then you made the right purchase. I wanted a universal disk player to simplify my system. I was able to pull out the PS3 and Oppo 980 and put this box in their place. Another plus was getting rid of the PS3 remote and being able to control everything with my Harmony remote.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

SteveCallas said:


> How are the loading times when using a sd dvd? As fast as a normal dvd player?


All disk types load pretty fast. You will have to have your beverage and snacks ready before you close the disk tray.


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## Mr.Lowe (Jan 29, 2009)

The SD's load just plenty fast. I have heard of the loading times on the BD, but so far I have been able to load the blu rays plenty fast. just as any other dvd player.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

The latest firmware has improved the DVD-A functionality of the player, but it's still not right. The problems aren't related to the sound. If the disk plays, the sound is fantastic. They mostly affect disk navigation and track to track transitions. I believe that we will see this player for sale this month.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I was told mid-April when griping to customer service about the EAP, which I learned was completely random and not first come first serve. Although I thought it hinged on EAP voting. :huh:


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

There's a fair chunk of "NO" votes, so I don't think it will be released for a while until they go back and fix the DVD-A and SACD issues. Customer beta testing is potentially highly rewarding as well as potentially disasterous.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Sonnie said:


> I was told mid-April when griping to customer service about the EAP, which I learned was completely random and not first come first serve. Although I thought it hinged on EAP voting. :huh:


I'm not all that certain that it hinges on EAP voting. I hope not. The last email from Oppo encouraged people to vote, but I'm not seeing much happen. I don't know what they are waiting for since you are allowed to change your vote if a new firmware update takes care of your concerns. (or breaks something important to you)


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

SteveCallas said:


> There's a fair chunk of "NO" votes, so I don't think it will be released for a while until they go back and fix the DVD-A and SACD issues. Customer beta testing is potentially highly rewarding as well as potentially disasterous.


I'm not aware of any SACD issues. There are issues with HDCD's, but I don't have any to confirm this. I hear there is a beta firmware that takes care of the track to track transitions on DVD-A. I think one more firmware update and they should start selling them.

I'm sure Oppo is rethinking the EAP process. Considering that they found some new bugs along with construction problems with some of the players makes me think that this isn't a total disaster for them. Once the player is released the complaints will change from "why is it taking so long" and "why couldn't I be selected for the EAP" to "why can't Oppo produce enough of these to keep them in stock".


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

Just so I'm clear, I was by no means saying this testing was distasterous, not at all. All signs point to this being a success.

Rather, by having this type of testing, if a single vocal person finds one bug and a company releases the product without fixing it, citing the bug as a minor issue, they stand to lose big time. It may be pointed out that the issue was brought up before and the impression might be that the company doesn't care about its customers. In reality, any company who allows beta testing probably cares quite a bit about its customers.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

SteveCallas said:


> Just so I'm clear, I was by no means saying this testing was distasterous, not at all. All signs point to this being a success.
> 
> Rather, by having this type of testing, if a single vocal person finds one bug and a company releases the product without fixing it, citing the bug as a minor issue, they stand to lose big time. It may be pointed out that the issue was brought up before and the impression might be that the company doesn't care about its customers. In reality, any company who allows beta testing probably cares quite a bit about its customers.


I didn't take it as you saying it was a disaster. What made the EAP distasteful to most was the selection process. I have to agree with those that specifically signed up for the EAP and did it early, that Oppo should have gone in order of the requests received.

After I answered your last post on problems with SACD, I started hear pops on one of my discs sending DSD to the receiver. Oppo seems to think it's a cable problem. The pops don't always happen and aren't severe, but irritating none the less. I have to spend some time switching cables and listening to SACDs this weekend.

I don't believe Oppo has anything to lose if there are specific discs having problems. If a particular format that the player is supposed to play doesn't, then that is a different story. Unfortunately some disc manufacturers stray from the standards or they screw up mastering the disc.


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## devicente (Jun 28, 2007)

I just got off the phone with OPPO and they are taking preorders next week and will be posting it for $499.00 Check the web site by the end of next week is my guess!:jump:


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

$500 US for a BluRay player, I know Oppo is good but thats way to high a price.


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## SteveCallas (Apr 29, 2006)

It's more than I was hoping for.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

tonyvdb said:


> $500 US for a BluRay player, I know Oppo is good but thats way to high a price.


If all a person is looking for is Blu-ray playback, then you are absolutely right. Any player that can pull all the bits off a BD will be equal in video quality to the Oppo. It's the "universal player" features that make the player worth it's asking price. Maybe Oppo will come out with just a Blu-ray player down the road to address the customers that don't need the added functionality.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

CharlieU said:


> If all a person is looking for is Blu-ray playback, then you are absolutely right. Any player that can pull all the bits off a BD will be equal in video quality to the Oppo. It's the "universal player" features that make the player worth it's asking price. Maybe Oppo will come out with just a Blu-ray player down the road to address the customers that don't need the added functionality.


I really doubt that they can (or want to) compete in that end of the business. All their products have had "added" features which make them unique at their price points.

Kal


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

It does have a couple of other advantages that I have read about (per current users)...

1. It loads faster than other players (other than possibly the PS3 game console).
2. It upconverts SD-DVD better than anything else out there.

Are those worth a couple hundred bucks? Not sure for everyone, but for me they are certainly important.


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## devicente (Jun 28, 2007)

How does the SD-Upconvert compare to HD-XA2?


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Kal Rubinson said:


> I really doubt that they can (or want to) compete in that end of the business. All their products have had "added" features which make them unique at their price points.
> 
> Kal


They always seemed to have a couple of players at different price points in their line up. I'm just basing my guess of a lower cost BD player on that.


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## CharlieU (Jan 26, 2007)

Sonnie said:


> It does have a couple of other advantages that I have read about (per current users)...
> 
> 1. It loads faster than other players (other than possibly the PS3 game console).
> 2. It upconverts SD-DVD better than anything else out there.
> ...


I know the guys with stopwatches make the same statement you do about load times, but as someone with a PS3 and no stopwatch, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in load times between the PS3 and the Oppo.

One other factor is the quality of construction. It does not look or feel cheap. Oppo appears to have put the same effort into all aspects of this player. Nothing makes you say "Oh, they cut back on this in order to give me that".


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

devicente said:


> How does the SD-Upconvert compare to HD-XA2?


My Oppo 983 upconverts as well if not better than the XA2, so I would believe the 83 would do as well or better. Maybe someone can confirm.


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## htaddikt (May 14, 2007)

I am glad I signed up for the EAP..even though I was not picked I did get an opportunity to buy the player early. And glad I did, it is awesome!
Here's the pluses:
My receiver can not do HDMI video, so I rely on analog for lossless audio, plus SACD and DVD-A which is also important to me. So the analog setup was essential, and having a default xover setting of 80 Hz which I find more appropriate than 100 or 120.
The BD load time is quite impressive, really. Sure, if you use a stop watch against a PS3 or other player, several seconds difference is hardly earth-shattering, but in the scheme of things it IS noticeable and certainly a plus. Kind of like waiting for your wife to get ready, and just as you lift your arm to look at your watch one more time, she is standing there. LOL
As has been said, up-conversion is great in the Oppo tradition. Some may think the difference there is also exaggerated, and some players have done very well in that regard. In fact, most have improved significantly with the latest models. But from what I've seen so far, the Oppo is still the one to beat, not to say others are not breathing down their neck. 
Having a good analog setup was important to me, and this is one of the slickest, like the rest of the setup menu, very easy to read, nice clear graphics, and very complete. The same goes for the written manual, a class act. The packaging is impressive as hell, but since it has no effect on function I'll gloss over it, except IMO it shows pride in the product.
Build is excellent, for the price range. The tray is plastic, like most, but well supported and moves very quickly, not sounding cheap at all.

The setup menu is extraordinary, and not likely to be exploited by many unless they have displays capable of using all the features. For most, simply setting it to 'Auto' will likely give you all you need.
Another big plus to me, is the display. Not overly bright even at the highest setting, and it does need to be because the digits are big enough to read very easily from a 'normal' seating distance.

The Spears and Munsil video cal disk is great! The best video calibration disk I have ever seen.
Very easy to navigate, and the included text gives excellent explanations for each test.

Oppo support: Legendary..of course, right now they are up to their necks in busy work but always answer emails, if not the same day.

Speaking of analog, there are 2 dedicated stereo outputs isolated from analog muti-channel processing.
CDs sound wonderful on this player!

Some minuses:
There is no audio test tone for bass management (you would need to use a test disk).

The power cord feels a loose in the IEC socket. But it only has 2 blades, no ground pin. 
Some seem very bothered by this. I'm not. It goes in just fine, and stays there.
It is a heavy cord, 14ga. something you rarely see even on higher end components, except maybe amps.
(The included HDMI cable is also very robust. Very good retention at the connectors.)

I experienced a 'drop' in analog audio output level across all channels yesterday. After resetting the player, and doing another setup everything is wonderful again. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come, but a few folks have had similar complaints. I suspect there will be more firmware on the way in the near future.

For those who have ventured over to avs forum, you know about other issues a few have had, as well as the continuing praise most have given this player. 

Bottom line, if you value the multi-disk capability, the best upconversion for std. DVD, fast loading, and a quality build with great support, this is the one to get IMO.

If just a very good BD player is important to you, with very good upconversion, and decent audio reproduction, there are several to choose from that are better values. And they include models who prices will drop over the next several months, not the case with Oppo gear. 

It is always nice to have options!


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## Bob_99 (May 8, 2006)

> Oppo support: Legendary..of course, right now they are up to their necks in busy work but always answer emails, if not the same day.


One of the reasons why I went with Oppo. I checked into higher price units but found that the bugs in them were fixed very slowly. Amazing that they could sell something for $2,000 and over that doesn't work as advertised.



> The power cord feels a loose in the IEC socket. But it only has 2 blades, no ground pin.
> Some seem very bothered by this. I'm not. It goes in just fine, and stays there.
> It is a heavy cord, 14ga. something you rarely see even on higher end components, except maybe amps.


A little electrical tape around the end worked for me. Some users have no problems with a loose fit.




> Bottom line, if you value the multi-disk capability, the best upconversion for std. DVD, fast loading, and a quality build with great support, this is the one to get IMO.


I agree.

One thing not mentioned that I like is the fact that I have been able to play DVDs not in the best of condition with no problem.

Lastly, I have yet to read about any player at any price that has not had quirks and drawbacks and I think that Oppo offers a lot for the money.


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## moblsv (Nov 24, 2008)

I've been using my Oppo for about two weeks now. Everything seems great, lots of praise from me.

The one "glitch", so far: I was watching a movie and stopped it for several minutes to let the girlfriend take care of something. When I restarted, it was in French. A stop and start put the movie back in English.


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## weeZ (Sep 10, 2006)

I've had the player for just over a month and the player has been great! No issues, easy setup and best packaging I've ever seen!

Did some side-by-side with the PS3 picture some improvement but the audio is where I really notice the difference! Not sure if it's the bitstream feed or the processing of the 83. LFE is most noticeable, more impact and faster attack, in comparison the PS3 sounds boomy.


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## Spankey (Jun 25, 2008)

I pulled the trigger on the Oppo. Should be here in a week. All the reviews and positive feedback I have gotten made this a no brainer. Can't wait.


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## htaddikt (May 14, 2007)

Spankey said:


> I pulled the trigger on the Oppo. Should be here in a week. All the reviews and positive feedback I have gotten made this a no brainer. Can't wait.


Great choice, love it, it will love ya back!:yes:


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## devicente (Jun 28, 2007)

Got mine a week ago. Very pleased with it. Any one want to buy a PS3?arty:


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## Spankey (Jun 25, 2008)

Took the slow boat delivery. It's half way across the country now. 

Confused about one thing in the manual. This player will not convert PAL to NTSC or vice versa, will it?

If I use the video direct pass through, I am assuming DVD's will not be upscaled?


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## RUSS (Jun 27, 2009)

Received my Oppo BDP-83 a few weeks ago and have greatly enjoyed it from the moment I first opened the box. 

I won't repeat other poster's positive comments, but there are none that have been made I would disagree with to be sure.

I will add these comments though: 

I believe the 1080p video output from the Oppo beats my Pioneer BDP-05FD, Sony BDP-S301 and PS3 easily. To my eyes and all of my family members, we see much more vibrant detail and resolution from the Oppo. I suspect the Oppo has better below black capability. It certainly bests the other players in SD playback upscaling to 1080p, SD and HD pulldown conversions resulting in better judder control and sharpness of detail. The Oppo also has better color control meaning no over-saturation, unlike the 05FD and S301. Even the blu-ray of The French Connection looks almost tolerable on the Oppo. 

Uncompressed Audio from the Oppo seems a bit more natural than from my PS3 or even from my Pioneer BDP-05FD blu-ray player when playing Blu-ray discs of movies and concerts. But that could possibly be a result of afterglow still from the initial elation of receiving an early release of this new player. Plus I admit to some partiality for Oppo. I have been using Oppo DVD players since the company's very first product line was introduced on the market. 

I had some hybrid SACDs on hand at delivery, but the Oppo BDP-83 is my first SACD/DVD-A capable player so my prior listening experience is nil as regards enhanced audio discs. I have since added to my stock of SACD and DVD-A discs because the BDP-83 makes listening to the HD audio so much more enjoyable than I have previously experienced with CDs out of my Denon 3808ci AVR; especially Miles Davis _Kind Of Blue_, Dave Brubeck _Time Out/Take Five_, Allman Bothers _Eat A Peach_, Kinks _Muswell Hillbillies_, all SACDs, and John Coltrane _Love Supreme_ on DVD-A. I would very much like to hear the SACD of ELP _Brain Salad Surgery_, and I might make the purchase though the import price is very steep.

The only negative I have found has already been mentioned. The HDMI connector seems to not accept the cable insert firmly enough. But that has not developed into any issues in performance. Therefore, I doubt the connection would be problematic unless you need to move your equipment rack frequently or clean behind it and knock the cable from time to time.

The look of the BDP-83 player is very pleasing and the build quality is quite satisfactory for the price. The build quality is certainly no less, and perhaps even better, than the Pioneer 05FD which cost me much more than the Oppo, although now the 05FD is near the same price point.

Not only is the Oppo disc load times faster as mentioned by others, but it accesses root-menu commands and responds on the fly to subtitle and audio changes more quickly than my other Blu-ray players. And the Oppo restarts a disc where you stopped it previously, even when ejected and re-inserted later, unlike the 05FD and S301.

To sum up, I am very pleased with the Oppo BDP-83 and feel I have gotten more than enough bang for the buck.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Thanks for the info Russell... and welcome to the Shack... :T


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## RUSS (Jun 27, 2009)

Sonnie said:


> Thanks for the info Russell... and welcome to the Shack... :T


No, no...Thank you!


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## Spankey (Jun 25, 2008)

Great info Russ. My Oppo is sitting on a truck, waiting to be delivered on Monday. Not sure if I can play with it right away. I would have to take the PS3 out of the current system. The new Plasma comes in a little less than two months. Too long to wait! Ugh!

I have a ton of SACD's but this player will make me pick up a few DVD-A's..

The HT bug is back in full swing.


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## RUSS (Jun 27, 2009)

Spankey said:


> Took the slow boat delivery. It's half way across the country now.
> 
> Confused about one thing in the manual. This player will not convert PAL to NTSC or vice versa, will it?
> 
> If I use the video direct pass through, I am assuming DVD's will not be upscaled?




Not that I am an authority, but because no one else has answered, here is what I'll point out, Spankey:


*
Confused about one thing in the manual. This player will not convert PAL to NTSC or vice versa, will it?*

The Oppo BDP-83 player will convert. The player can convert either "PAL" (576i) or "NTSC" (480i) discs, but the Oppo player must be set for one or the other, or else set to "Multi", dependent on what type of TV you use. If you select "Multi" as the option in TV System Setup then your TV will do the necessary conversion, not the Oppo player. The P/N button on the Oppo remote switches between the three settings in sequence with each press. Regardless, the Oppo player is Region A disc locked, but will still play Region Free discs too.



*If I use the video direct pass through, I am assuming DVD's will not be upscaled?*

Correct. Source Direct is an HDMI option and is a straight digital pass through to the AVR or TV. The latter, if capable, will then do any upscaling you adjust them to do. That would depend on which unit you think has a better scaler. 

To get original aspect ratio output from the Oppo player as well as enable it to do the upscaling the TV and AVR scalers should be bypassed and the Oppo settings should be:

TV Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Wide/Auto
Output Resolution: Auto
1080p24 Output: On
DVD 24p Conversion: On

Input (HDMI or Component) and TV System (NTSC/PAL/MULTI) is up to your needs.


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## Spankey (Jun 25, 2008)

Thanks Russ. Makes sense but is confusing at the same time. But I like to tweak, so playing with it will be half the fun.


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## RUSS (Jun 27, 2009)

Spankey said:


> ... I like to tweak, so playing with it will be half the fun.


Absolutely! Hope you can get your 83 connected up soon so you can see for yourself what all of the happy owners have been saying! :yes:


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## Spankey (Jun 25, 2008)

Wow..Awesome player. I still have to get it connected to the processor hooked up, but right now the PQ is just superb. This is an incredibly deep player. Have HDMI set to 36bit deep color. Going to have to wait till the weekend to play some more, but that's what holiday's were made for.


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## chipperman (Jun 17, 2009)

My Oppo is out to be modded. Changes in the power supply, clock, and stereo output ciruits. Should have it back by the middle of July. I currently have an Arcam DV 139, which does it all except blu ray, and the upscaling and color on it is superb. I play a lot of SACD and DVDA along with redbook CD, and this is a very impressive unit. However, confusing the wife with one more player to get blu ray put her over the edge. Something about six remotes, I think it was. I am hoping the mods will get us to the same level of performance in the other areas that we now have. This may be asking a lot for a less expensive unit, but I have heard what some modded CD players have done, and I believe it may be possible. Of course, the mods will cost more than the unit, but the total cost is still way below anything else, and right now in the audiophile sector there isn't anything else.Besides, I can't hear the difference in a $65,000 CD player anyway. As soon as I get it back I will A/B it against the Arcam and post some impressions.


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Well I have ran into my first, albeit a minor, issue with the BD-83. It will not play the Blu-ray *12 Rounds*... even after the latest firmware upgrade. It gets stuck after pressing Play. It will play in my other Blu-ray player, but not the OPPO.

Of course I will be reporting it to OPPO. I rented it for nothing. I cannot connect my other BD player to the HT system, so I did not get to view it. Heard it was a pretty good action flick though... maybe I will rent it on DVD.


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## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

Sonnie said:


> Well I have ran into my first, albeit a minor, issue with the BD-83. It will not play the Blu-ray *12 Rounds*... even after the latest firmware upgrade. It gets stuck after pressing Play. It will play in my other Blu-ray player, but not the OPPO.
> 
> Of course I will be reporting it to OPPO. I rented it for nothing. I cannot connect my other BD player to the HT system, so I did not get to view it. Heard it was a pretty good action flick though... maybe I will rent it on DVD.


Contact Oppo. I believe there is a firmware fix for that movie and one other.


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## jpk (Feb 22, 2007)

chipperman said:


> My Oppo is out to be modded. Changes in the power supply, clock, and stereo output ciruits. Should have it back by the middle of July. I currently have an Arcam DV 139, which does it all except blu ray, and the upscaling and color on it is superb. I play a lot of SACD and DVDA along with redbook CD, and this is a very impressive unit. However, confusing the wife with one more player to get blu ray put her over the edge. Something about six remotes, I think it was. I am hoping the mods will get us to the same level of performance in the other areas that we now have. This may be asking a lot for a less expensive unit, but I have heard what some modded CD players have done, and I believe it may be possible. Of course, the mods will cost more than the unit, but the total cost is still way below anything else, and right now in the audiophile sector there isn't anything else.Besides, I can't hear the difference in a $65,000 CD player anyway. As soon as I get it back I will A/B it against the Arcam and post some impressions.


Mike,
Out of curiosity who is doing the mods on your player? I'm quite impressed with the stock performance too, but if it can be taken to another level... Will they mod all channels or just the stereo channels?
Thanks,
Joe


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

Kal Rubinson said:


> Contact Oppo. I believe there is a firmware fix for that movie and one other.


Yep... thank Kal. The Beta firmware release fixes this movie... and The Haunting in Connecticut.

Firmware Update Sticky Thread started.


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## dmk005 (Aug 9, 2009)

I have the OPPO and love the up conversion for my 300 plus non-bluray disks. I think the price/performance ratio is excellent. I also have the LG player and it works fine for bluray but standard disks look um...standardish.

David


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## jpk (Feb 22, 2007)

I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday from OPPO. It’s the AIX Records audio calibration disc and HD music sampler. Also included is the blue lens filter to compliment the Spears and Munsil Blu-ray calibration disc originally included with the player. 
I didn’t expect this extra support / customer service when I bought the OPPO.
Thank You OPPO!

Again, a very nice surprise!:bigsmile:
Joe


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I got mine today... :T


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## GregBe (Apr 20, 2006)

jpk said:


> I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday from OPPO. It’s the AIX Records audio calibration disc and HD music sampler. Also included is the blue lens filter to compliment the Spears and Munsil Blu-ray calibration disc originally included with the player.
> I didn’t expect this extra support / customer service when I bought the OPPO.
> Thank You OPPO!
> 
> ...


That is really cool. I have that sampler, and it is really nice. Is OPPO partnering with AIX?


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Wanted to post here saying that I absolutely love my Oppo BDP-83. Best overall blu-ray player on the market and the price is competitive to boot!

Though, I have had a few issues with the last couple beta firmwares, which is surprising because of all the Oppo products I've had, I've never had an issue with any of their beta firmwares. The 83's beta firmwares just hadn't played nice with particular unit, except for the last one that was released a couple days ago. Installed it, works great so far with the 3-4 movies plus a couple of other discs I've popped in.

But, I can't complain because the official firmwares always are stable for me and if I ever have any issue with a beta firmware I wanted to try, I can just resort back to the last official firmware. I love that Oppo gives you that ability as a user!

I was thoroughly surprised when I got my AIX disc a couple weeks ago, too. Goes to show Oppo's dedication to their customers! I was definitely not expecting it, but there it was. Nice to have an audio calibration disc with 7.1 as well as some really nice reference audio tracks.


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## htaddikt (May 14, 2007)

Oppo seems to be right on top of things. Unfortunately, firmware updates for Blue Ray seems to be a regular routine regardless of player.


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## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

It's true. I really appreciate how quick Oppo is to get firmware upgrades, nonetheless! I had a Pioneer BDP-51FD before and it was slow as molasses, in every aspect. The firmware updates especially were slow and there were a couple occasions where I wouldn't be able to play a new released blu-ray for months, which gave me reason to look for an upgrade. The Panasonic DMP-BD35 was a worthy stop-gap until the Oppo came along, but honestly there is no comparison. Seeing as many firmware updates as Oppo has done is comforting to know that they are really working as fast as they should to keep up with the new blu-ray releases issues.


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## jpk (Feb 22, 2007)

GregBe said:


> That is really cool. I have that sampler, and it is really nice. Is OPPO partnering with AIX?


I asked Oppo and the response I received; "AIX partnered with us for the demonstration disc. We do not know what future partnerships we may have."

I asked this along with the specs for the furnished cable, for which I was curious.
"The HDMI cable is rated for the HDMI 1.3a specifications. It will pass all available bandwidth required for Deep Color, 1080p, and the high resolution audio formats."
I figured as much for the Oppo cable, but I wanted to be sure as I just bought a cable that was only rated for 720P for a different system. So many different cable specs! 

Joe


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## htaddikt (May 14, 2007)

jpk said:


> I asked Oppo and the response I received; "AIX partnered with us for the demonstration disc. We do not know what future partnerships we may have."
> 
> I asked this along with the specs for the furnished cable, for which I was curious.
> "The HDMI cable is rated for the HDMI 1.3a specifications. It will pass all available bandwidth required for Deep Color, 1080p, and the high resolution audio formats."
> ...


You don't need to 'limit' your cable options because of the resolution of your display. Any reasonably priced quality HDMI cable will work well in either system, like the one provided by Oppo Digital.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

The cable supplied with the Oppo is of a very high quality and sufficient for all resolutions and HD audio, so no need to spend anymore unless you need longer lengths...use that money to buy some BD movies :T


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I just noticed yesterday that my CD audio is dropping out/skipping. It doesn't happen on DVD. I am pretty sure I played CD's when I first got it and this was not an issue, but I have performed an upgrade since then. Maybe it was that upgrade. Time to upgrade again I suppose. Anyone else experience this issue?


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

I do not have this problem Sonnie but then again I have not upgraded my firmware since May, I have read though that some people experienced problems after upgrading firmware on there 83's with CD not playing properly...


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Sonnie said:


> I just noticed yesterday that my CD audio is dropping out/skipping. It doesn't happen on DVD. I am pretty sure I played CD's when I first got it and this was not an issue, but I have performed an upgrade since then. Maybe it was that upgrade. Time to upgrade again I suppose. Anyone else experience this issue?


Sonnie - just a thought...after upgrading the firmware you must do a factory reset or it can cause issues, have you tried that?


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

I don't remember if I did or not, but I will do the latest upgrade today and reset it... hopefully that will solve the problem. I actually was enjoying listening to some music for a change... other than the drop outs.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

I have just upgraded to the latest firmware 0925 and all is fine with CD no dropouts, but I also did the factory reset (after loading it) and then went through all the settings again to make sure all is correct.


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## Lordoftherings (Feb 8, 2009)

Anyone read that review yet?

@ http://hometheatermag.com/discplayers/oppo_bdp-83_universal_blu-ray_player/


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## Sonnie (Apr 11, 2006)

They sure like it... then again, who that owns one doesn't?

I did the upgrade yesterday and no more CD skipping. All is well... :T


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Sonnie said:


> I did the upgrade yesterday and no more CD skipping. All is well... :T


Good news Sonnie :T


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## Lordoftherings (Feb 8, 2009)

They're several reviews on the Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-ray Player.

Here's a link with most of all the reviews:
@ http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/blu-ray-BDP-83-Review.aspx

* From what I can count on that link, they're nineteen reviews there! :whew::reading:


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