OPPO BDP-83 universal Blu-ray player first impressions
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 23rd 2009 10:25AM
posted Mar 23rd 2009 10:25AM
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- The display panel on the front of the player was perfect for us; the letters were large enough to see pertinent information from the sofa, while the litany of smaller icons (BD, SACD, audio soundtrack type, etc.) let you know exactly what was going on up close. If we had to nitpick, we'd say the brightness level was a bit high, as it definitely glowed more than we wanted when all the lights were out. Maybe an intelligent sensor for dimming when the movie starts, OPPO?
- We were thoroughly impressed with the bundled remote. Sure, it's dead simple, but it's great for those not willing to mess with a universal alternative. The backlit buttons were easy to see, and the remote itself was comfortable to hold.
- Blu-ray Disc loading time was downright astounding. After the unit was powered up and setup, we popped in a BD copy of The Dark Knight. Literally 3 to 4 seconds later, we were watching an introduction to the film. We even tried it again to make sure our eyes weren't deceiving us, but yet again it managed to dive right into the film in a matter of seconds. Let's put it this way -- when you walk up to pop the BD in, it'll probably be playing by the time you get your rear back to the couch. Also, startup took only a few seconds; it was quick enough that we didn't even bother clocking it, and that's saying something.
- The user interface within the film was also admirable. The pop-up scrub bar let us see exactly where we were, and the pop-up menus were beautifully implemented.
- As for Blu-ray Disc playback? Drop-dead gorgeous. Granted, testing with The Dark Knight helps, but seriously, we watched intently for any reason to harsh on the player's playback abilities, and we came away empty-handed. The visuals were astounding, and the audio was equally impressive.
- Speaking of audio, the BDP-83 handled high-res audio decoding like a champ, and while we weren't able to personally test the analog surround output of SACD, the ports are definitely there. And given just how well it performed with a BD, we have no reason to believe things will be any less wonderful with SACD (and in the future, DVD-Audio).
- The bottom line? We can't believe that this isn't a finished product. We tried hard to find any beta jitters, and frankly, we couldn't. OPPO has a true winner on its hands here, and we're quite excited for this thing to start shipping en masse to those who need access to every major high-def / high-res format (save for HD DVD, sadly) in a single box.
- Again, the final MSRP has yet to be nailed down, but judging by what we've seen here, OPPO can't be far out from putting the finishing touches on this and marking it gold. If you're learning towards buying a new BD player, we can't help but ask you to wait -- particularly if you value the ability to play back SACD and DVD-Audio discs.
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*salivates*
This looks wonderful. If the DVD functionality in this player can be region hacked and can handle PAL/NTSC conversion, I will buy this player the moment it comes out.
I don't care about region hacking for BluRay discs (yet), but I've so got many DVDs from other regions that it would be a deal breaker. That's why I love my DV-981h so much :)
It's presumably hardware locked.
Oppo DVD players, while hardware locked, were widely known to be unlockable through a service menu configuration change.
This one, at least from all the pre-release talk at the AVS Forums, can't be unlocked, which upset some people obviously, since the rest of the Oppo players can. You'll have to look elsewhere for that feature.
Yes, this thing can play both NTSC and PAL.
Man that scrub bar is hideous, do all the overlays look that cheesy?
I hear you, Ben. You, without question, should wait and purchase the (hasn't been announced, yet) Mark Levinson, McIntosh or Classe' Universal Player. It may run you around thirty geez, but you won't be strapped with cheesy scrub bars and hideous looking overlays. When only the best will do, rag on anything less, roll your eyes and keep on truckin'.
Probably....but does it do internal decoding to PCM of Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio?
It does everything under the sun save for HD-DVD.
Pretty sure that was on the spec list, and this player is on my short list of desired purchases!!
At least it has a scrub bar! My Panny BD-10AK does not have ANY way to figure out how much is left in a movie. There is a info scrub bar, but it does not have the times, just a temp bar. Drives me nuts.
It sounds like a great player that a lot of people have been waiting for. The real question:
Will my HD DVR universal remote from Time Warner control this thing? :)
I am cheap, so it would be nice if the price was also.
Same Here!
Here ya' go, lysaof. I couldn't find one any cheaper.
http://www.target.com/Curtis-Mathes-Blu-ray-Disc-Player/dp/B001COGXMC/qid=1237833257/ref=br_1_1/178-3924831-4996531?ie=UTF8&node=240684011&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1
Trouble is I can't seem to talk myself into this when I already own a PS3. Even if I needed a second blu-ray player, the PS3's disadvantages can't seem to outweigh the fact that it offers so much more to go along with its rock-solid blu-ray playback.
Advantages over the PS3
- Does DVD-A
- Bitstreams codecs
- Has IR for universal remotes (i.e. harmony)
- Faster access to the Blu-Ray movie
- Better user interface
- Lower power consumption
- Smaller
- Quieter
- DVD upscaling will be marginally better
Disadvantages compared to PS3
- Probably will be more expensive on release
- Cannot be used as a media server
- Cannot play games
- No hard-drive for media storage
- No online video store
I have a receiver that decodes hi-res codecs, is bit-streaming THAT much better compared to PCM transcoding?
You'll also wear out your PS3 faster that way, so good luck with that.
I own one of the original PS3s with built-in PS2 hardware, and I have no desire to try to replace it when the drive goes, so I'm going to preserve that drive for as long as humanly possible. Besides, as decent as the PS3 is with upconverting DVDs, this player is better.
The Oppo does have a 1gb hard-drive. Load times and price are probably the same. Customer service for the Oppo far and away exceeds that of Sony. You are correct with the other data.
..also, for those with legacy receivers the Oppo does have 7.1 analog outputs.
Yes, it supports 7.1 analog outputs. The picture on OPPO website shows them.
@blackacex2 -
" have a receiver that decodes hi-res codecs, is bit-streaming THAT much better compared to PCM transcoding?"
No difference except that w/ PCM transcoding, you can get the audio portion of the usually inane and superfluous extra audio content. Many people confuse decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA with digital to analogue conversion and believe incorrectly that the receiver is better at decoding to PCM than the player because they think the receiver has better digital to analogue converters. Your receiver may well have better DA converters, but that has nothing to do with decoding from Dolby or DTS to PCM.
If you send your receiver a PCM signal, it is still doing the Digital to Analogue conversion.
You really believe that all TrueHD and DTS-HD decoders are created equal?
Ben:
Yes. They have to be licensed and tested, plus the decoding algorithm is *by definition* lossless. If something different was coming out of the decoder in this player versus what went in, it wouldn't get licensed. Simple. For the lossy codecs, maybe there's a little wiggle room, but with lossless, it either is or isn't, there's no room for "close".
This is awesome.....Oppo once again shows who they really are.
So which one to choose?
Oppo Blu-Ray plus Nintendo Wii?
OR
PS3?
I already have the Wii and PS3, but will also now add this Oppo to the mix.
Wish it had Wi-Fi. Netflix streaming on this would seal the deal for me.
A blu-ray player with with built in pal to ntsc converter. Oh joy, rapture. This is what I've been waiting for. Kind of a bummer that its not multi region too but so I'll have to keep ripping all of my pal dvd's to to remove the regional coding. Unless the final firmware will let you unlock the regions. If not there will be region free blu-rays in the near future I'm sure.
They failed to find/mention that the front display can be dimmed all the way to 'off'.
Does anyone know the amount of time from power on to first preview of a "normal" blu-ray? This would include boot time plus load time
Anybody know if this machine does DIVX/XVID like may OPPOs do? It would be a deal breaker for me if it didn't.
no "region defeat" ability? egad! that's why i was waiting for this player, so I could replace the Oppo 983 Upscaling DVD player with a blu-ray player... sad news indeed.
I'll wait with fingers crossed. (When I called Oppo to order a the 983, customer services tells me, "..the player is only region 1, but 'you could find ways to defeat the region and make it universal by other online websites.' )
If not, I'll see no need to yet replace my Samsung Duo for the main player as I have quite a huge collection of HD-DVD as well.
so sad...
Are they still manufacturing HD-DVD's? I thought not.
If not, I assume that they'll eventually be released as Blue Ray, yes?
Well, they don't manufacture them, but I still have way more red than blue...and way more DVDs than either, naturally. To be fair, I just got a cheapo BD player.
I'm half tempted to try to find an HD-DVD drive so I can rip/transcode. I might want to watch Bourne Identity again someday, but I have no intention of buying it on BD when I have a decent copy already.
i owned a oppo 981hd player. was amazing at upconverting and pretty much everything. alas i sold it when i got my ps3. kinda was nopoint in owning the oppo after that.
"Blu-ray Disc loading time was downright astounding. After the unit was powered up and setup, we popped in a BD copy of The Dark Knight. Literally 3 to 4 seconds later, we were watching an introduction to the film. We even tried it again to make sure "
Ummm ... that's either highly illegal operation, misobservation, or flat out misrepresentation.
Dark Knight has any number of segments before the movie starts: An initial load, a DRM check, an FBI screen, a WB Home Video logo, a PG-13 notice, another DRM/Java section, and finally the film starts. No way that happens in 4 seconds.
Skipping the FBI notice, the WHV logo and the MPPA rating, not to mention the DRM, would be way illegal. Is this Oppo demo set up to fool reviewers or something?
"Skipping the FBI notice, the WHV logo and the MPPA rating, not to mention the DRM, would be way illegal."
I hear you. I've bugged my representatives about no-skip being ILLEGAL. Once money changes hands, it's my player. Once money changes hands, it SHOULD be my copy of a movie. If I get a movie legally, it's technically ILLEGAL to skip the FBI warnings. If, however, I STEAL the movie online, I DON'T have to watch the warning.
Man somebody needs to learn how to use a camera. The pictures of the unit look terible (not just the extreme yellow white balance).
I signed up to be one of the early purchasers of this player. I confess that I bought my first and only, Philips BluRay from Target, at Christmas time and found it to be OK. Of course, I was an early adopter of the extinct, Toshiba HD-DVD player, also. Anyway, the Philips player has performed fairly well and the other annoyances (slow loading, etc) that people complain about seem tolerable - who cares how long it takes to load the disk (within reason)? Having said all of that, the BDP-83 is incredible - got mine a week or so ago. The video, even on standard DVDs is amazing. I have not used all the features, yet, and I am not the most critical or demanding customer - I say Oppo has a winner, here! Highly recommended!
Until they are shipped region free, or can be made region free, I wont be buying Oppo,
Shame, because I love my Oppo DVD