Oppo to add a lower cost Blu-ray player to its lineup

One of the most well respected Blu-ray player manufacturers out there mentioned on its Twitter feed that it plans to announce a lower cost option in early January 2010. We interpret this to mean that during CES, in a few weeks, that all the details will be revealed. This is certainly good news for Oppo fans, although we really wonder what sacrifices we'll have to make to take advantage of the lower price. After all, it isn't like it's as simple as dropping a few streaming features.

[blackacex22 Posted Dec 22nd 2009 12:23PM]

It'll probably be $299 and be overpriced for the feature set it will have.

Just get a BD390 and be happy!

[kevon27 Posted Dec 23rd 2009 8:39AM]

@blackacex22
You should be slapped silly for saying such a thing. Are you trying to be like Drawbaugh? LG my backside.
Oppo all the way, no compromising.

[hodedofome Posted Dec 22nd 2009 12:56PM]

The current players are way UNDERpriced as compared to similar universal players from Marantz and Denon. $299 for a player with the Anchor Bay chip but no SACD or DVD-Audio isn't a bad deal.

[John H Posted Dec 22nd 2009 12:59PM]

My guess is they'll drop DVD-A/SACD support, 7.1 analog outs (maybe down to 5.1 or none at all), one of the two USB ports, and maybe either or both of the digital coax/optical jacks, leaving HDMI the only way to go for audio. Hell, they could even conceivably drop component and composite outputs for video. I suppose they could even resort to a less solid, plastic construction rather than the aluminum their current model has, but that might be going too far to the point of tarnishing their high-end perception.

I am a very happy BDP-83 owner, and I don't think I'll be buying another BD player until 3D is available, and at that point it would be nice if OPPO added Netflix streaming, but it's not something I particuarly miss at the moment.

[FabDex Posted Dec 23rd 2009 8:48PM]

@John H

Yeah, I also think SACD and DVD-A will be absent.Component will still be there (I think) and a plastic front with light metal casing will wrap up the thing.

And I, too, will hold on to my BDP-83 for a while.

[TRT Posted Dec 22nd 2009 2:34PM]

Most likely, the analogue outputs will be eliminated with a one to two hundred dollar drop in price. I can't see Oppo reducing the level of fit and finish. If you look at their previous offerings when they had several levels of DVD and universal players, the quality of the chassis was the same. They added a model with a higher end analog feature set; I think a cheaper priced model will most likely eliminate the analog outputs.

[Wiseblood Posted Dec 22nd 2009 10:02PM]

Instead of the Anchor Bay chip the upscaling will probably be based off a Mediatek chip just like their previous lower cost upscaling DVD players.

[John H Posted Dec 23rd 2009 9:36AM]

@Wiseblood

I doubt they'd go back to Mediatek, seeing as OPPO is known for the quality (fit/finish and more importantly A/V) of its players. I think a cut in feature set is much more likely, and I don't remember which model last used a MediaTek chip. I know the 983H used Anchor Bay, the 981 used Faroudja, and I can't remember that the 980 had but I don't think it was Anchor Bay. Using a different chip would also be additional development cost in terms of firmware, optimizations, etc, which wouldn't be prudent for making a budget player unless they were confident they could more than offset that with profits from increased sales, which I doubt considering OPPO's primary market is the enthusiast segment.

I think ditching the analog outs will be at least a major part of what happens. Considering their BDP-83 Special Edition carries a $400 premium solely for improved analog circuitry and a better power supply, it seems they could eliminate a lot of cost by removing that componentry entirely. And it would make sense because most people who would buy a budget player probably wouldn't be using analog outs anyway; they'd either have an HDMI receiver or would be content to use digital coax/optical because they don't listen to SACD/DVD-A and don't have speakers that would allow them to hear the difference between the new codecs and legacy ones -- although CNET couldn't tell a difference between the new and the old codecs when they went to audition them at Dolby and DTS' own labs, but I digress.