Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Oppo BDP-83 on the way.

I just got mine partially setup, I haven't had a chance to look at the manual, have to grab the kids from school but will report back a little later. One very positive note so far, it loads and plays very fast.

Peter,

I don't have an Oppo blu ray, but in the audioholics review of the Oppo 983 they discuss some of the differences between it and the PS3.

Link: http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/transports/dvd-players/oppo-dv-983h/

This would give you a good idea of the differences in the upconverting. The Oppo blu ray however will be able to upscale dvd's to 1080p at 24 fps which bypasses the 3:2 pulldown. The PS3 and Oppo 983 didn't have this feature. Although, only the Pioneer plasmas and some projectors can correctly display a 24 fps input without flicker and other issues.

If you are interested in dvd's and blu-ray's from other than the North America then the Oppo has PAL conversion that the PS3 doesn't have. However, to ensure blu ray licensing, Oppo had to lock the player to only play discs from North America. You can get software for your computer to remove the region encoding from the movie and reburn it to a disc so that you could play any movie from throughout the world. Note: most of Europe and other countries have movies on dvd's at 25 or 50 fps, which is PAL, and incompatible without being converted to either 24 or 30 fps.

- Nick

Thanks Nick!

I'll check that out.

My Samsung DLP doesn't seem to have any problem displaying 1080p/24 content.

Same with my Samsung plasma.

After playing around with the BDP-83 for about an hour and 1/2, and doing as close to a side by side comparison as possible to the PS3 and my upconverting HD-XA2, I'll give my initial impressions.

BR playback using Quantum of Solace and the Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark BR edition that was included with the BDP-83, I'll have to give a slight edge to the Oppo, nothing earth shattering but I could see a slight difference with the Oppos PQ being slightly better.

SACD - I played Alison Krauss Union Station. This was a no contest, the Oppo flat blew the PS3 right out of the ballpark, seemed like a larger sound stage and much cleaner sound, Imo it brought the emotion back into the music. Admittedly I've never been that impressed with the PS3's ability with SACD after having previously owned a Denon 3910. But the Oppo is every bit as good if not better than my old Denon.

Standard DVD playback- I used the Extended version of the Two Towers for my comparison. This is the first SD DVD I've ever played on the PS3 since I had kept my HD-XA2 around for that purpose. Again no comparison, while the HD-XA2 has a much better picture than the PS3, the OPPO outdid the XA2 in clarity, sharpness and overall PQ, to be frank I was a little surprised since up until the BDP-83 I hadn't seen anything that rivaled the XA2 in SD PQ.

Load speed. I'll have to give the edge to the PS3 but not by much, the Oppo comes on right away and the movie is ready to go by the time you sit back down, unlike the XA2 that I've been tempted to kick through a wall while waiting for it to load.

Overall, I have to give this player a 10,it does everything I want and more, it also has a ton of tweeking options I haven't even started to play with. Of course in a few months as things seem to go there will be a better and cheaper player on the market, but for me this ones a keeper.

Usually I would agree... but I don't think anyone else besides Denon is even worried about a BR/SACD player, and we all know they're not going to do it CHEAPER... so the OPPO might just have the market cornered in this department anyway.

Thanks for the comparison. Looks like it’s going to be an Oppo for me eventually.

Micah,

I think that the Oppo has already made Denon reconsider its prices already.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/trans...p-2010ci-1610ci

These players still probably don't compete with the Oppo since the Oppo can go head to head with flagship Denon blu ray. But, it is nice to see more realistic Denon prices.


Oh, and I just remembered that there is a link to a beta tester that decided to write a document the size of a phone book about the Oppo blu ray, in case anyone wanted to know anything about it.

http://watershade.net/wmcclain/BDP-83-faq.html#performance

Paging MDrew...

It's very encouraging to read these reviews. But does it stream Netflix?

Rumor is that Oppo may come out with a unit that won't have analog outs/bitstreaming only unit. That would be a killer unit as well.