HTF Special Review: Upcoming Oppo BDP-83 Profile 2.0 Universal Blu-ray Player

First, yes, the Oppo has an internal decoder for all lossless formats, and they can be sent to Amp/Pre-Amp/Receiver via the analog outs.

Yes it is also true for SACD (and DVD-A)

The Oppo supports 5.1, in the audio settings, you can tell it downmix to 5.1 anything that is 7.1.

One disadvantage to this approach is you always have to wait around for the newest firmware revision to be cracked and posted on the Web. For instance, it's been over two weeks since beta firmware 31-0620 was posted on OPPO's site, yet there's still no "region-free" variant.  This may be frustrating to you if you have playback issues that are fixed by the latest firmware release.

There is a DIY hardware mod kit available for a little over $100.  Apparently it requires no soldering, just replacing a cable or two.

Note that I'm completely sidestepping the ethics of such practices :)  Of course OPPO frowns on such after-market mods, but it isn't clear what if anything they would do to "punish" someone for applying them.  And it seems fairly easy to cover your tracks should you need to send in your player for servicing.

The OPPO will play SACD, DVD-A, DolbyTrueHD and DTS Master Audio thru the 7.1 channel analog outs. For a receiver with 5.1 channel in's simply go into the speaker setup menu of the OPPO and set the Back Surrounds to "Off".

I now have had the Oppo BDP-83 for around a week and I must say I am more than happy with almost all facets of this awesome piece of electronics. Although I do have one major gripe with how the Oppo handles Subtitles On/Off. Considering that lots of titles, specially titles from Universal have upto 23 different subtitle languages, it is a major pain and irritant to turn off the subtitle by having to press the subtitle button over 23 times to select OFF. I wish Oppo would change this in a future firmware, so as to allow the Subtitle button to simply switch the subtitle On or Off and leave subtitle language to the default set in the player and to change it they should find some other way of switching subtitle languages. There are many times that I turn on the subtitles to catch something I could not understand audibly and would like to be3 able to turn subtitles back Off without ahving to press a button over 23 times.

Once again Oppo proves how consumer friendly they are. Within days of my complaining, coincidently I am sure, about the one single gripe I had with the BDP-83, ie. the way it handles Subtitle On/Off, they have released the new beta firmware that addresses this issue. The 'pop-up menu' for the subtitle button is a good idea and it makes it a little easier and faster than before to select and turn off the subtitles. But I feel, that this idea needs a little bit more tweaking for it to become truelly usefull. 
 
Consider the following suggestions:
 
1. Within the subtitle 'pop-up menu', the OFF option should always be listed first and should remain fixed at the top, while the different subtitle language options can be scrolled thru.
 
2. Even more importantly, the cursor should always by default be on the 'OFF' option, each time the subtitle 'pop-up menu' is brought up. This will allow the subtitle to be turned off with just 'two' clicks, ie. one click each of the subtitle and ok button. After all, please do keep in mind that most people don't generally switch the subtitles between different languages. Rather, while the language choice remains the same, they switch between the subtitles being On or Off.

Edited by Sanjay Gupta - 8/7/2009 at 06:04 am GMT

Here is a screen grab of what the new audio & subtitle options look like now on the BDP-83.

Fantastic addition for already great player.

hey... thinking of getting this player and i will be using the analog outs.  Has there been any issues or could someone tell me about their use? also will be buying in canada, anyone have experience in buying in canada?

thanks

I am using the 5.1 analog outputs of the Oppo BD-83 and have no problems with it at all. In fact the Oppo analog outputs sound a lot better to me when compared to the analog outputs of the Panasonic DMP-BD55 I was using earlier.

Joe,

Can you please post a screengrab the subtitle menu? Is "Off" an option, hopefully at or near the top of the list? One of the major gripes I (and others) have is that sometimes a BD will have 20+ subtitle options and we have to press the subtitle button 20+ times to turn it off. And god help us if we press it one time too many, because as they say in Toy Story 2, we have to go around the horn again to get to "off".

Here you go Carlo. Yes there is an off option.

Awesome, thanks Joe! Will definitely put this on my short list of things to buy now. Can officially use my PS3 as solely a game player now and will be able to retire both my  Panny RP91 (DVD-A) and my Sony SACD player.

Is there no way to buy one of these in a brick and mortar kind of place? I'm just old fashioned about seeing something expensive in person before I buy it.

Not that I know of, though Amazon is pretty respected and I believe has a return policy. I know I feel as comfortable buying from Amazon as I do from any brick and mortar store.

I know what you mean about being old fashioned, but the Oppo has quite a fan base (for both the products and the company) and most of them buy direct. For those that don't feel comfortable with that there is the Amazon option. But as far as I know that's it (except maybe eBay, but that will probably make you really nervous).

In case there was still any doubt that Oppo is a fantastic company for customer-service, I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox this afternoon and inside was a little envelope from Oppo.  I had no idea what it could be.  So I opened it up and inside were two items along with this note:



Wow!

Yeah, I got one of those packages today.  My first thought was, "are they mailing firmware updates?!" 

 I have heard great things about Oppo's customer service and Amazon does have a return policy. If the item comes damaged or broken, you can ship it back for free and they will ship you a replacement. I'm so tempted to order this blu ray player but I never intended to spend $500 on one!! But for this kind of quality, it is hard to pass up!
Link: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002EEP3MK

Well, in case it's been forgotten (this thread started a long time ago!) the Standard Def upconvert on this player is excellent.   In my casual testing, the player's upconverter is superior to my projector's upconverter (Panasonic AE3000). 

Leo