PLAYBACK 22: Oppo Digital BDP-83 Blu-ray/Universal Player
The Biggest Bargain in Home Theater
Home Theater/Multichannel Audio
- PLAYBACK 22: Acoustic Energy Radiance 5.1-Channel Speaker System
- PLAYBACK 22: Marantz IS301 Wireless Dock for iPod
- PLAYBACK 22: Oppo Digital BDP-83 Blu-ray/Universal Player
TV / Displays
Two-Channel Audio
Source: Playback
Music CDs
To sum up the Oppo’s sound on CDs in two words, I would say it sound “soulful” and “expressive.” To explain what I mean, let me draw some examples from a well-recorded acoustic blues album I’ve enjoyed a lot of late.
Blues artist Eric Bibb’s Get Onboard [Telarc] contains a number of tracks that feature simple yet deeply moving arrangements that showcase Bibb’s rich, mellow voice. One such track is “God’s Kingdom”, which has the feel of an old spiritual. Instrumentation and vocals are simple: Bibb’s tremolo guitar; drums, tambourine, and organ played by Glen Scott, and sparse backing vocal contributed by Glen Scott and Nikki Leonti. The simplicity of the arrangement, of course, means each sonic element is exposed and must stand on its own.
The Oppo does a great job in capturing the taut yet deep “thump” of Scott’s bass drum, the crisp “snap” of his snare drum rimshots, and the gentle sparkle of his high hats opening and closing. Bibb’s guitar sets the rhythm for the song, but his richly sculpted voice—presented front and center—carries its melody and draws most of our attention. I was impressed by the way the Oppo captured the tonal richness and almost sculptural three-dimensionality of Bibb’s voice and by the tight, focused way in which the player positioned him at the center of the soundstage (some players render Bibb’s voice more diffusely, which is much less emotionally engaging). Finally, on moments where the backing vocalists join Bibb, I noted that the Oppo presented them at equally precise stage locations, placing them to Bibb’s side and further back. One of the Oppo’s strengths is its ability to present layers of soundstage depth with precision. Perhaps the only thing missing is that elusive sense of high-frequency “air” surrounding the instruments and performers. But to get those kinds of sonic refinement, I suspect you’ll need to invest in a far more costly player.
High Resolution Music Formats
Unlike many universal players I’ve heard, the BDP-83 does an equally good job with high-resolution DVD-Audio and SACD materials. What is more, the Oppo offers enough detail and definition to show you why high-res disc formats are worthwhile in the first place. Let me illustrate this point by describing the Oppo’s performance on a strikingly well recorded jazz SACD disc I’ve recently added to my rotation.
Jen Chapin’s reVisions [Chesky, SACD] offers imaginative jazz treatments of songs created by Stevie Wonder and features performances by a trio comprised Chapin, who supplies vocal, Stephen Crump on acoustic bass, and Chris Cheek, who plays saxophones. You might think it would difficult for such a minimalist ensemble to capture the multi-layered feel of Wonder’s often elaborate arrangements, but in fact the trio does a fabulous job—making the flow of Wonder’s individual musical lines stand out with unexpected power and lucidity.
Almost from the moment you hit the Play button on the Oppo with this disc sounds terrific, and there is no better example than the opening track: Wonder’s humorous yet biting “You Haven’t Done Nothin’.”On the right side of the stage, Crump jumps in with a fiery, syncopated bass line accentuated with percussive hand slaps to the body of the bass. On stage left, Cheek contributes incisive, sardonic comments carried by the deep, plunging voice of his baritone sax. At center stage, but standing a bit behind her sax and bass players, is Chapin, whose feisty and occasionally sardonic voice flirts with edginess (yet never crosses that line), delivering swooping inflections that drive home the point of a lyric with the force of a whip-crack.
The Oppo’s presentation proved impressive in several ways. First, its soundstaging was at once precise and almost shockingly holographic. The performers appear at the exact locations I’ve described, which turn out to be faithful to the recorded event (Chesky actually supplies a stage “floorplan” diagram in the liner notes, so you can compare what you’re hearing to the actual locations of the performers). Next, the timbres of the bass and sax were spot on and highly detailed. You can hear the mouthpiece action and reed of Cheek’s sax and the sheer physical size and deep, woody tonality of Crump’s bass. But the Oppo focuses our attention Chapin’s voice, presenting each vocal inflection, swoop, and point of emphasis with effortless solidity and clarity, creating the illusion that Chapin is performing from just a few feet away from us. This kind of sonic realism shows the Oppo at its best and is, quite frankly, a big part of its appeal.
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Comments
I have been a loyal Oppo owner for several years now. I really love my current player (DV-981HD), and I was looking forward to purchasing the BDP-83 shortly. However, I have never agreed with the region-coding policy of DVDs (and now BluRays), and I refuse to buy any DVD player/recorder that can't be made region-free/all-region. I suspect that I am not the only Oppo owner who feels this way. If Oppo really has changed their region-coding policy, and have region-locked the BDP-83 (with no secret menu to change it), then I will not be purchasing the BDP-83, after all. This region-locking decision by Oppo could lose them many previously loyal customers. I strongly suggest to them that they re-think it.
Again, this is not an Oppo decision, but BDA decision. A blu-ray player in the US can not be region free out of the box. The DVD association or whatever it is called didn't have this restriction on manufacturers.
It's not OPPO that's causing the region-coding restrictions, it's the licensing policy for BluRay. The severe licensing complexities for BluRay is the reason Steve Jobs claims that there hasn't been BluRay on a Mac yet, although it's rumored than the next iMacs will have it. There's nothing OPPO can do about it. And frankly, unless one is buying foreign movies that aren't released in this country, I don't see why it's an issue.
And as for those complaining about the price, remember that OPPO comes with the test disc (worth about $25) and a very heavy duty 6' HDMI cable (probably also worth $25, although they sell it separately for $10). So that's really $35 to $50 off the player price, which brings it down to $450 to $465. Considering all that it does at the quality level that it does it, I think it's a bargain.
People should stop complaining about price. There are several (5 - 10 blu-ray players) that cost more than the Oppo. Some are significantly more. If the $499.00 price tag is not in your wheel house then don't buy it. There are several very capable blu-ray transports in the sub $499.00 range. Pick one!
Willie
It's about time somebody wrote this. Well, there ya' go!
Willie (not verified) -- Sat, 08/15/2009 - 19:36
People should stop complaining about price. There are several (5 - 10 blu-ray players) that cost more than the Oppo. Some are significantly more. If the $499.00 price tag is not in your wheel house then don't buy it. There are several very capable blu-ray transports in the sub $499.00 range. Pick one!
Willie
Previous post was a response to the above statement.
Regarding fan noise of a PS3, I find fan noise to be highly dependent on the specific fan in the device. That is, you could take a thousand of the same model fans from the same manufacturer, test each one, and find that audible noise would vary considerably. (I suspect it has to do with the fan blades warping slightly, but I don't know for sure.) So if you've got a loud fan, just go down to your local computer superstore and buy a replacement or two.
Mr. Chris Martens,
I am surprised that you didn't test or mention anything about the SPDIF Digital output of the Oppo BDP83 player to be used as a CD Transport. Those who already have a high end DAC would benifit from this information. Allan Taffel in his 2009 Golden ear award says that the Bryston DAC makes even a budget CD Transport sound near State of Art. How does the BDP83 sound as a CD transport in Comparizon to state of art or anything else for that matter in the CD Transport catagory. A followup to your review regarding this would be of great help. Also those who are looking into investing in a music server would benifit greatly by not wasting $3000 to $5000 on a CD transport right now when the oppo can get near that sound quality. Music servers are starting to take off but people still need CD Transports. Please make some comments regarding this.
Sam. The oppo unit uses the exact same DAC's that are found in the $3,000+ Bryston DAC!
thezone,
And that means???? In your view the Oppo sounds the same as the BCD1 or BDA 1 Brystons? i.e. The brystons are using the same engine under the hood with a mark up price? In that case I should buy a Toyota Corolla instead of Lexus IS350 because they both use toyota engines. Also your argument implies that the sound quality difference would be dependent on the CD-Transport since both bryston and oppo have the same DAC according to you. I have heard/read otherwise i.e. that most players have similar quality transports but different performing DAC's which are the primary difference in players. If you have compared both the oppo BDP83 and Bryston, share your thoughts with us on that. I am not an expert at this......so if others can put their 2 words in this regarding Bryston Vs Oppo BDP83 it would be good to know. Also how DAC's Vs. Transports compare in different players.
I had not the opportunity to compare OPPO BDP-83 player versus Briston player, however I can assure the BDP-83 equals and in some aspect exceeds the performance of players from Krell, JeffRowland, Denon, Marantz . Greetings.
Gordon Lilley: Is the Anthem D2 that you mention the original version or D2v2 released earlier this year?
Thanks,
Craig N.
I've had my '83 for about 3 weeks now and there is no comparison between it and my old Sony BDP-S350. DVD and CD playback, while not as good as my Marantz DV-9600, is waaay better than the Sony. Load times are about half that of the Sony. Having become accustom to the sound of the Marantz for SACD, DVD-A, and CD playback, I'm not convinced that the Oppo is in the same league. I have not sampled the analog connections of the Oppo so my impressions are based on the HDMI connection. I'll be reconfiguring the inputs on my Marantz AV8003 to make use of the Oppo's 2-channel analog output for comparisons later this week. The DV-9600 is connected to the controller via all analog RCA cables so I'll be able to make a more equitable comparison of the two players D/A converters. Apparently, at least for my taste, the DV-9600 has better DACs than the AV8003 as I seem to prefer the sound of the analog connections over that of the digital inputs.
My only real complaint with the Oppo is the lack of information concerning the use of the USB ports for playing media files. I've so far been unable to find information about which audio formats are compatible. I've tried both FLAC and WAV formats on a USB thumb drive without any success. I'm going to be EXTREMELY disappointed if I discover that only MP3 is supported as I'd rather listen to fingernails on a chalk board. I'm currently reformatting my 250GB USB hardrive with 2 partitions. One in FAT32 and the other FAT16. By default, Vista formatted the drive in exFAT which the Oppo didn't seem to recognize. I'm hoping that splitting the drive into smaller partitions (259GB is too large for FAT16/32 formatting) will succeed in having the Oppo at least read the directory structure. If anyone has experience in getting audio files to play using a USB hard drive I would really appreciate some info on how you did it. But only if you were able to play uncompressed files. Any success in getting HDtracks 96/24 downloads to play would be especially appreciated.
Anyone that wants to learn more about the Oppo BDP-83, should go to the www.avsforum.com here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1124287&page=612
Thread called: Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only]
You can also download the entire up to date Oppo manual from their website. I doubt this review page will get you much help, good luck.
In the past, most player manufacturers went to some lengths to tout all the formats they supported. Just to appear comprehensively inclusive, they'd plaster the front of the box with all sorts of little logos for formats that most people don't use. Nowadays? Not so much, apparently. I've looked at the Oppo site and it includes language in the specs that says "...other audio/video/picture files on recorded discs...can be played back on the BDP-83. " What does that mean? The reason I find myself consistently owning the cheapest player available from Walmart in addition to my main player is that I can use them for JPGs and MP3s burned to CD-Rs as well as VCDs. Does anybody know if this player supports those and other computer-centric media formats?
I disagreement regarding Martens notes in “Sonic Character”. I have had the opportunity of making a direct comparison with dedicated SACD high end players exceeding NAD Masters Series 55 universal player, and OPPO BDP-83 had matched them and in some cases show slightly best performance than this players seven times the BDP-83 value (deeper and smooth bass, open and transparent midrange and treble, and 3D sound imaging) . Hard to admit that this true “David” can overcome the “Goliaths”. Anyway it’s a very good review of this Nº 1 Blu Ray Universal Player.
I just updated one element in the SPECS & PRICING section of my Oppo BDP-83 review.
I mistakenly indicated that the BDP-83 provided both onboard decoder and bitstream support for Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES. As it turns out, the player provides bitstream support only for these formats; there are no onboard Dolby Digital EX or DTS-ES decoders.
Best,
Chris Martens
Chris Martens
Editor, Avguide.com/Playback/The Perfect Vision
Chris;
Thanks for your review of the new Oppo. Can you please clarify what the audio set up was for your listening tests of standard CD's. Was all your audio being passed thru the Rotel via HDMI or did you also use analog cables for comparison ?
If I ordered from Oppo directly, I have to pay the sales tax (9.25%) as well as $19 for shipping. Together that would be $65.16 on top of the $499. Then the cost of the player for me would be $564.16. 13% more money.
I found when ordering from Amazon, I got free shipping as well as no sales tax. I emailed Oppo to ask what the difference is, if any, between the units sold at Amazon or Oppo. They replied that there is pretty much no difference. The firmware and hardware are identical. Thus I saved $65.16. Why is this important? Because I have more money to buy media to play. Geez!
Since this is my first Blu-ray/Univeral player, having people telling me to stop complaining about the price and just buy it, i.m.h.o., is a ridiculous and mean spirted comment. That attitude is just moronic. I don't just go out and buy it. I alway research and review my purchases very carefully.
I JUST WANTED TO ADD MY 2 CENTS.THE OPPO IS A GREAT PLAYER,BUT NOT WITHOUT FAULT. I RESEARCHED IT AND READ ALL THE REVIEWS. BEING A LOYAL DENON FAN I THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE TO WAIT FOR THEIR ULTRA HIGH END UNIVERSAL PLAYER (ALTHOUGH I DREADED HAVING TO DROP THAT MUCH MONEY!) I SOLD MY DENON DVD-3910 UNIVERSAL PLAYER ON EBAY,AND ORDERED THE OPPO. ONLY COMPLAINT IS THAT WHEN NAVIGATING THE NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES,GOING DIRECTLY TO A SONG TOOK FOREVER (LITERALLY 4 TO 5 MINUTES!). I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THE PLAYER WAS LOCKED UP. AFTER GOING UPSTAIRS TO THE COMPUTER TO FIND OPPO'S CUSTOMER SERVICE PHONE NUMBER, I CAME BACK TO FIND IT PLAYING THE REQUESTED SONG. MY PS3 DID THE SAME FUNCTION IN LESS THAN 30 SECONDS. I HAVEN'T HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY OTHER BLU RAY,BUT I'M KEEPING THE PS3 AROUND FOR AWHILE JUST IN CASE.
I have several DVD players high end and low end and I still favor my oppo 971 over any other player I have including my $800 denon. The great thing about Oppo is they do firmware updates via ISO file that you can download and burn to cd and update the player yourself. Oppo comes as close to any company has ever done to perfect the first time, but when a problem is discovered they fix it. Its ashame the mainstream public isn't really familiar with Oppo because they are truly Killers to all companies in the DVD arena. I was waiting to by blue ray from oppo, but I got impatient and bought the sony 550.
In my experience, no manufacturer, regardless of product, comes close to Oppo's technical service support and follow-up. Their desire to improve on already excellent units, via firmware updates, proves that. It was also recently announced that they were sending out, unannounced, to their owners an audio test disc and filter to pair with the "Spears and Munsil" video calibration disc that was already "included" in the original package! I am not aware of any other company that has ever provided these kind of extras, regardless of price!
Incidentally, for those that find it necessary to spend at least another $3-4000 for a player that will give one a"little" better analog sound, wouldn't it make more sense to buy the Oppo, take the difference and upgrade your speakers and/or electronics?
Based not only on this review, but on the many other positive reviews I have seen of this player, I decided to take the plunge. Despite being the owner of not one but two PS3s (one is SACD-equipped but is not current being used in that capacity), I am over Sony's blatant disregard for their customers and the fact that their firmware updates flat out break their machines. The PS3 that I have in my HT rooms was running perfectly for a long time, no problems at all and then one day, post-firmware update (done via USB jump drive), it will not resume from PAUSE on the majority of my Blu-rays. In order to finsih the movie, I have to eject the disc, power down using the rocker switch on the back, turn the unit on via the rocker switch, soft-power it on, reinsert the disc and determine where I left off. After reading up on this issue, I went into the service menu and discovered that I mysteriously had a corrupt file system. OK, I was able to rebuild it and then it began working normally again. After several movie sessions, it began glitching again. I've always been an anti-convergence guy in the sense that I do not want "computers" per se in my HT. The PS3 caused me to rethink that strategy based on the BR capability as well as the gaming system. Well, I'm over that now. The Oppo will (for now) replace my trusty Denon 2910 (formery universal) player for DVD-A and SACD and, depending on how fed up I get with my PS3 in my HT room, possibly BR. I'm really looking forward to hearing how the Oppo sounds sending DSD signals via HDMI to my Integra DTC 9.8 pre/pro because the Integra, while a great piece, loses a bit of the "air" over the analog connections thatI was used to hearing via my old Rotel RSP-1066 pre/pro.
I picked up my Oppo BDP-83 for a flat $499 when ordered from Amazon. Save your money (sales tax in CA ~10%) and free shipping from Amazon. I saved over $65.
The upconversion of video DVDs is excellent. It is quite shocking how well it upconverts DVD material to 1080p. I was watching iRobot and Hoodwinked on DVD and was very surprised at the total lack of jaggies, awesome color saturations levels, and excellent detail reproduction. Fine background details normally lost with upconverting players are clearly defined and seen. For a while I was debating whether I should keep my old DVDs. This Oppo unit has given them a new life.
Audio CD playback is excellent. This unit is replacing my old Marantz CD-67SE and NAD C542 CD players. I use the optical toslink out of the Oppo into my Musical Fidelity V-DAC. I did some comparisons and the onboard DAC sounds just as good as the MF V-DAC, just slightly less gain from the Oppo stereo outputs vs. MF V-DAC outputs.
The money I saved by ordering from Amazon is now directed toward buying Bluray disks. Any one have any recommendations in terms of awesome quality? I have the 2001 bluray, but it doesn't seem that great.
I like your objective review... tempting me to seriously consider the Oppo!
Since you mentioned 2001, I wanted to say a movie that old is unlikely to add the WOW factor on BluRay given the time and technology. Newer films would be a lot better in that aspect. I watched Iron Man and Dark Knight when I setup my BluRay player first time and was just blown away. I recently watched Benjamin Button and that was very impressive as well...
Based on your movie watching preferences, you could find some great reccomendations on Blu-Ray.com or AVS Forum. I wasn't very impressed with 2001 or Clockwork Orange either and know where you are coming from...
I think you forget to mentioned one extra feature that I found very useful,. If you like to output your IPOD to an external DAC and play your IPOD music through your high end sound system. Now you can simply connect your IPOD to the USB input of your BDP-83 via the IPOD cable. That will bypass the DAC in your IPOD and use the BDP-83 internal DAC to decode the sound. Or better yet, output your BDP_83 to a high-end external DAC and you can sit back and enjoy some nice music. Imagine the iTransport costs $399.00 and the BDP-83 $499.00, it sure sounds like a steal.
Is the digital transport of files from the iPod documented somewhere? That'd be a nice bonus if that is really the case! May be time to sell my Wadia...
Straight from Oppo's mouth:
Data which has been transferred to your iPod/Phone using iTunes will not work. You may be able to access data if you have jailbroken these devices, but it is not a guarantee as each generation of iPod/Phone uses different protection schemes.
Best Regards,
Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
Chris,
Do you think my Oppo BDP-83 would benefit by using your recently reviewed Musical Fidelity's V-DAC for two-channel Redbook listening?
Thanks for the input,
Tom
Would be nice to put a photo of the back panel. With so many types of cables needed, how about a photo of the rear?
Would be nice to put a photo of the back panel. With so many types of cables needed, how about a photo of the rear?
There is a photo of the back panel right at the top of this page...
I lived overseas for 3-1/2 years and have hundreds of Region 4 (PAL) DVDs that I legitimately purchased. They are worthless without things being region free. Without a region code unlocking, I won't be buying this OPPO. I have an OPPO that I bought last XMAS and it work's wonderfully with all the DVDs that I have.
The region encoding is ridiculous.
I agree with the person who says they won't be buying - I won't either until it can be made region free and I can play all of the disks that I have legally purchased!
There is an older firmware that you can find on the web for the BDP-83 that will make it region free for DVD playback.
Oppo should do a firmware update that will allow the BDP-83 to play DVDs region free by entering a code via remote, but still keep the Blu-ray region locked.
That way they can get by the rules established by the Bluray group which makes them sell the BDP-83 this way.
Most people have foreign DVDs that they wish to view, not foreign Blurays.
try google oppo bdp code free and you will will get it free...
My friend loaned me 3 disks, 2 were Blu-ray writables, the 3rd was a Blu-ray rewritable. All three disks were written using the UDF 2.5 format. The BD-R disks played fine. However, the BD-RE (Blu-ray rewritable) would not play. It would not display the file listing or file names.
This is very worrying. Stereophile reviewed the same BDP-83 machine and stated that it WOULDN'T play SACDs or DVD-Audio discs( I presume the non-hybrid variety, since most universal players only play the CD section of a hybrid disc, thus giving an inferior sound). How are buyers supposed to make a decision when basic functions are confused or not deliniated accurately comparing review with review?
Kris, the BDP83 will play SACD and DVDAs just fine. I have Stereo-only SACDs & hybrids and and have never had a problem.
It's possible the Stereophile review unit wasn't up to date on its firmware and they should have noted that in their review. But the latest and greatest firmware releases allow for full, advertised functionality.
<<Deleted. Duplicate Post.>>
I think you misapprehended what was said. The BDP-83 always played these media but with some quirks in the initial release. AFAIK, all those concerns have been resolved with the newer firmware updates.
Kal
Kris,
During my tests the Oppo successfully played SACD (both hybrid and SACD-only discs) and DVD-Audio material without any problems at all. What is more, it can also directly output both DSD bitstreams and high-res PCM bitstreams via HDMI, provided your electronics can handle them.
I suspect that tests showing that SACD/DVD-Audio functions did not work were based on BD-83 units that still had very early revision-level firmware (i.e., they were essentially alpha-test units). So far as I know, Oppo asked all A/V journalists to hold off on reviewing the BD-83 until production firmware had been finalized, and I honored their request. Actually, holding off on publishing my review gave me some very useful insights into how Oppo refines its products (I got to see how Oppo adds functions over time and resolves minor performance glitches while moving its designs toward final production release).
Again, let me assure you that the player does handle SACD and DVD-Audio material, and not just as CD resolution levels.
Chris Martens
Editor, Avguide.com/Playback/The Perfect Vision
Oppo does a lot of OEM business, also strengthen & speeding their R&D time, and affording it to sell their products at amazing consumer pricing — until they go under for lack of profit.
Asian manufacturers like them, Vizo comes to mind, need to grab huge market share quickly, to make up for their slender profit margins. Oppo did another smart thing in recently sending dozens of their newest, cheapest universal player to every virtually member of the media — and have reaped much good press from this.
For many of the A/V press, the cost of a unit is paramount [for their readers — and Vizio scored a bulls eye in the media with this move. But will they be in business two years from now? .......not that I want to knock them
I am not sure why Chris Martens the writer of this review kept saying the Oppo 83 will no internally decode Dolby True HD & DTS Master Audio but if one goes to the Oppo site they will clearly see that the specs state it does internally decode all the newest digital formats.
RB1,
It's important to read my clarifications carefully and with an eye for detail. What I said in my clarification statement was, "there are no onboard Dolby Digital EX or DTS-ES decoders." I issued this statement at the request of Oppo's Jason Liao. When Jason wrote to me about my original review, he had this to say.
"Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES are mentioned (in the review) as supported decoding formats. The BDP-83 unfortunately does not support decoding of these two formats, only bitstreaming."
Fair enough?
Of course the BD-83 will decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks and my review said as much in several places. Note that the "FEATURES" section of my review specifically lists the following attributes:
"Audio Features:
Best,
Chris Martens
Chris Martens
Editor, Avguide.com/Playback/The Perfect Vision
I just upgraded my BDP-83 last night. I tried doing it via network, but it was too slow. I downloaded the latest firmware via computer, extracted the zip to a USB thumb drive and upgraded last night. I haven't tested it out yet.
Release date: September 30, 2009.
Main Version: BDP83-40-0925
Loader Version: BE2600 or BT0300
Sub Version: MCU83-24-0630
Release Notes:
Comparing to the previous official release version BDP83-31-0620, the major changes included in this version are:
1.) Blu-ray Disc compatibility improvement, especially for certain titles such as "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", "Lie to Me", "Dollhouse Season 1", "12 Rounds" and "The Haunting in Connecticut".
2.) Additional "Deep Color" options utilizing dithering. If the display does not support 36-bit deep color, dithering 36-bit to 30-bit or 24-bit may produce an image that is visually smoother than rounding 36-bit to 30- or 24-bit.
3.) Improved precision for color space conversion.
4.) Improved up-conversion for MKV files that have a picture size smaller than 1280x720 with 24fps frame rate.
5.) Improvement for DVD-A disc compatibility. The specific titles targeted include "Beck: Sea Change" and DVD-A discs released in Japan by JVC.
6.) Improvement for DVD navigation.
7.) Improvement for compatibility with Denon receivers that only acquire 2ch DSD signal upon initial playback of a SACD multi-channel disc.
8.) Improvement for compatibility with receivers that show "no signal" but play audio when a CD is played using HDMI bitstream output mode.
9.) Fix for the issue of subtitle being cut off when playing a PAL DVD.
10.) New pop-up user interface for audio and subtitle selection.
11.) Improved GOTO function for music file playback. The GOTO function now allows the user to jump to a certain time point within a music file.
12.) Other general disc compatibility and performance improvements. The specific titles targeted include the CD "The Saturday Nite Agenda", DVD "IL DIVO - Live at the Greek Theater", Blu-ray "Fired Up" and a few other discs.
Since I don't own any of these CD's or Blurays, I can not attest for better compatibility and performance. I will have to do more analysis later.
I have this player and am in general very impressed with it, as well as with the way Oppo treats its customers. The picture is magnificent, especially the black level and shadow detail, and the audio is, as the review points out, better than anything else in or near its price point. There is one glitch, however: o=On audio CDs and SACDs using HDMI output, where the program begins immediately (i.e., does not start at the 2- or 3-second mark, as with a lot of discs), the first second or two of the audio program is truncated. I have, however, contacted Oppo about this and have been assured the company's engineers are working on a firmware update for it. Considering Oppo's track record, I have no doubt this will be rectified very soon.
There was another problem regarding playing HDCD discs but only using Denon and Marantz receivers (mine is a Denon) through HDMI output. Oppo initially fixed this but only when using bitstream output, but since my receiver is a " legacy" receiver (i.e., HDMI 1.1 only, no decoding of lossless hi-def codecs), it meant I had to switch to bitstream from LPCM output everytime I wanted to play such a disc, not a big deal but definitely a minor inconvenience. In its latest fimware update, however, the company has added an "AUTO" option to the HDMI output which allows the player to switch itself, so that when playing a Blu-ray it will output LPCM but when playing other formats it will switch to bitstream (the firmware is currently still in Beta but Oppo says this is what it does). This appears to be a solution to the problem and is another example of how Oppo is always responsive to its customers' concerns, in this case, customers with Marantz and Denon receivers (the problem appears to be a quirk with the receiver, not with the player).
For you PS3 folks .. For those of us owning fairly sophisticated but somewhat aging audio systems, multi-channel analog outputs are a must - that rules out the PS3. My Oppo does my DVD-Audio, CD, SACD, DVD upscaling, and Blu-ray, and It does all of these VERY well.
Has anyone else taken advantage of the upgrade offered by Oppo for us audio enthusiasts? I got mine for Christmas. $299 for better DACs, power supply and audio board. Did nothing to video, but got new back panel with the RS-232 port and renewed the warranty. Sounds absolutely fabulous.