Another Blu-ray player..

[krammer]

Hopefully reference material.


http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/

I've been hearing nothing but positive feedback from users who got the Oppo BDP-83. The price tag is a little steep but nothing outrageous so I placed an order for it. With DVD I know Oppo was ranked #1 with benchmark tests so I look forward to sharing with you guys the pros & cons & how it stacks up next to the PS3. This player will be replacing a Sony BDP-S350.

[krammer]

Well I got it yesterday & it is the best standalone I've had the chance to use so far.

Load times are that of a good DVD player. It is actually faster to start a film on the player than the PS3 only because initial boot-up does not exist on the BDP-83.

The fan noise.. Its god damn loud!!

Err.. actually I can't hear anything. Some owners have attempted to see if they could see the fan spinning by using a mirror with no luck.

The remote is backlight & has all the buttons needed although I programmed it into my Harmony to save batteries.

The player can be hacked with firmware to make it 100% region free for both DVD & Blu-Ray but I am not interested in this option yet.

Honestly I do not know what video & audio files can't be played back on this. It does internally decode all HD audio codecs & can be passed to the receiver as LPCM or bitstream. Even has 7.1 Analog out for those without an HDMI receiver but still want to hear all lossless codecs.

Picture wise, imo, is not a massive difference but there is slight improvement here & there. Colors seem to stand out more, edges appear sharper (no not edge enhancement) so I'm definitely satisfied with the PQ this thing shells out.

One feature I think is cool is Underscan. Its part of the Zoom options. It decreasing the entire image by 5% Its good for watching 1.85:1 movies & such where my TV overscans the image a bit much.