Oppo BD players..are users happy?

Hi Geoff,

I've the Oppo BD83SE which I'm very happy with. It's performed faultlessly for the couple of years (I think) I've owned it. Everything works very well and it's got very good logic for its operation. It plays any kind of disc and seems very tolerant of dodgy ones!

I've still got my old Oppo DVD player which was also a universal player and was similarly reliable and flexible. I'm also impressed with the backup on offer from the company and although I've not had to call on their help I have asked for information on setup etc. which has always been freely available.

I don't know much about their latest players but I don't doubt they'll be excellent too.

I use a projector also but through a video processor so can't comment on their ultimate video performance but I doubt if you'd be disappointed given Oppo's reputation.

I'm an Oppo fan!

My local dealer has the 93 and it looks lovely and seems very well built. Picture quality on a big tv was excellent.

Have not seen it on a projector though. I nearly bought the 83 se when i was in aus and was going to get one now that i am back in UK.

83se no more, 93 seems great but i will wait for the 95 which will replace the se version of 83.

93 is for av use primarily.

The 95 will be more music based with many upgrades over the 93.

So will see end feb what the 95 is like then i can decide how to spend my money.

As an aside while in Sydney we compared the 83 up against the 83se, the NuForce 83se and the JLTI mod wright 83se.

I really preferred the standard 83 se over the modified 83se.

The 83 se on a good av system using a projector was just fabulous.

John Gorka playing live was absolutely amazing on that system at Pymble HiFi in Sydney.

David

David

+1

I have the 83SE as well.  It displaced my DVD5 even for DVD playback.

Take a look at the Cambridge 650BD also, I have had one for over a year and love it.  Having said that, my friend has an 83se and it's really nice also, take your pick they are both very solid machines.

Take a look at the new Cambridge 751BD. Built for sound quality.

http://www.hometheatersurround...lu-ray-player/ 

Apologies, slightly off subject but saves starting a new thread.

I was surfing around looking for bluray players that may offer on board volume control I stumbled across a few comments that OPPO players are able to control volume of the analogue outs - is it true?

What I want to achieve is volume control of bluray player multi analogue outs direct into Nap175 + Nait XS in av mode.

Looked in the support manual but just seems to be a volume trim control (I think). Would anyone know if this is possible and user friendly?

Thanks guys

For your input so far...Very helpfull.

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

As it happens I have just bought a 2nd hand 83.

My thinking was to:

1. Compare the SD picture of the DVD5 to the upscaled Oppo;
2. Use the DLNA client to stream files from my DLNA server -
   > flac files
   > photos
   > camera video files and
   > ripped files from DVDs.
3. Use the 7.1 outputs on the Oppo to feed into my AV2 from the BluRay HiDef codecs.


...and:

Just got it today, so haven't bottomed everything out yet.
1. Jury still out, but watching SD 'Les Mis' at the moment, certainly very good.
2. Works well -
    > flac streams, and HiDef files. Not bad, not as good as the Laptop/HiFace - esp for vocals.
    > Yep.
    > Yep.
    > Yep.
3. Issue at the moment ...BUT I think I've worked it out. The firmware updates have changed the
    channel outputs for the VIP. I'll have another play later.

I'll report back on (1) when I've looked through a few DVDs.

Currently I'm intending to get some work done on the 7.1 and Coax outputs. Currently I would say the optical output into the AV2 sounds better than the sound into the VIP, as decoded by the Oppo, on standard DVD; which I'm sure won't surprise anyone!


M

"Take a look at the Cambridge 650BD also, I have had one for over a year and love it.  Having said that, my friend has an 83se and it's really nice also, take your pick they are both very solid machines."

It seems the Cambridge player is a rebadged Oppo BDP80 (the model down from the 83) with  a beefed up power supply. A thread on the US based AV Science forum has pictures of the insides of both machines which make this very clear. In this case the Oppo would suggest the Cambridge/BDP80 would not be as good for a projector owner as the BDP83 for DVD's as the scaling chip isn't as good. The difference wouldn't necessarily show up on a TV hence Oppo recommend the BDP80 for TV owners only.

Oppo BDP-83 MkII:

Picture - DVD
------------------

With the DVD5 the advice from my dealer was to let the DVD send over the source feed and let the Phillips super widescreen TV do the scaling, as it is a non-standard aspect ratio.

When I first connected it up I ran with the Video 1080p output over HDMI. My daughter had been watching the Tim Burton version of Batman, that she had never seen.

I was struck by the poorer quality of the picture compared to the DVD5. The image had an over-sharpened look.

I set the Oppo to source output today, and re-watched the scenes in Batman. I thought it was interesting that if I look at the native picture fed to the TV it is MUCH larger than that of the DVD5; and the nasties had all gone.

I then put on Where Eagles Dare. I watched this when I first got the Phillips TV. I ran it then with a mode that gave a slightly reduced picture size, but a more watchable quality; this isn't the best mastered DVD in the world. I remember seeing a number of articfacts in the white sky/snow scenes.

Now? I watched it in full 21:9, and a much cleaner picture.

Next up my Region 1 copy of Aliens.

This was played at 21:9, and the quality was excellent. There are still artifacts, but the general quality of the picture is very clean.



The Oppo is undoubtedly better.


5.1 Sound
--------------

Was having issues with getting the sound into the AV2 yesterday. This was due to a firmware upgrade where Naim changed the mapping of inputs into the VIP.

Sorted, apart from the sub, which won't currently work ...investigating.

As a friend of mine said today, 'The quality of the Naim DACs will wipe the floor with the Oppos, regardless of the source of the compressed audio'.

I think this is true, but thought I'd give it a go.


Sound BluRay
------------------

I have one BluRay, T2.

This come with a HD DTS soundtrack. The lack of a .1 undoubtedly reduced the impact, and I want to do some more tests.


Streaming Video
---------------------

I'm very impressed with the upscaling of the ripped NTSC DVD that I experimented with. Having played with VLC, and used its upscaling into a HD screen via my laptop on the same video, I was very pleased with what the Oppo did.


Streaming Music
---------------------

Streamed from Asset Upnp the results were OK, but not what I would want to listen to for proper music.

M

QUOTE
Was having issues with getting the sound into the AV2 yesterday. This was due to a firmware upgrade where Naim changed the mapping of inputs into the VIP.
END QUOTE

How have they changed it?  It's of relevance to me too, if I ever decide to upgrade the firmware on my AV2.
Of course it's possible that I already have the latest firmware.  I do remember that when I connected the analogue inputs of the Oppo83SE to the AV2 VI inputs that the sound wasn't coming from the correct speakers, and I found the cure was to swap VI1 and VI2 leads.  Very strange, because I'd sat down with the DIN wiring diagrams for the AV2 and carefully worked out which lead went where.  I assumed that I'd just inadvertently plugged them in the wrong way round (in spite of carefully labelling the cables).

Hi Dungassin / tonym,

A few years ago I bought a Pioneer unit 2nd hand to have a listen to SACD. I had some leads made up to plug into the AV2.

I repeated this with the Oppo - and had issues.

Rechecking the manual I switched the leads:

An1 -> Frnt Left/Right, Rear L/R
An2 -> Extra Rear L/R, sub and centre

Wasn't getting the sub, the Oppo has the sub output at -10db for some reason. Boosted the output, which helped.

M

Geoff,

Couple of other points:

1. The BDP 83 does not allow you to set a Network Proxy.
    If you are using a firewall this might be important to you if you want to communicate outside your local network.
I am hoping to get this functionality via a DLNA server.
Oppo have their own web-portal,  but it is not reported as any good.

If you are buying the 93/95 - these DO have proxy settings.

2. The remote for the 83 has a resolution button. I have found this useful as turning on and off the Oppo internal scaling.


M

So ... did Naim actually change the wiring or just the diagrams between the AV2 manual and the DVD5/AV2 manual?  To be honest, I can't recall which of these manuals I actually used when I was working out the wiring from Oppo to AV2.

D,

I had to send my AV2 back to HQ for some TLC a year or so ago. They may changed some physical components at that time, in addition to any software changes.

M

I'm interested because if I can sort this out, I'll probably post "how to connect a multichannel audio source to AV2" as an FAQ. 

I am also thinking about buying an OPPO 93. Price is quite good even though it is almost double the price of what it sells for in the US.

I am trying to find out how much higher the price for the soon to arrive BDP-95 will be. Looking at its spec it is engineered to be an audiophile version with high class DACs and multi DAC stereo path.

However if you are planning to feed bitstream to a quality AVR for decoding, the video portion becomes the player's main function and I believe both the 93 and the 95 are the same in that regard.

The price of the BDP-93 I checked does include full region free operation for both DVD and Blu-ray which ups its worth for me since I have a lot of region 1 DVDs in particular accquired when I worked in the US.

regards
Geoff

According to the oppodigital website the 93 is 499.- the 95 will be 999.- US dollars.

At the older series 83 + 83SE it was "only" some parts inside (DAC, regulators, ect.), that where different. Same base - but with pimped electronics. You could even have the standard model upgraded to SE specs.

In the newer 93 + 95 models seem to differ more. They use another case, separate stereo outputs, balanced outputs, toroidal power transformer in the power supply, ect.

From where do you have the information about  the "full region free operation for both DVD and Blu-ray"? I don't think that this is a standard feature... Probably (hopefully!) someone will develop this...

i contacted OPPO UK and asked about region free as i have region 1,2 and 4 discs.

Not going to offer this from importer.

But after market option available with question marks over warranties.

Also told OPPO UK will not endorse any modified players.

I said the whole point of previuos oppos was that they were region free.

Have not seen a price yet for 95. But price for 93 at local dealer is 500quid.

Ho HUM.

David

If you buy a region free modded versio all inclusive I would assume the supplier would stand by the normal warranty term.

If you buy the oppo unmodded and then ship to someone else to mod it that would be less clear cut.

BTW Amazon UK offers a region free version of the 93 from one of its resellers located in the US that ships internationally. Of course import duty will be yours to pay if shpped in  from the US.
regards
Geoff

Thanks Geoff. This is the 3rd Oppo website I have stored in my browser by now...
oppodigital and opposhop as commercial, and now oppo-bluray in uk.

Our distributor describes the player as DVD codefree and Blu-ray region B as standard.
Optional you can have a modification for Blu-ray regionfree (incl. the normal warranty).

I wonder, if NuForce and ModWright will do tuned versions of the new models too?