A decent blu ray & dvd player for movies

Hey FootTapper,

Personally I never saw/heart an Oppo player, but they seem to be very good.

I use a BlueRay/DVD very rarely so looked for a low cost/high quality solution. I can recommend the Dune players. They are shoecase boxes, get very good reviews and have both analogue and optical outputs. Apart from playing DVD/BlueRays, my Dune is also network connected and thus a streamer playing anything from video, mp3 to FLAC. Cost was around 170€.

Cheers

Iver

Panasonic DMP BDT500 gets excellent reviews for both sound and image quality.

Mine looks fantastic through my Pioneer Kuro 5090 (motion is particularly well-handled) and sounds great through my old DSP A2 

(edit: just Googled your other suggestions and see you may be setting your sights a bit higher price-wise. Remember though that £200/£250 in 2013 gets you a much better player than it did in 2005)

Have not seen the players you mention but hard to imagine a better picture)

FT - I've been very impressed with Oppo. Dealer recommended a 93U so I could play Bluray through my n-Vi.  It's a fine piece of kit, working smoothly, comes beautifully packaged (reminded me of how Apple package its products) and in my view would justify a much higher price.  I think it outperforms the DVD player on the n-Vi so I play all my discs through it now. Reports on the forum on the latest 105 seem very good e.g. it will drive Naim power amps directly if needed.

MDS   

Oppos have a cult-like following here. I have never heard them mentioned, other than on this forum, and I've certainly never seen one.

Oppo 105's are regularly lauded in the US audiophile press (Absolute Sound (recent issue), Stereophile) and in the AV press.  There seems to be only one retailer/distributor in Canada Winky so understandable why you can not physically see these units outside of the Toronto area (unless you mail order from from the distributor).

I have heard from fora, reviews, and word of mouth that oppos are a great value DVD and transport. I don't know how they perform on an audiophile level. Once or twice a year make a drop at the thrift store and always run in just to see if there is an oppo among the dozens of $10 DVD players on the shelf so I can play the audio of my music DVDs through my Naim system. Yet to find one.

OPPO is the brand to look for the 105 is a good option at a still digestible price point. Other option would be the NAD M56.

Of course assuming you are wanting somewhat decent audiophile aspects. If it's just for the visuals more brands can be considered.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.  The player will be used most frequently for feature films, but I would value it for music DVDs & blu rays such as this year's Eric Clapton Guitar Festival.

It seems like the Oppo BDP105 is highly rated and the most expensive, though less is known about the alternatives

If all you're wanting is a machine to play BluRays & DVDs then really any of the reputable makes will suffice. The Oppos are superb machines (I've got two) for playing those formats mentioned plus DVD-As, SACDs and as a CD transport. The latest ones offer additional streaming etc.

They're a very good company and go out of their way to offer a high-quality customer service (try contacting the likes of Denon or Panasonic!)

Agree with Tony, the Oppo is a very competitive product and well supported both from a company and UK dealer perspective. For films, it is hard to beat.

The CA 752BD is also worth auditioning if you can from RS, and is a little more rounded and enjoyable if you will use it for music. You can buy it with 5-year fully transferable warranty, if you ever decide to sell it.

After service quality from Denon is not great. A faulty 3800BD transport mechanism could not be repaired economically out of warranty and this seems a not uncommon fault even with the latest 3313 model.

Hi Felty99

Many thanks for the guidance, much appreciated.

The Oppo BDP-103 is another alternative.  It's a lot less expensive than the 105 ($499 vs $1200) and has all the streaming and media playback features with a lesser DAC set. 

I've been hankering after a Panasonic BDT500 for the 2ch sound. Still using an Denon DVD player from 2003: fine all round performance.

+1 for Oppo