Oppo's BDP-83 initial impressions

by Mark Alt

Well, it's been about two weeks since my Oppo BDP-83 has arrived and set up in my home, so I figured it's high time to give my initial impressions on the player.

First, let me say that I have an older Onkyo TX-SR703 which does not have HDMI.  So I connected the HDMI out from the Oppo to my Samsung DLP TV for video and I am using the multichannel analog audio inputs on the 703 for the audio portion.  Since the Oppo has an on-board decoder for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD (and, obviously, my 703 does not), I can still enjoy the higher quality audio with my older 703 through the multichannel inputs.

The Oppo is really easy to set up.  It has an initial setup that walks you through the basics.  And then a more extensive menu for tweaking the setup.  The menu is one of the best I've seen.  It has a really simple layout and very helpful menu tips that describe what each setting does.  In my case, since my DLP is 1080p capable, I am enjoying the best picture available.  And since I am using the on-board decoder, I needed to set up the speakers specifics on the Oppo as well (very similar if not the same as what you need to do on your A/V receiver to calibrate the speakers).  The multi-channel inputs on the receiver are essentially pass-throughs, the receiver does not do anything to the signal aside from controlling the volume.

Loading a Blu-ray disc to display on the screen is the fastest I've seen of any Blu-ray player.  I've seen first generations players take almost a minute (if not more) to start to display a picture from the disc - worse if it is a BD-live disc.  The Oppo takes mere seconds for a non-BD-live disc (virtually as fast as a standard DVD) and about 15 to 20 seconds for a BD-live disc - although I have not done any actual timing as of yet so those are estimates.

Picture and audio are top notch.  Even my wife is starting to come around when I did an A/B comparison with Disney's Cars first with a DVD version, then with the Blu-ray version.  The detail on the Blu-ray disc is amazing.  Maybe it was because it was my personal setup, but it seemed to me that the picture quality from the Oppo was even better than most of the players that I've seen.

Granted, I've had the player about two weeks now, but over that short time, I can say that I am extremely well pleased with the Oppo and am looking forward to incorporating it in my home theater system for years to come.

If anyone is curious about certain features or specs about the Oppo, let me know and I'll try to include them in future posts.

Comments

[Caleb Denison]

Congratulations, Mark! I think I need one, too ;-) Christmas is too far away, though. Going to need a different excuse.