Oppo BDP-83 Player Reviews

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By monkuboy

I have been using this blu-ray player since May and have nothing but high praise for the unit itself and the company.

First, the unit: It arrived very securely packaged with double boxing, high density foam padding, and a the blu ray player was wrapped in a nice velvety bag. The instruction manual is very well written. Setup was a breeze. All of the inputs/outputs are clearly labeled and the first time you turn on the unit, the basic setup menu comes on to guide you through the initial steps. I ended up changing a few settings using the advanced menu; that menu is very clear and easy to understand.

The build quality of the Oppo is very good – it’s nice and solid, certainly sturdy enough for any normal home use.

I had a Sony blu ray player before this one and one thing I noticed is that the load times for the Oppo are way faster than the Sony. I mean WAY faster. I think the Sony is more representative of the average load times for blu ray players; the Oppo is superior. As far as picture and sound quality, I have no complaints. The Oppo does an excellent job in both departments. It is able to decode all of the latest audio formats so sometimes I use the analog outputs from the player and sometimes I use the HDMI outputs (by the way, the HDMI cable they supply is first-rate. Very solid). The video section is connected to my television via the HDMI cables.

I have upgraded the firmware twice although I hadn’t noticed any problems in operation and didn’t notice any improvements from the firmware. Upgrading is a very simple process and there are several options you can use to do it.

SACD playback is first rate. No complaints whatsoever; it sounds great.

As far as the operation of the unit, everything seems to work as intended. I haven’t encountered any bugs.

Regarding Oppo the company: they are first class. The unit came with a blu ray video calibration disc. Just recently they also sent me an audio calibration/HD sampler disc as well, along with a blue filter. Now how many companies do stuff like that? Not many, I’d say. That’s the first time I’ve ever had that happen. Every time I e-mailed Oppo with a question, I received a response within minutes, not hours or days like most companies. Even on the weekends someone responds!

This is an excellent product from an excellent company. Everything is absolutely first rate.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By Dustin Boyer

This is my 3rd blu-ray player. I started with the PS3. The PS3 was an awesome player. But it is a bit silly in my home theater set up. At the time my Harmony 890 would not work with the PS3.

Next I bought Samsung BDP-2550. What a waste of money.

Then the OPPO BDP(best damn player)-83. This thing rocks. From load times to PQ to Audio. WOW. That is all I can say about this player. I knew it was gonna be great from the second I started to un-box the player. You can stop your looking around for the right Blu-ray player, this is the one.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By R.Henry “DangeRuss”

After purchasing and being very happy with the Oppo DV-983H dvd player, I decided to wait for them to introduce their Blu-ray player. I turned down the early adoption program allowing them to shake out the glitches. Even though this is my first Blu-ray player, it isn’t the first I’ve seen in action. This machine loads twice as fast and upconverts standard-def far better than anything produced at any cost. Considering first generation Blu-ray players cost more in their day, I had no problem spending the money for a truly universal ( It plays everything) machine of excellent quality. I just wish there was a way to make Blu-ray players region free ( but that’s big brother for you).

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By P. Johnson

Do it, get it. This is the one. The SACD and/or DVD-A performance in particular are quite awesome. Like nothing else. The Blu-ray and standard DVD performace are also excellent as expected. But even for sound alone, this one is clearly for the audiophiles. My unit paired with a Denon 2890 that can handle the DSD feed from SACDs for the best sound. The extra level of the DSD handling compatiblity is really quite nice to have, so if this is of intrest to you, research your own AVR specs to see if it can handle the DSD over hdmi. It will play just fine if not, but that way is the real deal for SACD.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By A. M. Hill

I have owned many blu ray players. This one, by far, is the best one I’ve ever owned. The picture quality is outstanding, with superior sound, not to mention the formats available, which includes sacd. The setup was very simple, with an on screen guide. The player is built well and has a very solid feel. When playing blu ray disk, it loads very quickly, compared to others that I’ve owned. I can’t think of a single negative. I’m glad I made this purchase and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a superior player, at any price.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By Brian Phelan

Purchased the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player after much research. My single objective was to find the most effective machine to UPSCALE standard DVDs to something close to 1080p on a Samsung LN40B650 because I wish to play standard DVDs that I own and those from Netflix. I do not intend to purchase Blu-ray discs. Again this player is for upscaling only. In short, I could not be happier.

The BDP-83 far and away exceeded my expectations, especially after checking out and experiencing some of the lower-priced Blu-ray players. Although this unit is pricey at $499, you absolutely get what you pay for, including an HDMI cord which is essential if you are looking for top quality reproduction.

The standard DVD upscaling to 1080p is stunning. In my opinion, the picture quality through a good LCD like Samsung is about as good as it could be without actually viewing a Blu-ray disc. (Again, obviously that is my opinion. But I cannot tell you how often I’ve been disappointed enough with other electronic devices—including a Sony LCD, a Panasonic DVD recorder, and so on—to return them forthwith!) I recently watched again for the upteenth time the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice on standard DVD and am still marveling at what a difference this player makes.

I’d rate the disc-loading sequence among the fastest I’ve ever know in a player. And that says a lot if you knew how impatient I get with all the junk on market these days.

I cannot say enough about the player setup, the ease of use, and the layout of the remote.

This is one company that seems dedicated to precision. And this is one product that indeed lives up to the advertised billing.

Buy it with confidence.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By Brian Phelan

Purchased the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player after much research. My single objective was to find the most effective machine to UPSCALE standard DVDs to something close to 1080p on a Samsung LN40B650 because I wish to play standard DVDs that I own and those from Netflix. I do not intend to purchase Blu-ray discs. Again this player is for upscaling only. In short, I could not be happier.

The BDP-83 far and away exceeded my expectations, especially after checking out and experiencing some of the lower-priced Blu-ray players. Although this unit is pricey at $499, you absolutely get what you pay for, including an HDMI cord which is essential if you are looking for top quality reproduction.

The standard DVD upscaling to 1080p is stunning. In my opinion, the picture quality through a good LCD like Samsung is about as good as it could be without actually viewing a Blu-ray disc. (Again, obviously that is my opinion. But I cannot tell you how often I’ve been disappointed enough with other electronic devices—including a Sony LCD, a Panasonic DVD recorder, and so on—to return them forthwith!) I recently watched again for the upteenth time the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice on standard DVD and am still marveling at what a difference this player makes.

I’d rate the disc-loading sequence among the fastest I’ve ever know in a player. And that says a lot if you knew how impatient I get with all the junk on market these days.

I cannot say enough about the player setup, the ease of use, and the layout of the remote.

This is one company that seems dedicated to precision. And this is one product that indeed lives up to the advertised billing.

Buy it with confidence.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By B. A. Forer “baforer”

Pros: It works
Cons: Expensive (but worth it)

The short version:
Yes, I am jumping on the OPPO BDP-83 bandwagon.

The long version:
First of all, I am not an audiophile or videophile. My previous experience with blu-ray players was my purchase of a laptop computer with a blu-ray playback drive and an HDMI output. I thought that would allow me to play blu-ray disks and stream video to my HDTV. This is where I get introduced to a technology called Protected Audio Path (PAP). Because my laptop does not support PAP, HD audio is restricted across the HDMI connection. What that meant to me was the Dolby True HD audio was reduced to stereo which was ok with me since I am just listening to the audio thru my TV speakers, However DTS HD audio was reduced to no audio and that was not ok. Now I could have run the audio from my headset output to the TV instead of across the HDMI connection but that is not what I wanted, so off I went to buy a blu-ray player to resolve this situation.

I read a lot of professional reviews of different blu-ray players and finally made my decision, found the best price on
this unit and placed my order online. Then I started reading user reviews of this unit and it seemed to me that people
were having way to many problems with this unit and in addition to that, customer support was unresponsive. It scared me to the point that I canceled my order and started researching blu-ray players again, this time looking at both the
professional reviews and user reviews. This is when the OPPO BDP-83 surfaced. This was the only unit that I could find with a sufficient number of user reviews that no one was complaining about its ability to play disks without problems and also people seemed to feel that their customer support was responsive to complaints. It seemed that the only complaints were that there were more expensive units with better audio/video quality. Like I said, I am not an audiophile or videophile so this was not an issue for me. My main concern was with getting a player that would reliably playback a disk, and if there were an issue, then I would like a responsive customer support to deal with. With that said, that explains why I purchased the more expensive OPPO BDP-83.

The unit:
When I recieve my OPPO BDP-83, I spent about 5 minutes with the setup of this unit. I didn’t experiment with the settings, but instead just wanted to get the player up and running. My first impressions of this unit are very good. It was easy to setup, it worked just fine right out of the box, the video quality while playing back both, DVDs and BDs is very good, the audio quality is fine for me since I am only playing it thru my TV speakers, and most important to me is that it did not have any problem with any of the disks that I have tried to play.

The remote:
As a rule, I don’t get very concerned about remote controls, but my first impression of the remote that comes with the OPPO BDP-83 is kind of neutral. The nice feature is that it is backlit. The negative is that, in my opinion, it just seems like a lot of buttons on a box. It doesn’t seem like it would have been too difficult to group the buttons by either introducing a little space between the groups, or using some sort of color coding to group them. With that said, I should say that the remote works fine and as I have gotten use to where the buttons are that I use, I have no problems using the remote.

Customer support:
I have not had to contact customer support with an issue, but I went to their website to check for a firmware update and this is what I have found. I had the latest released firmware installed on my player when I got it, however there was a beta version of the firmware that address several issues, one of which was the incompatibility with a specific blu-ray disk. The date of both, the beta version and the release of this specific blu-ray disk was December 22nd. Now that really gave me the feeling that their customer support is responsive to issues.

Conclusion:
Yes, the OPPO BDP-83 player is expensive when my only real requirement was for a blu-ray player that worked, but I do not regret my decision to purchase this player. My research indicates that this is a reliable player with good customer support and nothing has happened since I have purchased this player to change my opinion about that.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By B. A. Forer “baforer”

Pros: It works
Cons: Expensive (but worth it)

The short version:
Yes, I am jumping on the OPPO BDP-83 bandwagon.

The long version:
First of all, I am not an audiophile or videophile. My previous experience with blu-ray players was my purchase of a laptop computer with a blu-ray playback drive and an HDMI output. I thought that would allow me to play blu-ray disks and stream video to my HDTV. This is where I get introduced to a technology called Protected Audio Path (PAP). Because my laptop does not support PAP, HD audio is restricted across the HDMI connection. What that meant to me was the Dolby True HD audio was reduced to stereo which was ok with me since I am just listening to the audio thru my TV speakers, However DTS HD audio was reduced to no audio and that was not ok. Now I could have run the audio from my headset output to the TV instead of across the HDMI connection but that is not what I wanted, so off I went to buy a blu-ray player to resolve this situation.

I read a lot of professional reviews of different blu-ray players and finally made my decision, found the best price on
this unit and placed my order online. Then I started reading user reviews of this unit and it seemed to me that people
were having way to many problems with this unit and in addition to that, customer support was unresponsive. It scared me to the point that I canceled my order and started researching blu-ray players again, this time looking at both the
professional reviews and user reviews. This is when the OPPO BDP-83 surfaced. This was the only unit that I could find with a sufficient number of user reviews that no one was complaining about its ability to play disks without problems and also people seemed to feel that their customer support was responsive to complaints. It seemed that the only complaints were that there were more expensive units with better audio/video quality. Like I said, I am not an audiophile or videophile so this was not an issue for me. My main concern was with getting a player that would reliably playback a disk, and if there were an issue, then I would like a responsive customer support to deal with. With that said, that explains why I purchased the more expensive OPPO BDP-83.

The unit:
When I recieve my OPPO BDP-83, I spent about 5 minutes with the setup of this unit. I didn’t experiment with the settings, but instead just wanted to get the player up and running. My first impressions of this unit are very good. It was easy to setup, it worked just fine right out of the box, the video quality while playing back both, DVDs and BDs is very good, the audio quality is fine for me since I am only playing it thru my TV speakers, and most important to me is that it did not have any problem with any of the disks that I have tried to play.

The remote:
As a rule, I don’t get very concerned about remote controls, but my first impression of the remote that comes with the OPPO BDP-83 is kind of neutral. The nice feature is that it is backlit. The negative is that, in my opinion, it just seems like a lot of buttons on a box. It doesn’t seem like it would have been too difficult to group the buttons by either introducing a little space between the groups, or using some sort of color coding to group them. With that said, I should say that the remote works fine and as I have gotten use to where the buttons are that I use, I have no problems using the remote.

Customer support:
I have not had to contact customer support with an issue, but I went to their website to check for a firmware update and this is what I have found. I had the latest released firmware installed on my player when I got it, however there was a beta version of the firmware that address several issues, one of which was the incompatibility with a specific blu-ray disk. The date of both, the beta version and the release of this specific blu-ray disk was December 22nd. Now that really gave me the feeling that their customer support is responsive to issues.

Conclusion:
Yes, the OPPO BDP-83 player is expensive when my only real requirement was for a blu-ray player that worked, but I do not regret my decision to purchase this player. My research indicates that this is a reliable player with good customer support and nothing has happened since I have purchased this player to change my opinion about that.

Best Blu-Ray and Audio player player I own

By D. R. Yap “HOME MECHANIC”

All the hype,great review,best bluray player and the other good things said about oppo BDP-83 are all true.I will not go into details,but I will make a point.In October of 2008.I went on a five week tour of CHINA with twenty five family and friends. The tour operator had someone taking video of our trip.To make a long story short,when I got home I tried to play the two dvd in my SONY BDP-S300 blu ray player.Suprisingly one played,the other said CANNOT READ.I then put them away.In March of 2009 a friend of mine bought a Samsung BDP-2500.I tried playing the dvd from China,the same thing happened,one played and the other didnt.On November 4,I bought the OPPO BDP-83 from Amazon.com THE player came four days ahead of schedule date.It took about half an hour to install.Had to remove the old sony player.The first bluray movie I watched was S.W.A.T. I felt I was with the cops in the shoot out.I think no I know I bought the BEST DANG BLURAY PLAYER THIS SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE…So for what its worth. If you are thinking of buying a bluray player THINK NO MORE,,,BUY THE OPPO BDP-83.You will not regret it….P.S.Both d.v.d. from China played on my OPPO without a burp.LOVE MY OPPO..