Oppo BDP-83 has arrived in my house.

[pete321]

Just spent a few intial hours setting it up and testing and it's blowm me away so far!

This is the third Blu-Ray player I've owned, initialy the Sony BDP-S350 which is now in the bedroom and a Denon DVD-2500BT which I paid £599 for. I thought the Denon was very disappointing for the money, better than the Sony, but not by £400 or more. Now I know I was right to be disappointed with the Denon and definately made the right decision to sell it!

I've paid the same for the Oppo, £599, hardware modded to play any region DVD and remote selectable to play any zone blu-ray. First thing you notcie as it comes out of the box is that build quality hasn't been comprimised, a nice solid player, just the right size, big enough to make you feel you've got a good piece of kit, but it won't upset the missus! Plus you get a chunky HDMI lead, 2gb USB stick (for firmware updates) and a Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray, nice freebies.

I really like the setup menus which are easy to navigate. Played about with SACD for a while and came to the same conclusion as Will, it sounded better letting the Oppo convert DSD to PCM and send to my AVR600 by HDMI, rather than using DSD decoded straight to analogue by the Oppo. The latter should have been the better, but I guess the DAC's in the AVR600 are just better quality than those in the Oppo. When I got onto to Blu-Ray, I was amazed how clean the picture was, better than the Denon I'd say, where it trashed the Denon was the audio, much more dynamic. One area that the Denon did major on was DVD playback, I'd say the Oppo is as good as or marginally better. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I put the blu-ray in and by the time I sat down, it was playing!

When you consider what you get with this player for the same price I paid for a DVD-2500BT, the big boys better watch out.

 

[jase fox]

pete321:

Plus you get a chunky HDMI lead, 2gb USB stick (for firmware updates) and a Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray, nice freebies.
>Did'nt you also get a lucky bag with a sherbet dip in also Pete?

Im very curious to see the Oppo now, if your this impressed with it, it must be good !!

 

[jase fox]

pete321:
I was amazed how clean the picture was, better than the Denon I'd say, where it trashed the Denon was the audio, much more dynamic. One area that the Denon did major on was DVD playback, I'd say the Oppo is as good as or marginally better. !

Ive just recently added a RA reference powerkord to my amp & the result of this kord is amazing! The PQ through the Denon is now so clean its like looking through a window (not that it was dirty in the first place IMO)& as for the Audio?? Incredible, comes to mind ! So this result youve discovered here i dont think it counts to me now tbh... as ive been totally blown away by the differences this kord has achieved.

 

[pete321]

I used LAT AC-2 mains cable with mine, not exactly a duffer, but that didn't help the poor old Denon. I shouldn't keep slagging it off, it was a good player, just not at the price they marketed it at.

 

[jase fox]

pete321:I used LAT AC-2 mains cable with mine, not exactly a duffer, but that didn't help the poor old Denon. I shouldn't keep slagging it off, it was a good player, just not at the price they marketed it at.No you should'nt as you know i will always defend it Pete, ha

But seriously the boost in performance the RA kord has made is awesome, cant praise it high enough, if you lived just round the corner Pete id invite you round to see what you thought for yourself as im that convinced you would be impressed.

Im pleased your happy with the oppo i will try it for myself one day even if just out of curiosity...

 

[pete321]

It wasn't exactly a noisy picture in the first place, so if you can notice that much difference it sounds like a good investment.

 

[jase fox]

pete321:
It wasn't exactly a noisy picture in the first place, so if you can notice that much difference it sounds like a good investment.
Yes it certainly is Pete, i must say even i was surprised at how much more it cleaned it up as like you say it wasnt even really that noisy if any at all, but yes its the best "mains" product ive ever used to date.

Very impressed.

 

[JohnHolmes]

£170 for a kettle lead! You shouldn't believe the hype! what a waste of money! Think how many Blurays could you buy with that cash!!

I bet if you took a blind test you couldn't tell the difference!

 

[pete321]

I don't think there's any doubt that mains noise has a negative effect on your kit, in particualr with sound, making high frequencies harsh. To what degree you spend to minimize it is a matter for debate.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in this Oppo too as I'd like to play Region A discs and it looks a good buy.

However can get a Region A (only) Denon 2500 for £349 so wonder how the two compare given the Denon at this price point?

I have a PS3 to play UK discs to the Denon would suffice in disc compatibility, but the Oppo looks a better machine overall but is nearly twice the price....hmmmmm

 

[pete321]

Volcane:I'm interested in this Oppo too as I'd like to play Region A discs and it looks a good buy. However can get a Region A (only) Denon 2500 for £349 so wonder how the two compare given the Denon at this price point? I have a PS3 to play UK discs to the Denon would suffice in disc compatibility, but the Oppo looks a better machine overall but is nearly twice the price....hmmmmm

In my opinion having owned the 2500BT, the Denon would be correctly priced at £350. That's making a comparison between the 2 other players that I've got, Sony BDP-S350 (£150) and the modded Oppo (£599).

I don't think you'd notice too much difference in picture quality between the Denon and the Oppo in HD or SD (the Oppo maybe just edging it, but I can't compare now). The Oppo can be used in 'transport' mode, which is the only mode you'll get with the Denon, so in effect you'll get all the benefits of transport only mode, plus a lot more if you want them with the Oppo. The extra £250 for the modded Oppo player will get you multi-regionzone DVD & Blu-Ray ability, DVD-A & SACD, playback of MKV files plus a lot more features. With regard to sound, I found the Denon too laid back for my liking, the Oppo so far seems to be giving me a much more dynamic sound. I haven't found any discs that the Sony or Oppo won't play yet, not so with the Denon, plus Oppo load times are a lot faster. Depends whether all that is worth the extra £250 to you?

 

[Anonymous]

My Oppo has arrived now and the really big advantages are it's lightning fast operation. Seriously you just won't believe how fast it loads. Everyone got used to BluRay being a "make a cup of tea" time-frame on loading and that goes, completely. And it's multi-region and universal format. It really is an utter bargain at £600 and better or as good as anything else I've tested.

Friend with a Denon DVD-A1UD is coming round in a month or so and we'll compare the £4,500 universal Denon to the £600 universal, multi-region Oppo. My money is on the Oppo over HDMI and the Denon for Analogues. But for that money, you'd jolly well expect the Denon's analogues to be very very good. But wasted on me as I have an Arcam AVR600

 

[pete321]

Will Harris:But wasted on me as I have an Arcam AVR600

Not necessarily Will, it perhaps should be, but I think you'd be surprised by how much better my DacMagic makes lossless music sound coming from PC compared to sending it direct to the AVR600 digitally. It's not a small difference, it's a lot better. True, my DacMagic has had £155 extra spent on it to have Burson opamps, but I still wasn't expecting the difference to be that big.

I think you'd be surprised to hear the difference between the DacMagic upconverted CD rip of Final Straw - Snow Patrol against the SACD stereo version converted by the AVR600! I know which one should sound better, but...

 

[Anonymous]

pete321:. The Oppo can be used in 'transport' mode, which is the only mode you'll get with the Denon, so in effect you'll get all the benefits of transport only mode, plus a lot more if you want them with the Oppo.

One of the biggest frustrations I had with the 2500BT was the fact that its design as a "transport" was somewhat flawed . With the Oppo it's a case of put in a disc and it can determine the appropriate native resolution output for that disc (PAL DVD, NTSC DVD, Blu-ray progressive, Blu-ray interlaced etc) without user intervention. With the 2500 it involved changing resolution via menus or pressing a toggle button on the front of the player. It couldn't even be done via discreet RS232 or IR codes. So it's either put up with the pain of constant output changing or set it 1080p and suffer the deinterlacing with DVD and 1080i Blu-ray.

Dasp

 

[jase fox]

das:
pete321:. The Oppo can be used in 'transport' mode, which is the only mode you'll get with the Denon, so in effect you'll get all the benefits of transport only mode, plus a lot more if you want them with the Oppo.

One of the biggest frustrations I had with the 2500BT was the fact that its design as a "transport" was somewhat flawed . With the Oppo it's a case of put in a disc and it can determine the appropriate native resolution output for that disc (PAL DVD, NTSC DVD, Blu-ray progressive, Blu-ray interlaced etc) without user intervention. With the 2500 it involved changing resolution via menus or pressing a toggle button on the front of the player. It couldn't even be done via discreet RS232 or IR codes. So it's either put up with the pain of constant output changing or set it 1080p and suffer the deinterlacing with DVD and 1080i Blu-ray.

Dasp

What on earth you babbling on about man ? ALL ive done with my Denon is set the output resolution to "auto" & hey presto, no problems ! All i can see here with everyone is you all trying to justify getting rid of the Denon IMO If your happy with the oppo, fine, good luck yo you all but stop slagging off the Denon because it certainly doesnt deserve it.

 

[jase fox]

JohnHolmes:
£170 for a kettle lead! You shouldn't believe the hype! what a waste of money! Think how many Blurays could you buy with that cash!!

I bet if you took a blind test you couldn't tell the difference!

It's my money is'nt it?

 

[Anonymous]

jase fox:das:
pete321:. The Oppo can be used in 'transport' mode, which is the only mode you'll get with the Denon, so in effect you'll get all the benefits of transport only mode, plus a lot more if you want them with the Oppo.

One of the biggest frustrations I had with the 2500BT was the fact that its design as a "transport" was somewhat flawed . With the Oppo it's a case of put in a disc and it can determine the appropriate native resolution output for that disc (PAL DVD, NTSC DVD, Blu-ray progressive, Blu-ray interlaced etc) without user intervention. With the 2500 it involved changing resolution via menus or pressing a toggle button on the front of the player. It couldn't even be done via discreet RS232 or IR codes. So it's either put up with the pain of constant output changing or set it 1080p and suffer the deinterlacing with DVD and 1080i Blu-ray.

Dasp

What on earth you babbling on about man ? ALL ive done with my Denon is set the output resolution to "auto" & hey presto, no problems ! All i can see here with everyone is you all trying to justify getting rid of the Denon IMO If your happy with the oppo, fine, good luck yo you all but stop slagging off the Denon because it certainly doesnt deserve it.

Is that "auto" output resolution that determines the output resolution based on display EDID ? If so that doesn't change the "output resolution" based on the disc type i.e. you need to do that manually if you want to process at native resolution elsewhere. Maybe people talking about these things so others people can make informed decision. People have different requirements I don't think discussing issues and short commings is "slagging off" a product because some are ignorant to the issue.

My Denon Blu-ray players came and went a long time ago so no justification needed.

Dasp

 

[jase fox]

das:jase fox:das:
pete321:. The Oppo can be used in 'transport' mode, which is the only mode you'll get with the Denon, so in effect you'll get all the benefits of transport only mode, plus a lot more if you want them with the Oppo.

One of the biggest frustrations I had with the 2500BT was the fact that its design as a "transport" was somewhat flawed . With the Oppo it's a case of put in a disc and it can determine the appropriate native resolution output for that disc (PAL DVD, NTSC DVD, Blu-ray progressive, Blu-ray interlaced etc) without user intervention. With the 2500 it involved changing resolution via menus or pressing a toggle button on the front of the player. It couldn't even be done via discreet RS232 or IR codes. So it's either put up with the pain of constant output changing or set it 1080p and suffer the deinterlacing with DVD and 1080i Blu-ray.

Dasp

What on earth you babbling on about man ? ALL ive done with my Denon is set the output resolution to "auto" & hey presto, no problems ! All i can see here with everyone is you all trying to justify getting rid of the Denon IMO If your happy with the oppo, fine, good luck yo you all but stop slagging off the Denon because it certainly doesnt deserve it.

you need to do that manually if you want to process at native resolution elsewhere.

Dasp

oooh & that takes up so much of my time das to have to press a button to change resolutions, whats the world coming to eh?

Anyway i love the PQ that the Denon produces with both bluray & standard DVD & thats all that matters to me especially with a great powerkord attached!!

 

[Anonymous]

jase fox:oooh & that takes up so much of my time das to have to press a button to change resolutions, whats the world coming to eh?

Anyway i love the PQ that the Denon produces with both bluray & standard DVD & thats all that matters to me especially with a great powerkord attached!!

People have different levels of performance expectation and requirements. As you say if you're happy with the 2500's short comings that's all that counts for you. However It doesn't hurt to understand the issues it may present to others who may be more demanding without becoming defensive and sarcastic. Otherwise you may just come across as defending something without understanding the issue being discussed.

In addition to messing with menu or walking over the player it also means having to know if the disc is encoded as PAL, NTSC, 1080i/50, 1080i/60, 1080p/24 etc encoded to avoid the Denon deinterlacing and sending the correct native resolution.

Dasp

 

[Clare Newsome]

Das, you've been warned before about your aggressively patronising attitude.

More than happy for you to impart your obvious levels of technical knowledge, but there are ways/means of doing so without insulting the perfectly valid opinions and preferences of others.

 

[jase fox]

das:
jase fox:oooh & that takes up so much of my time das to have to press a button to change resolutions, whats the world coming to eh?

Anyway i love the PQ that the Denon produces with both bluray & standard DVD & thats all that matters to me especially with a great powerkord attached!!

People have different levels of performance expectation and requirements. As you say if you're happy with the 2500's short comings that's all that counts for you. However It doesn't hurt to understand the issues it may present to others who may be more demanding without becoming defensive and sarcastic. Otherwise you may just come across as defending something without understanding the issue being discussed.

In addition to messing with menu or walking over the player it also means having to know if the disc is encoded as PAL, NTSC, 1080i/50, 1080i/60, 1080p/24 etc encoded to avoid the Denon deinterlacing and sending the correct native resolution.

Dasp

Im fairly sure that folk will want the oppo now over the Denon because who wants to have to press buttons to do things? I mean i think its awful having to press a button to turn my tv on as id rather just sit there and clap my hands in order to do it.

And yes i do understand more than you think Das.

IN all honesty here, i will probably end up demoing the Oppo (strictly through hype) but you have to understand that technology changes all the time & just because one player may do something in a different way than another doesnt make it a bad player, the only issues & changes im bothered about (as alot of people are) is in the performance of PQ & AQ as lets face it thats what its all about "watching & listening to a movie" its no different to some folk who want to be able to access all the extras on there blurays etc most people i come across arnt even bothered bout all the extras "just the movie" so until i can see far more superior quality (that i can see) for the price over my Denon then youll have my attention, but until then im out of it, as all these little issues of not having to press buttons in order to do certain things is just nit picking IMO....

 

[Anonymous]

I only wish I had my Denon so I could toggle.

 

[Anonymous]

Clare Newsome:
Das, you've been warned before about your aggressively patronising attitude.

More than happy for you to impart your obvious levels of technical knowledge, but there are ways/means of doing so without insulting the perfectly valid opinions and preferences of others.

Sorry my intention wasn't to be patronising and I apologies if that's the way it came across.

Dasp

 

[Anonymous]

jase fox:

And yes i do understand more than you think Das.

Maybe you do but I can only go by your reply below to the issue I described which suggested you didn't understand. Anyway no hard feelings.

jase fox:What on earth you babbling on about man ? ALL
ive done with my Denon is set the output resolution to "auto" & hey
presto, no problems !

Dasp

 

[jase fox]

No, no hard feelings Das, i just get passionate about my interest is all...