Oppo BDP-831?

[skr1]

Andrew Everard:
And anyway, want to make sure we have all the angles covered in the review, because the fanbois will no doubt have a million questions most of the 'normal' users won't ever worry about.

Just to give you an idea, I've started roughing out a blog piece based on my initial feelings about the player, and it already runs to some 1700 words. Or about six times the length of a normal first test.

Not promising - or indeed threatening - that you'll get all that online, but just thought I'd give you an idea of how much is going on behind the scenes.

After all, in the face of such ferocious overhyping - none of it coming from Oppo itself, you'll note - we want to make sure we get it absolutely right before we pronounce.

And that includes being aware of how the UK operation will be run, what the exact price will be - at the moment we just have an 'about' number - and so on.

We are not Worthy

 

[skr1]

Andrew Everard:Does that mean this thread's finished at last?
I am sure there will be a Ressurection-

 

[laserman16]

Andrew Everard:Does that mean this thread's finished at last?

Your faith in human nature knows no bounds does it Andrew?

Personally I doubt it.

 

[recruit]

I can understand some people being sceptical about the Oppo player but rest assured it is as good as people are telling, it has had some of the most respected reviewers in the US pass judgement and all have given it rave reviews...myself too was sceptical and wary but after reading some of the praise it was getting jumped in and bought one, best £500 I have spent in a while, and I have spent a fortune on AV over the years, it not only meets my expectations but exceeds them, as I now have only one player for all my discs and for all regions

 

[Andrew Everard]

Heals the sick - check!

Raises the dead - check!

Cures global warming - check!

Makes the owner invisible - no, apparently not...

 

[professorhat]

Commands the loyalty of sea creatures?

 

[Andrew Everard]

And probably the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, too...

 

[Anonymous]

Now you're going into David Blaine territory.

 

[Andrew Everard]

bennyben:Now you're going into David Blaine territory.

Huh?

 

[idc]

I can't be bothered reading the whole thread and rarely venture into the Home Cinema part of the forum. So what is an Oppo BDP-831? Never heard of it.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Some kind of video thingummyjig. Move on - if you don't, the Oppevangelists will get you, and you'll be stuck on the doorstep for ages trying to keep them from forcing their way in and inspecting your firmware.

 

[Anonymous]

I so wish I could close this thread....

 

[RodhasGibson]

Andrew Everard:

Some kind of video thingummyjig. Move on - if you don't, the Oppevangelists will get you, and you'll be stuck on the doorstep for ages trying to keep them from forcing their way in and inspecting your firmware.

another jem

 

[Craig M.]

Ian_S:I so wish I could close this thread....

i reckon it's been quite entertaining in parts. just a shame there's so much jibber jabber in between the good bits.

looking forward to the review, not much of a telly watcher myself but interested in it as a universal transport.

 

[Tom Moreno]

Andrew Everard:
Some kind of video thingummyjig. Move on - if you don't, the Oppevangelists will get you, and you'll be stuck on the doorstep for ages trying to keep them from forcing their way in and inspecting your firmware.

Note to self... refrain from taking a sip of any drink before reading another reply by Andrew. This is the third time I've had to clean my laptop screen in one sitting.

 

[laserman16]

Andrew Everard:

Some kind of video thingummyjig. Move on - if you don't, the Oppevangelists will get you, and you'll be stuck on the doorstep for ages trying to keep them from forcing their way in and inspecting your firmware.

Clutching their magazine "Oppotower".

 

[hunnyy]

I just wanted to take this oppotunity to say how much I've enjoyed reading this thread. (Nothing wrong with people having opposite views on the player in question).

 

[Anonymous]

As the aforementioned evangelist, I think it is worth noting that there is a serious side to this thread as well as the entertaining banter.

Most of the scepticism is coming from people who have largely not seen or heard the device and the evangelising is coming from people who have bought it and lived with it. Some might say, they have a vested interest in seeing it do well, but you could equally say that they're the most experienced to comment on it, having actually used it.

That's still no substiute for the review. For which I'm on tenterhooks!

It just shouldn't surprise people that there is such strong feeling amongst us forum members. Largely I think it's been pretty constuctive and damned entertaining. 2009 is shaping up to be the year BluRay comes of age.

 

[Alec]

Will Harris:2009 is shaping up to be the year BluRay comes of age.

If the number of BDs in my local Blockbuster, and the fact that im still not convinced it gives consistently good enough picture have any thing to do with it, it probably isnt, and we're in August, not January. I think it may have stalled.

There'll be many Joe Bloggs who feel the same too.

Lucky my BDP is a better DVD player than my last (DVD player); lucky too that i got it relatively cheap.

Mind, im not a real HC devotee, and im not suitably kitted out for HD sound, and wont be in the foreseeable, so im aware its not just picture that matters and that im not getting the full experience.

 

[pete321]

Will Harris:That's still no substiute for the review. For which I'm on tenterhooks!

Why? Like me you took the plunge and love it. Doesn't matter to us how it's reviewed now.

I bought the DVD-2500BT on the strength of a WHF review and it was one of the most disappointing purchases I made, and before Andrew and Clare get the hump with me, I'll point out again that for years I've happily relied on WHF reviews for years to inform my purchases, and yes I should have viewed myself before I bought it.

 

[pete321]

al7478: If the number of BDs in my local Blockbuster, and the fact that im still not convinced it gives consistently good enough picture have any thing to do with it, it probably isnt, and we're in August, not January. I think it may have stalled.

Some blu-ray's are definately better than others, but that applies to DVD as well. I always noticed the picture difference with blu-ray and thought it was in general quite substancial, however I wasn't quite so convinced with the HD audio when used through my old Onkyo amp and MA speakers. I found it hard to tell too much difference between a 640kbps DD track and a lossless TrueHD track. That changed with my current set-up (below), now I can hear a big difference in HD lossless sound as well.

Only problem is on the picture front, with the Oppo BDP-83 (and probably any other equipment which uses Anchor Bay!), a good DVD upscaled to 1080p is not far short of blu-ray (albeit lacking some colour depth). You can't improve the 448kbps audio on DVD though!

 

[chebby]

Will Harris:....2009 is shaping up to be the year BluRay comes of age.

al7478:If the number of BDs in my local Blockbuster, and the fact that im
still not convinced it gives consistently good enough picture have any
thing to do with it, it probably isnt, and we're in August, not
January. I think it may have stalled.

Yes I am wondering about that too.

I know my city centre HMV branch is not representative enough to be a reliable guide to Blu-Ray penetration or sales, but the space devoted to Blu-Ray has at least halved over the last year.

I have checked amazon a number of times in the last year for any of our favourite movies being available in Blu-Ray format and have still yet to find more than a couple.

Maybe my memory is failing, but I seem to remember the range of DVD titles expanding far more rapidly when it was in the ascendant (over VHS) all those years ago. I also remember VHS disappearing from the shops almost overnight whereas right now DVD seems more popular than ever.

I will get Blu-Ray when there is at least an 'evens' chance that what I want to watch is available in the format. I prefer to buy movies I like rather than titles that 'flatter' the format.

Here is an example of what I mean...

Powell & Pressburger films on Blu-Ray from Amazon UK

Powell & Pressburger films on DVD from Amazon UK

 

[Andrew Everard]

Well, there's also The Red Shoes on BD, currently exclusive to HMV, AFAIK...

 

[Clare Newsome]

chebby:
Maybe my memory is failing, but I seem to remember the range of DVD titles expanding far more rapidly when it was in the ascendant (over VHS) all those years ago.

Not so, sadly. I was editor of DVD Magazine in 2000-2001 - that's 3-4 years after DVD's launch - and we wrote regular features bemoaning the lack of both vintage and modern classics on the new format.

I wrote an Oscar-winners DVD feature in Spring 2001 that was bereft of more than half of the classic winners, while other sought-after DVDs were also absent (the original Star Wars trilogy didn't arrive on disc until late 2004, for example) or poorly transferred (how many years was it before Goodfellas wasn't a 'flipper' DVD?)

And PRs used to send us VHS versions of movies to preview - not quite getting the point of a test that was going to judge sound and picture quality, as well as how good the film itself was...

Add in the loss of almost a year to the format war, plus the baffling multi-Profile hardware system, not to mention a global recession that's hardly going to have people rushing for a premium product, and I think Blu-ray's doing OK. Prices of players have certainly fallen far sooner than DVD players did at the same stage, and software's coming down in price, too.

Industry predictions that it'll take until late 2012 for BD sales to overtake those of DVD seem on track.

 

[Tom Moreno]

chebby:
Maybe my memory is failing, but I seem to remember the range of DVD titles expanding far more rapidly when it was in the ascendant (over VHS) all those years ago. I also remember VHS disappearing from the shops almost overnight whereas right now DVD seems more popular than ever.

I will get Blu-Ray when there is at least an 'evens' chance that what I want to watch is available in the format. I prefer to buy movies I like rather than titles that 'flatter' the format.

Here is an example of what I mean...

Powell & Pressburger films on Blu-Ray from Amazon UK

Powell & Pressburger films on DVD from Amazon UK

I think realistically if you look back at the launch of the DVD format back in 1997 you will find that it probably took quite a few years before the range of films you are using as an example here became available. With the launch of any new format there is always a waiting process for older catalogue titles to make it to the shelves and oftentimes the more recent, higher-grossing, films will take strong precedence. In this day and age films from the era of the 40's-50's are, barring the largest of blockbusters in the day, relatively niche and will probably take quite some time to make it into production queues on a new format.

Sometimes I get the impression that people have a slightly romantic memory of DVD's journey into the market. Yes it was the most successful new format to date (though BD player/software sale are, according to some numbers, outstripping the rates achieved by DVD in it's infancy), but it did take quite a few years before "everyone had one". As an early adopter who bought his first player (a 1st gen RCA machine) at xmas '97, I remember quite clearly that for at least the first year I was the only person I knew that had one and after two years I had one other friend that had one (because he really liked mine). For the first three years I had the thing, I couldn't rent discs for it at all, and four years down the line in 2001 I was still waiting on quite a large portion of popular, recently released, high-grossing films to still be pressed on the format for the first time.