Oppo BDP-831?

[Anonymous]

laserman16:
Will Harris:Genaa:Maybe the delay is because OPPO have decided to redesign the unit so that it can double up as a wheel, all-in-one kitchen utensil and life partner? I would have thought most of that could be achieved with subsequent add-ons and firmware upgrades however.....
Well, as has been rumoured, I make love to mine every night. So mine doubles up as a wife. Aren't I a lucky man.

Haa, the truth at last. Well I suppose it don't answer back or get headaches.

The divorce from my Pioneer wasn't pretty I can tell you. She took forever to sign the release. Could get my disk out of her slot for what seemed like an age. Honestly that's one player I won't be getting together with again in a hurry!

 

[laserman16]

Will Harris:laserman16:

Will Harris:Genaa:Maybe the delay is because OPPO have decided to redesign the unit so that it can double up as a wheel, all-in-one kitchen utensil and life partner? I would have thought most of that could be achieved with subsequent add-ons and firmware upgrades however.....
Well, as has been rumoured, I make love to mine every night. So mine doubles up as a wife. Aren't I a lucky man.

Haa, the truth at last. Well I suppose it don't answer back or get headaches.

The divorce from my Pioneer wasn't pretty I can tell you. She took forever to sign the release. Could get my disk out of her slot for what seemed like an age. Honestly that's one player I won't be getting together with again in a hurry!

Hope your not having to pay maintenance.

 

[AndrewH13]

Well, no subscriber copy yet but read the online review. Little surprised with the correlation of the last sentence summing up and the star rating. Then again.... maybe not.

 

[Andy Clough]

For those who haven't already seen it, full review now online here.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm at a loss as to what it needs to do to get 5 stars from the mag. "Picture can be bettered". Oh really? How exactly? Somewhat predictable review. I don't think Oppo would have received a fair run on here unless they advertised. Because the star docking doesn't make any sense at all.

I can be accused of bias, or being predictable in this post, but I am quite at a loss as to what you'd expect it to do to get 5 stars that it doesn't already.

Frankly, I'd say your review was a disappointment but not a surprise.

 

[AndrewH13]

Will Harris:I'm at a loss as to what it needs to do to get 5 stars from the mag. "Picture can be bettered". Oh really? How exactly? Somewhat predictable review. I don't think Oppo would have received a fair run on here unless they advertised. Because the star docking doesn't make any sense at all.

I can be accused of bias, or being predictable in this post, but I am quite at a loss as to what you'd expect it to do to get 5 stars that it doesn't already.

Frankly, I'd say your review was a disappointment but not a surprise.

+1

 

[Andrew Everard]

Will Harris:I don't think Oppo would have received a fair run on here unless they advertised.

What a totally ridiculous, not to say defamatory, suggestion to make.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Will Harris:I'm at a loss as to what it needs to do to get 5 stars from the mag. "Picture can be bettered". Oh really? How exactly? Somewhat predictable review. I don't think Oppo would have received a fair run on here unless they advertised. Because the star docking doesn't make any sense at all.

I can be accused of bias, or being predictable in this post, but I am quite at a loss as to what you'd expect it to do to get 5 stars that it doesn't already.

Frankly, I'd say your review was a disappointment but not a surprise.

Will, if you are happy with it, what's the problem? I happen to own and love my Linksys Media Center extender. The mag reviewed the dvd version of mine and slammed it with 2 stars. It didn't bother me a jot. My 840A got a lukish warm review and 3 stars and I think it's the best amp at it's price point that I've heard.

 

[jacobmorrison]

I agree with Gerrardasnails. I waited 9 months for the oppo before giving up. Bought a Pioneer 51fd in the end. Yes you have to wait a minute or two for it to wake up and do anything but that's my cue to put the kettle on. I'm happy with it and that's all that matters. It's nice when the stuff you buy gets the official seal of approval but who cares if it gets docked a star? These are opinions being published and are meant to be used as guides only. It's not uncommon for this magazine to disagree with other mags over various pieces of kit which surely only reinforces the subjective nature of the reviews. To be honest, all this oppo evangelism puts me in mind of Charlie Brooker's recent article on mac users (of which I'm one).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/28/charlie-brooker-microsoft-mac-windows

 

[Andrew Everard]

And just to put Mr Harris's accusation into some kind of perspective...

 

[matengawhat]

i think oppo may lose out on a few sales because of the delay to the website and the review - I was really keen to see the review as read a lot of fantastic stuff about the machine also being hyped by all the ppl that had imported one but always a gamble buying blind - I will now however go and check the sony out as would be a fool not to and also keen for the new pioneers

in no rush so happy to wait for next months round up!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Andrew Everard:And just to put Mr Harris's accusation into some kind of perspective...

How did you resist, "I rest my case"!?

 

[Big Aura]

Obviously Mr Everard doesn't get enough of a share of the "Sony hush money". Although he'd better be careful - the Yakuza will be out for blood (or is it Panasonic they own, I do get my conspiracy theories mixed up from time to time).

Anyway - on to more pressing concerns - I hear Pioneer keeps the real secrets of Area51, and Denon faked the moon landing....

 

[staggerlee]

I think the review is actually quite fair. As a universal player it probably is a 5 star product for its price and this is alluded to in the review. However, what most of us want is to know is how well it does as a Blue Ray player and whether it is the best there.

If your an Oppo owner you shoud be happy it is still an excellant product, rather than coming out with conspiracy theories as to why it didn't win.

I still don't get this slavish devotion to the Oppo ! Its a Blue ray player for God's sake.

 

[Alec]

Andrew Everard:And just to put Mr Harris's accusation into some kind of perspective...

Might be part of the reason for the confusion tho, not that I agree with what you refer to as Will's allegation - that subject has been done to death and then some.

 

[Alec]

staggerlee:

I think the review is actually quite fair. As a universal player it probably is a 5 star product...

This is the problem tho isnt it, because it is a universal player. At the risk of repetition, thats what it is. So should it get two ratings?

Persoanlly, if i were interested, id probably say what they hey, its a good bdp and does several other things to boot, at a price far lower than other such players.

 

[matengawhat]

I would still consider products with 3 and 4 stars as each to their own, ppl have different needs and if anything I think what hifi give out far too many 5 star reviews. There are a lot of products that ppl feel should have been 5 stars but only got 4 or 3 - for example i own the Onkyo 876 and to me to only give that 4 stars because it was more of an update to the 875 than the revolution that was the 875 is a bit tight but i accept that. To me is still one of the best at the price point - does everything i need in terms of spec that many of the other for the money didn't. For me and my setup it was perfect!

 

[bigboss]

Hmmm....that was an interesting review. Although I must say that it probably deserved full 5 stars simply on the basis that it's the cheapest universal blu-ray player (which comes at a price). So it's unfair to compare it with other blu-ray players like the Sony S760 which can't play SACDs. I would've given it 5 stars, but added in the review that Sony offers better performance if you're not bothered about its universal capability.

 

[mjs]

It could have 20 stars, but if you still cannot buy one, what`s the point???

 

[matengawhat]

bigboss:Hmmm....that was an interesting review. Although I must say that it probably deserved full 5 stars simply on the basis that it's the cheapest universal blu-ray player (which comes at a price). So it's unfair to compare it with other blu-ray players like the Sony S760 which can't play SACDs. I would've given it 5 stars, but added in the review that Sony offers better performance if you're not bothered about its universal capability.

i think thats a fair point - if you want a universal player nothing touches it for price - but ugly remote though

but dedicated blu ray players are better if thats all you want them for - wonder how it compares to the original ps3 though in terms of what it can do that was a little less at launch and played SACDs. so these things can be made and sold for less.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Where to begin...

Firstly, plenty of products get five-stars - and,as you'll see tomorrow - even Award wins when the manufacturer does not spend a penny on advertising with us. It's totally irrelevant to our editorial judgements.

Secondly, the Oppo is a class-leading performance-per-pound universal player, but in our judgement not a performance-per-pound Blu-ray, DVD and CD player winner - in our opinion, the latter is of more importance to far more people looking to buy BD players over the next year.

Quite simply, if I wanted a machine to play SACDs and DVD-Audio I would buy the Oppo tomorrow, as it represents excellent value for that purpose. However, if it was the best movie machine for the money, i'd buy the Sony.

 

[pete321]

For those of us who bought the US version many months ago the Sony 760 wasn't available. I haven't seen the Sony and I'm sure it has a superb blu-ray picture, but then so do most good BD players, big differences in my opinion not noticeable at normal viewing distances. I'll admit I'm not happy with the onboard sound decoding of my Oppo, but it doesn't concern me, as I assume it wouldn't most in the AV market, because they'll stream via HDMI. However, the quality of the analogue outputs on this still 5 star player didn't seem to be a problem, a player which I rapidly replaced with the Oppo after spending the most unjustified £600 I've ever spent.

As the review states, most people will want a BD/DVD player, with good CD a close second, but I suspect most of those won't be using analogue outputs, even with the digital output, a CD via the Oppo doesn't sound as good as the lossless rip from my PC, I'm sure the Sony does beat it there, although if I wanted a BD player to play CD's via analogue, I think I'd prefer a Pioneer. Oppo playing SACD/DVD-Audio via HDMI sounds great, but that won't concern most. For DVD, the Oppo upscaling is by far the best I've seen, the Sony must be unbelieveable with DVD!

As has been said before, if your happy with your Oppo why worry, the review of the DVD-2500BT (I accept now aging, but still 5 stars) just shows me that I'll agree with WHF reviews most of the time, just not quite all of the time. Mind you, I have got a different model number on my Oppo from the one tested by WHF, rip off Britain and all that....

 

[hammill]

I think the problem is that the marking system is too broad brush and has insufficient detail. If you look at how Which reviews products, it breaks the review down into multiple sections with a mark for each. So you can choose from a number of highly rated products, with an emphasis on what is important to you. For example, the Sony appears to have good quality DACs, but this is not relevant if you intend to use the DACs on your home cinema amp as I do. The Oppo has very good convience factors (fast load, mutli disc memory, instant DVD play) which are important to me (the Sony may have this, but the review tells you nothing about this) so the marks here would be of interest to me, but not to others who are content to go down the off license whilst the disc loads.

 

[pete321]

Andrew Everard:And just to put Mr Harris's accusation into some kind of perspective...

Can't wait to read your Sony BDP-S760 blog.

 

[Andrew Everard]

pete321:Can't wait to read your Sony BDP-S760 blog.

I haven't written one - as you may have seen, I've been a bit busy with other bloggage of late.