Had a friend with the hardware modded Oppo BD-83 come over to mine this morning with his player. It is the most remarkable bit of kit I've ever used.
It's quick. Staggeringly quick to boot up and to load discs. It loaded The Quantum of Solace in about 6 seconds from hitting play off the main menu. So the 30 seconds+ my Pioneer takes to load the Java off the disc is blown away.
Sound quality is amazing, just as it should be over HDMI, same as every other player over HDMI (that is, my Pioneer, and the Denon 3800 being the comparisons). Video quality is outstanding, and this time sent 720p50 to my screen.
But the best thing is the flexibility. No region coding and SACD playback. It bitstreamed the SACD to my Arcam ARV600 which sounded unbelievable. Bye bye CDs. Why on earth hasn't SACD taken off? It's amazing. Listened to Queen, Dire Straights and The Flaming Lips (yup, never heard them before either). Incredible. The Arcam did a better job than the Oppo's multichannel analogues, so we agreed that HDMI was the best output from the Oppo.
There is no excuse for WHF to not test this machine, just because a European version hasn't been launched officially. It sets the benchmark. It does everything a player will ever need to do before we dump players altogether and start downloading content. The logic for spending £1000 - £2000 OR EVEN £4,500 on a universal Denon is utterly defunct unless you must have analogue outputs and even then, they're on the Oppo, though the Arcam's DACs proved better.
WHF please buy one from CRT Projectors and get it in the mag. It's a bit like denying penecilin has been invented because we don't have it yet and so pretending it doesn't exist. Maybe if you broadcast the fact, then Denon wouldn't be able to ask such silly money for their players and Arcam would have a re-think about launching an utterly pointless £1800 BD player later this year.
This player is the best BD player / transport I've heard and for the money, should be everyone's high end choice. And even without taking the money into account, is 4 times faster and identical in sound and picture to the Denon 3800 AND is universal and multi region.
I've said my piece, WHF you've had months to get one and test it, get some professional integrity, stop shoving overpriced underspecified kit at us and test the Oppo.
Have a nice weekend all.