hammill:Will Harris:Andrew Everard:
Well, OK, since the CRT Projectors fan-club is so insistent, and has now changed tack from its previous accusations of us bowing to pressure from the well-known manufacturers, I'm going to contact Oppo's European office and get clarification on whether the player the company is selling is an authorised import, and if so authorised by whom.
I'll also be asking Oppo whether CRT offers full servicing of this machine, and whether the modifications it's offering are also authorised by the manufacturer.
I'll report back when I have a reply.
Andrew, Oppo Europe are in fact Oppo Sweden. They don't produce the player. Why would you contact them and not Oppo USA, the actual company? But nonetheless, I'm sure that Oppo Sweden will confirm that all is well with CRT Projectors. CRT are a retailer. What sort of servicing would you expect them to do other than the usual of taking in the player and either returning it to the parent manufacturer for repair or the manufacturers own authorised service centre in the UK? As for the mod, it's at the owners own risk. So no doubt you'll be able to pick holes in the offer if you do you darndest, which you seem to be awfully keen to do. Of course, you'll find out that CRT warranties the machine for 12 months and no-doubt you'll consider that to be substandard when compared to an "official manufacturer authorised" modification. So yes. Go ahead and pick holes and give yourself a few excellent bureaucratic reasons to continue not to test it and therefore keep your readers in the dark. So far you appear to be more keen to do the leg work on why you shouldn't test it, than to get one in and stick it on your test rig. Why can't we go back to the days of embracing products that bust out of the straightjackets the industry sometimes impose. The hardware mod will never be an authorised modification because Oppo are bound by the BluRay Forum rules. So they can't make a multi-region player. So what do you expect to find? Only the obvious. Oppo are unlikely to explicitly state they endorse it or they could have their license removed. What they did do, was leave very easy to use connections inside the player, to supply power and connectivity to any mod someone might like to cunningly add at a later date. Rather good of them if you ask me, and about the nearest you're likely to get to an endorsement of the modification by the manufacturer.
Will, I want a review of the Oppo as much as you do - probably more, since you have already ordered one, so a positive review will just give you a warm feeling wheras it will influence my purchasing decision. Reviews of products like this which I have no chance of personally demoing are a prime reason for me to subscribe to the magazine. However, I would humbly suggest that berating the staff is not the best way to achieve this end.
You're absolutely right, they just rile me so and I should try and be more professional!
I don't really mind what the review eventually says. I just think that as many people as possible should be given the information needed to make an informed choice. After all, many people DO base their buying decision on WHF's reviews. Usually I do too. I also think that Henry deserves a break for taking the time and trouble to get a mod made up for this machine. Beyond the call of duty and personally I think that deserves a bit of recognition. That's why I keep banging on. But you're right, it's an approach that only ever produces one reaction, the predictable walls fly up and it's me against the mag. Completely counter-productive I know, but I am trying!
Clare, you're right, you have given a lot of column inches to manufacturers I wouldn't describe as mainstream. But I would re-iterate a point I made a number of posts ago, which is that these manufacturers haven't released a machine that in performance per pound stakes is effectively mispriced way too low. If they had, they could have rendered a good swathe of the market, effectively redundant until a price shift occurs. The Oppo does just this. By being available with the functionality it has, and the quality it has, for a price that is effectively undercutting the mainstream manufacturers by a huge margin, it effectively wipes out their ability to claim performance per pound. I can thus understand why you'd be reluctant to highlight this as it's quite disruptive. But the Oppo exists and the consumer is on this occasion getting a blinder of a deal. Something to celebrate, for once I'd say.
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