OPPO's BDP-80 Blu-ray/SACD/DVD-A player - coming 1/25/10!

Just ordered mine.

 

I'm trying to decide between possibly picking up the 80 or 83 and hoping one of the beta testers or other video experts can help.

As far as sound quality goes, I will be using the unit with an external DAC. I no longer really care about SACD and never cared about DVD-A.

As for video quality, I would be using it with HDMA hooked directly to my television. I have a good 1080p Samsung HDTV, but it is only 37". With a television of this size would I be likely to notice the difference in DVD performance between the 80 and 83?

I imagine I would be fine with the 80, but don't mind spending more if I am likely to see a difference in DVD performance with the 83.

 

What are you going to be watching? Mostly 'Hollywood' type movies? Or, do you have a collection of concert DVDs or plan to buy several concert Blu-rays?

 

I have a PhD in Cinema Studies (Film History, not production), so I have pretty eclectic tastes. I watch a lot of black and white movies and getting a "film-like" look is important to me. I own a decent amount of DVDs from the Criterion collection (Walkabout, Third Man, High & Low, Ozu collections, La Jette, etc.). But I'm not a total snob and enjoy at least some recent mainstream Hollywood product (The Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.), but that kind of film would not be my priority. I won't be watching many concert DVDs or BluRays.

I bought a cheapie Sony BluRay player at Sam's Club, and it is not bad actually. It trounces my older Sony 999ES on DVD performance, and I think that was Sony's top DVD player six years ago. (I bought it more for sound than video performance.) It is obvious much progress has been made on the video front. BluRay looks very good on it to me. (First BluRay I bought was 2001). Some DVDs look quite good through it, but I suspect there is room for improvement there. Sound quality through the analog outs is obviously not up to the level of the 999ES, but it's not bad either. I'm currently using it with a valab NOS DAC, but will probably upgrade the DAC in the future.

For music, I've made the decision that I want more of my money invested in the DAC, and less in the disc-spinner. But I would like to get good video performance as well. I just don't want to invest a lot of money in something that might be broken and/or obsolete in three years.

 

OK. The reason I used the term 'Hollywood' is only in the sense that most commercially released DVDs will have normal cadences which the BDP-80 can easily detect and de-interlace to 720p/1080p. If you told me you watched a lot of Anime, PAL-based titles, concert DVDs or downloaded content, the VRS processing of the BDP-83 would come in handy.

You're probably fine with the BDP-80.

 

If you don't mind the lack of out-of-the-box region free DVD(only) playback, you're getting the same guts as the Cambridge Audio BD650 (bottom pic) in the BDP-80 (top pic), for a lot less money.

 

Mine showed up today. Very impressed with the packaging. Hookup and setup was very easy and straight forward. Playing some CDs and SACDs right now. Sounds good so far. Played a DVD and Blu-ray real briefly just to make sure it worked. I'll probably play some movies on it this weekend.

 

Sam, how did you come across that info?

Just curious.

 

Obviously I'm not Sam but talk of this was on at least a few audio sites back in September, 2009:

http://www.whathifi.com/News/Cambri...u-ray-universal-player-and-matching-receiver/

I've never seen the pic Sam posted though, wow!

 

Great. Another Lexicon job. Cambridge Audio earlier defended its player, stating that it did not use the internal components of the BDP-83, and that its design was dictated by the processor chip, and that it was not a rebadged Oppo. As evidence, they pointed to the different layout of front and back controls. I wonder what they would have said if they were asked what the differences between their unit and the BDP-80 were?

This deception is starting to wear thin with me.

 

Apparently, none of these companies wanna admit that the Keebler Elves make every brand of decks in their cookie-proof bunker.

 

Does the OPPO do HDCD? If the innerds are the same between the OPPO and Cambridge I woulld assume it does?

I do own the Cambridge but it would be nice to know if the OPPO plays the same media.

And no I am not trying to justify my expenditure, don't go there.

edit - I just saw in the fine print on the web page that it does play HDCD.

Why can't they make this region free as well out of the box? That would be the icing on the cake. (No warranty concerns)

 

I'm a beta tester for OPPO.

I have been trying to tell you guys for so long that the CA was not a BDP-83 It was hard as heck not to reveal what the CA was really based on

To be fair to CA, they did add a ground to the power cord socket. You can see the third wire grounded to the chassis in the pics. Also, CA slightly modified the back of the driver assembly so the tray can extend further out than the OPPO.

 

Looks like they (Cambridge) also have a power button on the back based on sales photos and there appears to be a small, extra board above the HDMI and ethernet ports. I wonder what the board is for?
I'd be curious what differences (if any) a shootout would reveal...

 

Well, I knew that...

But only now is it evident (to me) that you had a CA in your hands to evaluate.

D'oh.

A little disappointed in CA if this is nothing more than a BDP-80. A company with their relatively decent profile could at least toss in an upgraded analog section for the extra money. But only a little disappointed; their previous DVD/uni player was generally acknowledged to be an Oppo, yah?

I suppose NDAs and gag orders abounded while these things came to market.

Oh well... the matching-faceplate market must be served too.

 

Just ordered the BDP 80 from livingcinema with region free mod. Can't wait to get my hands on this machine.

 

I believe that is for the region-free functionality.

I have never had the CA unit in-hand. Sorry if I gave that impression.

Yep, NDAs keep all this under wraps until players are actually available for purchase.

 

I just found out that extra small board is for the IR receiver port. I guess this feature/functionality was not on the earlier versions of the Cambridge Audio player, but is now. Sorry for the confusion about region-free.

The BDP-80 does not have the IR port functionality.

 

Thanks for the followup, Sam

 

Slammer......how much did you pay for the Region free version?

 

What does that do to the warranty from Oppo? is it still valid?

389 Euros plus shipping (according to the web page)

 

I think livingcinema is in charge if the Oppo breaks down. They sell it only pre modded so no Oppo warranty. But I don't think that anyone living in Europe would send the machine back to Oppo USA if something is defective, damn shipping costs.

 

That is so true, the shipping would be ridiculous. Enjoy your region-free player

 

Thank you. Now I can finally order some Region A Blu Rays!

 

OK, let me ask a real newbie (to SACD/Blu-Ray players) question:

looking the back I don't see RCA audio outs, so what kind of receiver or amplifier would I need to take advantage of the multi-channel outputs?

That is, am I understanding that if all my receivers now only have 2-channel inputs they would not be compatible with this (or any SACD) player?