HOWEVER: “Universal is relative” & BEWARE of the hyperbolic rhetoric by “Early Adopters.” Oppo did pretty good with high goals but never attempted VHS (thank goodness)and some other formats. The unit works pretty much as advertised and OEM extras are realistically priced. Support is very good and quick. Oppo seems to like its customers. Costs a little extra ($100) for the very good DVD upconvertion, DVD-A and SACD playback features but it’s worth it for people with a large library of those disks who want to trim down the number of boxes and cabling. BUT, if you don’t have many of those formats and you’re not a low budget audiophile who needs the ability to play those formats, don’t pay the extra cash.

A hard copy of the “latest” manual is in the future.

A PDF copy will have to do.

The front is not plastic and the unit seems solidly housed.

However, the tray still rattles and the power cord’s female end is small and does not have the accustomed fit.

Latest corrective firmware for the DVD-A and SACD feature problems was just released 7/21/09. Some “disk specific” problems were known and not corrected in this or their preceding player.

I wish to note Oppo did a great job of marketing by aggrandizing their loyal followers and building anticipation through an “Early Adoption” program where 350 willing customers were allowed to purchase ($499 PLUS shipping)and assist in beta testing before “public” release. Those who signed up for this program but not chosen were later rewarded with a pre-release purchase program for the same price.

Oppo keeps their word and doesn’t appear to be the Jim Jones of the electronics business but look out for the over the top praise by Oppo fans who are self-described Oppo Kool Aid drinkers. HOWEVER, the Kool Aid drinkers have done a great job of advising and assisting people in the voluminous “Early Adoption” thread over in AVS Forum. I’d bet you’d find any questions answered there and though Oppo is quick to reply, go to AVS Forum first for help.
Rating: 4 / 5

The player has five settings for fast-forward and reverse. For each DVD I tested, the fast-forward and reverse modes were so slow, they were useless!!!

According to Oppo, this is a limitation of the player; it’s not just a defective unit. The decoder tries to decode the film in real time when fast forward or reverse is engaged, which causes a slow refresh of the video image. Their engineers are working to increase the frame buffer to allow for smoother, more detailed reverse and fast forward functionality.

Oppo doesn’t know if this problem is caused by firmware or hardware. Oppo doesn’t know when the problem will be fixed or even if it can be fixed.

Needless to say, I returned this player to Amazon for a full refund.

Interestingly enough, I have not seen any mention of this problem in any review for this machine.

If people had been forthcoming about this problem in their reviews, I would have never bothered to buy the player.

I can’t imagine anyone releasing a video player with this limitation for any amount of money, let alone for $500. We’re talking about basic DVD playback functionality on a machine whose main purpose in life is video playback.

Although I encountered two problems, the other being a malfunctioning scene select, Oppo admitted to me that there are more DVD playback problems than the ones I found. Oppo didn’t say what they were, though.

Now, for my opinion of the Oppo’s picture quality for Blu-Ray and DVD. I didn’t bother to try out the audio playback, because I just bought the player for its video, not its audio, playback.

Please note, there are known limitations of the human eye when it comes to perceived sharpness at close viewing distances which should be taken into account when you compare my PQ observations to those of other reviewers.

The display I used with the Oppo is a 37-inch Sony HDTV, 1080p resolution, 60hz refresh rate. My viewing distance is three to six feet.

I had no issues with Blu-Ray playback and the picture quality was awesome. But, PQ was no better than BD that I have seen on other Blu-Ray players including the PS3.

DVD PQ was no better than I get with my standalone Sony upscaling DVD player.

Rating: 1 / 5

So if you want the best PQ possible, this is not for you. If you want a player that does everything at a mediocre level, this is for you!
Rating: 2 / 5

Today, I bought a samsung LN40B750 for $1199, including a free BD-1600. That is a very good deal from my local store(frys). After setup the tv, I played several blue-ray and dvd movies on BD-1600. The Blu-ray video is same as my pioneer BDP-51(should be same in every players anyway). However, dvd upscaling is supprisingly similar to BDP-51, which has been praised for its dvd upscaling more than anything else.

I thought today’s most important feature in blu-ray player must be dvd upscaling. But the basic BD-1600 proves not anymore. bdp-83 must already improve its DACs and related ckts which should have been done at time of 980H because that is what all about 980h.

So BDP-83 = blu-ray player + good dvd upscaling + sacd(+dvd audio)with good sound quality. The 1st and 2nd items are not so called features anymore. However, sacd+dvd audio playback capabilities(with good sound quality) are nice for audio lovers. Then the question is, is it worth $500 ? I am not sure but I will buy one anyway. Something I don’t understand is that oppo products seem constantly receiving excellent reviews which I have not seen any company getting it or close to it.

Update, 8/31/2009

I took a look at reviews of 980h in amazon. a lot of users are still saying its dvd upscaling quality is excellent, outstanding. Why so fanatical, therefore misleading. Based on that, my doubt about bdp83 is justified. However, making a optical drive to support both BD and SACD seems costly. If that feature is welcome mostly, then more BDP will follow, then the price will go down. I will visit OPPO in Mountain view to test it out. BTW, my audio gears, source/cable/monitors are professional grade.
Rating: 4 / 5