Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-ray Player - Update

Since our original coverage of the Oppo BDP-83 BD player back in September, we got our hands on some additional information about the pending release of Oppo Digital's universal Blu-ray player. First off, it's due for release in late December or early January to a handful of "guinea pig" early adopters/beta testers. That's right, we said "Universal" Blu-ray player. Except for Denon's ultra-high-end $3800 DVD-A1UDCI, this is the first universal BD player that will hit the market able to play DVDs, CDs, SACDs and DVD-Audio discs. And the best part is that it will hit the streets at a price somewhere between $499 and $599. Oh, and it will include Anchor Bay's VRS video processing... and do 1080p/24Hz output for both DVD and Blu-ray. Anchor Bay VRS? That's the video processing system that scored the DV-983H a 105/130 on our HQV bench tests and, make no bones about it, means that this will be one top-notch player for video performance.

And it will be Profile 2.0 (BD-Live).

And it will decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio.

And... and...

Did we mention it's going to be priced between $499 and $599? Oppo seems once again poised to take over the world.

The current crop of players out there (in Alpha testing) are only BD Profile 1.1 (which means they support BonusView and can do picture-in-picture with concurrent secondary audio tracks). These players are also only outputting bitstream audio for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. Oppo says that their engineers are working overtime to provide BD Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) and audio decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD by the time the release players will ship. That's exciting, and really puts and affordable universal player solution in the hands of consumers at an appropriate time. When BD Profile 2.0 players are just now hitting the streets (and at somewhat inflated prices) it's a refreshing experience to see a company put out a universal player into the mix - to meet a need and at a price point that doesn't break the bank for most serious enthusiasts.

We commented in our review of the Oppo DV-983H universal DVD player that it had come into the market a couple years too late. It was a top-of-the-line solution given at a time when the target audience was switching over to Blu-ray in favor of higher definition playback. Now, Oppo is coming out with a Blu-ray player that can also handle all those DVD-Audio and SACD discs enthusiasts have collected over the years. Will they want to purchase a separate Blu-ray player and have to maintain two transports, or will this move the masses towards a universal playback solution that promises a one-stop-smorgasboard of audio and video goodness?

We think they are headed for a windfall of sales.

For more information, visit: http://www.oppodigital.com

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.