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Reviewed by: Joshua Zyber
After all the hype and anticipation, is the OPPO BDP-83 the best Blu-ray player on the market? In my opinion, it certainly belongs at the top of that list. The unit has excellent Blu-ray quality, world class DVD upconversion, extremely fast boot-up and loading times, and universal compatibility with the audiophile SACD and DVD-Audio music formats.
What doesn't it do? The player is not region-free for either DVD or Blu-ray (as some OPPO fans may have expected it to be). It has no internet streaming from Netflix, Amazon, or any other comparable movie services, if that's a requirement. And it will not play video games like the PS3 does. Other than that, its performance in the core Blu-ray and DVD playback areas is second-to-none.
The only faults I found in the machine were a minor nuisance involving the transition times between HD and SD content on the same disc (which is far from a deal-breaker by any means), and a problem with artifacting on some selected DVD titles when using the YCbCr color space. The latter issue should be fixed soon, and can be avoided by switching to RGB in the meantime.
At $499, the OPPO BDP-83 is a high-end Blu-ray player comparable to the much more expensive flagship models from premium labels. I can think of almost no reason to spend more money on any other player. Audiophile users who require their disc players to perform decoding and Digital-to-Analog conversion internally may possibly find another model with a more sophisticated D-to-A section, which could conceivably offer improvement there. However, anyone wishing to perform these tasks in the A/V receiver should use an HDMI connection and set their disc player to "Bitstream" for audio. Any and all HDMI 1.3 equipped players will be identical for that task.
At the other end of the spectrum, the BDP-83 may be overkill for viewers looking for an inexpensive entry to the world of Blu-ray. I can't deny that there are less expensive models that may sacrifice in an area or two, but otherwise provide a very good Blu-ray experience. In the end, each viewer must decide for him- or herself which features are most important and how much he or she is willing to spend.
Personally, I consider the OPPO BDP-83 to be the best standalone Blu-ray player I've yet used. OPPO Digital's first Blu-ray model lives up to the company's reputation for quality. I have been testing the BDP-83 for several weeks, and plan to make it the new reference player in my home theater system.
Buy now / See Comments / Compare PriceAfter all the hype and anticipation, is the OPPO BDP-83 the best Blu-ray player on the market? In my opinion, it certainly belongs at the top of that list. The unit has excellent Blu-ray quality, world class DVD upconversion, extremely fast boot-up and loading times, and universal compatibility with the audiophile SACD and DVD-Audio music formats.
What doesn't it do? The player is not region-free for either DVD or Blu-ray (as some OPPO fans may have expected it to be). It has no internet streaming from Netflix, Amazon, or any other comparable movie services, if that's a requirement. And it will not play video games like the PS3 does. Other than that, its performance in the core Blu-ray and DVD playback areas is second-to-none.
The only faults I found in the machine were a minor nuisance involving the transition times between HD and SD content on the same disc (which is far from a deal-breaker by any means), and a problem with artifacting on some selected DVD titles when using the YCbCr color space. The latter issue should be fixed soon, and can be avoided by switching to RGB in the meantime.
At $499, the OPPO BDP-83 is a high-end Blu-ray player comparable to the much more expensive flagship models from premium labels. I can think of almost no reason to spend more money on any other player. Audiophile users who require their disc players to perform decoding and Digital-to-Analog conversion internally may possibly find another model with a more sophisticated D-to-A section, which could conceivably offer improvement there. However, anyone wishing to perform these tasks in the A/V receiver should use an HDMI connection and set their disc player to "Bitstream" for audio. Any and all HDMI 1.3 equipped players will be identical for that task.
At the other end of the spectrum, the BDP-83 may be overkill for viewers looking for an inexpensive entry to the world of Blu-ray. I can't deny that there are less expensive models that may sacrifice in an area or two, but otherwise provide a very good Blu-ray experience. In the end, each viewer must decide for him- or herself which features are most important and how much he or she is willing to spend.
Personally, I consider the OPPO BDP-83 to be the best standalone Blu-ray player I've yet used. OPPO Digital's first Blu-ray model lives up to the company's reputation for quality. I have been testing the BDP-83 for several weeks, and plan to make it the new reference player in my home theater system.
