Oppo BDP-83 Special Edition - Sabre 32 DAC

vc69 wrote: »

Mike, there is absolutely nothing currently available that outshines the Oppo in the categories you have listed as must-haves. Simply put, the BDP-83 is the one to buy within your budget. There are cheaper players that perform AS WELL for BluRay. But for DVD upconversion, scaling and deinterlacing it is the ONE. Why don't you just get one and try it? You have a 30 day return. I guarantee you won't be sending it back.

Thank you -- I appreciate all the input on this, 'vc. We haven't simply just "bought one" because budget has been extremely tight; trying to get additional review work from my freelance editors would be helpful, but perhaps a purchase of a replacement player would aid in that!

Seriously, though, we just haven't been able to pull up enough scratch to get one, and my current Panasonic has been doing okay outside of the glitches I have mentioned (poor DVD upscaling, no bitstreaming of TrueHD, no Master Audio support at all) -- I will definitely take your recommendation into consideration, though. Can you tell me more about your experience with the player's DVD upscaling which you feel are warranted to make such a strong recommendation? Do the DVDs look very clean at 1080p (which is the resolution I'd be sending my display)?

Thanks, 'vc; appreciate the depth of your reply. Let me address:

I see you're running the successor to my Onkyo '605, the '606, yes?

vc69 wrote: »

I have been extremely impressed. I am no high end reviewer, but I have a lot of experience with the lower end upscaling DVD players and a couple supposedly good BD player/DVD upscalers.

Accepted.

You can see my setup in my sig. I have mediocre HT stuff. Not bad but no Anthem pre/pros or Kuro display. Just regular stuff.

Indeed. I would say very good "regular stuff."

The -83 comes with S&M calibration disc plus AIX audio test disc. I have SD DVE calibration disc. I have used these tools to calibrate my display pretty well. It looks fantastic (52" 1080p). Blu's look great as one would expect.

Yes, I'm aware that the player comes with these calibration discs -- I was interested in the Spears & Munsil disc ever since I read a review on it in Home Theater; the magazine made it seem like it was a very simple disc to use as compared to the HD Essentials Blu-ray (which I own and used to calibrate my display along with other tools, which I'll get to) so I was eager to look into it. Now, I have also used a "DiscWasher" standard DVD calibration disc which was extremely easy to use in which they verbally walk you through what each test should come out to on your display -- this, along with adjustments made from the HD Essentials Blu-ray and then final review on a THX Optimizer test, is what I calibrated my display with.

I have always wondered about using a standard definition calibration disc on a high definition system -- are these values okay to play Blu-ray back with, etc? But I have kind of "combined" the results of the standard DVD calibration disc with those of the HD Basics Blu-ray and found them to be satisfactory for both disc types when I watch films.

That said, was the S&M disc easy to use in terms of setting the major parameters like brightness, contrast, etc?

It's the DVD upscaling that just blows my mind. No macroblocking on busy scenes, incredibly smooth. I have NOT seen any Jaggies. I have a particular Sarah McLauchlin DVD (Afterglow Live) that has given every player I have played it on FITS with de-interlacing and macroblocking. No problem whatsoever with the -83.

VERY good to know; thank you. My current Panasonic drives me nuts with its poor DVD upconversion; at 1080p, where I run it, there is excessive noise and jagged edges with just about every disc, and every disc exhibits the jaggies and aliasing through letters and words onscreen due to the chroma upsampling error on this player.

This is a VERY important feature for me on the next BD player...are you running the DVDs at 1080?

It's the best DVD player I have EVER seen. Granted, it's my first Oppo product. I was going to purchase a 983 or 971 until I learned of the pending release of this player in February. I have owned the -83 since may and absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for uncompromising perfomance at a price a regular guy can afford.

Thank you for your honest opinion; I actually owned a 983 standard DVD player, but returned it because I didn't feel its performance "warranted" $400; I decided to return it and put the money towards a new Blu-ray player instead, which had good DVD upscaling and bitstreamed the high res codecs.

Not only all that, I have used it more for 2 ch than anything. That is why I would love to improve on it's 2 ch analog performance. It is the ONE area I think the high end players best the Oppo. I seriously doubt any comparably priced BD player can come close. I just think the analog section could be significantly better.

Yeah -- I noticed you use the Oppo in your 2 channel listening...that's interesting, as I have never used a video device for CD playback; I always left that to a dedicated Marantz (mainly) CD changer.

vc69 wrote: »

Yep

Happy with its power?

Thanks. I am pretty happy with it.

As seen in my sig, I too am using very good mid-range "stuff."

I used the S&M disc when I got this player. Frankly, it confirmed my basic setup done with DVE. I don't find any of the discs "easy" to use but I definitely think the results are worth any and all effort. In other words I use both. If settings are correct, one should confirm the other. That is how good the upscaling is. The S&M settings look right when using DVE upscaled.

Interesting -- that's exactly how I feel about using multiple discs, that each just "confirms" the settings from another; that's how I basically use them. I, too, feel that the effort using these things is worth it, and I too find that they're NOT easy to use, as so many say they are. The DVE Blu-ray Disc goes into such detailed rhetoric about the meaning behind each of the settings and gets so technical in places, it's difficult to know exactly what you're looking for on their tests -- I couldn't use their Contrast test ramp, or the color bars, so I just used my DiscWasher setup DVD which talks you through the settings step by step and tells you what the values should actually be on, or what you should be looking for. I didn't find the DVE disc so "simple." I was wondering if the S&M disc is easier to use than the DVD BD.

I simply cannot stand a wacked out display. I wish more people would take the time to do a simple calibration. I never could understand somebody dropping 2-3k on a display and then looking at the punched up settings they usually have from the factory. It hurts to look at.

I know what you mean; most people keep their displays in the VIVID or DYNAMIC modes, and as tempting as they are sometimes, I've always recommended people simply drop into their STANDARD or CINEMA modes, at least STANDARD (which I use, personally) and adjust with a disc from there.

What picture mode do you use on your display?

Absolutely.

Are you letting the Oppo's Anchor Bay chip do the upscaling to 1080p?

Sounds like you were disappointed. I don't think the Oppo will let you down.

What concerns me is the DVD section is pretty much the same in the '83 -- the same AB processor chip, etc...:o

I have a Rega Planet2k as well. Sometimes I use it for particularly poorly mastered redbook CD's. It is a little laid back for my tastes usually, but on harsh sounding stuff, it balances out. The -83 is my main squeeze.

Interesting. As I said, I never used a video playback deck for CD playback; always left that to a dedicated changer.

Thanks for the thoughts!