Figured I would add to this thread, instead of starting another one regarding my satisfaction disappointments with the BDP-83...
I've had this player since the holidays, and I'm kind of disappointed by its DVD upscaling abilities -- I'm not saying this player is bad in any way in terms of its upconversion, but this is a company that is consistently overhyped regarding its standard DVD upconversion prowess injected into their players usually courtesy of the Anchor Bay processor. I say "overhyped" because everyone I came in contact with on the online forum community recommended this player as the one and only to have if DVD upconversion in a BD player was a priority (which it was, for me). Add the reputation Oppo has garnered over the years regarding their DVD players into the mix, and the temptation of buying the BDP-83 was simply too great to pass up. I actually received the player as a holiday gift last year, and immediately replaced my Panasonic DMP-BD10A player in the rack with the Oppo.
Now, DVD upconversion was horribly poor on the Panny, so almost anything should have looked better -- upon hooking up the BDP-83 via HDMI only and calibrating my display for use with a new player, the DVD upconversion was marginally improved, basically getting rid of the jaggies and pixelation "noise" caused by the Panasonic's processor. However, the more time I spend with the BDP-83, running DVD after DVD through its upscaling paces on the player, the more I find it a simply "average at best" DVD deck; just the other night, I popped in the Platinum Edition of Scarface with the remastered audio (and supposedly video as well) and the image didn't look all that great -- the sequences which were littered with video noise and grain were still there on the Oppo, and it just didn't knock me off the couch. Granted, this is an old film and an old transfer, but it's not just that title that doesn't move me on the BDP-83 based on its reputation.
I completely understand that the concensus has been that the Oppo was designed to take source material of DVD quality and upconvert it to the best possible image -- in other words, a shitty DVD transfer will simply continue to look like a shitty DVD transfer. Good transfers are said to look almost like Blu-ray in image upscaled by the BDP-83, and I agree with that to a point -- Universal's Fast and the Furious (the original) looks absolutely jaw dropping in certain scenes on the Oppo as upscaled to 1080p. BUT, to be honest, the disc NEVER looked BAD on any other player I ran it through...so what's so special about what the Oppo is doing? Follow my logic here? Other newer titles such as The Proposal and Training Day (DVD) look great on the '83 upscaled to 1080p, but, again, they are great transfers to begin with. See, I am beginning to think I didn't need to upgrade my player for better DVD playback if at the end of the day, I simply have to watch "good" DVD transfers in order for the Oppo to shine...I don't understand that. I could have kept the previous player.
Per Oppo's recommendations from their own support staff, my player is configured 100 percent correct for optimum playback -- PRIMARY OUTPUT has been set to HDMI, COLOR SPACE is set to "4:4:4" (per their recommendation for my display), DEEP COLOR has been set to "36 Bits" (again, per their recommendation) and NOISE REDUCTION has been left at "+4" (where they say it should be for no negative effects; I am still very concerned with this setting though). All the other Picture Adjustments are at default of "0" or "Normal," with full calibration made at my display itself.
Still, I can't help but think the DVD upconversion isn't all that it's cracked up to be based on all the hype this player gets online. Could it be I am expecting too much from the DVD format? Is there something I'm missing in terms of a setting somewhere perhaps that isn't allowing the BDP-83 to perform better upconversion (unlikely)? Is there anyone else finding the DVD scaling to be a bit less mind-blowing as this player's reputation suggests?