Oppo BDP-80 Universal Blu-ray Player First Look

[Alain Singapore]

BDP-80 clone found in UK

Are you looking for a BDP-80 clone?

Have a check at the Cambridgeaudio Azur 650BD Blu-ray Universal Player.

A few pictures of the guts can be seen on homecinema-fr forum

Only visible differences are an added grounded chassis and a socket for a remote IR sensor. All that for €600

(sorry, I am unable to post the URL because I posted less than 5 messages on this forum)

 

[hedberg]

The seem to be a region free kit available for the BDP-80 in a couple of days from eg. bluraychip.dk

 

[Sugarbear]

Are you looking for a BDP-80 clone?

Have a check at the Cambridgeaudio Azur 650BD Blu-ray Universal Player.

A few pictures of the guts can be seen on homecinema-fr forum

Only visible differences are an added grounded chassis and a socket for a remote IR sensor. All that for €600

(sorry, I am unable to post the URL because I posted less than 5 messages on this forum)

I'd be interested in seeing that.

 

[j_garcia]

Are you looking for a BDP-80 clone?

Have a check at the Cambridgeaudio Azur 650BD Blu-ray Universal Player.

A few pictures of the guts can be seen on homecinema-fr forum

Only visible differences are an added grounded chassis and a socket for a remote IR sensor. All that for €600

(sorry, I am unable to post the URL because I posted less than 5 messages on this forum)

Cambridge Audio's players have always been based on Oppos AFAIK.

 

[Elduro21]

Why is it that all you guys think that all blu-ray players in the market it's an
OPPO clone the BDP-80 was release yesterday and you guys are already assuming that the Cambridge Azur is a clone of the latest OPPO, it doesn't even make sense to me cause I remember seeing the Cambridge player a few months ago, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[gonk]

Probably because Cambridge has been using OPPO designs for their DVD players for several years now and because the BDP-80 is based on the platform developed by OPPO for the BDP-83.

 

[Matt34]

Why is it that all you guys think that all blu-ray players in the market it's an
OPPO clone the BDP-80 was release yesterday and you guys are already assuming that the Cambridge Azur is a clone of the latest OPPO, it doesn't even make sense to me cause I remember seeing the Cambridge player a few months ago, correct me if I'm wrong.

It's closer resembled to the BDP-83 than the -80 AFAIK. Considering that Oppo has OEM'ed stuff for Cambridge Audio before, it wouldn't be too weird. At least Cambridge isn't marking them up $3000.

 

[j_garcia]

Why is it that all you guys think that all blu-ray players in the market it's an
OPPO clone the BDP-80 was release yesterday and you guys are already assuming that the Cambridge Azur is a clone of the latest OPPO, it doesn't even make sense to me cause I remember seeing the Cambridge player a few months ago, correct me if I'm wrong.

Because it is KNOWN that they have been using the same internals for their players for years. It isn't like it is something new. That's actually how I found out about Oppo originally, because I was looking at a CA player and someone mentioned it was based on the less expensive Oppo, so I bought the Oppo instead.

 

[hedberg]

It's closer resembled to the BDP-83 than the -80 AFAIK.

The Cambridge uses the same Mediatek decoder chip as Oppo BDP-80/83. The analoge sound uses the same DAC as BDP-80 and just like BDP-80 it doesnt have the Anchor Bay VRS de-interlacer chip like BDP-83

In my opinion it resembles (hardware wise) the BDP-80 much more than the BDP-83. I can't speak for the performance of the player since I havent tried it.

 

[rnatalli]

Make it stream netflix and pandora and I'm in.

Same here

 

[j_garcia]

Until they come out with HD streaming and at least 5.1 audio, using Netflix as a reason not to buy a solid player like either of the Oppos is just an excuse.

 

[nibhaz]

Dang, I was hoping for a cheaper HDMI only version with the same video prowess...guess I wishing for too much.


Does anyone have real knowledge of the cost difference between a good video chip and a whole analog output section?

 

[j_garcia]

As has already been said, there are alread enough HDMI only players on the market, so why should they make another one that will have to compete against a crowed, already highly cost competetive market?

 

[jostenmeat]

As has already been said, there are alread enough HDMI only players on the market, so why should they make another one that will have to compete against a crowed, already highly cost competetive market?

Well, maybe they would do well, because it seems everybody and their momma wants an Oppo.

After all, did not Oppo become well known for producing a DVD player that competed "against a crowded, already highly cost competitive market"? Maybe not, you tell me.

I thought it interesting that people, including AHers, held out for years until Oppo released a player. I had mine for about two years already, and even then I paid hundreds less than the 83, but as you may know, people had to have an Oppo!

 

[j_garcia]

After all, did not Oppo become well known for producing a DVD player that competed "against a crowded, already highly cost competitive market"? Maybe not, you tell me.

Not exactly. They came to the market long after there were plenty of players on the market but they released something that was a complete upstart: it was capable of video performance that was better than 95% of the other players on the market at a fraction of the cost. That differentiated them right away.

The same is sort of true here; there are only a few BD players out that are targeted at both the Blu-ray and audio crowd so they are after a specific segment AND at a reasonable price compared to the others. I waited for the Oppo because it had the features I want, but I also already had a PS3.

 

[gonk]

You have a good point here. There has been lots of debate about how the BDP-80 (and the BDP-83, for that matter) compares to players from Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and other players that you might find at Sears or Best Buy. What about the flip side of the coin? How do the BDP-80 and BDP-83 compare to players from Yamaha, Pioneer Elite, Marantz, Denon, NAD, and others? We already know that some of the manufacturers that could fall into this category are building their players around the OPPO platforms (Cambridge and Lexicon, for example). There are a fair number of other BD players priced higher than either OPPO player that don't use the OPPO platforms, almost none of which offer any streaming video support - what about them? Those are the brands that were closer competitors of OPPO in the DVD days (similar features and build quality at lower prices) and they are really the ones that OPPO is probably most closely in competition with today. It just happens that OPPO's BD players are enough lower in price than those BD players that they are bleeding over into the Sony/Panasonic/etc. market at the same time.

 

[nibhaz]

As has already been said, there are alread enough HDMI only players on the market, so why should they make another one that will have to compete against a crowed, already highly cost competetive market?

As you mentioned yourself there are few players that are targeted for both audio and video.

I currently deal with the various eccentricities of my Samsung player because the Reon does a pretty darn good job of upscaling DVDs and this is feature I care about, so its replacement has to equal or better it in this regard.

On the audio side of things I want SACD over HDMI, which is why I have an Oppo 980. I use it exclusively as an audio transport via HDMI.

I have a hard time justifying the price of the BDP- 83 just to get faster load times and all the functionality I require in one piece of equipment. Especially when I know part of that cost is due to a nice analog section that I will never use.

I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only person out there that cares about audio and video and can forego having legacy connections. So why not produce a product for us?

 

[PENG]

I still can't see the logic of having everything in one player unless your have room restriction. I much prefer to have a player to take care of the audio, a DVD player for DVD and a BD player for BR. I would hate to spend $500 on the 83 and wear it out with DVD discs. Some people say if you have a very large screen, say >60", the 83 will be noticeably better than other players. To me, people with such large screens should stick with real HD.

 

[MDS]

I still can't see the logic of having everything in one player unless your have room restriction. I much prefer to have a player to take care of the audio, a DVD player for DVD and a BD player for BR. I would hate to spend $500 on the 83 and wear it out with DVD discs. Some people say if you have a very large screen, say >60", the 83 will be noticeably better than other players. To me, people with such large screens should stick with real HD.

I guess it's just what one prefers and if you feel that a 'dedicated' player will perform any one function better than an all-in-one player could (it's the old philosophy of 'jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none').

But even ignoring the extra clutter of multiple devices you still have overlap. A CD player will only play CDs but a DVD player will play DVDs and CDs, and a BluRay player will play BluRay, DVDs, and CDs. So why not just have one box that does everything?

The only negative to me with universal players is that, just like receivers, the flexibility of supporting everything under the sun means that there will be many, many functions that you will never ever use. It would be nice if we could build a-la-carte with only the features we want.

For my usage, an Oppo with no analog audio or video (other than maybe one single composite for troubleshooting picture problems so you could at least get the menu) that supports only CD, DVD, and BluRay would be ideal.

 

[gonk]

The only negative to me with universal players is that, just like receivers, the flexibility of supporting everything under the sun means that there will be many, many functions that you will never ever use. It would be nice if we could build a-la-carte with only the features we want.

This is the very reason that we've seen several companies develop surround processors and receivers around a card-based architecture. Buy the cards you need, don't buy the ones you don't need. Sadly, I don't think that any of those products has proven to be a particular success in the marketplace, and none have been particularly economical.

This is also why manufacturers have to pick feature sets that will never satisfy everyone.