Oppo 103D Mini-Review and Thoughts
The Oppo 103D a riff on the Oppo BDP-103 blu-ray player from Oppo Digital. In this version tucked inside the venerable 103, is a gadget called the Darbee Visual Processor. Now this visual processor is supposed to add a sense of depth to the image, possibly even a little sharpness, and all without ruining your video settings/calibration. The processor does all of this in realtime as well. Now that’s all well and fine for a tag line, but how does the unit perform and is it worth $100 more a regular 103?
Performance:
Television: This is the area I think the Darbee Visual Processor shines. At first I wasn’t crazy about it. Heck, I wasn’t sure it was even doing anything. I tried the split screen option and the swipe screen option, which are demo modes included which are supposed to help show what the processor is doing. However, unless it’s really cranked up I couldn’t really see anything regardless of if it was playing or if the show was paused. I found the best method for discovering what the visual processor was doing, was to pause a scene and switch it on and off. If you set it to a reasonable level (which to my eyes was between 20-45% on Full Pop content dependent) the effects should be subtle, but eye opening when you notice them. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that the processing wasn’t universal across the image. It only adds the processing to certain and very specific areas. Lines and certain areas lose a little fuzziness, small areas, especially across facial closeups get some increased contrast to give the face a more 3-dimensional and life-like look. Hair becomes more distinct and landscapes become sharper and look a little bit more “real”, at least to my eyes. Overall I was pleased with the effects on both my TV and especially with my projector. I felt the benefits were noticeable with the TV, but really shined with the projector. Another note I’ll add about performance is that without the scene paused, it can be harder to spot the benefits, but the more you watch, the more you start to pick out what you’re missing without it.
Blu-Rays: I don’t have a whole lot to say about Blu-Rays. On both my TV and PJ blu-rays are sharp, crisp, and look awesome. I don’t think the Darbee processor adds anything meaningful to the image, and what little it does I could take or leave. It may be different for others, especially with your own rooms, equipment and eyes.
Setup, Ease of Use and Associated Equipment:
Equipment: Panasonic TCP46G15
Epson 8500UB
Marantz AV8801
Logitech Harmony One
Monoprice HDMI Cables
Here’s where I’ve had the biggest issues with the 103D. Setup was a breeze, just like the Oppo BDP-95 I have and it only required a few extra HDMI cables. I set the 103D up so that the HDMI cord from the Time Warner Cable box was fed into the rear input. I then connected Output 1 the CBL/SAT input on the 8801 and the Output 2 to the BD input on the 8801. I did this so that I could really customize the settings on the both the Marantz and the Oppo for what I was watching. With all this done, I fired everything up and got to work fiddling with the settings, only to realize that Oppo was requesting a firmware update right off the bat. Bonehead move on my part, but I did the update and reset to factory defaults. A little face palming later and I was back up and running. Settings were all familiar and the Darbee settings were easy and straightforward enough to figure out. Unfortunately I had a bear of a time trying to get my universal remote to cooperate with the 103D. When I started everything up from an activity the remote refused to set the Oppo to HDMI back. I figured out a workaround by creating a sequence key on the remote, but I still have yet to figure out why the remote either doesn’t change the Oppo input at all, or starts Netflix.
Another issue I had and continue to have is that every once in awhile the audio and video suddenly drop out and continue to come back for a split second and then drop out again and again. If I turn off the Marantz and turn it back on, that usually solves the issue, but it’s too random to predict if and when it happens. Sometimes it happens when I change the channel, most of the time it happens when I first hit “watch TV” on my remote activities to turn everything on, but I’ve also had it happen when switching from a TV show to a commercial and the audio changes. I had the Oppo set to bitstream, then I switched it to PCM and then auto. I’ve also tried have both the Oppo and Marantz process the video, the Marantz only process the video and the Oppo only process the video and a number of other settings and options combinations. There was also an update to the Oppo 103D recently so I downloaded and installed that and reset it to factory defaults, but to no avail. My last resort is to try a hard reset of the Marantz, but I’m loathe to do that since it would mean having to run Audyssey again, which I hate doing.
Now I don’t experience any of these problems when watching BD’s, only TV shows when I’m routing something through the rear input. Now that I’ve spent some time with the unit and made an honest effort to resolve things on my own I plan on shooting Oppo and e-mail about it to seek their advice.
Bottom Line:I think the Oppo 103D presents an interesting and unique option that some people may find fascinating and amazing. In some regards I agree with other reviews that it is like a veil has been lifted from the image. However, my veil doesn’t seem to have been as thick as theirs. Does the 103D make a difference to television? Definitely. Does it do anything to blu-rays? Sort-of. I think the performance of the Darbee Visual Processor is first rate, as far as digital processors go. It adds “stuff” that makes sense and makes a definitive improvement to the image, but only if the image needs it. If my comments about the Visual Processor and BD’s has seemed negative, I assure you they’re not. BD images are supposed to look great. They’re supposed to be crisp and vibrant and not need much if anything done to them and when the DVP is used sensibly it really doesn’t do a whole lot to the image. A little here and there, maybe a touch of this or that, but for the most part it leaves something that already looks excellent alone.
My biggest issue with it has been getting it to integrate into my system. If the unit had just plain worked from the get go I would give it a tentative thumbs up, but reiterate that it won’t be for everyone, especially those who prize only viewing the source content (even if the new image looks better and doesn’t in any way fundamentally alter the original image). Hopefully I’ll have updates on my issues and a response from Oppo sometime this week after I shoot them an e-mail.
