Oppo BDP-80 Universal Blu-ray Player First Look

[jostenmeat]

right.

i haven't used my HT for literally months now. when i get back into AV ... my 2010 purchases will be:

1) a new HD media tank
2) dedicated BD player that can flag the HD audio on my receiver (right now, i only see multi-ch PCM)
3) the biggest display within 1800 bucks for my bedroom.

hmmmm, you know I've been often thinking about your old thread recently, the one about the upgrade wishlist. Ima go nab it right now. No, I'll wait until I'm more sober. Oh, maybe I'll grab it anyways. Oh, I don't know. I need help. I think the doctor is online right now.

 

[avliner]

Hi Mike,

glad you're back!

Tell me something: the reason you haven't been used your HT is due to the past flood in your house, or something else?? Just out of curiosity, though.

Oh, BTW, I did pull the trigger on a BDP-80 as well and the reason is due to the fact that my - so far - trusty Panny BD-30 may pass away without any previous info...

 

[mike c]

Hi Mike,

glad you're back!

Tell me something: the reason you haven't been used your HT is due to the past flood in your house, or something else?? Just out of curiosity, though.

Oh, BTW, I did pull the trigger on a BDP-80 as well and the reason is due to the fact that my - so far - trusty Panny BD-30 may pass away without any previous info...

no, NOBODY's watched anything in that flooded HT ever since it was made.

i was too busy with buying camera stuff to do AV stuff they have their own forums too!

 

[CRA188]

A compromise I can live with???

... if the proprietary SOC video processing turns out to be half decent, it would be a complete Budget Videophile's best-choice... it already looks like it's a Budget Audiophile's best-choice.

Unfortunately, since most of the general public doesn't give a rat's bottom about SACD, nor DVD-Audio, the $300 player will probably be more of a niche product than the BDP-83, since anybody who cared about budget high-def audio has already purchased a BDP-83...

I'm looking forward to the complete review of the BDP-80 with BDP-83 comparison measurements and video processing analysis.

I am a cheap fart looking to finally add a BP to my legacy HT. I give a rat's petootie about SACD and am tired of shifting old components down one rack and further complicating my system (to my wife's consternation). I started looking to upgrade from my Toshiba SD-6915 Universal DVD player a couple months back and am beginning to doubt anyone will manufacture the machine I want before my five-head becomes a chrome-dome (if ever). What do I want??? My ideal machine would be a Blu-Ray recorder with OTA tuner and built-in hard drive capable of playing SACD/DVD-A (Industry politics seems to be making this a pipe dream). I require onboard processing and 7.1 outputs so I don't have to RIF my Denon AVR-3802. My TV is a Panasonic PT44LCX65 (44" RP LCD) which I doubt would be considered a large screen by anyone other than my mother-in-law. Still, I want to be sure the video up-conversion is up to snuff as I have a couple hundred DVD's I am determined wear out before replacing.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[gonk]

My ideal machine would be a Blu-Ray recorder with OTA tuner and built-in hard drive capable of playing SACD/DVD-A (Industry politics seems to be making this a pipe dream). I require onboard processing and 7.1 outputs so I don't have to RIF my Denon AVR-3802. My TV is a Panasonic PT44LCX65 (44" RP LCD) which I doubt would be considered a large screen by anyone other than my mother-in-law. Still, I want to be sure the video up-conversion is up to snuff as I have a couple hundred DVD's I am determined wear out before replacing.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

The recorder part is going to kill your dream, I'm afraid. While BD recorders have been around in Japan almost from day one, they have not arrived in the US at all. The market here just hasn't embraced DVD recorders well enough for manufacturers to want to go down that road (probably due in large part to cable and satellite boxes with built-in DVR) and I'm sure the studios are just as happy for them not to as well. And if anybody does bring such a product over to this market, the odds of it having DVD-A/SACD support are almost exactly zero. Onboard decoding has become standard (all the SoC chipsets can do it now), but 7.1 analog output is less guaranteed.

If you remove the recorder/OTA tuner/hard drive requirement, you end up looking at a BD player with good DVD performance, DVD-A/SACD support, onboard decoding, and 7.1 analog output. In that scenario, the OPPO players are your first two choices based on price ($289 and $499).

 

[josko]

I'm having a hard time understanding OPPO philosophy of recognizing only compressed audio formats at the USB interface. Why would they spend all this effort on clean analog sections, and then restrict input to compressed files only?
I can't get this to makes sense - any insight appreciated.

 

[gonk]

It is not an intentional design decision - it is a limitation imposed by the capabilities offered by the SoC manufacturer. Mediatek makes the System-on-Chip component that OPPO is using in these players, and OPPO can't add support for file types on their own. They need Mediatek to develop that support in the chip's decoder firmware. They've asked Mediatek to provide support for lossless audio formats for years (going back to the 980H and 983H at very least, I think) but so far Mediatek hasn't done so. I don't know why. It's possible that other (larger) customers don't have any interest in it so it becomes a low priority pushed behind other programming work.

 

[Todd Sauve]

I am a cheap fart looking to finally add a BP to my legacy HT. I give a rat's petootie about SACD and am tired of shifting old components down one rack and further complicating my system (to my wife's consternation). I started looking to upgrade from my Toshiba SD-6915 Universal DVD player a couple months back and am beginning to doubt anyone will manufacture the machine I want before my five-head becomes a chrome-dome (if ever). What do I want??? My ideal machine would be a Blu-Ray recorder with OTA tuner and built-in hard drive capable of playing SACD/DVD-A (Industry politics seems to be making this a pipe dream). I require onboard processing and 7.1 outputs so I don't have to RIF my Denon AVR-3802. My TV is a Panasonic PT44LCX65 (44" RP LCD) which I doubt would be considered a large screen by anyone other than my mother-in-law. Still, I want to be sure the video up-conversion is up to snuff as I have a couple hundred DVD's I am determined wear out before replacing.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

I own the Oppo 80 and have it hooked up to my Toshiba 52" LCD HDTV via HDMI and it upscales DVDs to 1080p very nicely, indeed. Have no concerns, whatsoever!!!

I think Oppo's cautioning about the 80's upscaling performance compared to the 83's is only to steer people with gargantuan projectors (over 120 inches) to their more expensive models. I don't think even a 75 inch HDTV screen would make the 80 break a sweat. And who has one of those, or can even afford it anyway?

For the money, the Oppo BDP-80 is the very best universal disc/Blu-Ray player on the market, period.

 

[enrique]

How about those of us that route everything via the rec.I was planning on the 83.My rec Marantz sr8002 doesnt do video processing.what goes in goes out as they say.My display is a pioneer 500m.since i route thru my rec. would the 80 be just as good as the 83.I also still enjoy my sacd/dvda's.

 

[Todd Sauve]

How about those of us that route everything via the rec.I was planning on the 83.My rec Marantz sr8002 doesnt do video processing.what goes in goes out as they say.My display is a pioneer 500m.since i route thru my rec. would the 80 be just as good as the 83.I also still enjoy my sacd/dvda's.

Since the Oppo 80 works great with my 52" HDTV, it will work great with your 50" Pioneer TV, too!

Don't worry, the 80's upscaler is more than up to the task you want it for.

 

[tgrisham]

a few more questions please

I am currently using the Oppo 980 digital out to a PS Audio Digital Link III for two channel. Will there be any improvement in the stereo audio of CDs with the new 80 or 83 still using it as a transport only? Also, my 60" HDTV is rear projection and has only component inputs. Will I see a difference between the component out on the 80 vs the 83? Thanks!

 

[j_garcia]

I am currently using the Oppo 980 digital out to a PS Audio Digital Link III for two channel. Will there be any improvement in the stereo audio of CDs with the new 80 or 83 still using it as a transport only? Also, my 60" HDTV is rear projection and has only component inputs. Will I see a difference between the component out on the 80 vs the 83? Thanks!

I doubt there would be enough difference to justify the cost of upgrading.

On a side note, I would be curious if the upscaling is better on the 980 vs the 80, because I had an 980 and the 83 is quite a bit better at upscaling than the 980 was.

 

[gonk]

I doubt there would be enough difference to justify the cost of upgrading.

I would agree with that.

On a side note, I would be curious if the upscaling is better on the 980 vs the 80, because I had an 980 and the 83 is quite a bit better at upscaling than the 980 was.

Several of the beta testers (myself included) felt that the BDP-80 did a somewhat better job with DVD upscaling than the 980H. It wasn't anything that I would classify as extreme, but I was not the only one who felt that the 80 had an advantage over the 980.

 

[tgrisham]

thanks

Thanks for the reply. I can't decide if I want to buy a CDP or continue to upgrade my Mac Mini as a server. I like the 980. If I buy a new CDP I am afraid it will cost substantially more than the Oppo 83. Such a dilemma!!

 

[j_garcia]

Thanks for the reply. I can't decide if I want to buy a CDP or continue to upgrade my Mac Mini as a server. I like the 980. If I buy a new CDP I am afraid it will cost substantially more than the Oppo 83. Such a dilemma!!

Maybe you could look at the 83SE? (and yes, it is a pretty big step up in price vs the 83)

 

[tgrisham]

J Garcia,

Yes, it is, but in the quest for music reproduction I have spent more. I have begun to invest in computer based playback and am at a crossroads. Spend more on computer playback or revert to a stand alone CDP. Once I upgrade to a large screen front projector (when my CRT RPTV dies) the decision will be easy. Go for an Oppo SE or similar player to a front projector and I would get an SE for analog playback. But, as computer based playback continues to improve, is that the future? Right now the 980 through my PS Audio DLIII has a slight edge over Mac Mini USB to DLIII playback. I have an M2Tech Hiface converter coming and that may narrow the gap. My listening is 90% redbook, 5% SACD and 5% movies, so music is the most important thing. Thanks for your input. Maybe I'll just spend my money on a bunch of new CDs! Keep listening!

 

[tachang]

video processor on oppo vs HQV Reon-VX

My epson 6500ub has a HQV Reon-VX chip for video processing. Is it better or comparable to the Oppo BDP-80's chipset or for that matter the BDP-83? I think I may be better off using my projector's processing for DVD video processing and just use the native 480i output from the oppo for that specific application. Am I correct?

 

[bandphan]

My epson 6500ub has a HQV Reon-VX chip for video processing. Is it better or comparable to the Oppo BDP-80's chipset or for that matter the BDP-83? I think I may be better off using my projector's processing for DVD video processing and just use the native 480i output from the oppo for that specific application. Am I correct?

Send all signals out of the oppo at native resolution and let you PJ do the work.

 

[gonk]

The Reon is better than the BDP-80's internal processing. I tend to prefer the ABT2010 in the BDP-83 to solutions using the Reon, but both are very good. If you plan to use the Source Direct video mode from the player and let the projector do the video processing, the BDP-80 would make more sense.

 

[PENG]

My epson 6500ub has a HQV Reon-VX chip for video processing. Is it better or comparable to the Oppo BDP-80's chipset or for that matter the BDP-83? I think I may be better off using my projector's processing for DVD video processing and just use the native 480i output from the oppo for that specific application. Am I correct?

You should try both and then tell us which way you prefer. I doubt you can tell the difference. If you do, I doubt you can really say one is better than the other. I have multiple ways to watch upscaled DVD, tried them all, and have no clear preference. YMMV..