- Blu-ray disc player
- OPPO BDP-83SE
You must go to the OPPO website, download the upgrade and the instructions and use either the CD or USB option. I've tried it and it solved the problem I was having with the special versions on the Alien Anthology Blu-ray discs. This upgrade applies to both the BDP-83 and BDP-83SE.
Original review:
The preamp/processor I use is manufactured by Krell and does a fine job except it was not upgradable to HDMI. Having to face that fact required I work around its limitations with switches and alternative connections and utilize the analog connections for multichannel SACD, DVD-A, Dolby True HD, and DTS Master Audio.
When the BDP-83 came out last summer I ordered one and used the analog outputs to connect the audio signal to my Krell HTS; that worked satisfactorily although I had to route the signal through a Zektor MAS 7.1 audio switch as I already had a Pioneer DV-47A Universal player which was connected using the multi-audio output and the Krell had only one multi-channel audio input. I had no observable problem with the BDP-83 on any of the media that I played. I have an extensive collection of CD's, SACD's, and DVD-A's to which I enjoy listening and experienced no problems.
When I became aware of the BDP-83SE I was excited at the prospect of improving the quality of sound that I enjoyed from my system. The reviews I read were generally glowing so I ordered one for my system. The player arrived around the end of February and I immediately installed it in my main system and moved the BDP-83 to a secondary system.
By and large I was pleased with the quality of both music and video and was impressed by what it did for the stereo CD soundstage. My Krell permitted me to instantly switch between analog multi-channel and stereo as well as digital coaxial. I found the musicality of the CD's to actually be superior on the stereo connection because of the quality of sound and the superb soundstage created on the stereo analog connection. This was exactly what I had hoped for and was delighted with the results.
Then a problem developed; the music would suddenly drop out at unexpected times on various CD's, the sound would suddenly be completely gone. I started experimenting and discovered that when the sound dropped out (complete silence) the signal would have dropped out on stereo and multichannel analog as well as on the coaxial digital output; interesting to note that I never had this problem on SACD, DVD-A or any of the Blu-ray audio formats, but only on CD's.
I contacted OPPO and was gratified by the interest and concern expressed by technical support. After trying everything they could think of it was decided that I had to ship it back to OPPO so they could try and diagnose the problem. The player is now in transit to OPPO and I look forward with great curiosity to what they may or may not find.
I have now moved my BDP-83 back to my main system and it continues to work flawlessly. When I commented on the reliability of the BDP-83 they responded that the BDP-83SE was a significantly different platform and no real comparison could be made.
I will update this review when I hear back from OPPO. I told them that I really hoped they could find and repair the defect that was causing the problem and was told by tech support that they would run diagnostics on the player and let me know what they found.
For the record the OPPO BDP-83SE was purchased from OPPO and is not the region-free version sold by Amazon.
Update 3-17-2010
I just got a phone call from OPPO technical support; they told me they had received the BDP-83SE and experienced the same problem with the sound dropping out. The unit I had gotten was defective; I asked them if they had experienced this problem with anyone else and they said this was the first time this problem had ever surfaced.
They told me they were shipping me a new BDP-83SE today, needless to say I am pleased and excited. I'll update this review after I've received the new player and given it a chance to settle down.
Update 3-23-2010
This morning I received the replacement BDP-83SE, a new player with a different serial number. I connected it to my system and put in the CD that had given the problem and the same dropout phenomena happened again. Needles to say I was very disappointed when that happened. I tried it several times and got the same dropout on stereo, multichannel, and digital audio outputs.
At that point I decided to call OPPO technical support and see what they might suggest. The man I talked with offered to refund my money, but as I explained to him I really wanted to try and make this work for my system. He then provided some new information which shed significant light on the situation for me; he told me that OPPO now recognized it had a software problem playing back some CD's but other formats were not affected. That was reassuring to me as it confirmed I was not having a unique problem with CD playback. He also said OPPO was looking for a software fix but could not promise success in finding one.
He told me the unit they had shipped to me had been checked out before it shipped and performed perfectly for them and that the problem might be related to a particular CD. The fact that the problem was limited to certain CD's encouraged me to tell him I would keep the player and try a variety of discs and see what happened.
My initial concern was that the problem might spread to other media but felt reassured when he told me it was unique to CD's. This afternoon I've played a variety of media including a number of CD's with no problem. I'll keep checking and update this review if I have new information.
I was reminded again why the BDP-83SE is worth the trouble as I heard music I had not heard before when discs were played on other players.
The excitement is back.
Update April 7, 2010
I have discovered at this point that only two Telarc discs seem to be causing the dropout problem and both are rather old recordings. Everything else I've tried to play has performed successfully and I have specifically tried as wide a variety of discs as possible. For more information on this you can check my reply in comments.
As a result of my research I have upgraded my rating to five stars.
Update June 24, 2010
Oppo sent out an update on May 5th which made a number of changes. For some reason I had not gone back to try the two Telarc problem discs mentioned above. This morning a comment came in from MacGuffin and I decided to try the two discs again to see if the update had made a difference.
I'm very pleased to report the update solved the problem completely; the two discs played as if there had never even been a problem. Congratulations to OPPO for their persistence.
Update 7-2-2010
This morning I was trying to play an SACD but no sound would come out of the speakers on either stereo or multi-channel analog. This was very surprising as I had been playing some other formats with no problem.
I went to the Settings and checked things out and saw no obvious problems; I had set SACD output to use the DSD option so I decided to try the PCM option and the discs played perfectly on both outputs. Being puzzled by that I decided to go back to settings and try the DSD output again and it then worked perfectly.
I have no idea what that was all about, but if you experience a similar problem with DSD, switching momentarily to PCM may fix your problem too.
Buy OPPO BDP-83SE - Blu-ray disc player - upscaling - black Now
Updates to this review are at the end. About a week after I bought my OPPO Blu-ray player, OPPO released an upgraded version, the OPPO BDP 83 Special Edition--the same player, but with new audio circuitry using very expensive 32 bit digital to analog converters and an upgraded power supply. If you bought your OPPO BDP 83 before November 9, 2009, you could send it back to OPPO for an upgrade and save (...) compared to the price of the Special Edition new ((...) for the SE new versus (...) for the regular, and (...) for the upgrade to your regular if you chose to upgrade). I sent mine in for an upgrade in March and got it back 2 weeks later. I must say the upgrade was worth every cent I spent.But before I get to that, a couple years ago I bought the then top of the line OPPO DVD player, the 983H, largely because of its superior audio circuity, and it did sound noticeably better than my previous Pioneer player, especially on SACDs, but also on CD and DVD. When I bought the Blu-ray player last November, I noticed that all 3 formats also sounded a little better again. Plus, on SACDs, you now have the option of playing them in native DSD format instead of PCM and, to my ear, native DSD is a further and significant upgrade over PCM even on the same Blu-ray player, more significant, in fact, than the improvement of PCM playback from 983H to BPB 83. I upgraded the audio system in my library by putting the older OPPO there. When I sent the Blu-ray player out for the upgrade I put the older OPPO back in my main system while Blu-ray player was gone and really missed it because I felt like I was missing so much that I had been hearing. I had noticed a small upgrade when I put it in but now I was noticing a LARGE downgrade when I took it out. Now it is back. And not only is the upgrade large and obvious compared to the old OPPO 983H, but it is also large and obvious compared to my memory of the pre-modification Blu-ray player.
As I write this, I haven't played any DVD-Audio discs or DVDs, but I have played a couple SACDs and a few CDs. SACDs do sound better, but not greatly so or at least that is my first impression. But CDs really sound MUCH better. Perhaps this is because SACDs already have about 500 times as much information about the music in the first place and sound so much more like live music than CDs do. But playing CDs now is a very different experience. On playing the recently purchased broadway musical, Wicked, my non-audiophile wife said the voices were more intelligible. To me, there seems to be so much more in the way of space and detail and subtleties I could never hear before on CDs. Back in the 1980s or early 1990s my good friend Jim Lawson observed what I think is the key difference between analog music on records and digital music on CDs: With a record if you turned up the volume you could hear more deeply into the music. If you turned up the volume on a CD, all that happened was that the sound got louder (but you still couldn't hear more deeply into the music). I believe that this was still true on my pre-upgrade Blu-ray player, even though it was easily the best sounding CD player I had ever owned and vastly superior to my first CD player. Now with the Special Edition OPPO, you CAN hear more deeply into the music on a CD at the same volume. And if you turn up the volume... well, I'll have to do a good bit more listening to CDs and hear what happens.
What about playing DVDs? I watched several movies on DVD while the Blu-ray player was gone, and again I noticed the degradation of going back more than I had the upgrade. Both my older Pioneer and the OPPO 983H player had difficulty playing occasional DVDs in progressive scan and they had to be played interlaced to look satisfactory, although generally DVDs look much better in progressive scan. I had noticed that before I even got the Blu-ray player, but while it was gone I noticed it again and I wasn't even looking for it at the time--a movie I was watching just looked choppy. I have never had that problem on the Blu-ray player and, as a matter of fact, I have had the player set to play DVDs in 24 fps mode by default since I bought it and rarely have had any problems with that either. So its DVD playing capability is also much better than previous DVD players I have owned. While the Blu-ray player was gone I had also put on a couple scenes from Star Wars, episode II (specifically scene 15 Return to Naboo), that I use as test scenes and compared to the Blu-ray player, the scenes looked noticeably less 3-dimensional and real. So as a DVD player the Blu-ray player is outstanding in addition to being an exemplary player of music. Since it is my first Blu-ray player, I can't compare it to other Blu-ray players, but it does a fine job on Blu-ray discs. And it beats every other player of 5 inch silver discs I have ever seen or heard.
March 30: A couple additional notes:
1) If you don't want or need an all region player, the BDP 83SE is available for (...) from OPPO and possibly on Amazon.
2) If you are NOT planning on using the Stereo or Multichannel analog outputs, but plan to use HDMI or other outputs for audio, you should buy the regular BDP 83 for (...) not the SE, as the video is the same on either model. If you are planning on using the analog outputs of the OPPO, the Special Edition is well worth the extra cost.
3) My OPPO default setting for all things video is 1080p60 with 24fps enabled. Fed to a Panasonic AE4000U (which I have also reviewed) projected onto a 64 inch diagonal 9x16 screen, excellent DVD material, like the Star Wars excerpt mentioned above, really does look near HD. It isn't as sharp as Blu-ray or 1080i or 720p broadcast, but it really does look very good, enough so that I am not highly motivated to replace many DVDs with Blu-ray discs. I may change my mind when I get a 92 inch screen, but having stood up close to the screen and compared Blu-ray and DVD upscaled and at 24fps with the OPPO, I suspect that I won't. Make no mistake, Blu-ray looks better, but with this system, Blu-ray's biggest advantage is high definition sound instead of Dolby Digital's lossy compression. I do plan to buy most new discs in Blu-ray, but I don't plan to replace many old ones unless for its for soundtrack upgrades. That said, I did upgrade North By Northwest, with its wonderful Bernard Herrmann score, and there are a handful of others I would jump at the opportunity to buy on Blu-ray.
April 17 Addendum:
If you turn up the volume, can you hear more deeply into the music when you are listening to CDs? Well, you still can't hear as deeply into the music as you can with a good analog recording, but I think maybe you can hear a little deeper into the music by turning up the volume on a CD. But there is always more "there" there on good recordings than I have heard from past players of CDs. On CD recordings with a real and natural soundstage, the soundstage is amazingly good, better than it used to be listening to well recorded SACDs. The music on CD doesn't sound as open and natural as SACDs used to sound, but the soundstage is much better, there is much more detail and specificity of image, and it is much more like being there than was ever true with CDs before. There is much more in the way of subtle detail that enhances the reality of the music even though you may not consciously "hear" that added detail . CDs of old London/Decca Phase Four albums with their 40+ microphones worth of multitrack mono recordings panned and mixed to stereo never did have a natural soundstage and still don't, but they do have a lot of detail and specific locations for the instruments. The same is true of other overly multi-miked recordings.
SACDs, of course, sound better than CDs. With well recorded CDs, CDs now sound in some ways superior to, though still not as open and natural as, SACDs. With well recorded SACDs the recordings now seem to disappear and you are just listening to the music. And all the benefits to CDs the Oppo confers are more so with SACDs.
Stereo recordings sound better through the stereo outputs of the Oppo than through the front left and right of the multichannel outputs, so if you are not listening to multichannel, don't use the multichannel outputs.
If you are listening in stereo to multichannel sources, the stereo outputs produce a mixdown of the multichannels. If you are listening to a multichannel SACD and you listen to the stereo output only you will hear a stereo mixdown of the multichannel tracks, which may be different from listening to the stereo tracks. Now what is interesting is that this is also true on DVD-A. I have a DVD-A of the Doors L.A. Woman. Previously if I played it on my DVD recorder, which will play DVD-A but only outputs stereo, or if I played it on other DVD-A players with speaker setup set to Center Channel Off (which on SACDs sends center channel information to the left and right front speakers), the center channel, with the vocals, was completely missing. And I know this is also true on some other DVD-A recordings. On the BDP-83SE (I don't know about the regular BDP-83, but I would guess that it is also true for that), the center channel IS mixed into the left and right (so are the rear channels) so you can hear everything. Nice! And occasionally handy.
With my old Oppo 983H and earlier Pioneer DV-578A-S, DVD-Audio sounded better than SACD and I was always a little disappointed in their SACD sound compared to my now defunct Sony SCD-CE775. I suspect the reason was that the Sony was pure DSD and the others both output a PCM processed signal, unlike the BDP 83SE which lets you choose DSD or PCM. I choose DSD. And I am not at all disappointed.
DVD-Audio does not sound better than SACD anymore. Does it sound as good? I haven't listened to as many DVD-A recordings as SACDs recently, but my initial impressions are that some DVD-As sound as good as SACDs and others not quite, but I would not yet want to make any definitive comparison. After all some SACDs don't sound as good as others either. However, I cannot believe that DVD-A sounds any worse on this Blu-ray player than it did on my 2 previous machines. And the enhancements that the Special Edition confers on SACD and CD are also apparent with DVD-A. So lets say for now that it's a draw between DVD-A and SACD.
DVD-A, SACD, and CD all benefit greatly from the upgrade to the Special Edition BDP-83SE. If you are deeply moved by music, your ears and your brain and your soul will also benefit.
Update 6-29-10:
For a while I have been conscious of this but I thought I would write it up fresh tonight. I just watched a Netflix DVD of Blindside tonight and on the Oppo using upscaling to 1080P through HDMI with 24 hz DVD playback enabled and through the Panasonic AE-4000 set to frame creation mode 1 (the least processing above no processing) on a 65 inch screen at 10 feet, I really was not conscious that I was watching a DVD rather than a Blu-ray disc. During the credits it is easier to tell, but watching the movie it is not. This is the same setup I use for virtually all DVD playback, and as usual there were a small number of black frames, a very small price to pay for such high quality viewing through this incredibly synergistic pair of instruments. With these 2 components, watching all of Blindside, a few minutes of The Searchers blu-ray and 2010 blu-ray and then a few minutes of the Blindside DVD again, there is not a lot of difference in image quality. I suspect with more magnification, for example with 2.35-2.4:1 scope/panavision movies blown up to the same vertical size, the differences will be much more apparent, because of the much higher resolution of blu-ray. But DVDs look awfully good on this pair.
That said, watching parts of the same 3 movies 5 feet from the screen--the equivalent of watching on a 130 inch screen from 10 feet, The Searchers clearly looks better, as well it should, having been shot in VistaVision (essentially 70 mm). The difference between 2010 and Blindside is more subtle, slightly in favor of 2010, perhaps not as much as it should be with real 1080P instead vs. 480P upscaled to 1080P. But most significantly, the difference is subtle, not blatant.
Finally, on the Oppo BDP-83SE, listening to stereo recordings, you should always use the dedicated stereo output, not the front left and right multichannel output. Having lived with this machine for several months the difference in sound quality greatly favors the dedicated stereo outputs.
PT-AE4000U LCD XGA 16:9 1600 Lumens HDmi Svid 16.1LBS Hdtv
Read Best Reviews of OPPO BDP-83SE - Blu-ray disc player - upscaling - black Here
My AV system includes my Denon AVR-5700 THX Ultra receiver that is 10+ years old, Oppo BDP-83SE and my M&K Sound LCR 750 THX 5.1 speaker system with SB-1250 subwoofer. I will start out by saying that the BDP-83SE has made a big impact on my system, much larger than expected! A little background on my speakers, the most notable qualities of my speakers is there dynamic range, excellent soundstaging and there level of detailed is exceptional, if it's on the recording you will here it. For the record the Oppo BDP-83 doesn't come close to the SE's performance IMO, why dwell on the past?BDP-83 V.S BDP-83SE
I would have to say the biggest difference between the standard 83 to the 83SE (via analog outputs) would be the edgy, harsh and fatiguing sound signature. This fatiguing sound signature was reason in itself to upgrade to the 83SE. I'm glad to report that the 83SE after many days of break-in the sound is so smooth sounding that the mid and high frequencies no longer sound fatiguing allowing me to hear more since my ears weren't hurting (ringing) any longer!
7.1 multi-channel analog performance:
Friday I started with the 7.1 multi-channel SACD listening and just couldn't believe the detail and dynamic range, I have never heard such detail and dynamic range in my life! When I compare the performance from my BDP-83SE's 7.1 multi-channel analog outputs to that of my digital coaxial multi-channel performance, the coaxial sound quality just seems well digital, mechanical and lifeless when compared to the BDP-83SE analog outputs! The BDP-83SE sounds more live, open and airy like someone just removed a towl that was draped over my speakers, I close my eyes and can place every musical instruments location in the soundstage individually, every flick of the guitar strings is heard in incredible detail in a three dimensional space. I was listening to my "Star Trek Nemesis" SACD by Jerry Goldsmith (multi-channel 5.1) track 1. Remus, the music (classical) starts out very low in volume, it ever so slightly begins a gradual climb in volume until it reaches the highest point and then the music score comes to life powerfully! Wow, now that's dynamic range!
2ch stereo performance using the ES9006 Premier DACs
Understand that the AIX calibration disc includes sample music recorded @ 24bit/96kHz and can be played back in either 2.0 stereo and 7.1 Dolby True HD via the 7.1 multi-channel analog output. I listened to the 2CH stereo (ES9006 Premier DACs) version of the included music and was blown away by the 2ch stereo performance! The 2ch stereo performance was full, rich, dynamic, open, and live sounding as you could place every sound with pinpoint accuracy within the three dimensional soundstage! To me the 2ch stereo performance sounded richer, more detailed and overall much more dynamic than the multi-channel sound! I could hardly wait to try the dedicated 2ch stereo output using the ES9016 DACs!
Dedicated 2ch stereo performance using the ES9016 Ultra DACs
Well the sad news here is I found out that my "Analog Direct Mode" completely destroyed my analog signal coming from the dedicated 2ch stereo outputs using the ES9016 Ultra DACs, I had to unplug everything from the 7.1 multi-channel inputs on my receiver just so I could plug in my dedicated 2ch stereo outputs to hear how much better the ES9016 Ultra DACs sounded. As soon as I push the play button, things would never be the same again! I could not believe my ears, the sound that came from my speakers was just unbelievable! The sound quality was just breathtaking, I heard things that I never heard before and exceeded my expectations! The sound was louder, cleaner, richer, extremely detailed and more dynamic than anything I have ever heard anywhere! The improvement in sound quality was so far above what I previously heard when listening to the multi-channel outputs using the ES9006 DACs, I lay there on the couch for the next four hours as if nothing else mattered in life! I just couldn't get enough of it, it was like hearing Dolby Digital for the first time back in the days coming from Pro-Logic.
This SE upgrade was well worth what I paid and after hearing it, I guess my decade old Denon is ready for permanent retirement very soon. For those that have Denon receivers be damn sure your receivers two channel stereo's "Pure Direct" mode truly is an analog bypass, or else get used to switching the cables around on the rear of your receiver!
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This player is a dynamite performer in every way, shape and form. Picture quality is truly cinema-like with colors that jump out at you that are sharp with clear edges all around. Every nuance of sound permeates from the Sonus Faber speaker system engaging and enveloping you in the movie action and its special effects. There is more offered in terms of setup features of audio and video that this player provides with ease of operation without additional monetary expense or time.
I was interested first in the Panasonic BD players, but their first offering (BD65?) was prematurely discontinued and pricing went crazy, and its replacement (BD80?) had limited availability and pricing went crazy. I never said I wouldn't pay $500 for a BD player, I just said I'm not going to pay $500 for a $250 player...
So while I was waiting for those prices to stabilize, a post in the discussion thread said 'Check out the Oppo BD-83' which I did, and it looked good. No more thoughts of Panasonic. When I saw the SACD function, I was sold. For a while, because the 'SE' was announced and I finally knew what I wanted.
As other reviewers have noted for some reason, Amazon's partners on this product don't want you to know that you can buy it for MSRP directly from Oppo (and not MSRP plus a couple-hundred, plus shipping...).
I bought it from another retailer I've used reliably in the past, and they included free shipping.
If you are using HDMI, optical, or some other digital channel for your sound, you do not need the 'SE' but you will still like the BD-83 a lot.
Since my ancient Sony Wega XBR-42 doesn't support HDCP (did I mention no more Sony, ever?) I have the video connected via Component, which is probably OK since 1080i is the best a big analog direct-display tube could do. And due to 'CSS encryption' the Oppo (like every BR player I assume) cannot upscale commercial DVD's to 1080 via the Component video output. No matter for me, my Toshiba A3 HD-DVD upscales DVD's to 1080i over HDMI->DVI just fine... So for BluRay, you really need a TV with 'HDCP' (thank you Sony) or you're going to be missing out somewhere. Not Oppo's fault.
In summary if you have, need, or just want analog audio because your receiver/amp doesn't do audio over HDMI, or doesn't support the newer high-bandwidth 'TrueHD' or DTS encoding formats, this is your product. If you want SACD without spending a boxload of money for a dedicated audiophile player, this is your product.
If you don't need the analog sound, the BD-83 is your product.
I have the SE, and I love it.
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