I've spent some time with the Oppo and I have to say that this machine is a BARGAIN!!
Everything I've seen from the moment I opened the box has screamed QUALITY. The machine comes well packed in a custom box and wrapped in a cool cloth "bag" with the Oppo logo on it. Not that I'll be toting this thing around, they encourage you to use the bag for other things, thus being "good" to the environment. Inside the box is the remote (pictured above), a Blu-Ray test disc, an HDMI cable, other cables, the power cord and paperwork.
The manual is a thing of beauty. Most companies spend 99.9999 percent of their time on the product, and 00.000000001 percent of their effort on the manual. Not here. I've owned or own 3 Blu-Ray players and 2 HD-DVD players, and setting the things up properly to match your receiver in order to get the optimal sound from DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD is a confusing mess. Not with the Oppo. The directions are clear as a bell, and I was up and running within minutes.
I have my Oppo connected to a Denon AVR-4308ci which has all the internal decoders, so I set my Oppo up to send everything out untouched to the HDMI 1.3a port on the Denon. Everything worked flawlessly. The Denon displays whatever format that you select from the disc, so you know for sure you're getting the DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD.
I tried a bunch of DVD-Audio discs, including some I've created myself from Q8's and Q4's, and it handled everything. (See below for a picture of the unit playing a DVD-A and feeding the Denon) No problems with scrolling lyrics or menus. I also tried a few SACDs, and those sounded great. I still have my Denon 3910 sitting on the same shelf, and on the few A/B's I did with SACDs, I honestly could not tell a difference. Not bad, considering the 3910 cost me almost 3x what the Oppo cost.
When playing an SACD, if you have your display on, you get the disc text displayed on a nice screen display (see below). A nice touch.
My Pioneer Plasma is "only" 1080i, so I set the Oppo up for that and checked out the Blu-Ray calibration disc included with the Oppo. A quick run through showed little or no adjustments needed, however I had already set up this monitor with the Joe Kane Blu-Ray disc when I got it. The variations in settings from the Panasonic 30 that I replaced with the Oppo were minimal at best.
The picture on the Pioneer was brilliant. Video was smooth and natural. I tried a few concert Blu-Rays, a Star Trek TOS Blu-Ray (where you can use the ANGLE button on the remote to switch back and forth from old special effects to the new special effects), and a couple of action movies just to check out the performane. Everything was PERFECT!!
Considering that early adopters spent more than $499 for the first SACD and DVD-A players, I have to say again that $499 for a player of this quality and capabilities is remarkable. Of course, the economy sucks, but if you have a space problem with too many players, or if you are thinking about going Blu, this player should be considered with great thought. You can certainly find cheaper Blu-Ray, SACD, and DVD-A players, but you won't find another player that can do all three for this price, if you can find one at all.
For me, it gets five stars out of five (*****) It will be fun to hear what other owners at QQ think of it as these machines make their way out into the marketplace. The only thing I noticed that is not "up to speed" is that the DVD logo on the front only says "VIDEO"! The silk screener needs an upgrade!
