Oppo Digital BDP-83 Blu-ray Player Sneak Peek

Last year Oppo discretely showed off a prototype of its DV-983H flagship universal DVD player at the DVDO booth. This year they didn't disappoint. Unannounced, we got wind of a non-functioning prototype Blu-ray player that was sitting at DVDO's CEDIA booth. What's this? An Oppo Blu-ray player? Could this be the holy grail so many were hoping and waiting for? Apparently yes - though Oppo was not releasing information about availability or pricing as of yet. Here's what we do know.

It Gets Better - Head Over to Our First Look of the BDP-83 and See Features, Pricing, & Ship Date

The unit will have the same DVDO processing chipset as found in the new DVDO Edge (VRS by Anchor Bay). It will have 7.1 analogue outputs, HDMI 1.3 (with support for native decoding for DTS HD and Dolby Digital Plus/TrueHD), and will upscale DVDs to 1080p. It even supports 24p output.Based on the chassis markings, BD Live 2.0 support (via 10/100 Mbps Ethernet) is included out of the box and USB connectivity is provided for photos and music playback. Dedicated analogue stereo outputs are also present and the unit has IR control in/out connections ("for Oppo approved connections only"). No RS-232C control is present. Perhaps most surprising (in a pleasant way) is SACD support as well as compatibility with HDCD's. Coaxial & S/PDIF outputs are present for legacy audio, including Dolby Digital and DTS.

While Oppo isn't releasing any pricing information we can't imagine this unit being competitive unless it is priced at $499 or less given the competition on the market from such companies as Sony, LG, Panasonic and others.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.