First Impressions of my OPPO Blu-Ray.

[Worf101]

First let me qualify that while I'm a BIG OPPO fan from my time with 931 upconverting DVD, believe me it they'd screwed the pooch on this one I'd tell you. Here are my impressions of the product from 3 days and intensive nights of diddling and fiddling.

Packaging and Swag
Packaged and shipped beautifully. Comes with all the cables and cords you need except 5.1 or 7.1 analog outs. Still, they give more stuff that some other companys do. The ole lady loved the OPPO tote bag. The remote is a clear upgrade of previous OPPO offerings. This thing is nice, just the right size, good button size, backlit with good ergonomics. Only debit is they put the backlight button on the lower right hand side of the unit, it requires a second hand to use it. Small quibbles though.

Initial Setup
Easy, peasey, nice and greasy. The setup routine is caveman simple and quite well done. You'd have to be pretty brain dead not to get some picture or sound out of this unit with this basic set up. Of course due to the variations of gear out there the advance settings will be necessary to "dial-in" to your own specific hook-up. Manual was/is marvelously well written and laid out. Did find a couple of menu items "out of place" in there but a quick check of the page before or after usually yielded the information.

Blue Ray Play-Back Visual
The unit ships with two set up disks, one for audio one for visual. The first Blu-Ray product I ever viewed at home was the visual demo's on this disk. They looked "spectacular". Puddin said "it's like you can reach your hand in there and touch things". I concurred. The first Blu-Ray movie we watched however "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" really didn't impress me all that much. Perhaps it's because it was letter boxed with bars on the top and bottom or I was sitting too far away? I don't know. I watched a regular DVD the following day though and the upconversion was handled strictly by the OPPO and it was stunning.

Sound? Oh my gawd, while not quite as obvious as the switch from Mono to Stereo but damn close. My Onkyo 905, despite being a couple years old, is HDMI 1.3a so it handles all those fancy smancy audio tracks that Blu-Rays ship with and that Sir TT has painstakingly mastered. The difference between a DTS soundtrack and Blu-Ray was striking and stunning. Everything, music demos to movies was clear, articulate and just plain gorgeous. Wow.

Summary
Puddin' was upset when I told her I bought a Blu-Ray player, particularly a $500 dollar one. But she thought the big screen was an extravagance now she can't live without it. I'm sure that as we get more titles and experience with Blu-Ray she'll feel about it like all the other tech I've bought the last couple of years. I'll have to reserve any praise on Blu-Ray visuals for a bit until I see some more movies, but I've no reservations about the OPPO's sound reproduction. It is mind blowing. No final grade yet but I'll keep you all apprised.

Da Worfster

[bobsticks]

Great review Worfster!! Thanks...

...a couple of initial, random thoughts:

I have a great deal of respect for OPPO. My erstwhile comrade, Grendel, has an Oppo unit, I've had one in my home and they're good chit...the best pricepoint accomodation for good DACs and vid processing that I've seen in a while. I've got a couple modded Sammy units, a Denon, a PS3, and a great Cambridge Audio unit...if I felt the need for an improvement I'd, fo sho', be lookin' at OPPO.

She'll come around, just like the bigscreen...once quality is evidenced everybody takes notice...

Keep rockin', my Klingon Brotha...great to read you found a product that makes a discernable difference in the quality of yr. rig....

[dean_martin]

Congrats on the player, Worf and thanks for sharing!

[kexodusc]

I'm currently just waiting to return enough empties to save for one of these...Thanks for confirming my suspicions about sound quality...you are the best Klingon guinea pig out there Worf!

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

See, I knew the klingon would like it!

[Mr Peabody]

I'll raise a glass to new gear that pleases, enjoy!

[JoeE SP9]

Approval from Worf is all the recommendation I need.

[pixelthis]

Sorry you didnt get much outta button, I thought it was spectacular.
Superman returns was great, as was to kill a king which was totally amazing.
Terminator 2/3 , both good
The SHINING, INCREDIBLE.
Matrix, ditto.
Concert discs tend to come across well also.

[Worf101]

Approval from Worf is all the recommendation I need.

BMB (Black Man Blushing) Stopp with the love... makes me blush and the blood rushing to mah head makes it hoit.

Glad to be of service everyone. Nothing Sir TT hasn't tole you already.

Da Worfster

[Hyfi]

but I've no reservations about the OPPO's sound reproduction. It is mind blowing.
Da Worfster

OK so if a BR player plays DVDs better and the sound it fantastic, how does a player like this play CDs and CDRs?

Would this be comparable to a Rotel CDP?

[Worf101]

OK so if a BR player plays DVDs better and the sound it fantastic, how does a player like this play CDs and CDRs?

Would this be comparable to a Rotel CDP?

I've only played one cd in the Oppo just for chits and giggles. I don't have a high end CD player, just a Yamaha 5 disk using analog outs. Soooo unless I did a side by side with the Op playing the same disk as a high end stand alone and did a double blind I'd not be able to tell you. I know that CD I played sounded fine. I'll run a CD-R in it when I get home and let you know.

Da Worfster

[winston]

Worf" Worf"101....!! BMB (Black Man Blushing) "NOT"
love your impressions on that..OPPO BLUE... congratulation's on your front page effort good review plain and simple.
thanks Win.

[recoveryone]

I didn't want to start another thread, so I'm hitch hiking on Worfs'.

The Pioneer BDP 120 arrived today and I hooked it all up (USB & Internet) I have yet to buy a BD disc, so I will throw in Hi Def DVD master I have to get my first impression. I will update later...............

[Mr Peabody]

I suspect if Pioneer kept with their game that unit should be very good. Their old ones had a few bugs that could be fixed with firmware updates and once that happened they were great.

[Worf101]

I didn't want to start another thread, so I'm hitch hiking on Worfs'.

The Pioneer BDP 120 arrived today and I hooked it all up (USB & Internet) I have yet to buy a BD disc, so I will throw in Hi Def DVD master I have to get my first impression. I will update later...............

Don't play yourself or us short. Do a separate "First Impression" review and the mods might feature it on the site. It's good for us, you and AR.Com. I think you'd do a bang up job.

Da Worfster