Oppo itself says that if you are using the HDMI connections that the upgrade isn't necessary. It is refreshing to see this kind of honesty on the part of a company. I have the standard BDP-83 and it performs admirably via the HDMI into my Classe SSP-800 processor. Either way, these two players are audiophile bargains. Jim

WELL, I have a playstation 3 and been using that as a blu ray player. But i saw this player on sell at Amazon n since Amazon has a good return policy . I decided to bite and do a side by side comparison. Well, the Oppo by far kills the PS3 when it comes to sound (4get about cd's n dvd-audio light Years apart n i tested it) n when it comes to picture its a lot more brighter n detail. I love this player i tested it with Max Payne, CARS n Up ( BOTH Disney),Blade Runner and Transformer. I love the scene in Transformer when the Autobot jazz jumps over the lady screaming its perfect. Much more bass n cleaner picture OF the gears moving on the Transformer. All in All if u r serious about your picture quality n your sound; this is the way to go n Im not kidding. IMAO. Otherwise save your money u'll never really miss out my System ONKYO 875 WITH 10 GAUGE KNUKONECTZ CABLES TV - PIONEER ELITE 151 FD POLK AUDIO ALL THE SPEAKERS FRONTS ARE RTI A3 SURROUND AND BK FXI A6 CENTER CSI A6 DVI G

This is exactly what I'm waiting for. As someone with an old top-on-the-line Denon receiver that does not have a HDMI input. Great job, Oppo.

Scott, You didn't mention the effect the improved power supply will have on the sound. Will that have any impact on the hdmi output, or will that only effect sound through the analogs as well? Thanks for a great blog.

Jerry, the materials I got from Oppo said nothing about how the power supply improves things, which is why I didn't write anything about that. I imagine it would have an impact on the analog audio but not HDMI.

The thing here, is that the ESS Sabre Premier Dac has a quite poor bass management implementation. Also, it is not a high end Dac, it is a budget Dac used on some cheap players. Oppo might be quite forward in their honesty, but it smells more to me like a money grab, than truly designing a state of the art analog section. I agree with our host Scott, stick with the HDMI connection from the standard player, which is much more simple and truly valuable.

I would not buy any bluray player at this point which does not play 3d blu ray movies like 3d Avatar on blu ray. CES 2010 will begin in a couple of weeks and I'm pretty sure that most manufacturers will announce 3d blu ray players along with TVs. It remains to be seen whether Oppo players are capable of being upgradable to play 3d blu ray movies like the PS3.

Rich, I agree that we'll see a LOT of 3D Blu-ray players—and displays for that matter—at CES, and I'll be covering as many of them as I possibly can on UAV. I doubt that the Oppo players will be upgradeable to 3D because that requires HDMI 1.4. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't see how the PS3 can be upgraded to 3D because it also has HDMI 1.3, not 1.4. Or maybe the new PS3 Slim has 1.4, I don't know.

Happy Holidays and all the pleasantries involved there in. Here's to a great and exciting year ahead in Home Theater and life. Now I am beginning to see why the electronics manufacturers are pushing 3D---you need a new Bluray player capable of retrieving the 3D feed, you need a new monitor with HDMI 1.4, not to mention new 3D editions of all your favorite Blurays like Roadhouse and Last Action Hero. You get all the excitement of starting over all over again, again. That's what I love about home theater, the thrilling experience of starting over again! Now I can have Robocop on VHS, SuperBetaMax (superb), Laserdisc, Laserdisc with Digital Sound, DVD, Bluray, and Bluray 3d. Now, where will I store it all? Wait, in a few years it's all digital media servers, maybe with 4K upconversion---let's save that talk for later. I wonder if Sony is considering releasing a new SuperBetaMax model capable of 3D? Hmmmmm....Life and home theater are quite a journey.

Scott, based on the articles I have read, 3D does not necessarily require HDMI 1.4, which is just fully optomised for 3D hardware. It still might be possible for PS3 with HDMI 1.3 to view 3d blu ray with a software upgrade. When you go to CES, could you ask Sony reps whether the existing PS3 will be upgradable to 3D via a future software update? Could you also compare Sony's 3D standard with Panasonic's standard and tell us which you think is better quality? I know, yet another standards war :( If you have any spare time at CES, could you also check out the Google Nexus One phone and Apple tablet ;) Article fron Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/23/hdmi-1-4-spec-getting-freshened-up-in...

I'm working on a review of the PS3 slim for Home Theater and it only has HDMI 1.3. From what I've read, it will be upgradable to 3D, but I haven't heard anything official from Sony. David

3D. Yawn. Looks like a lot of people buying into the hype though. Just gotta have it. Yawn.

HDMI 1.3 Will Support 3D After All http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Industry_Trends/HDMI/3D/HDMI_1.3_...

Ok, back to the audio-part... Did you know that Nuforce has actually done another upgrade of the SE? It's on sale in the Netherlands. Nuforce has upgraded some of the analogue components and power supply regulators. Anyone heard this one yet?

I use my Oppo BDP83 for SACD/DVD-A and video. I don't think this player will allow you to output a SACD/DVD-A signal thru HDMI. Right?

The player will output SACD and DVD-Audio just fine via HDMI. It will even output SACD as DSD via HDMI.

I contacted Oppo about this unit when it was first announced. I asked about the specifics of the upgraded power supply and how it would impact the performance. What I was told is that the improvements are only to the portion of the power supply impacting the analogue output stage. The regulators were improved to the analogue output. Nothing was changed in the digital regulators, transformer, or primary power supply caps, so no improvements would exist in the HDMI or digital outputs. ESS Sabre is not an cheap dac and I'm unaware of any budget units using this particular dac chip. It has state of the art performance, and the stacked chips has improved digital performance to the theoretical limits. While It's still not the end all player for me (I wish the analogue stage was improved), it's a huge bargain. It's current price is low enough that I think there is no cd player, dvd player, or blueray player capable of equaling it's digital performance.

As I found out at CES and reported in my show coverage, the PS3 will be upgradeable to 3D (Sony said so), and HDMI 1.4 is NOT required (HDMI Licensing said so). Both 1.3 and 1.4 have the same maximum bandwidth (10.2Gbps), so both can accommodate 3D and all the other features of 1.4. Theoretically, any player with 1.3 output can be upgraded to 3D, but practically, it depends on whether or not the manufacturer designed the player to allow this. And even if it can be done, the hardware is likely to be older and thus not provide state-of-the-art performance.

When deciding between using the player's analog outputs vs HDMI, remember that the comparison is not between the player's DAC and perfection; it's between the player's DAC and the AVR's DAC. So ask yourself, just how good is your AVR's DAC? Is it better than the Oppo's?