I just ordered my new oppo bdp-83 to go with my recently purchased 970 and 755. I hope this is a good match. I currently have the sony bdp-s350 which i am not happy with it is very glitchy and slow. I also have a seperate sony dvd,cd,sacd player so this new unit will be great also for eliminating some equipment. My dad just purchased a new 52" sony bravia on the dell website so I am planning to regift my old blue ray player to him which is less that a year old. Oh by the way gonk on the oppo site it asked where I have heard about oppo and I wrote in outlaw audio (GONK) because your info is what sold me. Thanks and I am sure I will not be let down. The unit itself looks awesome.

Congrats on the purchase, gunslinger. I think you'll enjoy it.

Everybody has different tastes, of course, but I really think that the BDP-83 is a handsome piece of gear.

I am looking around on audiogon and I keep seeing players that say they are modified or region free and they are much more expensive than what I paid like $700 and I only paid $499 brand new. What is this all about? What does region free mean?

Congrats on your new gear! I hope this helps to explain DVD regions: region info The ability to use DVDs from other regions is important to some folks and worthy of an "upgrade". I've seen modified Oppos in the past but Oppo is now building a great modified Special Edition version of their BDP-83. Regardless, I'm very pleased with my regular version and I bet you will be too.

There are hardware modifications that allow the player to read DVD's from any of the six regions and Blu-rays from any of the three regions. It's worth noting, though, that if you actually need that capability (which you likely don't if you aren't already familiar with region-free mods) there is a DIY mod available for under $80 that you can install yourself with just a philips head screwdriver. I don't have one, but I've heard from a few folks who do and they have found the mod to work fine.

Thank you guys for the great info. That explains it for me. I do not think this mod will ever matter to me. I just wanted to make sure I was not missing out on something important. Now all I can do is sit back and wait. I know the unit will not ship out until Monday because I ordered it Friday at 11pm. I cant wait to just get a tracking number so I can stalk it until it gets here.

I recieved my new OPPO BDP83 on Friday, but I did not have time to set it up until Saturday night. I still have a lot of listening and watching to do. I have to say so far it eliminates my old Sony from ever having a chance of being a good piece of equipment. The first thing I played on the oppo was some two channel music, and I have to say I was not expecting to hear as much of a difference as I did. I have been contemplating buying a high end cd player for a long time, and the oppo took that idea away. Two channel music sounds amazing through it. The seperation, detail, and bass are 10 steps above either of my previous sony players. This player makes cd's that I thought sounded muddy and dated sound like a completely different recording.

I used gonks setup guide for the 970 for all of the initial setting for sound and video, but I did end up chaninging a few things.I have noticed using the 5.1 channel direct outputs for sacd and dolby true hd that I am lacking a lot of bass, which has never been a problem in the past. The adjustments I have made so far are that I turned the subwoofer from 1/4 turn up to 1/2 turn on the back of the unit. I also went into the sound settings on the oppo and turned the front, center, and surround speaker trim level from 10 down to 2 and left the subwoofer at a trim level of 10. I also left the distance level of all of the speaker at a max level of 12'. I am sometimes finding myself going into the 970 menu and turning the subwoofer up a notch or two from the 0 level. As far as the sound quality other that the minor bass issue it sounds great, especially the dolby true hd and the dts hd. I do not have a lot of multi channel content just a few sacd's and I have not done enough critical listenig on them to say weather this player is a ton better than my previous sony, but they do sound great.

The picture of the oppo vs. the sony I had is several times better. The picture is much smoother and movements look more realistic. i love the fast loading time and the menus are very easy to use. watching certain scenes of mocies I found to look jumpy and harsh on my sony have almost disappared with the oppo. I have to blame what is left of picture problem on the lcd tv.

Final conclusion this is the best universal player on the marked for the price hands down.
If you are thinking about purchasing one just do it because you will not regret it.

Oh by the way this player looks awesome. The biuld quality is top notch. I love the clean machined metal front and the buttons look like something off of a piece of equipment costing 5 times the price. I am also very impressed with quality of the power cable, it is almost as big as the one off of my model 755.

If anyone has any suggestions about getting my bass setting correct I would gladly appreciate them. the problem does not exsist when using only the two channel out, but only the 5.1 dirrect output. maybe I am missing something obvius?

I have had bass issues with the BDP-83 as well. I ordered an SMS-1 before the sale ended and it should arrive tomorrow. That's a pretty expensive fix. The problem with boosting the bass at the sub is that it is then throws off bass for other sources, like tv/cable.

One thing I noticed was that the BDP-83's bass clearly was off when I used the AIX calibration disk. But I'm not sure it's that far off when I play a DVD. That leads me to wonder whether there is something about the calibration disk that is strange.

That is a pretty expensive fix. I have been reading around and this seems like a common issue with almost all direct output 5.1 or 7.1 with sacd, dvd a, and dolby hd and dts hd.

I have not yet watched the discs that come with the player. Are they helpful or a waste of time?
Either way I am still very happy with this player and from what I have read I could not have done even close to better for the money.

I have had my BDP83 for a couple of months now and have noticed that somtimes when I put my hand on the top of the unit it jiggles quite a bit and sometimes it does not jiggle at all like you can't even tell it is playing a disk. Has anyone else had this happen withe their player or is something out of whack with mine? Should I be concerned? I havent noticed any problems with the output of the picture or sound or at least any that I have noticed.