Thanks gonk, right after posting I went into the menu and realized I had the secondary audio off DUH!!!!

I've got the BDP-83 in my system now and I'm looking to do some A/B comparisons. My PS3 has been my BluRay player and is still in my system. I'm mostly interested in sound comparisons, though I am interested in looking at the upsampling capabilities of the two players.

Because I'm running an older system, I cannot get DolbyHD or DTS-Master Audio from my PS3 since it does not have an HDMI input. I ordered Master and Commander on BluRay from Netflix and I own the DVD version of the movie. I believe it is one of the best surround sound recordings I've heard. I watched the BR version this weekend and loved the sound, though the HD presentation didn't seem all that much better than my standard DVD, which I found surprising.

I have yet to watch them one right after the other to compare the two, though I plan on doing it tonight. I have a question though. Is there a difference between DTS-HD and DTS-Master Audio? A visit to the DTS web site didn't really provide me with an answer. I thought that Master Audio was a new and improved version of DTS-HD. Anyway, the Master & Commander BR disc uses DTS-HD, so if there is a difference, does anyone have a DTS-Master Audio BR movie they recommend for great sound that I could use to compare against standard DTS?

Aside from that, this is a beautiful machine that is very easy to set-up. Build quality is outstanding. Un-boxing the unit is something else. Best packaging I've seen. I have never owned a SACD or DVD-Audio player, so I have no discs and nothing to compare them against. From what I've read, that is where most of the questions about this unit originate from. The only standard DVD I ran through the unit couldn't really be used to gauge the upsampling since it was a 10 year old commedy that probably didn't have the best filming standards to begin with. I'll probably use the cars DVD to compare the upsampling of the OPPO vs. the PS3.

Sorry for rambling!

"DTS-HD" is not a single format. There is DTS-HD High Resolution, which is a lossy format comparable to Dolby Digital Plus. There is also DTs-HD Master Audio, which is a lossless format comparable to Dolby TrueHD.

Thank you. I didn't think they were the same format. After doing some further research, it looks like Master & Commander BR version IS DTS-HD Master Audio. I'll have to take a closer look at the screen. The logo that comes up says DTS-HD. My guess is that the small print says Master Audio. Seems like DTS would've wanted a little more differentiation between their product names, but what do I know?

There are very few DTS-HD High Resolution titles out there - a search of Blu-ray.com turns up just one title with such a track ("Diary of the Dead"). In most cases, if it says DTS-HD it is Master Audio. I do agree, though, it would have been nice for DTS to find a better way to name the two formats. "DTS-HD Master Audio" and "DTS-HD High Resolution" are a pain to type out, and even the abbreviations (DTS-HD MA and DTS-HD HR) are still longer than "TrueHD" is.

Greetings fellow Outlaws.

I'm in need of some assistance in deciding on Oppo BDP-83 vs the Panasonic DMP-BD55 to go along with my Model 990 processor. I'm attempting a 7.1 channel HT set up now.

Some background.

I pulled the trigger on an Open box Panny for $380 because I thought I had no chance of getting the Oppo BDP-83 early since I was very late in registering for the product.

To my surprise I just got an e-mail from Oppo stating that I may eligible for the 6/1/09-6/15/09 shipments.

I'd love to try both out and see and hear what the differences are but I have a 7 day return policy on the Panny BD and it is slated to arrive @ my house on 5/29/09.

While I have no idea as to when I will receive The Oppo. If I'm lucky maybe shortly after 6/15/09.

I took a quick look @ the specs of each and the one difference is the Oppo plays SACD while the Panny doesn't but this is a non-issue for me as I have a PS3 that could play SACDs.

From the rest of the specs it seems that both are neck and neck. I didn't have much time to cross ref both spec sheets. My boss keeps passing by.

Has anyone had a chance to compare the 2? Which one would be the better choice in general? (Panny @ $380 vs Oppo BDP-83 @ $517 shipped) Is the Oppo that much better to justify the $137+ difference?

Thanks so much. JD

The PS3 will only play SACD's if you replace the Model 990. It doesn't have a multichannel analog output, so they only way to hear SACD's is via HDMI. THe BDP-83 will do SACD's and DVD-Audio (which neither the BD55 nor the PS3 will do) via multichannel analog.
The Blu-ray feature sets are similar (Profile 2.0, onboard decoding of the new formats). Once you get past that, though, there are some very real differences. The BDP-83's video processor is definitely better, which will have minimal impact on Blu-ray but a clear benefit for DVD. (The BD55 has a somewhat newer and improved version of Panasonic's Uniphier chip compared to the BD30 that I have, but I was pretty underwhelmed by the BD30 for DVD performance when compared to my old 983H .) The BDP-83 supports DVD-Audio and SACD. The BDP-83 is faster (start-up, disc loading, etc.). The BDP-83 has a better analog section. The BDP-83 also benefits from OPPO's customer support, which is among the best in the industry.
I've compared a BD30 to the BDP-83, but not a BD55. The BD55 is a newer generation of the BD30 (enables onboard decoding, adds Profile 2.0, and uses what I'm told is a better version of the Uniphier chipset). If it were my $137 to spend, I'd go with the OPPO.

I have both the DMP-55 and the BDP-83. While the specs are similar, I find the performance of the OPPO to be superior in the following areas: speed of operation, standard DVD upscaling and playback, and CD audio (besides the added benefit of DVD-A and SACD performance). My perception also is that the Blu-ray audio is slightly better on the OPPO, but I will admit that could all be in my head.

On Gonk's point, from what I can tell, the Uniphier chip in the BD-55 is improved over the BD-30, and we certainly were happy with it, but it still is not up to the OPPO's quailty.

If you are going to use the Panny primarily for Blu-ray with limited SD playing, my sense is you probably would be okay with the Panny. But if you are going to use it even 30-40 percent of the time with SD-DVD, I'd go with the OPPO. We ultimately kept both machines (having gotten a great deal originally on the Panny -- paid $240 new), but if I were buying one machine today, I would buy the OPPO, even if I could get the Panny at the price we originally paid.

My OPPO just arrived, have not had a chance to hook it up yet but hopefully soon.

I have a 7.1 system and can anticipate one potential problem for my setup.

I currently listen to my DVD-A/SACD thru a Marantz DV 9500 via analog to my 990. DVD-A/SACD surround signals from the Marantz (5.1 analog outs) are routed to my rear surrounds not my side surrounds via the 990. My rear surrounds are better positioned and suited for 5.1 high resolution playback.

Please correct me if I am wrong but with the new OPPO (7.1 analog out), if I hook this way, it will work fine for DVD-A/SACD but with Blu Ray, the side surround signal will come out the rears and the rear surround signals will come out of the side surrounds. I assume this will sound goofy so I was wondering if there are any suggestions to alleviate this ( I doubt it). The only one I can think of is to replace the 990 with the 997 and hook Blu Ray up via HDMI.

I am assuming that with DVD-A /SACD on the OPPO, the surround signals are assigned to output via the surrounds jacks and not the rear surround ones?

Thanks in advance

You are correct - there is no way (short of concocting an interesting switching system with the interconnects between the BDP-83 and the 990) for you to send the side surround channels of DVD-A and SACD to the rear surrounds while still sending side surround channels of BD and DVD to the side surrounds.