Hey everybody, I've got a link that I'm posting here before putting it up elsewhere on the net:

Gonk\'s BDP-83 review

At present, it reflects the "Early Adopter Program" form of the player. I'll be updating it as the EAP participants get significant updates and once the official launch takes place to address specific operational items and the anticipated addition of DVD-Audio. Enjoy!

Enjoy I did! Very well written detailed review. I look forward to the updates and getting my own BDP-83.

Thanks for sharing.

Gonk -- As usual a thoughtful and informative review. Thanks!

Separate question for the forum -- anyone out there one of the lucky 50 drawn in the lottery?

Very thorough, as usual. Sounds like a winner.

One question Gonk. I noticed you are using an Onkyo Pro processor. Will that be replaced, along with your 990, with the upcoming 997?

Thank you for the review gonk!

Sounds like this player will meet most people's high expectations for a Blu-Ray player from Oppo. Thank you, gonk, for the thorough review. Right now my cash is waiting for the 997, so the PS3 will remain my Blu-Ray player for now.

I am curious, gonk, about the analog outputs. You mentioned that you could hear an improvement when using these outputs while listening to a CD. Did you notice the same result when listening to the sound track of Blu-Ray movies?

I wondered when someone would notice that. Yes, I plan to move from the Onkyo Pro to a 997. The sound quality of the 885 was pretty well on par with the 990, I thought, and the convenience of having HDMI audio support and all video output via HDMI are enough to make me lean toward staying at the HDMI v1.3 hardware generation, but my wife frankly hates the Onkyo and I am going to be curious to see how it compares to a 997 for both audio/video quality and wife acceptance.
We haven't had onboard decoding of the lossless formats for long, so I'm still making comparisons and haven't decided yet. I still find myself readily toggling over to multichannel analog, though, and I never find an urge to switch back - which makes me think that unconsciously the two are at least pretty well matched.

Gonk, that was an excellent review.
I continue to be amazed at the expertise that you bring to such analysis and the time , effort and clarity of thought and expression that characterizes your work.
We are blessed as a comunity to have you as a fellow and resource.

Of course, that could change from pre/pro to pre/pro. It will be interesting to see how that analysis changes with the 997 in the mix.

Gonk,

I just read your review of the new blu ray player...thanks for that, that was really useful. In it, you mentioned this:


The BDP-83 also supports playback of an assortment of video files such as DIVX, AVI, AVCHD, MKV, and even VOB files from DVD's. These files can be stored on data discs (CD-R or DVD-R) or on external storage devices connected via USB (either USB memory sticks, USB hard drives or USB memory card readers). I have not made significant use of those, although I have played back some different formats using DVD-R media, a large USB hard drive, and several different USB memory sticks


Does that mean that I could use the bd83 with a large USB hard drive hooked to a USB port as a video server? If so, what sort of user interface does it offer for browsing and selecting movies stored on the hard drive?

Scott