The BDP-80 served as a Blu-ray successor to the 980H, with a price of $290 or so. At the moment, I've heard of no plans to return to that niche in the immediate future.

One problem they face is competition: OPPO can't compete at the entry level with Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, and the others that can offer a Blu-ray player for $100 or $200. If they tried, something would have to give - either quality of product, customer service, or a bit of both.

Another problem is perception: were OPPO's DVD players really "inexpensive"? The 971H certainly seemed that way in early 2005 when it was $200. By the time your 980H arrived in mid-2007 at $170, though, the typical DVD player from Panasonic or Sony cost $75 to $100. That's roughly half of what the 980H cost - and closer to a third of the price of the 981HD. (I won't even mention how the 983H factored in to that equation when it arrived in early 2008.) The loyal following they developed was partly because of how well they compared to a Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, or Pioneer Elite player that would have cost anywhere from $400 to $2,000 (or more), not how they compared on price to the "average" DVD player of the day. Now we have Blu-ray players, and the $500 price tag for the BDP-83 and BDP-93 seems huge compared to the $200 Sony and Panasonic offerings. In contrast, though, Denon has only just started offering full-featured BD players for under $1,000 this year - and many have attributed that move directly to pressure produced by the BDP-83. (I think they would have ended up there anyway, but I'm sure the BDP-83 became part of the discussion along the way.)

I think the BDP-95 is going to end up selling for around $950. That's a whole lot of money, but the design (Marvell video processor, dual HDMI outputs, high-end ESS DAC's, RCA and XLR stereo analog outputs, fancy power supply, etc.) is likely to place it in direct competition against players costing anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000+.