A few things to keep in mind since you are using a Model 950:

You will want a Blu-ray player with onboard decoding of the new formats and 7.1 analog output. That limits how much cheaper you can go with a Blu-ray player. Any such player will also evict the 980H from the multichannel analog connection, thus eliminating your ability to play DVD-A and SACD.

You will need Pro Logic II turned on to expand 2.0 sources to 5.1.

There are still very few players that will expand 5.1 to 7.1 via analog output. I've mentioned this to OPPO several times during beta testing and I do expect them to implement something similar to the 980H's steering logic with the BDP-83.

If you really want full 7.1 analog right now, you could set the BDP-83 to 5.1 downmix and split the side surround outputs to feed both side and back surround inputs on the 950.

Waitaminute: You have a Model 950, right? (Going by your sig, it appears that you do.) The 950 only has a 5.1 analog input, so the 5.1-to-7.1 steering logic couldn't be used anyway. Am I misunderstanding how you were using the 980H and the Model 950? Or has the 950 been replaced by something with a 7.1 analog input (like the Model 970 or 990)?