I'm excited like many others on this forum for the upcoming BDP-83. I don't own a BDP yet, and my SD DVD player is nothing great (about 8 years old, no upscaling, SACD, DVD-A, HDCD, etc), so this will definately transform my HT experience.

Thanks for sharing your insight Gonk. I am one of those that plan on upgrading to the 997 and OPPO BDP in the near future (I hope). My best bet would be run run a HDMI cable from the BDP to the 997 and then from the 997 to the TV? - would the HDMI cable to the 997 for video then pass through to the TV untouched?