tlwizard

I was thinking today about getting a standalone blu-ray player instead of using my PS3. I've been using my HD-A35 to play dvds because I think the conversion and upscaling on it is fantastic and better than my PS3. However, I'm starting to doubt I'll watch my HD-DVDs and thought maybe I could sell it all off, but only if there's an affordable blu-ray option that can match or beat the HD-A35.

Any thoughts?

(Part of the reason this came up is because the Oppo 93 is in my gold box. But $475 might be a little too much for me to spend on a dedicated Blu-ray player.)

BSTNFAN

As someone who just bought the Oppo, I would jump at the $25 savings. I do also own the A35. Oppo is still tweaking the capabilities of the new chip. Currently, I would say it would take a very nicely calibrated setup to see the benefit, but the Oppo will probably get even better. However, the Oppo offers quite a bit of other features that the A35 will never have (DVD-A, SACD, Netflix, VUDU, can play ISOs) so only you can decide if that is worth anything.

Mr. Salty

Plus it's pretty easy to make Oppo players multiregion.

BSTNFAN

Although it is "easy," I didn't mention region free as the 93 requires a hardware modification (at additional cost) and can't be done with a code hack.

Alan Smithee

The HD-A35 and HD-A30 (and A2 and A20) can be made multiregion fairly easily using firmware CDs. I wish Oppo had made a player that did both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, there never was a great player that supported both formats.

tlwizard

Is the Oppo pretty much the defacto answer? Is there anything below $300 that is equivalent to the HD-A35 from Sony or Panasonic or anyone else?

Also, are the power up times on the Oppo really close to 40 seconds (I saw that in a revew)? That's one thing I never liked about my HD-A35 was how long it took to start up.

BSTNFAN

True, but obviously that only helps with DVDs (HD-DVDs were always region free). For just DVD region free operation, there is a file that can be downloaded to a disc and played in the Oppo one time to make it DVD region free. The hardware mod is needed to make it region free for Blu-ray.

BSTNFAN

I don't think there is anything "equivalent," but there are other machines that are very good for less money if DVD upconversion is all you are worried about. I don't know anything about your gear, but if you have a good enough setup to really notice the difference between "very good" and "top of the line" you may already have excellent upconversion in your AVR or display and could just set the output in the player to "native," "pure," or whatever will put out unconverted video and let another link in the chain do the work. If you have some machines in mind, you could go to the AVS Forums (or similar) and read the owner comments for each piece.

tlwizard

Thanks. I doubt my 50" Panny plasma has the best upconversion. I think my new Onkyo 809 receiver has fairly good from what I've read, haven't tested yet.

I've unfortunately missed out on the gold box deal. Hoping that it'll come back around. I figure if I can sell off my HD-A35 with all my HD-DVDs for about $200 (maybe) then putting $300 to the Oppo won't be so bad.

One thing I do like is that since they only have two models out, all their support would seem to go into that, as opposed to the other companies that release a new product every coupla months.

I did want to ask again, though, how long does it take the Oppo to start up?

BSTNFAN

Is there a specific measurement you want? Power button pushed until tray out? Disc in until menu? I have it side by side with the A-35 if you need some direct comparisons.

CRM114

There's always the Denon DBP-1611UD which is pretty similar feature-wise to the Oppo.

zyzzle

Wait a minute! I thought the XA2 beats even the A-35 for DVD playback. This is what I have and the upconversion quality on a well-encoded DVD is fantastic. I've debated on getting an Oppo, but just can't justify $500.

Is there a de facto comparsion of the Reon chip in the XA2 to the Oppo? Will I really see a difference between the two which is worth $500 on my 67" display?

XA2 vs HD-A35 vs Oppo for upconversion quality?

EDITED to add that I don't need or want many of the "frills" on the Oppo like Netflix and DVD-A. And, am I not correct that the raw PQ difference between the Oppo and a $100 BD player will be extremely minimal to nonexistant, even on a properly calibrated 67" display?

CRM114

I settled on a higher end Sony BD player so I could get SACD playback and wireless connectivity. I'd have liked DVD-A compatibility but it's not worth the extra $350 to me. I definitely wouldn't be able to tell the picture difference.

BSTNFAN

The XA2 is considered to have a slight edge on the A-35. I don't know the value of $500 to you to say whether it's "worth" it, but I would not get the Oppo just for upconversion of DVDs. However, if you wanted to create an iso of that DVD and play it, the Oppo would win hands down, because the XA2 can't do it along with many other things the Oppo does. The "value" of those capabilities can only be determined by the purchaser.

As for straight BD playback. General consensus is that almost any player can do the job. There have been tests that show many players do introduce some error into the data stream (the Oppo does not), but whether this is visible or not is debatable.

As a side note, I believe the XA2 is the one HD-DVD player that has held some resale value, so if you were ONLY using it to upconvert DVDs, the Oppo would not be a $500 upgrade.

mythmaker18

The Oppo also does 50hz BluRays and has the option to output a pure PAL signal from DVDs if your HDTV can handle it (which is much better quality than a conversion to NTSC), assuming you even need/want that extra compatibility.

zyzzle

Yes, but I DON'T believe the Oppo (or any other BD player) will CONVERT in real time 25-fps PAL into proper 24-fps NTSC without speedup issues (ie, convert a 96-minute PAL movie into the proper 24 fps 100-minutes which it SHOULD be! Bonus for realtime audio slowdown as well!

Correct me if there is any known Standalone player which will do this feat. I've been waiting for years! It should be possible by now in the year 2011 to watch our PAL DVDs in the proper 24 fps speed on a souped-up standalone player that is NOT an HTPC. CPU power is definitely there. This issue drives me nuts! How can so many people stand watching movies at the wrong speed?

tlwizard

Thanks for the offer!

How long does it take to go from powered off to eject and then for it to load a dvd menu from there?

BSTNFAN

I ran both the Oppo and the A35 using the Cars DVD from the combo pack. I used the open tray button from the remote to turn on the machine and open the tray: Oppo - 4 seconds, A35 - 45 seconds. I then inserted the DVD and pushed the play button (note: In both cases, it went straight to previews and not to the menu): Oppo - 19 seconds, A35 - 33 seconds. Hope that helps.

tlwizard

That does help, thanks. The reviews I had read stated that the Oppo took close to 40 seconds from power off to eject, and that time was one of the most frustrating things about the Toshiba.

Looks like I'm officially in the market now for an Oppo 93!

mythmaker18

That's NOT what I was getting at. I'm talking about the Oppo outputting true PAL (versus a conversion to NTSC) on stuff that ORIGINATED in PAL video, such as the majority of British television, so that you could watch those discs in their native framerate without a quality-hit from having to use a DVD player's PAL to NTSC converter. I'm NOT talking about movies, or US-filmed TV shows that get sped-up. I'd still advocate buying R1 editions for those, if possible.

None that I know of. And again, that issue really only affects cinematic films and US television shows. UK-shot TV shows (yes, even filmed ones, except for the ITC catalogue) were made for PAL/25/50 and are as they should be natively.

At least with Blu-Ray, PAL speedup is no longer an issue if the disc was mastered properly (some companies, though, like Entertainment in Video, improperly convert movies to 1080/50).

tlwizard

So the Oppo 93 showed up in my Gold box again. Got it for 475 minus about 100 in Amazon credit. Two day prime but Amazon still got it to me overnight.

Man, oh, man. Oppo really makes you feel like you got what you paid for. Awesome packaging. A carrying bag for the player. Wifi adapter. HDMI w/ethernet cable. Solid remote. And a really nice, heavy, blu-ray player. Bout to hook it up, but feeling good so far about the purchase.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

DVD Polizei

^^^I've decided I'm going to get the BDP-93 as well. Gonna have to come up with a few extra $$$ because I had a ton of Best Buy trade-in credit, but the BDP-93 has 7.1/5.1ch Analog outputs as well as 2 HDMI outs. That's the deal-breaker for me. I have an "older" AV receiver, but it's a solid receiver and has a plethora of analog inputs. The BDP-93 also has Coaxial AND Optical outs.

Why the hell Pioneer and Denon didn't make equivalent outs for their $500 Blu-ray players is really confusing to me. Especially Denon. They should know better. HDMI is NOT the only solution for many video- and audiophiles.

DVD Polizei

Ordered the Oppo BDP-93 today.

DVD Polizei

Well, that was rather fast shipping. The BDP-93 Looks great. I love it!