Digital Home Thoughts: OPPO Ships BDP-83 To Beta Users

"Here she is -- the world's very first universal Blu-ray player. Oh sure, we may have heard of Denon's absurdly expensive DVD-A1UD first, but that bad boy just got delayed for a second time over in Japan. OPPO, on the other hand, has managed to push out a few hundred of these BDP-83 decks to brave beta testers across America, and we were fortunate enough to score one."

It is not as cheap as your basic Blu-ray player, but it has just about every feature you could want from an optical disc player. Okay, it won't play HD-DVD, but it does handle DVD, SACD, CDs, AVCHD, MKV and of course, Blu-ray discs. Also of note is that it uses the Anchor Bay chip for de-interlacing, upscaling and general video quality goodness that's normally only seen in much more expensive players. The BDP-83 looks to provide the best value if you're looking to update your video player. Sure, something like the PlayStation 3 lets you play games, but its DVD playing abilities just are not on par with what the Anchor Bay chip can provide. With Engadget holding a beta unit in their hands, I'm sure we'll see a more thorough review soon.