Pros
- The absolute best picture/audio quality
- Reliability and satisfaction ratings are through the roof
- Tons of features including 4k upscaling, 3D conversion, and Internet connectivity
- Fastest load and boot speeds in the industry
Cons
- Industrial design may not be for everyone
- Price tag may intimidate some
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The Geek’s Take
Well known amongst home theater enthusiast circles, boutique Blu ray manufacturer OPPO offers the absolute best money-is-no-option player on the market with the BDP-103. In a category where picture quality is typically uniform across the board, the OPPO BDP-103 stands head and shoulders above the rest. Yes, at $500 it’s more expensive than the competition, but that old “Get What You Pay For” mantra has never been more true than with the OPPO BDP-103. Get it here at the guaranteed lowest price on the web.
Full Review
Performance
In our Blu ray Buyer’s Guide we made a point of saying that “with a few exceptions,” picture quality is pretty comparable with most players on the market. Meet the exception – the OPPO BDP-103. OPPO owners rave about the improvement in picture and audio quality vs. their old Blu ray players. The BDP-103’s premium Marvell Kyoto-G2H video processor produces less artifacts, crisper images, and stunning colors. The end result – the best possible picture from any Blu ray player on the market. Period.
Need more? The OPPO BDP-103 also supports all of the high end video features you’d expect from a home theater device in this class, features like 24Hz video for 24fps flicker free playback – a real theater experience, Source Direct mode or outputting content without any processing, and 4K upscaling – something we’ll discuss further later.
But for a premium home theater experience, you’ll want premium audio as well. So how does the OPPO BDP-103 stack up? Quite well, according to our research. The BDP-103 supports lossless Dolby TrueHD audio via its HDMI 1.4a output as well as bit-stream output of DTS-HD Master Audio for ear-popping audio. This monster player also features two (two!) HDMI outs, meaning you can dedicate one for video and one for audio for even crisper media output.
If all that geeky talk didn’t convince you that this player takes performance up to 11, we can add one more thing: load times are crazy fast thanks to the BDP-103’s dual core processor. That means less time to wait for all of this high end video and audio goodness.
Design
The OPPO BDP-103 is built more like a Sherman tank than a mainstream Blu ray player, resembling some high end audio receivers. This blocky, industrial design fits the BDP-103’s personality perfectly, but may turn off some consumers used to the sleek, thin, glossy players that fill the shelves at Best Buy. If you’re looking for sloping curves, shine, and flash, check out this more mainstream Sony player, but if you’re more of a function over form kind of person anyway, the BDP-103 is for you.
Features
Honestly, the full feature list is too long for us to list here. It’s by far the most impressive feature set we’ve found in a Blu ray player. If you want the grimy details, check out this product page, but here are the highlights:
- 2D to 3D – Convert traditional 2D content to 3D without the loss of video quality seen with many lower-end players
- 4K upscaling – Sure there are no consumer-based 4K displays out there yet, but there will be. With the OPPO BDP-103, you’ve got a level of future proofing, taking 1920×1080 content from your favorite Blu rays and scaling them up to 3840 x 2160.
- Streaming content – the BDP-103 connects to the Internet via hard line ethernet or wifi dongle to stream from the most popular sources including Netflix, Vudu, Youtube, and many others.
Value
So, the bad news. The OPPO BDP-103 is a little on the expensive side at $499 at the time of this review. Do the stellar performance and laundry list of features make it worth that price? We think so, but that’s ultimately up to you and your wallet.
One more thing to keep in mind though – as with most electronics, you do get what you pay for. Not only are the feature set and performance stellar, but the reliability ratings are through the roof. It’s a perennial PC Mag Reader’s Choice, and by a huge margin, for a reason. In all honestly, consider this player an investment as much as any.
Get it here at the guaranteed lowest price on the web.
Summary
If you’ve been searching for the best, you’ve found it in the BDP-103. Despite a price tag several times higher than most other players on the market, the amazing performance/picture quality, insane customer satisfaction and reliability ratings, and chock-full feature set make the the BDP-103 from OPPO our clear Editor’s Choice in the Blu ray player category. This is a Blu ray player you just have to buy.
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