Phil,
i tried a Yamaha 1020 and a Ligawo hdmi de-embedder together with a Denon DA300 dac. the pcm signal from the sacd was 176.4 khz. 
not sure if it was a 24 bit signal as well because the dac didn't show it...
does the Oppo put out also 176.4 khz or is the 88.2 signal some kind of limitation??
al.
Al, John Gatski of Everything Audio Network has done more extensive testing of players and de-embedders. Here's one review -
http://everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/2013/04/audiophile-review-hdmi-de-embedder.html I moved from the DC area and I talked to John at length a few times and actually dragged a player over to his house once (an Integra I bought after I went to the Capital Audiofest a few years back that they were closing out and got some info from the Integra rep and then looked at the manual which also just said 176.4). John owns an ATI sample rate converter/A-D converter that reads bit depth and was instrumental in getting Benchmark to add a bit depth display to their last DAC.
I mainly used the de-embedder with my BDA-1 DAC and then just a few weeks when I got my Meitner DAC while I was getting the music digitized. I can't say that John has tested every single player but he has indicated that only the Oppo players do 24 bits (although of the ones that do 176.4, my Integra, DPS6.9, which I don't used at the moment sounded best but it just did 16 bits). The Oppo players do 24/88.2 (and in many cases I preferred the BDA-1 upsampling to 176.4 as many of the SACDs were really good recordings). I actually preferred going through the de-mbedder to the BDA-1 vs. listening to SACDs via the analog outs of my modded BDP-83. The highs were a drop better playing the SACD but I preferred the imaging and overall presentation of converting to PCM and going through the BDA-1. However, once I got things digitized with the Meitner DAC, I prefer to listen to DSD files. Unfortunately, as consumers, we don't have the power to compel studios to release things which would sound best in a particular format. DSD may be wonderful for old analog recordings (or something recorded in DSD) but it something was originally recorded in 24/96, it would be nice if it did not go through the conversion process.
So I'd guess you are getting 16/176.4. My BDP-83 also will do full resolution from DVD-As via the coax digital out (the above review from the Everything Audio Network talks about that and I believe the new Oppo players no longer do that - kind of like my old Samsung HD1000 DVD-V/DVD-A player where they managed to get a couple of hundred of the pre-HDMI units into the USA that upconverted DVDs via the analog component outs before they got the studios on their case). For someone who prefers physical media (nothing wrong with that) or does not have many SACDs and owns a good DAC, I'd highly recommend the route of the de-embedder. I also used an upgraded power supply (for the Monoprice unit, their product ID 5557, anything that works for a Logitech Squeezebox Touch is fine). The new Oppo players (even the 103) can play also kinds of high resolution files, included DSD and DSD multi-channel via a hard drive.
