For $199, it's darn amazing.
Just posted this review in Amazon...
The excellent performance has been well documented. You may know it scored a 94, second to the Denon 5901 which costs a bit more, in very techical evaluation of DVD players:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=122What is not well documented is the unexpected superb customer service.
* Emails are replied to quickly even in the evening.
* Phone calls are answered by a real person.
* Firmware upgrades are released online very quickly and easy to apply. So, you don't lose the opportunity to use the player.Unlike others that require you to send in your unit to a service center to apply a firmware upgrade.
* Warranty problems are fixed very quickly even when it's clearly not the fault of the player. During this past weekend, I accidentally bumped the tray as it was opening with a center channel speaker, Adire LCR... heavy... big. The speaker did not give. The tray did, throwing it out of alignment. I could not get the tray to load again. It was jammed. Distraught! Panic! I called Oppo, explained what happened and it was clearly my mistake. I shipped it to them on Tuesday. They sent me an e-mail today (Thursday) that they fixed the tray and applied the latest firmware upgrade and are FedEx'ing back to me. I should have it by this weekend. Less than a week turnaround. And they didn't have to fix it since it was clearly my error.
That shows me that Oppo is very serious about establishing a high-excellence for customer service. And this is for a player that has excellent picture quality (with DVI) and sound quality for $199. There is little risk since they provide 30/31 day trial when buying directly or through Amazon.
For those who have HDMI displays, you can buy an DVI-HDMI cable for the cost of a lunch from:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&style=I wish Oppo would release a HT preamp processor.
Highly recommended!
