Has the Oppo carried the AV industry?


I looked through my last Widescreen Review magazine the other day (March issue), and I came accross the latest Oppo Bluray player review -didn't read it. In fact, I refuse to read yet another all-universe, all-everything, "the end-all-be-all", "greatest thing since sliced bread", "MUST HAVE", "there is none better", "will revolutionize your home theaters picture and sound quality, to world class levels" article, about the mythical Oppo player!!!..can't do it..WON'T DO IT! NO!!!
Over the last 13 years, I probably honestly read two (maybe three) entire Oppo Universal disc player reviews -start to finish -and other articles discussing Oppo mods and upgrades, articles/discussion that REFER to an Oppo player, as part of some reference system, and inevitably, I find that the Oppo reviews will JUST WON'T GO AWAY, APPARENTLY! They're like bunnies! They keep producing more of their kind, whether you want them to or not!
Lol -I'm just simply amazed by how much attention and press that a lowely disc player has obviously gotten over the years! Surely, owning an Oppo player must bee a system transforming experience! ..a "must have" item, no less. I must have missed out..cause I never owned one. In fact, never really cared to own one! I've been dazled by how good the quality of video processing has been in all the plain-Jane disc players, flat pannel display's, and even high end video projectors I've owned continue to supply me wiht! But, apparently, every one else bought the Oppo. Cause I surely, honesly, can't remember a year that's gone by in the past decade, where I don't rememer NOT reading somwhere about an Oppo player!
It's really felt, to me, like home entertainment AV products, and home theater in general, have been on a "demand" slide over the past decade! 7.1 and 1080p, Bluray, etc, have all been around long anough now, that it's kind of a "been there, had that" kind of feeling I get when I think about this hobby anymore. I guess life and priorities has weened me away from being a die-hard enthusiest now-a-days. And yet, I can't get the Oppo topic out of my thoughts, whenever I look at my gear!..and I don't think the hobby is going to let me forget much about it neither. lol!
Anyone else get the oppinion that this product surely has been single most important product in the AV industry, these past 10+ years?! Because it's certainly been the most talked about brand/topic I can remember reading about, if nothing else.
I really do think they'll be making Oppo's for the next 100 years, period! -even if they'll do 4k upscaling, 4k/8k future exact pixel mapping, wifi-HD streaming, toast your bread and make you breakfast, whatever! I'm thinking that these Oppo's just must have been so good, that no serious enthusiest, whatever-phile, or system owner should have ever considered "going without!"...otherwise, they missed out!?
Well anyway, anyone here who's used the Oppo think that the product has been a make-or-break, indespensible, product that really made all the differnence to the picture quality they achieved, or the sonic experience they got using these things? (I'm tickled pink by the digital AV processing advances I've gotten just upgrading processor and displays, year after year) I just want to somehow hear that I really missed out all these years, and the only important consideration I should have made was BUYING the Oppo! Cause at the very least, I'm not totaly convinced that Apple and Oppo aren't the same company, ..secretly.
100 more years of Oppo players?..servers?? -probably
avgoround
See what I mean?! Here above I see 4 different players in reference -DV-983H ,BD-83 and BD-93, and BDP105. Can anyone chiming in here honestly name 3 model numbers from any other brand DVD/Blu player, in the history of the genre?!! I'M GOING WITH "NO!"

"Oppo delivers industry leading image quality, friendly operation, an easy to use remote control" (AlPo-)

I'm sorry, but I simply have a very hard time believing - picture quality alone (which, btw, should be the only real thing that matters for a Bluray player) -that having an Oppo in my system, was really "that much better" than what some off the shelf Sony player has given me! I mean these dirt cheaper spinners pretty much all are including in likely the best video processing available in the industry today, for pennies, at their cost! ..seamed more than good to me. Certainly no one who's ever viewed my projector set-up's has ever said anything but WWOOOOOOW!, when looking at my very large 135" diag blown up 1080p image from my JVC's! Just saying. (think I paid $119 on sale for my Sony Blu machine, ...like 4 years ago!) Looks fantastic!

Here's what I find of SIGNIFICANTLY higher importance, when it comes to getting a quality image from your video system: 1) Quality of the projector/display being used 2) how well the PJ/display is calibrated/adjusted! 3) the room environment your viewing in (is there light in the room, even shinning on your display?..washing your immage dynamics, detail, and blacklevels?)
I would submit to anyone that, 99% of the people out there using a player, DON'T have their display even remotely close to properly calibrated, to take advantage of any fundamentally "higher quality" video signal, to even matter! ...that, and the viewing environemnt?
Spend a $1000 on a player and you Projector doesn't even have the best black levels possible from your display device, nor is it properly ISF calibrated - or close to- in the first place!? ..that and your walls in your room are anything but dark colored! - splashing color on your image, blowing out the black levels and contrast ..I'm just saying.
Between the superb video processing/scaling capabilities of both sub $150 Bluray players and ever progressing video projectors/display technologies these past years, I have to wonder just what I'd really see plunking down the cash for a premium disc spinner, when things are just so darn good -video-wise- with everything else out there?
I kinda view the Oppo as "a better cell phone", when the other phones just keeps getting better and cheaper, only 6 months latter! So why pay up, when the cheap stuff eventualy surpasses the previous hi-end stuff, when it comes to digital?!
Lol - I can still remember, some 13 years ago, selling some guy a $25K Faroudja DVP5000 scaler! I think a few years later, even $150 dvd players were offering supperior scaling and processing than what that mega buck player offered!!! Gotta be the law of deminishing returns here.
Wow, Avgoround. I've owned a half dozen Oppo players and never paid much attention to their video quality. What distinguishes them, imho, are their cutting-edge audio implementations (along with their customer service).
Well, nothing is a "must have", I agree. But in my 30+ years experiences in this hobby, I have learned that sometimes you will run into situations that you don't have to pay high-end price to get high-end performance. The Oppo players are examples of those situations.
emmm

Denon 1910 DVD
Denon 4010 BD
Denon 2012 BD
Denon 3313 BD

And these are the only ones that have passed through my system :)
My audio purchases have tended to be investments. I have paid up for the better stuff and been happy with it for years. Yeah, I have also gone round the upgrade cycle but I've generally kept the equipment I've replaced, moving them to bedroom or basement systems.

I won't buy video equipment this way. Video technology is moving too fast; I don't want to spend big bucks on something that can be replaced with a cheaper and better unit in 6 months and become identifiably obsolete in 18 months. I want something inexpensive that will get me close to the state of the art. My Oppo BDP 83 did this.

I have multichannel DVD-Audio and SACD discs as well as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. And I have limited shelf space in my AV system. Again the Oppo was the solution. I have been tempted to replace the Oppo with a cheap Sony blu-ray player, but I would lose the DVD-Audio capability. It's easier to just keep the Oppo.

I suppose the next step would be to get something that can stream from online and maybe have hard disc storage. Not yet tho; the technology is still too fluid for me to commit to something like that.