The BDP-103AU from Oppo is quite different from the premium Blu-ray player previously reviewed in Connected Home. But the results are still remarkable, writes Stephen Dawson.

Not so long ago we had a close look at Oppo’s premium Blu-ray player, the BDP-95AU, which focused on magnificent audio performance. But for most of us, the lower level model from Oppo – one that would still be regarded as premium were it from most other companies – is just as good at little more than half the price. This is because, if you’re using HDMI as your audio connection, the high-end digital-to-analogue converters and associated audiophile componentry in the more expensive model is simply bypassed.

Now Oppo has released a new player, what I suppose could be called its ‘entry level’ model, the BDP-103AU. This sheds the audiophile stuff but adds some interesting new features.

CONNECT AND CONTROL
One such feature is 4K upscaling. That is, if you have a full 4K display, such as those already released by Sony or LG, or the batch of them coming this year from other makers, this player can supply a signal.

I’m generally of the view that there isn’t much point in this since most content is Full HD, there isn’t yet a viable 4K video source supported by a Blu-ray player, and those displays themselves have 4K upscaling. However, there are two exceptions. One would be the ability to display still photos – say, from a USB drive – at a higher resolution. Remember Full HD translates into just two megapixels. 4K offers eight. On a big screen that can make a huge difference in picture quality.

The other is for those who want a constant image height front projection system. This involves scaling 2.35:1 content up vertically so the active part of the image fills the display, and using an anamorphic lens to stretch it sideways to restore the correct aspect ratio. This can potentially reduce picture quality due to the scaling, but with a 4K system that shouldn’t be a problem.

The unit actually offers excellent support for anamorphic displays. In addition to having the  necessary vertical stretch output mode, you can set the position of the subtitles (which in Blu-ray are generally graphics layers) so that these are shown on in the viewable image, rather than pushed off the edge of the screen.

This player of course supports Blu-ray 3D, and indeed can convert 2D to 3D if you like.

If you have a display that supports 3D or 4K, but your home theatre receiver doesn’t, this unit deals with that by providing two HDMI outputs with independent processing circuitry. They will each send only the data that the device on the other end can handle: 2D video with audio to the receiver, for example, and 3D 4K video to the display.

There are no component video outputs, there being little point in having them these days, nor a composite video output. The ‘Diag’ output is like composite, but only carries the menus, not the picture, and can be used for troubleshooting.

Even though it doesn’t have the high-end audiophile extras of the more expensive model, it still offers 7.1 channel analogue audio output with full decoding on board. There are three USB sockets (one on the front panel) and Ethernet. A WiFi dongle is provided along with a neat extension stand for it. You don’t need to put a memory stick in a USB socket for BD-Live operation because it has a gigabyte of storage built in.

There are also two HDMI inputs. The one on the front panel supports the MHL standard, which allows some models of phone (typically Android ones) to deliver video and sound to the unit while being charged.

Why HDMI inputs? Because of the quality video processing circuitry in this player. You can plug another HDMI source device into the unit and use the Oppo’s Marvel Qdeo processing chip to upscale and deinterlace it, in most cases to a high quality standard than the device’s built in processor. This is especially useful with set top boxes with the ability to output 576i video from SDTV stations.

For system integration purposes the unit has both RS-232C and an IR input. There are also Android and iOS control apps. I tried out the latter and it works well, essentially replicating the physical remote control.

PICTURE AND SOUND QUALITY

For the most part this player does not treat you like a baby. If you want it to do something it’ll generally let you force it to, even though it may not be advisable. For example, all 3D Blu-ray players I’ve used will only output 3D content if they have satisfied themselves that the display is capable of handling it (this information is passed during the HDMI handshake).

This player has a setting which will ‘force’ the output of 3D when playing 3D discs, regardless of what the TV says about the matter. There is probably little use for this, but there have been instances where TVs have had the incorrect information programmed into them. It’s nice to know that this unit will do what you want.

Oppo used to implement a ‘force film’ mode (confession and disclosure: it did so at my suggestion). This allowed its first Blu-ray player model and the preceding DVD players to deliver those discs with absolutely perfect picture performance with film-sourced content being delivered from an interlaced format disc (i.e. 576i50 DVD or 1080i50 Blu-ray).

In the last couple of models, since it switched over to Marvell video processors, it has not offered this capability, relying on their automatic analysis of the video to do the job instead. With the current firmware the automatic picture deinterlacing was very good, up near the top of the pack, but still was tricked by some of the more ambiguous test clips, both on DVD and Blu-ray.

I say ‘current firmware’ because there’s something that should be remembered with regard to Oppo Digital: it is a company with two main products, both of them Blu-ray players. Rather than having its attention spread over dozens or even hundreds of different types of product, it is all about making its Blu-ray players the best they can be, and it is very, very responsive to customer feedback.

So it is actually working on reintroducing the ‘force film’ mode. There was a minor issue with regard to the default picture mode setting (it is set to PAL, and so it converts 480i60 and 1080i60 content to 1080p50) which it will be changing in the next firmware update.

In the meantime, thanks to the on-the-fly ability to change output resolution using a key on the remote, and the ‘Source Direct’ output mode (which just pipes out the original resolution), you can see if perhaps your home theatre receiver or display can do an even better job on deinterlacing.

VERSATILITY
In addition to the usual disc fare, the Oppo BDP-103AU also plays DVD Audio and Super Audio CD, and it can properly decode HDCD discs (these are like CDs, and are compatible with CD, but can deliver a higher resolution audio performance if specially decoded).

If you have it connected to the Internet, the unit queries the Gracenote disc database and  appropriately labels the disc and its contents in the on-screen display.

The USB audio support was brilliant, covering M4A iTunes if les, WMA, WAV, and high resolution FLAC, including 5.1 channel 96kHz, 24 bit FLAC. Some of the network functions (Netflix, VuDu and Film Fresh) don’t work (yet) in Australia. But you get excellent DLNA support, Pandora ‘Internet Radio’ (it’s actually a semi random music streaming service that attempts to conform to your preferences) and a very effective YouTube implementation.

The main problem with using things like YouTube on a Blu-ray player is entering search terms via a remote control. This implementation allows you to pair a mobile device with the YouTube function in the player. The interface on your phone or whatever is a website so there are no special apps involved. Search using your phone and the video appears on your TV via this player.

CONCLUSION
The Oppo BPD-103AU is a great Blu-ray player from a company the whole existence of which depends upon its Blu-ray players’ quality. Add in the extras, the excellent build quality and the ability to use it to improve the picture from some HDTV receivers, and it is also a Blu-ray player well worth owning.