Most Australian’s know of OPPO’s smartphones but its real heritage is in high-end, audiophile standard, devices like its new reference quality, UDP-203, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player.
Audiophiles have waited a long time for this unique 4K Blu-ray player. First, it is reference quality – there is no better, and second, it supports Dolby Vision (HDR 10 on steroids) and Dolby Atmos sound out of the box.
HDR10 (which is standard on all Ultra HD Blu-ray players) produces higher contrast, greater brightness, and expanded colour. Let’s say it is good but …
Dolby Vision (OPPO and LG now) adds so much more to HDR10 – 12-bit colour support and dynamic metadata for scene-by-scene colour grading on supported content and displays. It is amazing to see the difference in image quality side-by-side.
{loadposition ray}One HDMI 2.0 port supports Ultra HD; 4:4:4 Chroma sub-sampling; up to 12-bit colour; 60Hz frame rates; and Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and HDR metadata. Another HDMI 1.4 port supports audio output to legacy A/V receivers. It also has 7.1-channel analogue outputs, featuring “Velvet Sound” 32-bit premium digital-to-analogue converters from AKM of Japan.
It has two USB 3.0 ports on the back and another USB port on the front, enabling the playback of video, music and photo files from USB hard drives, thumb drives and DLNA servers.
It brings back the “universal disc” playback compatibility, including Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, CDs, DVDs, DVD-Audio, SACD discs and more. Its 4K upscale from any content is said to be flawless.
Sound-wise it supports all the latest lossless Hi-Res codecs - AIFF, WAV, ALAC, APE and FLAC. It also directly plays Direct-Stream Digital audio files in stereo DSD64/128 or multi-channel DSD64. Internal decoding is also provided for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and bitstream output for object-based immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Gigabit Ethernet LAN connection and 802.11ac Wi-Fi MIMO allow the player to connect to an in-home network to access and stream files stored on other devices
It does not have built-in internet video and music streaming apps. Instead, an HDMI 2.0 input port that supports UHD resolution is available for users to connect an external streaming device. OPPO said it did this to enable users to add on their own media adapters to more easily upgrade as streaming technologies evolve, while still taking advantage of the UDP-203’s audio and video processing capabilities.
It is priced at US$599 – there is no word from OPPO Australia if this will come here but that will not stop audiophiles buying it.
