Oppo BDP-103EU in the test

China is considered a global growth driver. Many well-known manufacturers use the country as a cost-effective production site. But the People’s Republic is catching up. More and more Chinese manufacturers are launching their products in the United States. But still the cheap image is still attached to them.


Oppo Player: Sale in the United States


Manufacturers like Oppo show that it is different: the Blu-ray player BDP-103EU, which stands in our home cinema, safely packed in gray foam and a black tragetasche. The accessories, consisting eg of HDMI cable, remote control and USB WLAN dongle, is in a stable black box. If you pack the player, you notice the proud five kilos of weight, the front of brushed aluminum and the gilded sockets on the back. All this is anything but cheap.


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Oppo BDP-103EU: Universally applicable


It is therefore not surprising that the players on the Internet and among home cinema fans are hot. For a long time there was only one problem: the first Blu-ray players from the house Oppo were not available in the United States. One reason: the lack of CE certification required for sales in the United States.


Oppo BDP-103EU: Inputs


But these models already aroused the interest of Oliver Klohs, owner of the Heimkino Kloh specialist in Leipzig. He was immediately convinced by the quality of the players. That is why he tried to bring the successors to the market in the United States.


In April 2010, the BDP-93 and 95 models were available for the first time by Oliver Klohs. As a primary reseller, he has since expanded the distribution, so that some traders now lead these players.


High-end: Blu-ray player compared


But also high-end manufacturers were attentive to the brand, which also sells smartphones in the Asian market. Cambridge Audio, Ayre, Goldmund, Primare and Electrocompaniet took the Oppo models and optimized them for their needs. What they like about the players: They play all the important disc formats. These are besides Blu-rays and video-DVDs with SACD, DVD-Audio and Audio-CDs also discs for music lovers. In addition, the Oppo players have a 7.1 analog tone output.


This also applies to the BDP-103EU. Thanks to the reliable bass management with settings for level, distance and loudspeaker size, it can be combined with almost any amplifier. Only the missing possibility to adjust the lip synchronicity restricts the selection a bit. Old-time amplifiers can not compensate for the temporal discrepancy between picture and sound.


The almost universal applicability goes further with its qualities as a media player. There is hardly a Blu-ray player that plays so many video, audio and photo formats. Media vendor can be the optical disc, the connected USB stick, the UPnP server on the home network, or the shared folder on the computer.


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As a UPnP media renderer, the player can alternatively be fed with media from the computer or from mobile devices. If you hold your smartphone or tablet in your hands, it is also useful to use it as a remote control for the Oppo player. There are apps for Apple products and devices with Android operating system. Unfortunately, the application is only a pure representation of the remote control.


The smartphone can also be connected to the MHL input on the front panel. So the screen content of the smartphone reaches the player and thus the TV screen


OPPO dealer


The distribution of the Chinese players in the United States is via Oliver Klohs. The owner of Heimkino Klohs supplies a growing number of dealers here. This allows you to try and buy the players at the following stores


The new MHL standard also allows to transmit audio signals digitally. By the way, the MHL jack on the Oppo player is one of two HDMI inputs. Yes, you read correctly: This Blu-ray player has HDMI inputs, as you know from AV receivers or TVs. This allows the player to go through the high-quality image processing of the device.


Video signals first arrive at the main processor of MediaTek, which is also responsible for sound processing. Other manufacturers such as Pioneer, Denon, Sony and Philips also rely on the chips of the Taiwanese manufacturer. In addition, a Qdeo video pro- ject from Marvell is integrated, which has already refined many other high-quality players.