Ok the Video.
1.How is the Video on Blue Ray and DVD?
I'm guessing Kal cannot comment on the video performance because of his pending review. The BD93 is supposed to be built upon the foundation of the 983H DVD player using the same Anchor Bay chip for DVD playback. I cannot comment on Oppo BluRay performance, but can tell you the video output (upsampled to 1080i via HDMI) on the 983H is outstanding and just a stone's throw from BluRay performance I compared to a Panasonic BD55K through the same interface. I have not noticed any video artifacts at all from upsampling. Audio performance of the 983H is very good for the price, but certainly could be improved upon. With the 983H SACD and DVD-A are output via HDMI>PCM. Whereas on the BD93 the specs read:
SACD The BDP-83 plays Super Audio CD (SACD) and supports both stereo and multi-channel high resolution audio programs. Users can select whether to output the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) signal in its native format or convert it into PCM.
I could not find fault with the DVD video performance at all.
Otherwise, Kal pretty much summed up what makes it unique - with BluRay it is truly a do-anything all-in-one player at a very competitive price if they hit their goal (Last I heard around $599). Kal, did they actually implement DVD-A output? I saw they'd offered "Preliminary Support" via a firmware update. Did that work out?
Marco