Oppo to set up UK Blu-ray base, pulls plug on DVD development

Oppo, the little AV brand with a big online reputation, is setting up a base in the UK to develop its Blu-ray business. During a visit to the Home Cinema Choice office, spokesman Pan Min revealed that the company would be establishing its UK home within a matter of months.

Oppo’s new Blu-ray/Super Audio CD/DVD-A player, the BDP-831 (US designation: BDP-83), has been the talk of the internet since its US launch, and is now available in the UK, priced around £450. The deck has 1GB of internal storage for BD-Live functionality and uses Anchor Bay's VRS video processor.

‘We may be a very small company,’ Min told HCC, ‘but where we are different from the likes of Denon and Sony is that we listen to our customers. Feedback is really important.’

Min revealed that Oppo currently has an engineering team of around 100 based in China working on its Blu-ray products, but confides that the company is no longer interested in DVD hardware. ‘We have sold out of DVD players and there are no more to come,' he says. 'The DVD business is over for us. We are committed to Blu-ray.’