A New Year, a New Oppo

Oppo’s first 3D-capable Blu-ray player has gone on sale in New Zealand for $1149.

The BDP-93 succeeds the BDP-83, which sold for $200 more, and has two HDMI outputs (version 1.4a) to optimise audio and video settings for TVs and a/v receivers.

It also boasts a new video-processing chip, Qdeo by Marvell, that upscales DVD movies to a higher resolution, apparently improved audio, and will play a wide range of media formats.

But the European model for sale through RapalloAV is region-free only for DVDs, not Blu-rays, for which it’s zone B.

However, given the success of the hardware-modified BDP-83, don’t be surprised if there’s soon a chip for zone-free playback of Blu-rays.

Watch also for an audiophile version, the BDP-95 (below).