Oppo BDP-83 and making repairs

user510

Active Member
This model, the BDP-83 was their first entry into the blu-ray player market. The year was 2009 iirc. Now, 9 years later, we have seen many complaints about recalcitrant loader tray drawer opening and closings. And then, as the players age further, the dreaded "no disc" message when in fact you have loaded a disc.

At present, Oppo has announced that it is not developing any new models of disc players in the home theater biz ... in the United States. However they also state that for the near term there will be a team left stateside to support existing units. And existing supplies of current products will continue to be sold.

I have made contact with customer support at Oppo. After an initial query made by them to determine if the laser led's were covered in crud, or if the loading tray was also covered in scum so deeply that any disc put in it would immediately be soiled so badly as to make the disc unreadable. When I informed them that I had already cleaned the laser led with q-tip/alcohol and the tray itself was spotless they offered a repair service as follows: $99.00 usd plus pay outbound shipping to their office in Menlo Park, California. For that cost they make whatever repairs and ship (at their cost) back to me. So far several comments can be found around the web that this is indeed a good service. Perhaps those who don't mind spending the up-front cost will take advantage of this offer. Many already have as this model seems to require service after a while.

For myself, I'm a bit miffed that the deck has an issue that can't be fixed by replacing a drawer belt. The problem with it goes deeper.

At first it was the loader-tray drawer issue that gave me trouble. That started in 2017, after I'd had the unit since late 2009, bought new through the Oppo, Menlo Park, California website. Then I found that if I left the unit turned on long enough to get warm, the drawer would appear to function normally. And that seemed fine for a while. Now, however, I have the No Disc message as described in my opening paragraph. Load a fresh clean disc and....."no disc".

I've had the covers off on this unit and have observed the action of the unit when the loader tray is operated.
Here's a movie of the loader tray drawer in action:
http://www.theanalogdept.com/images/spp6_pics/Oppo/BDP-83/BDP83_nodiscmovie_1.MOV
The movie file is a Quicktime .mov taken with a Nikon DSLR. File size is11mb so give it some time to load.

What is significant, I think about this movie is that it reveals that the small turntable that spins the disc on this unit is not turning. The turntable is of a direct drive type and is really just the end plate of a small stepper motor as can be seen in most CD and DVD players. Direct drive.

At first I thought it might be a leaking capacitor on the power supply board. I especially thought this when I took a look at this:
BDP-83%20power%20caps_3.jpg

Notice the -brown goo- puddled beneath the two large caps to the right in the above photo. It fooled me. But now I realize that this is just some adhesive used by the mfr to hold the caps in place while the underside of the board gets dipped in hot solder. So.....a simple cap replacement will not fix this thing. Both caps measure within spec with my little capacitance meter (68.2 uF) spec on side of cap says 68 uF.

Thoughts....?

-Steve
 
Hi,

I recall when blu-ray players were coming out, many consumers had so many issues with their players due to HDMI handshake issues or due to copyright protection software embedded in the blu-ray disc, so when I read about Oppo machines, and the reputation of their Tech Support/Customer Service, I was sold.

I also experienced a similar issue with my BDP-83 (also bought in 2009), but a little earlier. I shipped mine in for $50 through USPS, and got the tray issue fixed, and the laser replaced. That would be my recommendation, since there really isn't an alternate blu-ray player that I could recommend. It is unlikely that you will get this type of service from other brands. By the way, my BDP-83 is going on 3 years since the repairs, and it is working flawlessly.

I watched the clip that you had linked. Are you sure that the spindle motor will spin without the presence of a disc?
 
Hi,

I recall when blu-ray players were coming out, many consumers had so many issues with their players due to HDMI handshake issues or due to copyright protection software embedded in the blu-ray disc, so when I read about Oppo machines, and the reputation of their Tech Support/Customer Service, I was sold.

I also experienced a similar issue with my BDP-83 (also bought in 2009), but a little earlier. I shipped mine in for $50 through USPS, and got the tray issue fixed, and the laser replaced. That would be my recommendation, since there really isn't an alternate blu-ray player that I could recommend. It is unlikely that you will get this type of service from other brands. By the way, my BDP-83 is going on 3 years since the repairs, and it is working flawlessly.

I watched the clip that you had linked. Are you sure that the spindle motor will spin without the presence of a disc?

Yes I have confirmed that with disc loaded or not the spindle does not spin. This leads me to think it is a transport issue, perhaps circuitry involved in the control of that spindle motor. In the meantime I've other items that suddenly have higher priorities than fixing a BD player. Yes, it does seem that the Oppo tech support is the obvious choice. I was just fishing for more info on these players. Btw, I notice there is a healthy market for used Oppo BDP83 players on eBay. That convinces me to keep mine and get it repaired. $99 plus one-way ship seems like a great offer.
-Steve
 
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