Oppo traditionally builds very premium products, and, as such, they traditionally come with a premium price tag. When we reviewed the predecessor to the BDP-103AU — the BDP-93 — back in 2011, it was priced at AU$850.

This model is a bargain by comparison, at only AU$699, but it's considerably pricier than many other players, more than even the Sony BDP-S790. So what does the Oppo offer?

Design

The first thing you'll notice is the build quality; it's a beautiful brushed aluminium, with a solid weight of 4.9kg and a very nice change from shiny, plastic, fingerprint magnets.

The BDP-103AU has three USB ports and two HDMI outputs — you can use one for video and one for audio, or you could plug in both a TV and projector. There are two HDMI inputs, as well — you can plug in a media streamer or a PVR to take advantage of the Oppo's video-processing power.

For networking, it's set up for wired or wireless, and supports a big range of popular file formats for video and audio: MKV, AVCHD, FLAC, AVI and more. Playback is supported from various network storage and streaming devices.

The remote is of an equally impressive build — there's some weight to it, but nothing that makes it unwieldy. Buttons are clearly marked, large enough and well spaced, with two dedicated Video on Demand service buttons at the top (we'll get back to those later).