Raison d'etre for fancy-pants Blu-ray or CD players like Oppo?

[Sivar]

I see Oppo in forum sigs at, say, AVSForums all the time.
I don't understand. Why would a $500 blu-ray or CD player (like the Emotiva ERC-3) be any better than a $50 one? I'm not saying that it isn't, just asking how it is.

In doing some reading, claims of superior DACs and video processors come into play. Why would the HDMI video signal need to be processed at all, other than perhaps a menu overlay?
And why would fancy DACs be used? DACs convert digital to analog, important for RCA outputs, but anyone buying a $500 blu-ray player is probably using HDMI (or, in the case of CD players, digital coax/optical).

I understand that some Oppos have preamp-like capabilities, where the DACs make sense, but most Oppo users seem to have a dedicated pre-amp.
Do these fancy players yield a testable benefit?

[curtis]

The thing with the Oppo is that is plays every kind of disc...and does it well. DVD-A (not just DVD-V), SACD, BluRay, and CD. It is known as a universal disc player...there are not many choices out there, and the Oppo is a good one.

On top of playing discs, it can also play streams from remote storage (audio and video I believe), as well as local. It also plays DSD files.

As for video processing....it needs to be processed at some point. The video processor in the Oppo is better than what is in most TVs....a long the same lines of thinking of an external DAC for audio.

[curtis]

BTW...if you haven't done so already, research DVD-A (DVD-Audio) and SACD discs.