Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 366

Got an email from Oppo stating that I could open it up (which you all know I did 2 days ago). They said they could send a replacement when they are open on Monday, but I told them that there is no need. I did tell them that I needed a longer power cord. It is about 6 inches too short, so I had to use an extention cord, which is considered a fire hazard to be kept there permanently. To be safe I would need it about 1 foot longer. Do they have these?

I did play a MKV slighty larger then 4GB that I downloaded from the net. It was 4.26GB and I burned it to a Single Layer DVD+R. It played fine. I have not tried anything larger yet.

Google Earth is great. Here is what the Oppo offices look like.

It's a standard cord, suggest you go to Monoprice and get one that suits you.

I tested 7GB on a dual layer DVD, no problemo. That was MPEG-2, but shouldn't matter.

I'll do more trouble-shooting in a couple days, when I have more time.

Stalker

I understand that the on-line version of the owners manual includes late changes and additions that are not included in the preliminary printed version included with current shipments of the BDP-83. Is there any way to identify or highlight these changes? I would prefer to read the printed version, but I don't want to waste time studying sections that have been changed or updated. Any suggestions? Sections that are known to be new?

Jim

well as much as i want the dual bit rate meters, even i agree that a more pressing issue is the lip synch problems. i have already experienced this twice...once while watching taken on BD, i paused the player and went and took out some laundry...when i got back 3 or 4 minutes later and started playing it again, the audio was way out of sync with the video. this happened another time while watching this disc from the begining. i assume that oppo is well aware of the lip sync problems and is working feverishly to fix them? i am using mch audio out.

I am one of the 50 EAP'ers. The Oppo continues to amaze me.
This week, because of a equipment malfunction, I missed an episode of "24" which I am addicted to. No big deal, I just Dl'ed it and went through my normal process of trans coding it and burning a DVD (HQ)with Nero. About an hour spent. I watched it and it was OK.
Then I read that the Oppo can decode AVI files so I copied the AVI to a thumb drive. The Oppo read it immediately and the PQ was superior to the DVD I had made.

This player is just incredible!!!

If only they would add analog test tones to the MC setup.

Anwers to your questions:

Show Prep
Burn-in 24x7 for 8 days
Stereophile Test CD 2
Radio Shack SPL Meter
Set levels (confirmed with SACD music)
Hiss/noise levels at 2/3 system gain
Oppo: very, very, very quiet
Sony: some low level hum is present
Check my profile for full equipment listing

Process
Not blind or double blind, but I did close my eyes frequently to focus on the music
One soda was consumed during the four hour review time (Diet Coke)
1) Listen to a disc on one player (usually the last one played becaue the draw is open)
2) Listen hard and write down whatever
3) Put the disc in the other player
4) Listen hard and check for omissions or differences
5) Take a swig of soda and repeat

Oppo Did Not
Reach deeper into the music to let me hear things I've never heard before
Display album, artist, title track info on the display
Like fast forward/rewind due to poor sampling: pretty much worthless
Draw a comment from my wife (to be fair she was not home during the testing)


Oppo Did
Present a soundstage comparable to the Sony
Make me close my eyes, tap my toes and bop my head up and down
Give me goosebumps
Convey ambiance, detail, rhythm and pace cohesively
Miss beginning notes when navigating using next track or previous track
Play stereo music from SACDs as well as my heavily modded Sony player

Listening Notes

Dave Brubeck Quartet
Time Out
-Take Five
The perfect cymbal left
Snare echo left to right
Floating pure sax slight spit and fingerings
5/4 marches on with sax beautifully centered
Drum solo, fast echo left right, bass fret board occasional, sticks on head
That cymbal ride again - perfect
Sax vibrato out

Willie Nelson
Stardust
-Georgia On My Mind
Tubular organ
Flat short triangle
Willie is in the room
Guitar fret buzz
Better triangle - med-short ring
Drums very recessed
Flat short triangle
Fluid and perfectly blended harmonica
Piano color recessed
Horns fade out
-Blue Skies
Slight sibilance
Clearly hear the picking and fingering on the solo
Strong vocal finish
Close with vibrato fade

Natalie MacMaster
In My Hands
-In My Hands
Crash symbols on intro recessed, stronger, then recessed left
Vocal is a little back
Nice blended mix builds
Violin timbre is simply complex
Drums lay it donw
Great jiggidy fiddln'
+ synth
+ background vocals
Suburb blended mix
Angelic chorus fades

McCoy Tyner Quartet
New York Reunion
-Recorda Me
Strong clear bass, fingers on strings
Detailed hi-hat
Syncopation sax like crazy
Goosebumps at 80 F
Can't stop my toes, fingers, head from going along
Perfect tenor - clear powerful
Big blend - wow dynamics
Perfect piano minor chords sound
Nice clear ride cymbal
Ron owns, no frets only fingers
Al no snare + toms nice
Nice strong ending
Bury me with this one!

Blue Oyster Cult
Agents of Fortune
-Don't Fear the Reaper
Consistent guitar riff intro, grinder back
Lead vocals front and center background vocals to the sides
Nice wide blended mix
Solo, edit/cut, hi-hat smear/echo, screaming guitar, grinder late, sustain until refrain
Separate bass line is plump
Crash cymbal splash

Weather Report
Heavy Weather
-Birdland
Oppo: misses part of the first note. Repeatable, and unavoidable
Sony: Does not miss a beat
It's all about the hi-hat
Nice builds and releases
Saxy - bright and clean
Jaco - bright and articulate
Main refrain
Good dynamics, tone, timbre

Rolling Stones
Hot Rocks
-Sympathy For the Devil
Yeaoow!
Bongos and gourds, syncopathic percussive rhythm
Dirty bass
Piano chords ring long and clear
Great passion in Mic's vocals
Whooo whoo getting louder
Piercing distorted guitar solo by K - Hot and center
Mic screams and echo's bg vocals
-Honky Tonk Women (Track 4)
Oppo: misses beginning of the song via next track, repeatable and unavoidable
Oppo: playing continuously from track 3 to 4 plays every note of track 4
Cow bell sounds the same - yes but hard to determine -took me 10 minutes

Deep Purple
Machine Head
-Smoke on the Water
THE dirty riff left
THE dirty riff right + THE hi-hat
+ snare
+ THE bass
Just add vocals (little recessed)
Jamm it with a Hammond back beat
Super clear hi-hat
THE Lead: lots o echo, nice mix with bass and organ at the end
Back to super tight jamm
Best rock bass ever: full rich occasionally plunky
B3 ownage and phase out

Hi,
Deep into testing this weekend and I have noticed a quirk on DVD-A! I know its still a work in progress but here are my findings.

Listening to The Corrs In Blue The Stereo Track appears to be running faster than the MLP track. Pitch is slightly off, but also it can be seen in the clock timings on the front of the oppo. Listening to the first track there was almost a second difference within the first 30 seconds! To test pick a keyword and look at the clock when you hear it on the MLP track, then do the same on the Stereo Track... there is a difference... or am I being completely cuckoo

has anyone elso noticed this ?

Otherwise still loving my player SACD comes up to a whole new level through HDMI into my Denon 3808. Thank you oppo!

I'm aware CD is only two channel; just a slip on my part cause they're all on the same receiver input.

I like the surround on my multichannel hi-res discs for the most part. But they are far less in count than all things stereo in my collection, so I'll live with the receiver setting change when doing multichannel music. I'm picking up my 83 tomorrow it looks like, so I'll give the analog outs a good run through as well.

So, I've had the Oppo for about two weeks now - and I said to myself, 'maybe I should get a bluray disk.' So, I went down to the store, and - $35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you serious?! Guess I need to join netflix.

Has anyone hooked up a wireless game adaptor to the e/net port on the Oppo so you can connect to a wireless router for i/net?

Scaling will look much the same on all good quality scalers. the main difference will be seen with de-interlacing. the S&M disc you have will allow you to compare results at 480i and 1080p output on a variety of de-interlacing tests.

For the rest, I suggest you take the time to use the S&M disc to tweak your display's setup. Also be sure you are using the correct color space for your display. "auto" should be an agreeable setting.

I doubt it because I have to give the subwoofer pre-out a 10 dB boost to match the subwoofer level that normally comes out of my Denon receiver (or rather, I don't have to attenuate it by 10 dB like I do with the signal from the receiver's processor in order to keep my subwoofer EQ from clipping). I have no idea what's going on in your case.

While we're on the general topic, I've noticed that Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks are output at a higher volume on the multichannel analog outputs than their lossy counterparts. I haven't actually measured the difference yet, but it seems to be approximately 3 dB. What's strange is that the lossless tracks are exactly level-matched with the lossy tracks when the latter are played back by the receiver through S/PDIF (except for the 10 dB difference in subwoofer level)--it's as though the lossy tracks are somehow being attenuated when output in multichannel analog.


Perhaps in this case, but there has been at least one similar case--namely mine--of the BDP-83 locking up when trying to access files on a PC-formatted FAT32 flash drive (the drive in question works with other devices just fine). This may be a case of multiple causes that can lead to similar problems.


I plan to, but am still evaluating products. A game adapter should work fine, but if you already have or plan to acquire additional A/V devices that require (or desire) access to the Internet and/or your computer, then it would be more economical to buy a single wireless access point that has a bridge mode and share it using a switch if it doesn't have one built-in. Game adapters tend to have problems working with switches because they may only implement a minimal subset of wired network protocols necessary to support a single device. For some reason--undoubtedly related to marketing--they also tend to cost more than access points and switches combined.

Received my unit on Wednesday. Don't have a receiver/processor that plays new codecs, yet. I'm using digital coaxial for audio. All audio seems a bit "tinny" and thin. Anyone else have similar issues? Maybe I'm just spoiled by Arcam DVD/CD/SACD sound.
Using Arcam AVP-700 for sound.

There's always a niche market for one thing or another.
Plenty of products are made to cater to them too.
As long as such_n_such company can make a profit, they'll make the product.
What really confuses me, is fi SACDs can not be copied, then you'd think the studios/labels/artists/investors would be pushing that format over Blu-ray.
Then again, Sony is the weasel behind all of it, and they believe their cash cow is Blu-ray now, so...
I digress, as being off topic once again.

I played a DVD forced 1080/24 to a Olevia 265TFHD and it displays that it is receiving 1080/24 on the display info dialogue. It seemed okay. The panels literature is pretty weak. Should I not be doing this?

I think this is unlikely. First off, the BDP-83 is more likely going to be niche market player but hopefully a very successful one. Eventually, BD players capable of playing BD-Audio will far exceed the installed base of SACD/DVD-Audio players which is stagnating. BD-Audio will likely ride the bandwagon of BD technology thus bringing to the general public recognition of BD-Audio. Prices of BDs will also eventually lower. Add to that the tremendous capacity of BD and the records labels will simply target the market offering the largest business opportunity. The question is whether this scenario will even materialize in any significant way or whether HD music downloads based on more publicly accepted codecs and players capable of delivering them will usurp even BD-Audio. Just my $0.02 ...

There shouldn't be any difference through the digital coaxial connection, as the BDP-83 is just outputting bits. One could bring up jitter in the case of LPCM over coaxial (and only in this case with regard to the player as a digital transport, not DD or DTS), but whatever the effects, I doubt that it would make the sound more tinny and thin (especially the latter, as bass response should be well out of the range of jitter artifacts).

Since we are supposed to be discussing the BDP-83...

I got my rack back together today and tried some limited testing between the Discrete Stereo output compared to the HDMI output.
My experiment was to see what it would sound like listening to hi-res mch SACD and DVDA through HDMI... then switch to the Discrete Stereo output, and layer DPLIIx and/or NEO6 over top to remix it back to multi channel.
The Stereo out is running through my Onkyo TX-SR805 this time, which resulting from my limited testing, seems to be a bit less vibrant than when I had it hooked up directly to a power amp.
I also noticed that when I had it connected directly to the power amp, the output seemed to be significantly stronger than when running it through the AVR.
So now that I have it running through the AVR, it seems to be the OPPOSITE.
I had to go into my AVRs menu and adjust the Intellivolume for the stereo output and raise it by 8-10 notches in order to get the volume to level match what was coming through the HDMI. Go figure...

Anyway, I didn't know what to think of my experiment really. At first I thought the STEREO + DPLIIx sounded better. It did too, in the front stage. It was a bit more crisp and defined. As if there was a veil lifted from in front of my speakers.
However when mixing in back into the surround speakers, it ended up sounding thin and not very robust. At least compared to the original mix over HDMI. It did sound more defined, but at the sacrafice of losing too much oomph. Maybe if I was able to calibrate the speakers and EQ seperately for each input, I may have gotten to a better place, but this was not the point of the experiment.

Now taking out of the equation, the surround component, the Discrete Stereo out still sounds a bit better than HDMI... and as far as running the stereo out directly to a quality external amp, this is highly recommended. It sounds even better overall that way. So for your stereo sources, or for even downmixing surround to stereo, the Discrete Stereo output seems to be the best choice IMO.
However when it comes to hi-res multi channel playback, better stick with HDMI, as it seemed my experiment has revealed that a downmix to stereo, then a remix to to surround, leaves a lot to be desired.

The JVC RS2 uses a Gennum VXP video processing chip. That's the same chip in Anthem's AVM50 and Statement D2 surround processors. The BDP-83's Anchor Bay ABT2010 is an excellent chip, but the Gennum is its generally considered to be superior. If the BDP-83's performance with DVD's at a 1080p output is "merely" comparable to what you see when DVD's are played in the "source direct" mode, I'd consider that to be a compliment to the 83 rather than a source for disappointment.

Through the S/PDIF coaxial or optical connections, you'll only get what we now call legacy codecs like DD and the DTS core that are lossy and compressed. It's normal for those to sound tiny and thin compared to CD/DVD-A/SACD.

Since your Arcam doesn't play the new lossless codecs such as Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA, you should really be using the Oppos analog MC outputs into your Arcam's MC pre-amp inputs. That way you'll get the uncompressed signal in all its glory.

FYI .. asked OPPO about getting an invite to purchase prior to general sales to the public (I signed up on the "interested" list earlier this month) - and got this interesting reply:

"If you signed up for the Blu-ray Interest List you will receive a priority invitation to purchase the player prior to the public. Currently we have only sent invites to customers who signed up for the interest list prior to April 1, 2009.

We are looking at possibly opening up general sales this week. The MSRP of the BDP-83 is $499.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
2629B Terminal Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
Service@oppodigital.com
Tel: 650-961-1118
Fax: 650-961-1119"