Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 369

Yeah I think it does. On my tracking it said "Indirect Signature required" and it was for the standard shipping (cheapest). I had no idea what that meant, but I left a postit with instructions to leave it in my screendoor and I signed it. When I got home, my Oppo was in my screendoor and the postit was gone. The postit could not have blown away because I taped it down.

I wonder what the Fedex guy thought when he delivered it as the box said fragile and it sounded like it was broken (my loose screw issue).

I haven't done it myself, so I hope someone else will chime in.

(Network support would be close to the end on my wish-list of jobs).

-Bill

Yes, Apple Airport Express works perfectly.
Richard

i've read about people using the monoprice switches fine for a while, then running into issues. monoprice STRONGLY suggests using 24 gauge HDMI cables to avoid problems. i'm using a mix of 24 gauge and 28 gauge (i think) without a problem (so far). so you might try a heavier gauge cable.

My player has performed beautifully, but yesterday I was having multiple video dropouts to a dark screen at various points during the blu-ray of Hunt For Red October. They could not be repeated upon rewinding, so it doesn't appear to be a disc problem.

I don't think I have had any handshake issues up to this point, so I'm a bit stumped. I hope this doesn't start occurring on other discs.

If you have to, or MUST, then go wireless, I did this originally with my Onkyo 906, using my now OLD Airport Express. Finally decided to run ethernet CAT6 cable from my router, using a Netgear "switch" on the end, with FOUR output connections. Now I can hook-up my AVR, AppleTV, FIOs (when it comes), and the Oppo (when I get one), and they will all be "online". I doubt anyone here needs to be reminded of wireless and network problems that can and do haunt you. It can be workable, but in my case I was at first interested in making my wireless network, WORK, and with much fussing, I was successful, but all along I KNEW a wired connection would be better all around, and since I had to run NEW speaker wire all over, running a CAT6 cable from Monoprice was cheap and easy, and I no longer have to be concerned with "wireless issues". If you have to go wireless, you can, just be prepared to KNOW what you are doing, router settings, port forwarding, port assigning, interference issues, etc. Good luck!

you can push to display what audio format is being output from the player? I read over the FAQ's, but couldn't find the answer. Thanks in advance.

ya, its called the "display" button on remote...shows in lower left corner of screen...........i guess the FAQ page figured people could get past that point. There is always the manual.

The On Screen Display shows this.

-Bill

My short term memory retention is still sufficient to recall what CD I just put in the OPPO.

Update... isolated the problem.... USER ERROR (of course!) I traced the tangled web of cables behind my audio rack, and realized I had inadvertently connected my Squeezebox directly to my preamp (bypassing the Benchmark). I was feeding the Oppo digital to the Benchmark, but obviously got no sound. Doh!

Now on to the DAC comparisons!

I'm using the ultra high end $15 Monoprice 2x1 switch to go back and forth between the BDP-83 and my Toshiba HD-DVD player; works like a charm. I am also using 24 ga. cables from Monoprice.

You might want to edit your post to change BDP-873 to BDP-83 for the benefits of those who may misinterpret.

is there anything going on in the oppo that turns a 5.1 soundtrack into 7.1 analog signals?

playing slumdog millionaire, i checked the oppo display button to verify it is 5.1 DTS-HD MA. but i was getting sound out of all 7 speakers. i mentioned above that my marantz receiver MAY matrix 5.1 analog to 7.1, but based on some testing i had reason to doubt that.

so, i unplugged the surround back left/right interconnects to test. i then lost sound from my surround back speakers. that tells me that the oppo is sending the surround back signals over the analog interconnects, rather than the marantz matrixing the surround back out of the regular surround analog signals. (i also verified there was not SPDIF connection, or any other audio connect, from the oppo to the AVR).

SO, a) does the oppo do something to turn a 5.1 soundtrack into 7.1? or b) is it possible that the AVR IS using dolby PLIIx, but it stops creating the surround back channels if there are only 5.1 interconnects plugged in? option a) seems more likely to me.

any ideas?

First-time poster in this thread but LONG-time follower of the BDP-83. (fyi for fellow Canadians: my experience in ordering the BDP-83 was that I received it duty-free in just over a week I was ecstatic about that.)

My question is this: Can the remote's back-light be turned off? I'd love for it to only turn on when I press the Light button (and not when I press any other button).

Thank you very much.

ps. not having an HDMI AVR, I am blown away by the 5.1 analogs out (even with SD Dolby Digital 5.1). An amazing product. Thank you very much, Oppo.

I use a dlink dpr-1260. works fine.

I've never heard of a way to do that.

-Bill

Wow! If you are worried about a single extension cord as a fire hazard you would go into paranoid shock if you ever visited my house!

This may have been addressed but I can't find it in the blog. I watched "Milk" last night (BD) and the sound was really bad. Distorted and wandering all over the front speakers. I am using the 5.1 analog outputs.
Has anybody had this problem with this disc.

As someone who has built a lot of audio equipment, I know that making an electronic component that conveys the emotional content of music is very, very difficult. It's not just doing the engineering calculations and soldering everything together. You can do that, meet all the technical specs, and have a boring, uninvolving machine.

It is hard to explain. It's the difference between one person who plays all the right notes and a great artist playing those same notes pulling a tear from your eye. What makes one athlete superb and the rest good? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do appreciate these differences exist.

Apologies if my vocabulary isn't up to explaining what I want to say, which is the BDP-83 plays the music and not just the notes. This is rare, difficult to achieve, and usually expensive to own. Oppo should be very proud of the audio section of this player. I can guarantee you that many people across multiple disciplines spent a ton of time working and reworking the audio section to ensure it plays music instead of notes.

I have encounted some flakiness in the BDP-83. I changed the remote code to "2" instead of "1" so that it wouldn't also operate my 971H. While playing a DVD and simultaneously accessing the setup menu, the player froze when I scrolled to Dynamic Range Control. It would not respond at all. I then returned the remote code to "1" and everything worked... EXCEPT all of the settings had returned to default. I changed all settings back to where I had them and all is well again... EXCEPT the remote is now back to controlling the 971H. I think I'll just migrate the 971H to the bedroom system.

Open the drawer on the player, set the remote to 2 or 3, then press and hold the remote enter button for at least 5 seconds.

Also please remember that none of your setup options will be saved till you power off the player.

Did you try to replicate this? Did you remember to resync the remote to the player?

-Bill

Rather than leave my impressions as above in response to B-Boxhunter's post, and for my own need to make sense of my first impressions which were so favorable, I went back to my system and played several discs including CD/SACD/DVD-Audio.

In particular Kind of Blue on CD and the SACD m.ch. version. Ray Charles' Genius Loves Company SACD m.ch and Steeley Dan's Gaucho DVD-Audio m.ch.

With Kind of Blue audio CD I played it on both Denon DVD3300 and the BDP-83 and compared. It was so close I did not care as both sounded wonderful.

The Ray Charles SACD and Steeley Dan's Gaucho DVD-Audio were superb. With the SACD, I even switched between PCM and DSD slightly favoring the PCM setting. Again SQ was excellent with both.

So what prompted my initial reponse to B-Boxhunter. I was comparing an HDCD played on the Denon DCD 3300 versus the BDP-83 and I still think that particular disc sounded better on the Denon. Is there something about HDCD that for the present puts the BDP-83 inferior to other players? There was a serious difference IMO. And,

Overall, HDCD, aside, the BDP-83 performed so impressively with the other discs in various formats i.e, CD/SACD/DVD-Audio as to make me eat my words. Again this experience was heard using the analog m.ch 5.1 setup with the Yamaha DSP-A1 to Atlantic Technology THX 450 (7.1 configuration) with all speakers set to small, distance accurately measured, no trim (SW set to low-pass 55hz).

Returning to my initial and highly favorable reaction and good fortune in making the decision to choose the BDP-83. WOW!
Richard

Thanks for the reply. I think that this is what I'm seeing also (1080i is slightly better). I also noticed this between 720p & 1080i coming from my cable box. Now, I've also gotten to see blu ray and 1080p, 1080i, & 720p from the Oppo. Have you played around with any other video settings?

Not really, but insurance might care. You are not suppose to daisychain cables together or have an extention cord through your wall, etc. If you have a fire, they could blame the way you hooked your electricity.

Right now for me, it is daisy chained (Oppo to Surge protector to UPS).

Not disagreeing in any regard with Mactavish's preference. My Apple TV is connected to my home network wirelessly. 2 Airport Express (one connected to the BDP-83 and one to a SlingBox PRO-HD for TV to my Mac Pro and Blackberry) used as bridges to connect wirelessly to my Time Capsule (Airport Extreme with NAS harddrive for backups) work flawlessly. My Panasonic DMP-BD55 was formerly connected to an Airport Express with no interruptions. it's easy to connect the BD55 and download FW by using the BDP-83's connection if needed.

Where my preference coincides with Mactavish's, is that the Time Capsule, which is the primary router, is connected by ethernet cable to a Fios Router and my Mac Pro is wired to the Time Capsule and a Dell Laptop wired to the Fios router. I agree wired connections are faster and more reliable. Having said that, not once has either of the wirelessly connected Airport Express or Apple TV ever failed or corrupted a FW download. My HT is nearly 80 feet from my router.

OOps! Thank you for the correction.
Richard

Try source direct and let your Pioneer do the video scaling. I will be comparing that setting to others (BDP-83 converts) today. With my Pio 1140, the BD Dark Knight looks very film-like.

Is there a logical/legitimate reason for OPPO to have not simply included this? Seems like it'd make life so much easier for no real extra effort on their part.


+1


Netflix will gouge you on Blu-Ray prices now too. They upped the extra fee.

I get most of my BD movies either used or from places having crazy sales. I don't think I've spent more than $20 on any BD, and most were under $15 shipped.


+1. A 50' or 100' run of network cable + a cheap switch is inexpensive compared to the wasted time and frustrations of a sketchy wireless setup.

Did that for my AV setup and never looked back. Even left some spare RJ45 jacks for the random visitor who wants to get online with their laptop but I don't want to fuss getting them set up with my wireless security.


No, although their older player(s) did this. The feature has been requested, however.