Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 613

A few months ago I read a beta user's review of the BD-83 wherein he talked about the ability to decode audio files stored on a USB device. He said that .WAV was a supported format.

I've since discovered that there is no support for lossless codecs through the USB interface.

I think its a bit ironic that a player with a reputation for superior audio playback within its price range does not support lossless compression. I'm having a very difficult time considering the prospect of dithering my .WAV and Flac encoded audio files by converting them to mp3. I was hoping that I would be able to replay hi-rez HDtracks downloads through the BD-83.

Does anyone know the reason for Oppo's decision to not support lossless codecs via the USB interface?

I'm pretty sure you misread that.


Ask them. It could still be coming, although I'm sure they won't promise.

-Bill

An excellent question to ask Oppo directly. I don't know that any final decision has been made regarding FLAC, but it's safe to say that wav will never be supported due to it being considered support for piracy. FLAC is more or less in the same category.

There is one way around this limitation, and that's to create a DVD-Video or MPG file with PCM audio and a still image or even black screen. Simple to do, and 2-ch PCM up to 24/96 is supported by the format.

I'd also be interested in seeing a link to any statement by a beta group member who claims support for wav format.

I have been looking for a new player only for the UK for some time now since some discs are region coded which means rentals from Fox/Optimum and a few others don't play and i considered the Panasonic BD-80 but the freezing issues have put me right off that player and because they are inconsistent freezes there is no guarantee of a fix anytime soon or indeed ever so i have switched my attention to this player. ( Your loss Panasonic and i'm sure there are others doing the same as me due to that issue )

I can pick up the Oppo multiregion for DVD and Blu Ray which is great and i can sell my Playstation this Xmas since i don't play games on it. I have just a few questions.

Will the image quality from this player be at least as good as the Playstation 3 if not better and i note there are settings which enable you to change many aspects of image quality from contrast to hue to detail levels. Does it come preset at the optimum levels for a calibrated display or do i need to actually change these settings and can i play movie trailers from Apple on this player ?

A firmware upgrade to support FLAC has been requested several times. I suspect we may get that at some point in the future but I doubt it is an immediate priority for Oppo. I think the first priorities are, and should be, to get all of the out-of-the-box features working 100% before tackling anything new.

I have no idea why Oppo selected particular formats beyond picking the most widely used ones. You would have to ask them. They are usually pretty forthcoming.

I don't know which review you were reading, but it's been well documented that WAV files have never been supported by the BDP-83 or any other OPPO player - my review even says as much ("Whether dealing with files on a CD-R or DVD-R or with files on a USB device ("thumb drive" or external hard drive), the BDP-83 can handle a number of popular audio file formats. The list of files is very similar to what we've seen from previous OPPO players, with MP3 and WMA available but lossless formats like FLAC and basic WAV missing.")


Here's what my understanding of the situation is, although you could also talk directly to OPPO about it. OPPO Digital has been pushing their chipset vendor to include support for lossless audio for at least a couple of years now, but the vendor must do the programming to add the support at the chip. OPPO can't do it externally to the chip, so all they can do is push for it and wait to see if it happens.

Yes, image quality should match or be better than the PS3 for both BD and DVD.

Yes, the default video settings are generally the recommended values. The recommendation is to calibrate your system using the controls on the TV, and then only adjust at the player if you can't get where you need to be with the TV's controls.

As far as I know, Quicktime video files (which is presumably the format used for the Apple movie trailers you mention) are not supported.

See the FAQ sections:

• Is the Blu-ray picture quality of this player amazingly better than any other player?
  
• Is the DVD picture quality of this player amazingly better than any other player?

See the online manual for the picture controls. The FAQ also has a Calibration section.

-Bill

I haven't kept up but I thought that Apple was using H.264 for a lot of trailers.

Depends on the particular flavor of QuickTime used. Assuming there's no copy restriction on the file, they can easily be converted to supported MPEG-4 formats with no loss of quality. The audio codecs are usually supported too. It's just the ".mov" file type that's not supported.

Thanx for keeping the FAQ up to date. It would be even more helpful if people like me would read it before posting.

Thanks.

Question regarding plugs which i don't think is in your FAQ.

There is only one place selling this multiregion in the UK and they sell it with a standard kettle type plug. You can see it here if you scroll down the page.

http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/cables.htm

Will the type of plug affect image or sound quality on this player ?

I know all the stories about cables and the claims made for higher quality cables and that most are pure marketing BS but what type of plug actually comes with the American edition of this player as the one i would get is going to have a bog standard kettle plug fitted and i am concerned this might alter some aspects of the performance and would like my fears either put to rest or confirmed.

Incidentally i cannot believe i am going to pay double what you guys pay for the American edition even if it is going to be multiregion!!!!

Hi.
For what it's worth anyway it is actually the official cable (the one you get with the player) just with a UK plug fitted.
Here's the quote from Henry.

"cable: Rather than replacing the high performance heavy gauge US cable (14AWG / 2 x 2.0mm conductor), we will be fitting UK mains plugs. While this is time consuming, we feel the included high performance mains cable is better than replacing it with a regular mains cable"

Absolutely NOT!!!!!!!!!!

Don't fall into the trap of hype over power cords, HDMI cables or OPT cables.

I have my Oppo83'>RCA connected with BJCABLES> XLR to a proamp> to speakers.

Plays just fine....
db


Originally Posted by Talk2Me
My new BAT 52SE has only XLRs. Anybody interested in my BD-83?

Thats good to know. Thanks for the reply.

As of now what's the best price on this unit? The lowest I see is $499. with FS.

I was loyal to Denon's universal players for years, as long as they were at the top tier of video quality on the DVD Benchmark at hometheaterhifi. This was my experience with Denon:

DVD-2200: had the laser replaced by factory service; it cost as much as the player.
DVD-2900: wonderful player, never had a problem, but component video only.
DVD-5900: had to exchange, as first unit would not reliably recognize discs.
DVD-3930: liked this so much, I bought two. One was fine but the other eventually had intermittent disc recognition problems. None of the various cleaning discs had any effect whatsoever. I was ready to order a laser assembly on eBay and install it myself when I decided to take the machine apart and first try cleaning the laser by hand. It worked! But what a pain.

By this time I had an Oppo 983 and my love affair with Denon was over. The Oppo was smaller, lighter, quieter, cheaper, ran cooler, used less electricity, and performed as well if not better with all disc formats.

When I finally gave up on HD-DVD and decided to bite the Blu-ray bullet, I determined that I would wait for the Oppo 83. I am extremely pleased with my decision and have since sold all of my Denon equipment. I think Denon has priced itself right out of the market with their new top-end universal player and processor -- there is no correlation between price and performance. For me, Denon is dead. Long live Oppo!

That's the price.

That's the only price. Oppo's are sold only direct from Oppo or through a handful of dealers. All charge the same price. The only differences would be in whether you pay shipping and/or taxes.

Thanks so much for all the help, Bill!

Your Q&A with Oppo on the disk compatibility issues was copied to a topic on the hidef forum . Folks are juimping on it like a pack of dogs on a meat wagon.
Seriously, it is now a sticky on that forum...giving you the credit.

Is the Region-free Kit hard to assemble? I know the manual, so I only have to remove the old cable from two points and add the new cable on three points?

http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/pdf/R...Doc%20V4.0.pdf

Are there any hidden difficulties? I want to order the player tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I should chose the modified model oder the basic model with the DIY kit. It's 25 Pounds / 30 Euro I can save.

Of course up to you but it might be best posting here and asking.

Is there any way of making a wireless USB device work with the oppo so the player sees a network as a large USB drive?

something like this

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

Can someone offer a bit of guidance on the LFE using analog inputs

from the FAQ:



I have my B&K -15bd for the sub and the Oppo +10db (speakers size - Small) and when I run a test pattern - I can get all my speaker levels on analog to equal that of optical, except for the sub I am 5-6 dbs off (the analog is -2 and the optical is +2). I don't have any more room in the B&K to go lower, and the oppo can't go higher.

Here is my question:

If turn the volume up on my sub - I can get the db level to where I want. However, If I watch TV - or a movie using optical in -- the Sub level will be too high.

Am I missing something? Or should I set my speakers to Large? I wanted to pass all the heavy lifting to my SVS.

Thanks

I haven't heard that anyone has ever done it. You will be the first!

If you can make the player think the network-as-large-usb-drive is a FA16 or FAT32 volume, it could conceivably work. You're entirely on your own in figuring it out, though.

-Bill

Is this Experimental Release considered to be more stable or less stable than a Beta Release?

Richard

Less Stable. It states in so in the release notes.

This is very cool and something we had requested. Now instead of getting stuck in a large audio or subtitle cycle, you just arrow up and down or dismiss the dialog.

Something like SERENITY (BR) has 48 subtitle tracks. Missing the one you wanted is Hell with the old interface.

We've requested a popup for ZOOM, too, but don't know if/when that will happen.

-Bill