Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 1004

Originally Posted by fedocable

Good work! You should send this information to Oppo, just in case.
Now, my newbie question: is there a fast way of reducing the "reference frames" of a file?

Originally Posted by glangford

I updated to beta fw yesterday. Elated at the SACD fix, although I only own a handful now, but more on the way.

What is the approximate time frame for the beta fix to become a general release? Will I need to update from beta to the general release?

Originally Posted by Bob Pariseau

There will likely be some additional changes between the Public Beta release and the Official release, so yes, you should plan on updating again.
--Bob

Originally Posted by oferron

My bad, the *#!& movie has 8 ref frames.

Originally Posted by stewman12

This is something I've been looking into but, unfortunately it appears that the only way to reduce the reference frames is to re-encode.

However, I know that some of the files I am having trouble with have an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (which would be 1920x816 instead of 1920x1080), so the additional 264 pixels in the height is "wasted" in showing the black bars at the top and the bottom. When I get home I am going to try and resize the videos to 1920x816 without re-encoding and see if they'll play right on the Oppo. If that works, I won't have to worry about reducing the number of reference frames (unless it has more than 5). This wouldn't work though for videos with an aspect of 16:9 since you'd be chopping off the image at the top and the bottom.

Originally Posted by Smarty-pants

Have you tried using the new BETA FIRMWARE released yesterday?
It's supposed to include some disc compatibility fixes, and while I don't know for sure, it may help with the Squeakquel disc.

Also see the FAQ for things to try if your disc won't play/load.

Originally Posted by oferron

My bad, the *#!& movie has 8 ref frames.

Originally Posted by maalourm

I loaded the new beta firmware, reset and tried Alvin & the Chipmunks/Squeakquel again, no luck. It takes a while to load, I can get the previews going but the menu never loads up, it's stuck at the circular loading graphic. I left an email to Oppo, anyone else have any issues with it?

Originally Posted by wmcclain

Have you turned off BD-Live? It defaults to "on" when you do Reset Factory Defaults.

-Bill

Originally Posted by maalourm

It was on, I turned it off but no luck, now it's stuck, the only way to get it out is to turn the player off and hit eject while it's off. This sucks! Sprin break, took a couple of days off to spend with my little boy and we can't even watch it

Originally Posted by maalourm

It was on, I turned it off but no luck, now it's stuck, the only way to get it out is to turn the player off and hit eject while it's off. This sucks! Sprin break, took a couple of days off to spend with my little boy and we can't even watch it

Originally Posted by rdgrimes

Just to review: remove the disc, turn off BD-Live, clear persistent storage, power off the player and try again. Be aware that some discs can take several minutes to load the menus, so do not interrupt it. If it doesn't load in 5 min then it's either a defective disc or there's some incompatibility with the player.

Originally Posted by Ralph Potts

Greetings,

I initially had a similar issue with Alvin/Squeakquel. Turning BD-Live off allowed it to play so that I could review the film itself. That doesn't however solve the issue of not being able to take advantage of the BD-Live features on the disc. In order to thoroughly evaluate the disc I had to use my PS3. This is an annoyance that pops up with the Oppo and Fox discs more than it should. At this stage we should essentially be seeing flawless integration. As another example I popped in Notorious (Fox) to watch with my family and was prompted to install a BD-Live update. I opted to install it which only took a few seconds. The disc loaded and went to the disc menu just fine. I selected play, it began to load the movie and froze. Not only is this behavior frustrating but it can be embarrassing when you have to deal with this while folks sit there in the dark.

Not sure what the compatibility problem is but I wish that Oppo would find a definitive resolution. Having to go through the trouble of clearing persistent storage, turn off BD-Live etc. shouldn't be required at this stage of the game.


Regards,

Originally Posted by stevec325

I respectfully submit that this "problem" is caused by inconsistent application of the "standards" (used very loosely, as it applies here) for authoring Blu-ray discs and their associated interfaces. I wish the studios and production houses would spend less effort trying to come up with new/flashy/fancy interfaces and such - and spend more effort on CONTENT and a consistent and universal menu/access system.

Originally Posted by stevec325

I respectfully submit that this "problem" is caused by inconsistent application of the "standards" (used very loosely, as it applies here) for authoring Blu-ray discs and their associated interfaces. I wish the studios and production houses would spend less effort trying to come up with new/flashy/fancy interfaces and such - and spend more effort on CONTENT and a consistent and universal menu/access system.

But, I guess that may be just too much to ask for!

However, until such time, there will always be problems with BD use. More problems with some players, less with others. Pointing fingers at Oppo, or any player manufacturer is not productive. Perhaps, the frustration and disappointment would be better directed at the real cause of the problem.

IMO.

Originally Posted by rdgrimes

BD-Live implementation, in particular, is the fault. Discs that require BD-Live content to load before the menu will load or the disc will play are broken IMHO and should not be released with that requirement.

It would be great if every player maker could keep ahead of every BD distributor, but as long as disc authoring is done with the only standard being: "Will it play on a PS3?", problems will always exist.

Originally Posted by rdgrimes

Just to review: remove the disc, turn off BD-Live, clear persistent storage, power off the player and try again. Be aware that some discs can take several minutes to load the menus, so do not interrupt it. If it doesn't load in 5 min then it's either a defective disc or there's some incompatibility with the player.

Originally Posted by redbeemer

i would suspect that a substantial percentage of the members of this forum would be very happy if they would just drop bd live from blu-ray discs entirely! Most of us just want to put in a movie, press the play button and watch the movie! Is that too much to ask? if blu-ray is ever going to be much more than a niche format used only by audio/video enthusiasts and reach the mainstream populace, it is going to have to become much more user friendly and work more consistently. The average joe has neither the time nor the technical expertise to fiddle with his player/disc when he sits down with his family to watch a movie. it's a shame really that many people do not know how good their hd tv's can look because they will never play a blu-ray disc on it!

Originally Posted by maalourm

Stupid question but how do you "clear persistent storage", I assumed turning it off took care of that which I did. I waited 15 minutes for it to load and finally gave up.

Originally Posted by stevec325

One of the more frustrating experiences I have with BD is on Warner titles, that do not allow you to at least skip (|>>) through the previews and get to the main menu.

My biggest frustration (other than discs that don't work well) is not being able to just "PLAY THE **** MOVIE". I don't want to watch previews, commentaries, BD Live or any such nonsense.

Originally Posted by dcbii

If someone would make a hardware mod for the 83 (that would not be incompatible with the multi-region mod -- maybe the same people could make it) that would allow skipping of all this, I'd be willing to pay just as much as I did for the region mod, since I'm sure I'll never get a firmware release from Oppo (or any other major vendor, I'm not singling Oppo out here) that will fix this problem.

Originally Posted by rdgrimes

BD-Live implementation, in particular, is the fault. Discs that require BD-Live content to load before the menu will load or the disc will play are broken IMHO and should not be released with that requirement.

Originally Posted by Kelson

So what happens if you cannot (or choose not to) have the player connected to the Internet? Will it fail to play these titles at all?

Originally Posted by rdgrimes

There's no such thing as a hardware or firmware mod to eliminate JAVA programming. The player is running a JAVA OS over it's native OS and has no control over things like PUOs and navigation. Good luck getting the studios to eliminate JAVA or even remove some of it's playback control features.

Originally Posted by dcbii

Well, I certainly don't expect the studios to eliminate java or remove playback control, but a third party firmware mod or device that would disallow the java on the disc from starting and use a bare-bones program to allow direct playback of the main feature (similar to the way VLC or Handbrake for extract acts on a computer with DVDs) would not be impossible to program (just as there are already MKV programs that can extract the main feature from a Blu-ray). Might be tough to do on the 83.

Originally Posted by stevec325

Ralph,

Thanks for replying. I wasn't aiming my "pointing fingers" comment directly at you. Rather, more in the generic sense of the matter.

One of the more frustrating experiences I have with BD is on Warner titles, that do not allow you to at least skip (|>>) through the previews and get to the main menu.

My biggest frustration (other than discs that don't work well) is not being able to just "PLAY THE DAMN MOVIE". I don't want to watch previews, commentaries, BD Live or any such nonsense.

Is it so hard to to pop in the disc, and have the feature start playing with the HD codec as the default audio? Argh!

We watched Sherlock Holmes the other night and I had to fast forward through myriad previews, warning and other BS to get to the main menu. Pissed us all of - big time