Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 1277

Well, I'm satisfied. Oppo says it will repair my 3-year-old 83 for free. I just pay shipping there ($19). I already received an email from Oppo saying they have received the unit and are working on it. I like the player, but there have been some annoying issues from time to time, like Netflix discs that won't play. But the tray not opening has been the most serious problem. Overall, I'm satisfied with its performance; SACD and DVD Audio are nice extras as well.

I've had my bdp-83 since May of 2009. I purchased the 2-year extended warranty in April of 2010. I've had no problems until just recently -- now the loader doesn't open every time.
When it doesn't open on the first go, I press in and down gently on the closed tray, then hit the eject button. So far that has cleared the problem. The next few times I hit eject it works, too. I've only had problems after it has been powered off (not unplugged) for a day or two.

A workaround for now is to leave a disc in the tray when you power off the player. Even though you are out of warranty, give OPPO a call and they'll go over options with you.
--Bob

I received an email tonight from Oppo. My 83 is repaired and I'll be receiving it tomorrow. Wow; out on Monday, back by Friday. Not bad.

It's the kind of service and turnaround Oppo is famous for.

Anyone else run into this?

Every now and then the player will lose sync when skipping chapters (forward or backwards). The video is fine, but the audio tuns into mostly digital noise. You must stop the movie and restart it for the audio to sync up properly again. Jumping to another chapter doesn't help.

I'm guessing the handshaking on the audio goes wonky.

Actually this is more likely an AVR issue. When you interrupt the audio stream like that, the AVR has to find the handle on the digital audio stream again. Typically AVRs will mute audio until that has happened. Now, sometimes an AVR fails to recognize the incoming digital audio as a valid stream. Most will just leave audio muted in that case, but some will lift the mute ANYWAY and thus you get noise.

Try both LPCM and Bitstream output to see which works better with your AVR. Also consider upgrading HDMI cables as there may be an HDMI retry happening which is what's causing the AVR to fail to pick up the valid digital audio (due to the timing of the retry). Improved cables may eliminate the need for a retry.

As a test for this, try running at 1080i video for a while instead of 1080p. If that eliminates this audio glitch, then that's a pretty good indication cabling quality is involved.
--Bob

Oh man...thanks for that. I don't use my Oppo as much as I use the HTPC but this one was stumping me. I'll have to log this for future reference...and REMEMBER to erase that Persistent Storage as well, the ONE thing I didn't do.

Now watching The Amazing Spider-Man on my Oppo BDP-83 all thanks to you guys!

My 83 has gotten a lot of use over the years and is still working "perfectly" except for one little niggle: the loader drawer is very fussy about staying open. Whether controlled from the front panel or remote. Not quite the same as others have mentioned, in my case the drawer easily opens but then immediately closes again. I can't get a handle on the circumstances, but it doesn't matter if there's a disc already in the loader. It's like the 83 is going through some kind of process and will only allow the drawer to stay open when it's in a certain state. Has anybody else seen this? It's been going on for a few months, so not from a FW update or anything like that.

I watched Brave last night and noticed several audio drop outs during the movie. Haven't had this problem before and this was just during normal play back (bitstream to an Integra 80.3).

Has there been a firmware upgrade that missed?

The last firmware release was March of this year. I played the same movie last night on my 83SE, but to the analog outs using the 83's decoding. There were no dropouts for me.

I just checked my player, which to be honest doesn't get a lot of use these days as I tend to stick with streaming and my HTPC, and when the drawer is open it only takes the slightest of pushes to make it shut. I wonder if something is going on in yours with that mechanism that detects a push and as soon as it opens it thinks it's being pushed shut again.

You might open it up and see if you can find any screws or any other sign of a tension adjustment that could be made on that mechanism.

Ive never had a problem but Ive never opened or closed the draw with anything but the remote.I have been using it at least 20 hours a week for three years.

I have an 83, only use HDMI out, don't play SACD 's, use an external vp, and the majority of my movies are Bluray, don't have interest in Netflix.

Other than maybe speed of operation and up-conversion when I do watch a DVD, is there any reason to upgrade to the 103 or 105?

^^ Specifically as regards SD-DVD playback. In addition to dramatically increased speed of operation, the 103/105 also offer better DVD 24p Conversion than the 83.

They also offer the ability to decode Rear channel information matrixed into DD-EX and DTS-ES 5.1 tracks.

If you use the Analog outputs (instead of HDMI audio), the 103/105 both have improved Analog output quality compared to the 83.

The 103/105 also have no fan -- so no fan noise.

There are other benefits to the 103/105, but these are the ones that will apply during SD-DVD playback.

For Blu-ray playback, the most noticeable difference will be speed of operation. However, there are also audio decoder improvements for Blu-ray as well
--Bob

When you said audio decoder improvements, do you mean DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD audio?

Both. This is when the player is doing the decode (HDMI LPCM output or Analog audio output).

However, the places where the differences exist are fairly rare track format configurations.

As an example, the rarely found DTS-HD MA 192KHz 5.1 track format gets decoded on the 83 as 96KHz. The 103/105 decode it as 192KHz.
--Bob

Who has a 192kHz 5.1 DTS-MA track?

Of course there's Akira, but that's Dolby TrueHD.

^ It will mostly be found on music discs, such as 2L "The Nordic Sound", Blu-ray.
--Bob

Let me ask here -- I have an 83SE. My MC listening is done via HDMI through a Denon 4311CI. I use the analog stereo outputs for 2.1 channel CD listening. I am running a cheap Panny 3D Bluray
for 3D movies, and the audio is just awful.

My question -- should I spring for the 103? I can give the Panny to the kids, use the 83SE for analog two channel listening where it shines.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

^ Well if you watch enough 3D, there's no point listening to screwed up sound from the Panny.

I think you'll be amazed at the speed improvement in the 103.

And you'll be able to set up the 2.1 Analog output configuration as well. Even though the 105 gets all the attention for its Analog, really the Analog out of the 103 is a significant step up from the 83 and 93. I think if you do try the 103, you should definitely see if it can replace the 83se for your 2.1 Analog configuration. Then you can resell the 83se.

Or you could check out the 105, expecting that you can resell the 83se.
--Bob

I would get the 103 and the 83se analog 2 ch. FYI, the 103 has a few bugs that are being worked on currently.

I have been getting drop outs on a few movies, The Amazing Spider man I cant watch either from the loud Snap Crackle Pop to no sound at all for 10 minutes then it come on the off again, Same with Star Wars and a few other newer releases. Aeon Flux played fine.

Anyone else have issues?

Athanasios

Hi Everyone,

I have an 83 and have just one quick question. Is the sound quality on blu-rays and cd's better using HDMI or better using the 7 analog inputs or outputs whichever it is. Right now I am using HDMI (bitstream) for movies and 2.2 analog for CD's. Am I getting maximum quality sound with this connection or should I do something different? If so please explain. Also do you think I would benefit from upgrading to the 103. My listening breakdown is 60/40 movies over cd's. Thank you so much for your help and expertise.

I noticed the same thing. I experienced audio drops in Brave at 1:14:33 and 1:24:40. I was able to reproduce the drops at the same times on a Panny BD player I have as well. Switching to LPCM on the 83 cleared up the drops. Haven't had time to try LPCM on the Panny yet. Both of my BD players have 7.1 analog outs, and when I get some time I will try both of them that way.

One other subtle but noticeable mixing error is a change in the tone and pitch of Mary McDonald's voice during her narration in the beginning. At 4:38-4:41 is where you would hear it. This is the same on both of my BD players and using LPCM does not change anything.

I'm using an Onkyo NR808 as a pre/pro (it only runs my surrounds). Everything is up to date firmware wise. Also using LPCM seems to tame the brightness and takes the edge off the major volume changes in the soundtrack.

The audio mix in Brave is one of the most impressive use of the surrounds in my 7.2 system I've heard to date.

Curious to see if those who have experienced drops in Brave have them show up at the same times as I do.

Those time codes might correspond to the "seamless branching" break points. If one was sufficiently curious, one could look at the multiple files that are stitched together in this movie and plot right where the breaks are for time codes. There are 6 or 8 separate files, one of which is the bulk of the movie and the rest are pretty short in duration and fall near the beginning and near the end. This is all part of the copy protection, and if you rip the wrong title set you get the pieces in the wrong order with a warning video interspersed. Certainly not the first title using seamless branching where people reported playback issues.

On the player we call them outputs.

It's going to depend on your receiver. With the 7.1 analog outputs you are using the players DACs. With HDMI or other digital outputs you are using the receiver DACs.

If your receiver has room correction this is likely only available for it's digital inputs.

-Bill

Thanks. 103 on the way.