Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 1283

^ That, or he needs a firmware upgrade for the 3rd party region-free mod hardware. I've lost track of which mods need that and when.
--Bob

Just to follow up on the HDMI handshake issue, I went back and fiddled around with the player based on Ian's comment (thanks for the help, Ian):

"Othertimes, reducing handshaking by fixing certain parameters and not allowing AUTO might help."


This did the trick! I wanted to see if I can get the discs to play, period, so I knocked the output resolution down to 720p. BOOM, worked fine, but these were 1080p discs, so it should be better. I tried 1080i, which sort of worked - it was still 'watchable' but a dropout would occur every minute or two, and it also introduced interlacing into the picture. The I noticed that Oppo had a "source direct" option, which could only be selected if you had an HDMI output. I tried that, and it worked.

The catch is, if you leave it on source direct, you lose a lot of options, some which are needless, but others like deinterlacing, etc. might be needed for other discs. Still annoying I couldn't just leave it on "Auto," you should be able to do that, but at least there's a fix.

And regarding the mod kit, those instructions work for a different mod kit, so they cannot help me, but thanks anyway. I opened the player and checked the ribbon, but nothing's loose, so I'm still baffled why it has stopped working. I can still play discs, if I tried switching regions, the 'beeping' stuff is all there, it just won't change the region anymore.

I don't think this is the problem. The mod is 'new' (I bought it in late November), and since installation, when it actually did work for a while, nothing's changed with the player. (It's not hooked up to my internet, so it can't automatically change its firmware.)

^ This is the classic description of HDMI cabling problems. You almost certainly need to either upgrade your HDMI cables to new, "high speed" cables, or eliminate something in the cabling path that is screwing up at the higher bandwidth signals. Typically that would be wall plates, adapters, daisy-chained cables, shorty "port saver" cables, HDMI switches, or any other gizmo in the HDMI signal path between player and display. Keep in mind that HDMI is an end to end protocol, so if you are sending HDMI through a Receiver to your Display, the problem could be in the cabling path between the AVR and the Display.

As for your "new" region-free mod, it may have simply failed. Like all electronics, some small number of them will need warranty replacement.
--Bob

I have what I believe is the "other type" of zone/region mod. So far (for several years) it seems to have worked fine. Here are the instructions that came with mine:

- Switching Zone is operated by the remote control
- Turn the player off with the romte control, using the power button
- Press and hold the the BLUE button until the player beeps (approx. 5 sec.)
- Now you can select your zone:
- Zone A: Press 1 on the remote control
- Zone B: Press 2 on the remote control
- Zone C: Press 3 on the remote control

- Switching Region is operated by the remote control
- Turn the player off with the romte control, using the power button
- Press and hold the the RED button until the player beeps (approx. 5 sec.)
- Region 1: Press 1 on the remote control
- Region 2: Press 2 on the remote control
- Region 3: Press 3 on the remote control
- Region 4: Press 4 on the remote control
- Region 5: Press 5 on the remote control
- Region 6: Press 6 on the remote control
- Region 0: Press 0 on the remote control

The cables are actually the latest "high speed" ones on the market, and they were connected directly to the TV set - nothing else between the HDTV and the player. I posted a link to the cables in the first post - it's possible a particular brand might be better, but other people I've talked to were very skeptical about that idea.

Yup, these were mine as well. All this worked fine the first time around.

Nevertheless, odds are you are having problems with these cables. Check to make sure the plugs are fully inserted STRAIGHT into the sockets (both ends of each cable) with nothing (e.g., cable weight) tugging the plug in any direction. HDMI is only a friction fit, and it only takes a small shift of plug in socket to screw things up. Try the wiggle test: Grab the cable about an inch back of the plug and gently push straight in towards the socket while giving a gentle wiggle. See if the video problem goes away while you do this. Try both ends of each cable. New cables frequently have kinks from being folded up in the packaging which put strain on the plugs in the sockets.

Failing that, it is also possible you simply got a faulty cable. It happens.

Try this: Carry the player over near the display and hook it up to the display directly using the 6 foot cable provided by OPPO with the player (assuming you got that with your 2nd hand 83), or get a new, "high speed" ("for 1080p") cable and use that. Use a 6 foot cable (neither shorter nor longer -- 6 foot is the "sweet spot" for HDMI cable length). Use this to prove to yourself that 1080p really does work between the player and your display. If it does, then you know your original cable really is the problem. If not, then either the player or the display needs service, or your display is not really 1080p compatible (or perhaps it only accepts one of 1080p/24 or 1080p/60).
--Bob

Sorry to interrupt the current flow of comments, but if I may, I would appreciate some help. A few pages back, I mentioned having playback problems with my BluRay of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Once Upon a Christmas" where the digital audio would cut out and play back out of sync with the picture. Deseret Book sent me a replacement copy and I had even more problems than before, as I couldn't get the menus to work properly which wouldn't let me select 5.1 playback at all and, a couple of times I couldn't even navigate the disc's menu at all and had to stop my player, open the drawer and start over. I then took this disc to a friend's house and he put it in his Pioneer Elite BDP 94 and the menus worked the way they were supposed to and the disc played back fine. So now, I'm thinking my player (BDP83SE) is the culprit. Last night I had another issue with my Blu of "Expendables II," where all the previews before the movie started (there were at least 6!) played back in either plain old stereo or Dolby ProLogic and not in (at least) 5.1. Shouldn't these previews at least have played back in 5.1? When the feature began, however, my receiver (Pioneer Elite SC-35) did switch to DTS-MA. So here's my question: Do either of these problems have anything to do with "persistent storage?" And, for the record, just what is "persistent storage" anyway? Thanks in advance for your input.

You should contact OPPO. They may recommend a cleaning.

Persistent Storage is used by Blu-ray discs that use java to save various pieces of information. You should clear it out from time to time (and whenever you are having BR playback issues) but this does not sound like one of its issues.

-Bill

Bill: Thanks, but it seems to me that this IS a playback issue and what do you mean by a "cleaning?" Also exactly how does one "clear out" persistent storage? Thanks again!

There is an Erase Persistent Storage option in the Setup Menu. I'm sure it's in the manual.

By cleaning I mean opening the box and cleaning the laser head and other parts. OPPO can advise you.

-Bill

OK, thanks. I'll get out my manual and contact Oppo to see what they might recommend.

I tried the other options, but they didn't improve the situation - most likely, I think the cable probably is faulty (or just inadequate). I didn't get the cable that originally came with the player, which is a shame because I just heard that Oppo's HDMI cables are reliable. I'll see if I can get my hands on some different cables I can test, i.e. something I can return if it has the same results. I'd go with Amazon, but shipping things back and forth would drag out the process, and all of their high speed cables managed to draw well over a 100 negative reviews with the lowest possible rating - for the most part reporting failure - so I don't like the idea of trying those out.

In the meantime, I gave the modkit another look, even detaching it and reinserting it, and I'm getting the same results, so I would have to agree that it's probably defective or faulty. I'm going to see if I can exchange it. It's past the 30 day refund warranty, but since it's been only 60 and I didn't even use it the last few weeks, they ought to give me an exchange at the very least. If not, I'll have to use PayPal or my credit card company and get a refund. Wish there was a better way - I absolutely hate mod kits in general.

How does DVD upconversion on the 103 compare to DVD upconversion on the 83?

I have not done an A-B comparison, but the 103 puts a very nice upconverted image on the wall -- the 83SE wasn't as pleasing.
There you have it -- the definitive subjective answer.

There's no consensus opinion on that. And subjective opinion is about all we have: both players pass the standard deinterlacing tests, and both put out textbook video levels.

I always found DVD processing from the ABT chip as used in the 983H and BDP-83 to be very impressive. It is still my favorite.

That said, DVD images on the -103 are very impressive. In fact, the Mediatek solution alone as used for HDMI2 is more pleasing than it ought to be. I can't explain it.

OPPO went with Marvel over ABT because of better noise reduction and sharpening controls as needed for low quality network streams. Now I think the ABT chips are no longer made. And Marvel was just hit by a giant asteroid, so I don't know what the future holds.

-Bill

Hi all, I recently picked up a Oppo 93 on the used market. I have it hooked up to my Emotiva UMC-1 via HDMI. The Emotiva is then output HDMI my projector. I am trying to use the Oppo as a CD player as well as blu ray, but I cannot get it to output audio when the projector is turned off. I find this strange because the projector is just hooked up to the HDMI output of the receiver. Any ideas?

Theres a bug in your receiver so that it is not properly recognizing it is the end of the HDMI audio chain when your display is turned off. So copy protection is failing because the receiver is telling the OPPO to confirm copy protection all the way to the display -- which can't happen because the display is actually turned off.

Check the owner's thread for your receiver to see if there is a firmware fix available.

Failing that, the usual reason the receiver screws up is because the TV is keeping its last used HDMI input "live" even while it is OFF. The Receiver is not correctly determining that the TV is OFF at the other end of that live connection.

To verify that is the problem, physically disconnect the HDMI cable between the receiver and the display. If your CDs now work then you've found the culprit.

Now, the REASON the TVs like to keep their last used display live is for HDMI CEC -- the protocol that lets one device remotely control another over HDMI. ARC (audio return channel) over HDMI is another common culprit. You may find you can disable those options in your TV -- sometimes this is done by using a different HDMI input on the TV. Failing that, another common workaround is to switch the TV to a different input (possibly one that's not even cabled) BEFORE you turn it off.

By the way, you say you have a 93, but you posted this in the 83 thread. No matter -- the answer is the same for either player.
--Bob

It might be that the UMC-1 lost the HDCP handshake with the projector, so it's not outputting anything including audio (which, IMO, would be the wrong thing to do). After the projector is off, can you try power cycling the UMC-1 to see if the audio then works?

Well, I emailed Oppo three times on Sat and got three return emails. they're "Johnny on the Spot!" Erased persistent storage and solved the menu problems for now and I found out that my BD Live option was already turned off. One thing I was curious about was when I played my Blu of "Expendables II" all the previews which preceeded the feature, and there were a lot, played back in STEREO rather than in 5.1 or 7.1? Then, when the previews were over, the audio switched to DTS/MA. I don't recall running into this before with previews just being in Stereo. Maybe Lionsgate is getting cheap or, could my player have missed a flag in the data stream? Curiously, audio on the Lionsgate (grinding gears) logo which immediately preceeded the previews was in 5.1 or 7.1. Comments?

You'll find all sorts of a/v characteristics on intro material and previews.

-Bill

You've answered your own question. (There's no rule that says previews have to have particularly good audio, or audio that matches the specs of the feature film.)
--Bob

My suggestions about not setting things to Auto, was because Auto means the devices need to do more negotiation to establish a common value and therefore potentially more scope for handshaking delays, timeouts occurring (especially with more than 2 HDMI devices in the chain).

However, I meant setting to 1080p.

If setting to 720p corrects the issue, but 1080p is still dodgy, it's not because it is now fixed instead of Auto, but because the cable or contacts are problematic.

What length of cable are you using? There are length limits for HDMI cable (about 10m without a repeater although shorter is better) and the longer the cable the thicker the wire needs to be to compensate. Are you using wall-plates, joiners or splitters? Each connection introduces possible interference to the signal.

As for mod kits, make sure that you know whether you have a standard or pro mod kit and use the appropriate instructions: it is very easy to forget which one and to start using the wrong instructions as they differ between the two types.

Before returning the mod kit, in case it is faulty, and first making sure of the right instructions, try erasing Persistent Storage after a disc has been removed and before setting the region code (or after setting the region code and before inserting the disc). I recently discovered the Oppo 93 and standard mod kit refused to correctly apply the region change on a title. I believe this is because I first tried to play the disc with the player in the wrong region: the player then remembered the original region checking configuration in Persistent Storage after the player region had been changed and re-used it when the disc was re-inserted, leading to a conflict. Erasing Persistent Storage resets everything and allows the region checking software on the disc to correctly match the player region.

I just purchased an Oppo BDP-83 used on ebay and I notice Oppo is still offering the SE upgrade for the analog audio.
This interests me because I have an old Rotel RSP976 5.1 processor with no HDMI inputs.
So I will be using the analog outs + the digital out to the Rotel.

The Rotel does a fine job decoding DD and DTS on DVD Video but my concern is Blu Ray as well as SACD and DVD-Audio.
I will need the analog outputs for anything other than DVD Video.

Is the SE upgrade worth the $200?

I want to purchase a 3 in/1 out HDMI switch and run one cable to my HDTV instead of 3.
Will I be compromising the Oppo video performance by running through a switch?
I found a switch hat claims zero pixelation, clouding or distortion. Is that really a factor with digital video stream?
The switch I found says it supports HDMI 1.3b. Will that be compatible with the BDP-83?

Thanks for any advice. Been a loooong time since I logged in and posted here. Having children put a damper on my audio video hobby.

Is the SE upgrade worth the $200?

After 2-3 years of listening and comparing the output of the OPPO se analog I would pay the $200 again in a heartbeat and I used to belong to the "all chips sound pretty much alike school".

I find it's bottom end to be phenomenal.

I'lll let others answer your other questions.

Thank You! I live very close to Oppo so could drop it off there.
After e-mailing them with a question and receiving almost instant response I'm impressed already.
As soon as I receive the unit I'm driving it to Oppo for the upgrade before even hooking it up.

Oppo has a 3 input to 1 output HDMI swtich that is of very high build quality. (I happen to have one)

Oppo sells refurbs on ebay under a username that I forget at the moment but was easy to verify as legit that's how I got my HDMI switch. I wanted quality switch as I was using to solve an HDMI issue so I wanted to be sure not to introduce another.