Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 201

When is this thing going to be on sale for the rest of us? I basically stepped away from this forum for 3 months and come back and its still in EAP. I thought it was supposed be released by now.

Thanks mate, I suffer enough already in another thread, where a guy took me for a very long ride, and waisted my precious time for over three days!

Don't forget.

Currently 31 yes's now versus 9 no's.

I hate to do the ole politician side-step on ya, but I'm not quite sure if my NDA will allow me to answer that. We'll have to save it for later... for now.

Yes, I agree this should be posted somewhere. On a side note, it appears my TV likes RGB Video Level. I did find a note that my TV doesn't always seem to handle YCbCr very well. I ended up only having to adjust my brightness up a couple clicks. My contrast seemed fine and the color might have been a little off (according the the blue filter), but I didn't think enough to start and figure that out, since my TV is ISF calibrated and should be correct.

Thanks again Bob.

Hi Neuromancer,


That is exactly my point, I'm trying to figure out what is exactly going on with this , with true facts. I already read everything there is to read about this subject, but no one yet arrived to a complete analysis in this situation.
So, pard me for asking again, but it is not resolved yet.

I do appreciate that you reconfirm what was already confirmed.


Regards,

_______
Bob

I'll add the text to the calibration section of the FAQ today.

-Bill

Even an ISF calibrated device needs the standard user adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation) tweaked for each input source.

-Bill

You know, come to think of it, they could have included the option to color match the display so it matches the room color. Nothing in the room goes with the yucky blueish tint they use now.

OPPO is aware of the problem and is working on a resolution.

I had no problem with that disc.

You have a Radiance video processor so aren't you letting that do the video processing? If so then why do you think you notice such a difference in PQ between the Sony and the Oppo?

Thanks - I did save the link, so I'm good.

Well, on my HTPC which is at least as complex, if not more than the Oppo, combo HD DVD/Blu-ray drive door can open as soon as I turn my PC on. OS does not have be loaded before the drive door can open. PowerDVD Ultra program does not seem to care whether the drive door is open or not. It runs when the drive door closes. So for that complex platform, it does exactly what the OP wanted.

I have noticed a momentary "stutter" in audio when restarting videos from a pause. I don't recall it happening on all BDs/DVDs, but it has happened often enough to make me think about it as a possible issue that might need addressing. I have not heard this sort of stutter when restarting on any of my other players.

If it's anything like the PC next to my foot right now, your HTPC's drive can open as soon as the power comes on because you are pushing a button built into the drive itself. Even then, the BIOS on your HTPC may want to pull that tray back closed when it starts to work through the boot-up process before beginning to load the OS. A standalone player doesn't generally leave the full face of a standard PC drive sitting in a 5.25" bay on the front of the player, so you don't have that button anymore. A standalone player also doesn't have the separation between BIOS and OS that a PC has. Both of those differences leave you with a completely different situation.

Let's make a separate comparison, which not quite as "apples to oranges" as the others we've been making: if you were to try to use an eject button on your HTPC's remote control, how long would it take (from powering up from an off/standby state to having that eject command accepted and acted on) for your HTPC to open the tray?

Let's put the question a different way: has anyone done a survey of the time required for DVD players (excluding Blu-ray and HD-DVD from the mix) to open their tray when you press EJECT on a unit that's powered down? I haven't done a detailed study of the various players around my house, but I tested my 983H along with my BD30 Blu-ray player and HD-A2 HD-DVD player and the 983H took 10 seconds to complete that set of tasks - 1 second faster than the BDP-83. (The BD30 took almost 22 seconds while the HD-A2 took 37 seconds.)

Good idea, Bill. Please put a note with it, which makes it clear many users will not have the problems passing Blacker Than Black and Peak White data anticipated by these comments, but that this approach to setting up gray scale levels will work whether or not your setup has that problem.
--Bob

I spent several hours with the BDP-83 yesterday. I am currently house-sitting my in-laws house and two dogs so I haven't had as much time to explore as I have wanted. However, I gave it a good run through.

My setup:

Oppo ==> Integra 9.8 ==> Optoma HD65 (77" diagonal screen at 10 feet)

I have the Oppo set to output at 720p.

The following discs were tested with no problems at all. SD much better than my Oppo 980H. Blu-Ray quality seems to be a wash with the PS3.

SD: Lord of the Rings: FoTR EE

BD: Lost Season 3, Underworld, Kingdom of Heaven (DTS MA HD; no problems), and Casino Royale.

For each disc, I played about half an hour of my favorite scenes.

Audio quality was outstanding with great dialogue intelligibility, soundstage, etc.

I also played the 4th movement movement of Beethoven's Symphony #9 (LSO multichannel SACD) which is the best 9 I have heard on SACD.

I have had zero issues and complaints so far, but as I said, my experience is limited. Still, I am leaning towards thinking the player warrants general release, and will be more than likely voting yes after one more run through.

Great job Oppo!

Jim

Hello all

Do any of you own Rush Snakes and Arrows on Blur-ray. If so, please go to the track "Hope" and watch the beginning and advise if you see a dark horizontal band across the middle in the background out of focus area. (See photo)

Im in conversation with Oppo on this subject and due to my limited collection of Blu-rays I can not duplicate this effect on any other source material than this disc.


Pioneer Elite PRO-111FD

Thank you
mopar

jbm007, I feel your pain bro, but I gotta say this, I've used every mail delivery company extensively since I started my business in 1983. I've had issues with every one of them, including FedEx Ground. That said, FedEx Ground's track record tops ALL of them over the decades I've been shipping stuff. And I don't mean their track record is a little better, it's been WAY better. You've just had some bad luck, so hang in there. Don't know what FedEx "Home"means though. As far as I know, there's FedEx, and FedEx Ground, two different divisions.

Glad to hear the OPPO sounds good to most everyone using two channel out. I'm still waiting for my Peachtree Audio NOVA, to arrive, so I don't have an amp yet. I did get to hear a demo of it this week and it was very exciting. It features some new developments in digital to analogue conversion and it sounded more like the master of a recording of mine than anything I've heard yet. It should make for an interesting comparison between the OPPO's analogue stereo out and the coax digital out to the the NOVA. Can't wait....

I have that disc and will try to check it out tonight.

Has anyone else not using HDMI audio experienced an audio stutter during the layer change on SD-DVDs? Maybe not a stutter, but a pause? The video is smooth, but I keep getting a gap in the audio on layer changes. I'm going to play with this more tonight but I thought I'd check here first. I couldn't find anything similar searching this thread.

Note: I'm using primarily coax for SD-DVD, though I have been swapping back and forth between that and 5.1 analog to see which I like best. I'll confirm later if one or both of these exhibit the same issue.

The first time I tried the Sinatra disc with my 83, I forgot to change the HDMI audio settings from Bitstream to LPCM. Naturally I didn't hear any audio from my Onkyo 805, but I did notice that the 805 displayed the input signal as TrueHD. This was a surprise to me given the note in the bug list which indicates that the receiver would interpret it as DTS/DTS Master Audio. Any one else notice this? This was with the with the surround mix selected, I didn't try the stereo mix.

I also noted the stutter, which only happens on BDs and DVDs for me--not CDs--and reported it to Oppo last week. I'm using coax. I haven't noticed a stutter on layer changes in DVDs. I also haven't had any problems with the "Planet Earth" BD disks, unlike some other users in this thread.

In all other respects, the player has been flawless for eight BD disks--one from Netflix--and several DVDs. I haven't voted yet because I'd like to wait and see if a firmware update fixes the problem. If it doesn't, or no update arrives in the next few days, I will likely vote regardless.

Given that the votes can't be changed once they are cast, I would suggest that those EAPers inclined to vote No wait for the next firmware release and retest before voting.

I thought I would chime in about my EAP2 experience. I have been hesitant to make any decision/comments until I had some time to play with the BDP-83. Also, with the quantity of posts on this thread, I am currently toe-dipping the waters since my time lately has been limited to answer questions or reply to comments.

I first tested the BDP-83 on my theater room (see below) and compared to my PS3. Then I tested on my Living Room setup on the Pioneer 6010. For each one, I adjusted Contrast/Brightness according the Munsil/Spears Bluray disc. Both setups used HDMI only.
Speed/Times
The first thing I noticed was that the times were close to equivalent to the PS3 (just qualitative estimates and not quantitative data). BDP-83 is much faster than my Toshiba HD-A2. Based on power ups, open tray, load, remote response, I am happy. This is something my wife can live with unlike the HD-A2.
Aesthetics
Much better looking than the PS3. The only thing that bugs me is the player display. The text on the display is not perfectly vertical but rather has a slight forward leaning slant to it. Like "Open" and not "Open". Also, it would be nice if the display would dim one level lower. The display dim setting is fairly bright in a dark room. Other that that nitpick, its a nice looking unit.
BluRay
Not much to say except Bluray is Bluray. Not much difference between PS3 and BDP-83.
DVD
DVD playback is where the BDP-83 outshines the PS3. Immediately some other observers noticed DVD playback to be sharper than the PS3. I evaluated the Jaggies on the Munsil and Spears Bluray disk. The PS3 definitely shows jaggies while the BDP-83 does an excellent job. On my living room test on the Pioneer 6010, comparing to an older Denon 480p DVD player using Pioneer to upconvert to 1080p, the BDP-83 outshines. My wife immediately noticed the difference, so much that over the weekend she asked to keep the player downstairs for her to watch some movies. Now that is saying a lot.
DVD-A
Only had a few minutes to play. The disk I put in (Sting - Album ??) locked up once I entered the playlist. Something I will try to duplicate.
SACD
Again, I only had a few minutes to play. Played Pink Floyd DSOTM. I didn't have the time to tweak the audio settings to optimize the sound but it did play both Stereo and Multichannel. One issue I had, pressing Audio in the SACD did not change from Stereo to Multichannel. It would be nice if there was a feature to do so without entering the BDP-83 setup. Also, another nice feature would show if Stereo or Multichannel was selected for the OSD.
OSD
Very nice and out of the way, much like the PS3 OSD. Something I am very happy with.
Noise
Much quieter than the PS3. I didn't notice how much noise comes from the PS3 (40Gb model) until I did this comparison.
Audio (Movie Playback)
Not to derail the BDP-83 discussion but I will note a few impressions. Using the BDP-83 to pass high resolution audio via bitstream to the Denon, and comparing against the PS3. Initially myself and observers noticed a difference in quality of sound. Some further tests by myself with better level adjustments sounded more equivalent between the two. I began to wonder if the quality sound difference deals more so with higher volumes when bitstream to the receiver. The higher volumes tends to open up the dynamic range allowing the sound to breath a little better (so to speak). Either way, it made me a feel a little better allowing the light on my receiver to exercise itself .

Overall
So far, a quality product at a reasonable price. Now if I could get the same unit without SACD and DVD-A playback at a cheaper price for my living room, I would be very happy. At this point, unless the wife tries to claim the player for the living room, it is difficult to justify the expense for a 2nd player. But then again, that may change when the market/economy starts to look better.


Theater Room
118" Screen
Epson 1080 UB
Denon 3808
PS3
Toshiba HD-A2
B&W 802N, HTM1, DS3 sides, Atlantic Tech backs (unsure model)

Living Room
Pioneer 6010
Denon xxxx 480p DVD player

I'm guessing the answer is "no", the Oppo doesn't transcode HDCD to 20 or 24 bit PCM when choosing the PCM output via HDMI?

This is another reason why being able to play from a server would be ideal, since I can convert my HDCD lossless rips to 24bit flac on the fly, there.

One person already changed their vote. It was 10 no's, now 9 no's against 31 yes's. This isn't a endless EAP party with FW updates, so vote.

BTW future FW releases will address issues identified.