Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 212

Very much agree with above.

After the first 50 EAP, I truly believed OPPO was being way too conservative by not just releasing the player to the general public. But with all the issues being brought forward by the lucky 300 I now see that they knew exactly what they were doing.

Still, an open-to-the-public beta test (which is really what the EAP is all about) is a ballsy move.
I wonder if they are having regrets at the undertaking?

Unless I missed it, I didn't see much information in the manual or in the FAQs on the subject of slow-motion playback. Is the only slow motion playback that's available the "frame-by-frame" mode that you get by hitting pause while playing a disk and then continuously hitting FF or FR to move one frame at a time? Am I missing something or does this player not have a slow-motion play functionality? Even the most basic of players have this functionality, so I figure I must not have been able to find it yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

It was added in recent firmware and is not in the manual yet. I have it in the FAQ under hidden features:


-Bill

A few users repeatedly posting about the same few issues doe not equal "a lot of issues".


The EAP is not a beta test. The beta program is still going on behind the scenes.

I just purchased the plastic encased Baraka from Best Buy last night and watched it through without a hitch.

Hi all,

I think I have a pretty good idea of why we've had so many OT discussions, and speculations, and non-technical debates. It is because the interest is so humongous and the current firmware is old! There have been a good set of problems reported and a number of reasonable feature requests made. Until a new firmware is released we're are not going anywhere.

Mr. Oppo, please tell me if and when you're going to release a new firmware with the release notes as you have always done, of course. With the firmware at its current state, I will either not vote or vote NO and p*ss off my some of fellow avs-ers in the process (or non-process because I'm not voting).

Fellow members, aside the many quirks reported by others, the major show stopper for me is the audio lip sync issue. I cannot vote YES on the basis of "these problems will be fixed". Until then, I could change my license plate to "1 of 350" and my co-workers would have a heck of a time trying to figure out what it means.

So long.

Thanks, I got it. Works great. I assume they'll have this in the final manual.

I am employed by a manufacturing firm (petrochem industry) & I, unfortunately, am seeing too much of I've had my player __________ number of days &...............these are the problems or it is a great player.

Hardware or firmware takes months, not days to develop. Oppo, you are keeping tabs on this thread so please do the right thing & DON'T RUSH!

I've only had the 83 for a week now & I WILL NOT vote on such an EXTREMELY short time with this machine! I have made two reports to Oppo of my observations & along with all the other posts of issues I am CONFIDENT they & the beta testers are working on many of them.

I will say IMHO this player is a FERRARI hardware wise, but currently is running on regular gas. Oppo will get the PREMIUM gas for this machine then it will FLY!

Hang in there all!

Folks also need to keep in mind that the closer the product gets to general release the more care needs to be taken in the QA process before each new firmware release goes out the door. Think of how long it takes you to try the things you are trying. Then think about all the capabilities of the machine you aren't even trying yourself!

Good cooking takes time.
--Bob

Sorry, couldn't help myself...

Origin of beta test Source: en.wikipedia.org

The term beta test comes from an IBM hardware product test convention, dating back to punched card tabulating and sorting machines. Hardware first went through an alpha test for preliminary functionality and small scale manufacturing feasibility. Then came a beta test, by people or groups other than the developers, to verify that the hardware correctly performed the functions it was supposed to, and could be manufactured at scales necessary for the market. And finally, a c test to verify safety.

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What is a Beta Test? Source: About.com

Definition: A Beta Test is a period in the development of hardware, software or website where it is tested by large groups of people who would be typical users. Sometimes there is an "open beta" where anyone is welcome to join. Sometimes it is a "closed beta" where you can only join by invitation. Either way, participants use the product normally and often report back on any problems they have (bugs) or with feedback on basic usability and navigation. Beta testing follows a period called an alpha test. Typically, you can expect that by the beta test, the product will be usable, although it may have fewer features available.

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beta test - definition Source: www.businessdictionary.com

Second level, external pilot-test of a product (usually a software) before commercial quantity production. At the beta test stage, the product has already passed through the first-level, internal pilot-test (alpha test) and glaring defects have been removed. But (since the product may still have some minor problems that require user participation) it is released to selected customers for testing under normal, everyday conditions of use to spot the remaining flaws.

OPPO said to audio natali that bdp 83 will be available in USA at june and in Italy at september/October. This news is from italian forum avmagazine.

Way back on page 14 I asked Neuromancer

In which he answers


Again I understand needing a perfect bitstream to decode HDCD in the receiver and that it currently has issues.

My question is can the Oppo decode the HDCD and then send it out as LPCM already decoded over HDMI? In other words am I getting the benefits of HDCD when I play one and output it as LPCM over HDMI? AFAIK my Anthem does not decode HDCD.

I may just do the wired router thing. None of the three components work with the Belkin adaptor, but they do when wired directly to the router. I'm really stumped. I can't figure out why my laptop works when I unplug the wire from the Roku and plug it into my laptop and I immediately get on the internet--wired, not wireless. The router sees the addresses of the components, but won't connect!!

Here's my EAP report sent to Oppo in advance of my "Yes" vote...

I viewed a variety of SD-DVD since this is the bulk of my collection. I had two brief handshake interruptions at the beginning of Robert Zemeckis' Contact, during the Warner Brothers splash and the opening titles. These interruptions did not occur on any subsequent viewings. Also, the bonus feature disc of Robert Altman's MASH did not handshake without a restart of the PRO-151FD plasma, probably because of the power on sequence of the display and BDP. This bonus disk also had problems on a PS3.

The video quality was very good, with no noise or blotching in the dark black of the title sequence in Contact as I had previously seen with my Denon DVD-1910 player (Faroudja DCDI - component video only). Also, noise was gone from the shadow portions of the earth seen from space. Dark portions of space and in the Dawn of Man' sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey were also noise free. Colors in Star Trek (Original Series - did I mention I like scifi?) were accurate and vivid. The BDP in combination with the larger display seemed to reveal more of the grain and defects in the original film stock. I saw some occasional noise/compression artifacts in specific scenes like the wall lighting in the control ship conference room in "The Phantom Menace," but resisted applying noise reduction. Overall, I would rate SD-DVD performance very good and a huge gain over the Denon, but sitting 8-10 feet from a 60 display tended to reveal the shortcomings of DVD versus Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray performance was faultless on Disney's Sleeping Beauty and Bolt, Kung-Fu Panda, Hairspray, Wall-E, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Madagascar 2, and the demo portions of Spears and Munsil Benchmark and DVE HD Basics. Detail was as good as a theater presentation and colors were beautifully rendered with no oversaturation.

Analog stereo output was indistinguishable from my Sony X55ES CD player. I did not test SACD or DVD-A.

Bugs: Only HDMI handshaking - rare.

Gear List:

BDP-83
Pioneer PRO-151FD plasma via HDMI with D-Nice calibration settings
LR analog audio out to Yamaha AVC-50 amplifier.
Paradigm 5 LR monitors (no center channel)
100 w/ch NAD amplifier
Infinity bookshelf surrounds (Dolby Surround decode only)
Energy 8.2 subwoofer

FWIW, don't confuse the handshake that occurs when the player shifts into 24p with an "issue", it's supposed to do that and it will occur several seconds into a DVD.

Unfortunately, some BD discs are authored with a mix of 60i and 24p in the initial splash screens and warning screens, so the player may be handshaking several times. Likewise, some DVD are authored with a mix of video-based and film-based content in the initial screens and/or menus, which again will cause multiple handshakes. This will not change, since the player has to do a handshake at these times.

I have found the connection test option in the setup menu to be non-functional in my setup. I'm using a Squeezebox as a wireless bridge, connecting to the Oppo via a crossover cable.

With this setup I can provision the player via DHCP, test for updated firmware and download BD-Live material. However connection test gives me a "no connection" 100% of the time.

Update: Oppo support thinks the server they use handle connection testing may be or has been down.

Give Oppo tech support a call. They can likely tell you which IP address the Connection Test is trying to reach, and what else, if anything, it does to validate the connection. Then you can try the same things with a laptop similarly provisioned through the Squeezebox. This will eliminate any sort of routing problem via your Internet Service Provider -- e.g., DNS not resolving the URL Connection Test is trying to reach or some sort of IP range blocking.

Since you can do BD-Live stuff there are only a limited number of things that can be going wrong with Connection Test.

(Just so you know, Connection Test works fine in my setup, so it is not broken in general.)
--Bob

+1 as far as issues go. Most of the problems being reported are repetitive, which is a good thing. Hopefully, this commonality makes a firmware upgrade a little easier. I'm also glad that the 2nd EAP along with the original 50 and the beta testers are really putting the player through its paces. However, I do think that some of the reported problems fall on the side of personal more than universal.

Hey, Nathan, I got you.

1. If HDCD is not properly output from the digital outputs (HDMI, coaxial & optical), there is no guaranty that CD is properly output too (I doubt that).

2. Right now HDCD is not properly recognised by external HDCD decoders.

3. HDCD encoded at 20/24-bit aren't recognised either. But that's a tough one to ask being translate as a 20/24-bit original encoding. Will be nice though for your 885 and my 805/876, because they don't have the chip to decode HDCD, like you're saying.
If Oppo will do something like this (I'm not sure that will work though), that will be a major plus for us and Oppo.

* And for your last point, 44.1khz/24-bit from DLNA server, is for me a dark territory, so I cannot comment.

Thank you for your response and clarification.

Regards,

_______
Bob

Note: #3 is a very tough proposition. I got some pretty good idea why, but that will go into the deep ocean of digital audio, which I don't feel swimming in right now.

Hi Obie,

At the present moment, you are not benefitting of the HDCD encoding from your HDMI digital connection.
Even if your Anthem will have the proper HDCD decoder chip, you will still not benefit from the HDMI connection.
If you want the full benefit of the extented dynamic range of HDCD, you have to let the Oppo BDP-83 do the internal decoding and use it's analog output to your Anthem analog input (if your Anthem pre/pro doesn't do a digital conversion of it's analog signal, then back to analog [A/D & D/A]).

We all are hoping for a future fix.

Regards,

_______
Bob

So as not to appear as too much of a dope, if I have a Belkin router in my den where the PC is, and then send a wire from there to the A/V center in the family room where I need 3 components hooked up by ethernet cables, what is it exactly that I need to attach to that long run of Cat5 cable so that the three components can plug in? Router or switch?

Hi neuromancer, (like the name, by the way)

I found SACD and DVD-Audio a not sure thing with several manufacturers.

DVD-Audio is a big mess, as far as I'm concerned, from the implementation stand point. (Sounds good though.)

SACD is a great sounding format too, but not without it's quirks too, which one of the most annoying is that from many brands of players (not just Oppo), you cannot switch layers on the fly. The layers of the SACD format are a pain in the butt to operate properly (even from the setup menu, they will not change), they are just more complications than accomodations. And I know that for a fact, I own several SACD players.
The laser lens on SACD players are very sensitive and have to be aligned dead on, plus they required total cleanness, no dust, no smoke...

Perfection is the art of maintening constantly. And they call us obsessive in our art of audio!

Cheers,

_______ LOTR
Bob

A switch or a hub will do the job.

I have a NETGEAR FS105 ProSafe 5-Port 10/100 Desktop Switch in my entertainment cabinet. Less than $30 and very reliable. I'm not a big fan of Belkin - but then I haven't tried any of there stuff in many years. I don't have any experience with the ethernet over powerline products, but it seems like you should be able to get other devices to work if you can surf the web with your laptop. Are you sure your not connected wirelessly with the laptop (do you have a wireless router) and think you are on the belkin powerline adapter?

Sigh...I know all that but.... I was under the impression from what Neuro said earlier that the BDP-83 does translate the HDCD bits before (while?) converting to PCM. I guess I need to Email Oppo as Neuro hasn't chimed back in.

If a player can translate Dolby or DTS and send it out as PCM why can't it do the same with HDCD? Is this translation done at the DAC stage instead of the processor? If so that does not jibe with what Neuro posted back on page 14.

To be honest I'm a bit befuddled by that quote. PCM vs. Bitstream should be completely irrelevant for CDs, since PCM is the only format you'll get on a CD. The HDCD information is tucked away within the Redbook PCM -- it's not a completely separate encoding like DTS.

The only options AFAIK are HDCD decoding in the player and outputting analog, or sending PCM to the HDCD-capable receiver and having it decoded there. I'm not sure what "decoded by the decoder solution" and "the D/AC is not required" mean in that context.

I also look forward to clarification on this point. If the Oppo actually is capable of outputting a high-bit-depth PCM signal *post-HDCD-decoding*, that would be a very unique and interesting feature.


Edited to add: The part that's not clicking for me is "converting to PCM." CDs, including HDCDs, are already PCM. There's no need to convert like there is with DD or DTS. What we're talking about is creating a new PCM signal out of the HDCD-encoded PCM signal at higher-than-Redbook bit depth. Which would be unusual.

You don't want a hub. A much better solution (and not more expensive) is a switch. A low priced switch runs about $15, a better one (recommended) is about $25. A hub places too much of a load on the network, a switch is your solution.

A hub broadcasts all traffic across all connections, while a switch specifically targets one port, lessening the load. Hubs only operate at half duplex, so you can only send or receive data, increasing the error rate; switches operate at full duplex, allowing sending and receiving at the same time.

Long and short of it, you want a switch. The price difference is not worth it, and your network will be much happier.