Official OPPO BDP-83 Owner's Thread [technical talk only] - Page 219

Bob,

To pile onto ProgProg's comments...

Your post is extremely misleading at best. First off, to my knowledge you don't have a BDP-83 or any direct experience with one, so there's absolutely no way your comment about multichannel (analog) sounding better can carry any weight at all in this particular discussion (which is supposed to be focused on the BDP-83, not a general audio theory discussion). Whether HDMI or multichannel analog will sound better is VERY equipment specific. Among other things, it depends on where the better digital to analog converters are in the owner's system. It also depends on whether the receiver / preamp / processor being used has analog passthrough or will apply an analog to digital conversion on the input (followed by another digital to analog conversion on the way to the amps), whether bass management and room correction gets applied, etc. The ONLY way 4 coaxial digital interconnects MIGHT improve on HDMI is in jitter and even then I'm not sure I buy it.

If you're going to continue to offer people advice on equipment that you don't own or have any direct experience with, please make that point clear so people can take your advice with the appropriate spoonful of salt. I think those of us who follow the Denon AVP-A1HDCI / POA-A1HDCI owner's thread are especially sensitive to this point as you've been doing the same thing there for weeks now.

To the specific point of multichannel analog sounding better than HDMI - most certainly not in my system with the BDP-83 being the source. This isn't to say that the BDP-83's analog outputs aren't very good, but the digital to analog conversion in my Denon AVP-A1HDCI is definitely better and benefits from bass management, flexible speaker configuration, Audyssey, etc.

Regarding all the discussion about how soon the BDP-83 can go to general release - I see no reason to question Neuromancer's take on it (especially since he's most likely using a newer firmware version than those of us in the EAP are using). The fact that I don't think the current firmware is ready for general release doesn't mean it's broken to the point where it will take them another 6 months to get it close enough for a yes vote. If they can fix the HDCD problem, get the SD-DVD audio sync problems addressed, and get DVD-Audio to a more stable state, they've got a shippable product and these are all things that I suspect they're very close on.

The HDMI cable is all you should need for anything the BDP-83 can play - it will handle both the audio and video.

Thanks, that makes it simple

I am in the 2nd EAP and wanted to know if anyone else has noticed the limited vertical viewing angle of the front display.
When I stand in front of the player which is about 52 inches off the floor I can not see the top third of the display. When seated about 7 feet away I can't see the bottom third.
It looks to me as if they could widen the black silkscreening (or whatever it is) that lowers the viewing angle.

I have had no issues with DVD or BD playback.
I have had problems with load vibration noise during playback on disk 2 in Dick's Picks #18. It plays fine on my other two players so I'm not sure what is going on.

One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them ?

It's not just your unit. That's the way the front panel displays work on all the BDP-83 units. It's not likely this is something Oppo is going to change, so if viewing the front panel is important to you, keep this in mind when deciding where to place the player.
--Bob

Anyone using a Lumagen Radiance with the BDP-83? I've recently been experiencing this curious issue where I get a heavily distorted picture and the Radiance status shows incoming resolution at 1912x1080 (even though I have the Oppo set to source direct). Fix is relatively simple by cycling the Radiance off and on - but anyone else seeing this?

I knew that, that's why I mentioned it. Same for Smarty-pants and myself.
Of course, it's not everyone that can follow these lines.

""Originally Posted by dandan123 How good are the dacs in the oppo ? I've heard they are at best mediocre ?Also how long will it take for the price to drop to $300 after it's released ?499 is a bit steep for me.""

Dan, If you have been reading the reviews here [& other sites] you will read about what others have talked about in reference to Audio Quality of the 83'. It is a good AQ player.
With some good blood lines under the hood. I don't think the word mediocre really comes into play here. A $2,000+ dedicate CD transport in the wrong environment will sound the same as a $100 Wal-Mat Special. This player is design to do many things for lots of different people. Alot of options are cramped into this box. Whatever the price that is offered to the public will be the price {I would think} going forward. Thou, you might find one in the far future at a FleaBay auction for your price point level.
db- beta tester

This is my last post in this thread, I will concentrate my good energy with people that I can help and learn from.
I agree with you about how fast this thread is going, so for that I leave the room to better purposes.

And as your personal judgement on me, you can PM me instead of wrong me.
If you like to know all the equipment that I own, I will be pleased to let you know. You don't know squack about me, so be very quiet...
Also the number of my posts that you love to mention is not of your business, it is a low way to discourage me of my good intentions.

Bye now.
I wish Oppo the best to get their machine working without any flaw, then I will reorder mine.

Bob

I agree they are not likely to change it. I do think it is something that should of been caught earlier.
The conundrum is do you place it low so you can see the entire display when seated or do you place it higher so you can see it when standing.

I don't think this unit would ever be released if Oppo or any manufacturer tried to please everyones views on what makes the perfect player.

If you have a repeatable case of this, please get the details to Oppo. There is a rather random bug which can sometimes result in the video decoder establishing the wrong resolution for the video coming off the disc. This of course screws up the video processing that follows. I suspect it is related to the range of allowed audio video choices the lumagen presents to the Oppo which is why folks with simpler receivers aren't seeing this.

ETA: Or perhaps they ARE seeing it -- thinking it is just a bad HDMI handshake -- but their receiver doesn't report the details of what's coming in so they don't notice the oddball video resolution.
--Bob

One thing that I noticed while exploring the Spears and Muncil BD was that I am clipping the outermost ~ 25 pixels. This is evident both in the test pattern image, as well as the one where you actually count the boxes where you can see the outermost white line. It's a far cry from the zooming issue that I had previously, but I'm not sure where it is originating. Again, I have the BDP-83 in Source Direct mode feeding a Lumagen Vision HDP, and then a JVC RS-1 front projector. I'm pretty sure that I don't have any settings mis-set in the video processor or the projector. Has anyone else seen any edge pixel clipping?

Kevin

Not here, not in the player. Have you evaluated the display with another player, or tried removing the HDP from the chain?

The player itself does not clip pixels (assuming you are not using one of the Zoom modes).

The most likely reason is that you have the RS-1 set to do some overscan.
--Bob

That and the orientation of the power cord socket.

Haven't brought myself to splurge 10X more than I otherwise would have to for the appropriate angled cable.

My projector has a setting for this that is referred to simply as SMALLER or LARGER. When set to SMALLER, the image is overscanned by about 5%. I keep in on LARGER so I can see the entire picture... even all the crappy EE imbeded into a lot of dvds .

Ok, I'll bite...
What's wrong with the power socket?

Wrong side of unit or to high on unit or to low on unit.

Discussed on pages 53-54 or so, but to rehash:

Using that style power cord requires significant clearance in the back because it's so thick/stiff. With the socket being on the side that it is, and oriented as it is, you'd want a left-angled power cord, which is rare. Right-angled power cords are available everywhere and dirt cheap ($1.42 @ Monoprice). Left-angled ones are $15+ if you can find them.

I didn't notice this when I saw the player this weekend. I would assume this is probably as a result of the vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) being somewhat too recessed wrt the front of the plastic window. Like Bob says, you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for Oppo to fix this as that's the way the VFD is produced.

If you got yourself a man_sized AVR like mine... My AVR is about 3-4 inches deeper than the bdp-83, which makes connector extentions a non-issue.

I'm not quite confident in those clipping tests on S&M. Take a look at what I've experienced:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post16162766

Start here and follow along. I have abandoned the tests for now. I went back & used DVE and everything looks fine. I resume my conversations with Stacy & Don, after I'm done evaluating the -83.

Yup. I have the XD but I have not encountered that problem. Which firmware are you using on the Radiance? I have the one that was relesased in February this year. It is not the most recent but since then there haven't major functionality improvements so I haven't bothered to upgrade.

Does this problem happen with any BR or SD DVD disc playing or is it specific to certain discs?

You say you have been experiencing this "recently." So that means it didn't happen when you first installed the Oppo but only after a lot of use or just a little? Nothing else changed on your system?

I'm even lazier - still using a firmware version from June '08 (and for similar reasons of less interesting subsequent functionality).

Distortion only has happened recently (the last couple of days) and I have been using the player for a few weeks now (EAP 1). So far, it only happens with bluray discs and with more than one. Last night I was watching that literary classic Saw V, previews were fine but then the movie was distorted. Popped out the disc and then restarted and then both previews and the movie were distorted (and displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio). When I cycled off and on the Radiance, distortion was gone and the proper aspect ration restored (did nothing for the quality of the movie however).

I don't think there is anything amiss with the Radiance as it has been stable now for months and worked flawlessly with my prior sony Bluray player. Plus, since the status on the Radiance is showing this strange resolution (1912X1080) seems that the Oppo may be at fault. Presumably, cycling the Radiance resends instructions to the Oppo to reset the proper video resolution?

Interesting! I'll check tonight to see if it persists on other Bluray, or even DVD, discs.

If that were the case, then you'd expect the same results from power cycling the player or simply forcing a new handshake. There's a fresh handshake from the player each time the source resolution or frame rate changes

1. I'm just speculating but even if the Radiance was stable with the June 08 firmware it could be that since the Oppo FW is still being developed it requires a newer implmentation of a protocol. So it might be worth upgrading the Radiance FW.

2. Are you running any audio through your Radiance? Don't know but it might have something to do with the issue. Jim Petereon from Lumagen made this comment on their support forum:

"One other comment. Carrying both audio and video on the HDMI output(s) of the Radiance can slow down switching or cause HDMI restart activity that is not otherwise needed. For example if we carry audio on the output and the audio format changes we have to restart the HDMI output connection to the AV processor and/or display even though the video didn't change on our output (which it doesn't assuming genlock is off)."