Official OPPO BDP-93 Owner's Thread - Page 504

Yeah, 30.2 has no Marvell and is $500, 50.2 has Marvel and is $700

I'm trying to decide if a new BDP-93 player would be much of an improvement over my PS3 fat for video and audio. I'm very pleased with the picture quality of the PS3 but confused about the new HD audio codecs.
My receiver is a Yamaha RXA-2000 and is capable of HD decoding, but when using said PS3 it indicates a PCM signal while playing a movie. A lot of reading indicates that I am receiving the best signal, but for once I would like the front panel of my Yamaha to indicate as such.
I also listen to a lot of Cd's, would the Oppo offer a better sound versus the PS3?
Basically asking for advice on whether there would be any noticeable audio/video difference between the two.
Thanks in advance, and yes I read through 85% of this thread looking for a similar comparison, and yes I did read the first page regarding the PS3 as a very good player, but I am still undecided.

I went from a fat PS3 to a 93, so I can give you some 'hands-on' advice.
First, the PS3 is an excellent Blu-ray player and a very good DVD player. As far as picture quality goes, for Blu-ray discs you shouldn't notice much of a difference, although the Oppo has more configuration options (colour spaces, etc) and, depending on your display, can be tweaked a little more here and there. For DVDs, the Oppo has superior scaling to the PS3. I find upscaled DVDs look more 'film-like' on the Oppo. Reading through the thread you would have noticed that there's still room for improvement - there is, but the Oppo's DVD performance is still excellent.
For streaming content, the Oppo handles a much wider range of files than the PS3 (FLAC files, MKV files, etc) with excellent audio/video fidelity. If you plug in a USB hard drive, you can also play DVD backups (as ISO files) and Blu-ray backups (as ISO files or BDMV folders). It's a very versatile player, and for me this makes it far more useful than the PS3. I still play some videos for my kids stored on the PS3's internal hard drive, but otherwise we rarely use it.
As far as audio quality, again, the Oppo has the edge. To my ears, CDs sound better, and the fact that all audio outputs are active means you can use analog connectors if you prefer. But you really shouldn't worry about what the front panel of your Yamaha says:-) The fat PS3 can't bitstream HD audio codecs (the newer slim models can), but the LPCM output is still fine. In fact many people prefer to use LPCM with their Oppo. But if you really want the Yamaha to light up, set the 93 to bitstream and it will do it.

+1 to everything he just said! DAMN! That was one well laid out response!

Happy to be of service:-)

I need to second that! Guess I know what to ask Mrs Clause for Christmas

Originally Posted by SeriousHorse View Post
I went from a fat PS3 to a 93, so I can give you some 'hands-on' advice.
First, the PS3 is an excellent Blu-ray player and a very good DVD player. As far as picture quality goes, for Blu-ray discs you shouldn't notice much of a difference, although the Oppo has more configuration options (colour spaces, etc) and, depending on your display, can be tweaked a little more here and there. For DVDs, the Oppo has superior scaling to the PS3. I find upscaled DVDs look more 'film-like' on the Oppo. Reading through the thread you would have noticed that there's still room for improvement - there is, but the Oppo's DVD performance is still excellent.
For streaming content, the Oppo handles a much wider range of files than the PS3 (FLAC files, MKV files, etc) with excellent audio/video fidelity. If you plug in a USB hard drive, you can also play DVD backups (as ISO files) and Blu-ray backups (as ISO files or BDMV folders). It's a very versatile player, and for me this makes it far more useful than the PS3. I still play some videos for my kids stored on the PS3's internal hard drive, but otherwise we rarely use it.
As far as audio quality, again, the Oppo has the edge. To my ears, CDs sound better, and the fact that all audio outputs are active means you can use analog connectors if you prefer. But you really shouldn't worry about what the front panel of your Yamaha says:-) The fat PS3 can't bitstream HD audio codecs (the newer slim models can), but the LPCM output is still fine. In fact many people prefer to use LPCM with their Oppo. But if you really want the Yamaha to light up, set the 93 to bitstream and it will do it.

Hey guys, quick question. I'm considering getting this Oppo player and I noticed that it came out right around this time last year. Does anyone know if they plan to release a newer version within the next few months? I'm not sure if Oppo follows the release schedule of other consumer electronics companies that tend to put out something new every year or so.

Thanks!

I'm considering the purchase of the BDP-93. Primary interest is to replace an old non-upscaling DVD player (it will be my first Blu-ray player how's THAT for waiting for the market to mature!). From reading/searching this very long thread, it appears to do that job nicely. As for other features, like DNLA and Netflix streaming, it's been harder to discern whether the functionality equals the quality of DVD and Blu-ray playback.

What is the consensus here on Oppo's Netflix interface? For those of you connected to sufficiently fast Internet (>10mbps), what are your interface delays and latency like? How is rewinding and fast-forwarding accomplished within their Netflix interface? Every Netflix streamer is different: the Roku XDS uses timeline thumbnails, whereas the Apple TV2 provides a scrubber bar and low rez moving images (well.. attempts to, sometimes with the ATV2 it's just black screen with a scrubber bar).

Lastly, do you like the Oppo's remote, especially when it comes to transport control, fast-forwarding/rewinding and slo-mo?

Just my 2 cents- The Oppo takes so long to load and buffer Netflix streaming that I use my PS3 instead. Not sure who's to blame there but it's still a glaring fault.

Hmmm, in my setup my PS3 and the 93 buffer and begin playback of Netflix streams equally fast. I suspect you have a problem in your networking setup for the 93. We've also seen some cases where folks had problems due to older, outdated, internet modems -- particularly older DSL modems. Contact your ISP about swapping out for a newer modem.
--Bob

Isn't the real difference the fact the OPPO doesn't stream 1080p encodes like the PS3 and Roku 2? Or has its bandwidth usage been measured and averages the same rate.

Hello. I searched a bit but likely missed a message dealing with my question.

While playing mkv 2.35:1 content some will display normally while others are automatically v. stretched to ~1.78:1 aspect, and I'm unable to change the image aspect ratio. Same file viewed on aPC or stand-alone player like Patriot BoxOffice default to 2.35:1 and so I'm able to zoom. The BDP-93 seems to lock the image to distorted v.stretch aspect and can't get it to view normally.

Any tips appreciated, but I suspect it has more to do with the encoding of file. Thanks.

Right. I'd rather have a high(er) stream rate than the empty shell of higher rez value.

But what about the actual Netflix interface folks? When you pause and then shuttle backwards or forwards what does it look like and how well does it work?

Are you using "Wide" or "Wide/Auto" in your setup?

Two issues:

(1) Vertical stretch and Full Screen zoom are not working for media files at the moment. The other zoom levels work.

(2) MKV has a couple of X/Y dimension attributes. If they are not set correctly you'll get aspect ratio issues. A quick fix that works for many cases is to simply recreate the file with mkvmerge. You might look at the results of mkvinfo before and after to see the difference, if any.

Also try switching between WIDE and WIDE/AUTO in the player to see if that changes your results.

-Bill

I've only had my 93 for a few days but the fast forward works just like it does in the WMC plugin on my htpc. It shows you stills or thumbnails of scenes that you basically scroll through as you fast forward or 'rewind'. The interface is fine. I kinda liked the WMC plugin a little better because it was designed to be used with just the directional and select keys of a media center remote and there was also keyboard support for much easier text entry. It had a nicer layout as well. Getting to your instant queue on the Oppo 93 is easy enough though and the picture quality is a lot better than my htpc which had some motion judder.

You see a time line of "thumbnails" and it moves between those. When you hit Play again, it rebuffers at the new location. It works OK.

The Oppo players have the Version 2 Netflix app. The PS3 has the Version 3. The main differences are that Version 3 allows up to 1080p streams (vs. 720p), up to 5.1 lossy audio (vs. 2.0 lossy), and optional subtitles for some content.

Note that in the case of Netflix, any given resolution it is sending is likely a pretty heavily "compressed" stream. I.e., not all 1080p streams are equal. You could compress a 1080p stream down to almost no data at all if you didn't care what the resulting image looked like. It would still be 1080p -- just really crappy 1080p.

For any given stream resolution, Netflix has data files at several different compression levels and they switch between which is coming down the pipe on the fly according to their take on network throughput and how busy their servers are at the moment. In the worst case, they'll even switch on the fly from HD down to SD streaming. Your Netflix account setting for limiting the Watch Instantly streaming rate (limiting quality to reduce your network consumption) is also a factor.

It's Netflix choice which app they make available on each device. Oppo will move to a newer Netflix app whenever Netflix chooses to make it available.

For example the Vudu app on the Oppo players already supports up to 7.1 Dolby+ audio and 1080p streams. So it's not a technical limitation. It's just waiting for Netflix to get off its duff.
--Bob

Thanks Mitch & Bill for help.

First, wide/auto does not resolve the issue - the display defaults to and remains stuck ~1.78:1 instead of the correct aspect.

But I think I've found the source, like I suspected and Bill confirmed, the encoding on some 2.35:1 mvk's is the problem. On the files which do not play in the appropriate aspect ratio the black bars (horizontal) are included in the file itself. In those that do play as intended the bars are cropped.

It appears that BDP-93 is unhappy with the presence of horizontal black bars and automatically scans, crops, and enlarges the image vertically to display, but without horizontal zoom compensation to maintain the aspect ratio, hence oblongs on my screen. This is also apparent in the 0.5x zoom view.

The player has no way of knowing the embedded black bar pixels aren't "real". It doesn't process them specially just because they are black. However, if the meta-data in the file doesn't correctly describe the actual pixel layout of the frame then of course the player will get confused. So for example if the aspect ratio in the meta-data is inconsistent with the horizontal and vertical pixel count in the meta-data, then you can get problems.
--Bob

Does OPPO ever have sales, promos or discounts?
I signed up for their email news letter but have yet to receive anything.
I plan to buy a 93 for Xmas and was wondering if should hold off.

Sometimes they sell refurbished models at a discount, same 30-day return and 1-year warranty as new, but that's about it. I don't recall if any -93s have been sold that way yet.

-Bill

Thank You Sir! I'll wait awhile, If I bought now, I'd loose two months of warranty waiting for Xmas.

Thanks for the details, guys, that's what I wanted to know.

So shuttle control appears to be pretty much like the Roku XDS, which I like better than Apple's ATV2 UI for Netflix. The ATV2 FF/RR is clunky and doesn't always work correctly. Even though the Roku's is composed of static thumbnail images, they're clearer, and moving back or forwards seems more precise.

@Bob: I'd be happy with good 720p over compressed 1080p any day.

Does anyone know whether audio and video are separate components on Netflix's version 3? That is, can you have 720p with 5.1 audio, or is 1080p only combined with more audio tracks and vice versa?

In the version 3 app (as on the PS3) you are presented with a choice of 5.1 or stereo playback for content that supports 5.1. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which titles include 5.1 support. Same sort of thing for subtitles. Note that foreign language films *ALWAYS* present English subtitles -- no option.
--Bob

Understood. Checked the metainfo of the file and appears in order without conflict (as far as I determined).

But how about this: an.mkv file if burned to a disc it displays stretched; if the same file played from USB HD it displays in the normal aspect ratio. The player handles the source content differently?

I haven't heard of that before and it's not what I would expect. Do you have a small example file you could post somewhere?

-Bill

Between the two interfaces, the PS3 is still far superior to Oppo's current client... if for no other reason than that the responsiveness of the Oppo severely lags behind the PS3. Sometimes when fast forwarding or rewinding on the Oppo, it will take a second or two before it responds to commands. The PS3 and Roku are instant by comparison. Another advantage the PS3 client has is speed in loading box art and program descriptions. Finally, besides the lack of 5.1 and subtitles, the Oppo client also doesn't properly show all episodes in series that have more than 100 entries (such as SNL). These last 3 issues should all be fixed in a version 3 client. As for the lag, dunno if that will be addressed or not. From a purely client perspective, the Roku, PS3 and Xbox all surpass the Oppo's CURRENT experience.

Bob-

Thanks. I'm on a cable modem that is 14 months old. What, if anything, are you using for port/etc settings on your router?

Why the disparity between devices? I could understand Netflix not maintaining the WMC plugin for PCs, but the Oppo is different than just an app in a media center. Since the Oppo is a 'supported' device just like the Roku and PS3, shouldn't it get the version 3 client as well?