Official OPPO BDP-95 Owner's Thread - Page 210

Hi all, my 1st post here !!

I own the Oppo 95 and have ripped quite a few of my cd collection to Flac, CD image and dvds to image files, which are loaded onto a hard drive for use with the Oppo. When i use dvd files, i can forward to the next chapter, using cd images, i cant, the oppo see's it as one file, i use EAC and dBpoweramp to rip/convert, any ideas ?

Thanks in advance for any reply's !!

I wonder if it is possible to connect several external USB HDDs to the Oppo by using an USB hub? Did anyone try to use an USB hub with the Oppo?

ISO files function exactly as the physical disc does. I'm not sure what you mean by "CD image", since there's no support for CD audio disc ISO.

Yes, as many as you like. HDD docks are also popular.

There is a good description of who "iso" images of CD-DA are not possible ISO image - Wikpiedia (see last paragraph Drawbacks).
Of course CD-ROM discs allow iso images since they are file-based format. Perhaps the op had wav/flac files on CD-ROM which is also supported for playback by the 95?

An approach I use is to take say 6 CD-DA and then rip them (with a DVD-A authoring program) to 16/44.1 PCM wav which gets all track info from the usual databases, and easily organize them with menus/graphics into a DVD-A disc. Since DVD-A is a file-based format, it of course can be "iso"'d and that DVD-A iso image can be played back via the 95 via USB. Here is a description and example of the process . At the time I only had a BDP-83 so it was only for disc usage, but imagine how excited I was when the BDP-95 supported iso images and I had my DVD-A compilations saved to iso also.

The Halo A-23 amps are nice.

As for the Hard Drives being high end, I built the dedicated server after reading a review of the Asus Xonar Essence STX on Stereophile. The Asus is no Ayre but it still holds it's own considering the amount of money I spent on the server and Asus. I was looking into purchasing a standalone DAC like the Cambridge Audio DacMagic but found a better choice in the Oppo BDP-95 which doubles up as a DAC for music files and an excellent universal player.

Thanks for sharing this info Neutron77 this answers exactly what I was going to ask. I'm busy sorting out my LF/LR speakers (Magnepan MG17's on test) and trying to match in my sub (B&W PV1). I can now reset my C, SL & SR back to small.

I likey when audio is cheaper & better!
I'll have too track down that review; thanks.

I just checked the 93EU manual, the file name says v2.4, but the document itself still says v2.2 (on the second last page). I don't have the earlier manual here to compare them.

Same for ther 95EU manual. Filename says 1.4, document says 1.0.

The US manuals are OK. I was hoping to see more official info on the DLNA functions, but to Oppo those are still "experimental" and therefore not explained in the manual.

Sure I'll probably be getting a 2TB seagate free agent drive when they come out. Right now I can only find the 1.5 TB model which would fit my collection but not much head room.

The EU manuals probably just failed to update that last page. It happens. The manual files themselves are newer, and a different size.
--Bob

off topic but the opinions expressed here are highly-respected .. it is almost time to decide on an iPhone or Samsung smart-phone (I have never had any smartphone). Hoping that it will be possible to some day interact with a 95 (or the next model of OPPO universal player), which smartphone is a better bet? What about audio-quality or file-formats supported by the two? What about an iPad (forgetting about portable issues)? Is the audio quality (e.g. for headphone playback) for iPad the same as the iPhone?

If you were over in Asia, you could buy an Oppo brand cell-phone....
--Bob

As far as what's a better bet to maybe eventually interact with your 95, all you can do is flip a coin and hope you made the right choice if that day comes. For the rest, this isn't the appropriate forum - we definitely don't need to throw a which smartphone is better religious battle into this thread .

Curious about how much credence should be given to the 95;s hdmi outs being reconfigured ? Wouldnt mind at all if the video was stripped from hdmi 2;notwithstanding the video clock is still being relied on for jitter reduction ? that could change to the avrs clock maybe If oppo could institute ARC [the other more obscure version;audio rate control] somehow maybe a thoughtful ce could take advantage


http://www.whathifi.com/forum/home-c...omment-2659770

Just so folks are clear on this, there is ALWAYS Video in an HDMI signal.

HDMI Audio is not a separate signal. The Audio is multiplexed within the "blanking intervals" of a Video signal. Thus you have to have Video to provide a place to put the audio. Indeed, high bit rate audio requires a Video signal with a resolution of 720p or greater so there's enough ROOM to carry the audio.

Typically what is meant by an Audio-only HDMI output is that a black Video signal is generated of appropriate resolution. So the Video is still being produced, clocked, and transmitted. Which pretty much means there's no advantage from a "signal purity" point of view.

What MIGHT be improved I suppose is to separate the HDCP (copy protection) stuff on the Audio-only output from whatever needs to be done on the output carrying your Video -- i.e., less chance that HDCP will barf because something screwy is going on in one of the two devices receiving the HDMI output. This is tricky as the Audio is part of the copy protection check, and the protocol for fanning out a source to more than one output is pretty finicky as to what you can get away with. (The alternative -- stripping Audio from one output -- is simple as the HDMI spec needs to be compatible with DVI devices that don't accept Audio.) To enable Audio-only on one output might mean you have to strip Audio from the other (Video) output. I cherish my ignorance of the details of all this.

Anyway, my point is that folks mostly want Audio-only HDMI in the mistaken belief that it must somehow be a purer Audio signal than HDMI carrying both Audio and Video. But alas....
--Bob

IMO, any device that may interact with 95 is appropriate for this forum, as neutron77 simply want to find out which Smartphone works with 95, currently, iPhone does not natively supports FLAC files and can not be detected by 95, it supports Apple lossless, which sounds as good as FLAC, while certain Smartphone can be detected by 95 as USB storage device and thus play files from that device. I agree we should not compare iPad & iPhone audio quality on this forum, as both can not yet interact with 95, neutron77, please send me a PM if you want to know more about sound quality on iPhone & iPad as I own both.

Bob:

They can transmit all zeros during the active portion of the video signal. This would make each video line scan (and video frame for that matter) very quiet, except for the audio portion during the blanking interval period. This would achieve the same effect as having an audio only HDMI channel .

Thanks Dave and everyone for their insight ; I was thinking of the ''null'' video signal the pio 09/denon a1 sends over the hdmi 2 Its always been an anathema to me the combination of video and audio in one cable when analog separates everything to its component stages to minimize interference ; still dealing with analog issues even though the signals are digital..

I wonder if theoretically this would also be a workaround to the problem of hi def video being a requisite if you want the lossless audio codecs ; asking too much probably

That's not the way a digital signal works.

Transmitting 0 values for the three components that make up each pixel does not result in an absence of signal (perhaps like zero Volts on an Analog cable -- although that's ALSO not how "Black" is transmitted in normal YPbPr on Component Analog Video cabling), but rather a stream of "0" bits along each raster line.

Those zero bits have to be clocked into the signal and also clocked out of the signal at the other end. Even if you don't intend to USE that video, you still have to process the bits to satisfy Copy Protection and to find and extract the multiplexed Audio stream.

The process of sending and receiving those digital bits does not work well if there are no 1/0 transitions in the signal. And other problems arise if the signal's average voltage changes according to the content being sent. So the electrical encoding scheme includes forced state changes between 1 and 0 ANYWAY to deal with that. The point being, a "black" Video frame is still a very busy digital signal, even during the "active" portion of each "Black" raster line.

Here's an article on the TMDS encoding format used at the physical transmission layer of HDMI:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans...tial_signaling

By the way, Pure Mode in the OPPO sends Black for Video if you want to experiment with whether or not you can hear a difference. (It also turns off the Front Panel display.). Toggle Pure Mode On/Off with the "P" Pure button on the upper left of the remote. The Lamp button in the lower right can also be used to illuminate the Front Panel display for a couple seconds while still leaving Video as Black. A design goal of the player is that you should NOT hear a difference between Pure Mode On/Off. Signal separation and shielding take care of that. But your AVR might be different.
--Bob

Denon's "null video" is simply a continuous stream of Black frames (just like Pure Mode in the OPPO). It is still a Video stream.

A frame is made up of a certain number of "pixel clock" times, all of which have to be transmitted in one frame time (e.g., one 24th of a second). The vast majority of those pixel clock times happen during the active video portion of the frame -- the actual raster lines of Video. But a certain number are wasted between each line, and a larger number are wasted at the end of each frame before real data starts for the next frame. These are the so-called "blanking intervals", and that's where the audio data gets stashed.

Now the info you can transmit is determined by the number of pixel times you get to use times the size of the data transmitted for each pixel. The point is, these pixel times march on inexorably because one frame has to finish in time for the next frame to start. You can't just "make more space" because you have more Audio data to transmit.

A higher resolution video signal has more pixel times per frame in its active video portion of course. And it ALSO has more pixel times per frame in its blanking intervals! There is a simple proportionality at work here.

An SD resolution video signal has enough space in its blanking intervals to stash traditional audio -- lossy 5.1 DD or DTS or either normal or high bit rate LPCM Stereo. This is all by design of course.

But lossless TrueHD or DTS-HD MA, and high bit rate, multi-channel LPCM, all need more space! Given the signal choices HDMI offers, that means a 720p resolution or higher Video signal.
--Bob

Bob, thanks for your insights on this. Since black video is still sent in Pure Audio mode, does that mode automatically turn off any of the video processing or is it a placebo by turning the screen black and using the words "Pure Audio"?

Thanks Bob; for putting it all in context .Completely understand about the blanking intervals and the 720p minimum[as evidenced when a conflicting sd edid stops it ] but the variability is a new wrinkle ;thanks for educating me.

Makes you think about upscaling sd to hd with black frames giving the commensurate pixel clock space advantage but dont see any practical applications even if it were possible.Good thing video needs so much bandwidth compared to audio..

Ime happy in any case compressing m2ts files and still getting lossless for the most part ;oppo have paid the dolby licensing fees so Ime still hopeful true hd will sneak in for file playback someday

The decoder has to be active of course because that's what handles the data coming off the disc. The audio also has to be processed into your chosen output format and then re-multiplexed into the newly-generated black video frames and I'm not sure whether that happens at the output of the decoder or inside the HDMI transmitter chip. It is probably done at the same place the output video format is established (e.g., RGB vs. YCbCr), and I think that's in the decoder for HDMI 2. For HDMI 1, I believe the QDEO processing itself is bypassed -- as when using Source Direct -- but again I don't know whether the re-multiplexing (and format conversion) is done at the output of the decoder, the output of the QDEO processor chip or inside the HDMI transmitter chip. I suspect it is done at the output of the QDEO chip, because otherwise going into and out of Pure Mode would force a new HDMI handshake.

I doubt the QDEO video processor is "turned off", but it is quiesced of course when it isn't in use to alter the signal. I really don't know the details.
--Bob

I should add that all of these technical intricacies are not nearly as important as whether the resulting analog or digital audio signal is *CORRECT* regardless of whether or not Pure Mode is engaged and regardless of the video content being played.

That's the important test, and the design goal of the player is for the audio output to be correct with or without Pure Mode and without dependence on the video content being played. I.e., the goal is that there is no interference into the audio signal from the video or front panel circuits.

For the HDMI Audio, that means the audio portion of the signal remains bit perfect at the outputs. For the Analog Audio that means the quality of the Analog signal remains unchanged -- within the capabilities of the Analog Audio output stage (i.e., better on the 95 than on the 93).

Quality AVR designs ALSO should not care whether the video input is "black" or not.

Now I've not actually seen the engineering test results on the Oppo's Audio purity (I HAVE seen some test results for Video), but I get the feeling Oppo engineering is quite pleased with what they've achieved here. Again, the goal is that you should not HAVE TO use Pure Mode -- except for the convenience factor of blanking the display when you want to.
--Bob

However, it is interesting that the OPPO 95 manual states (section on Pure Audio Mode):
"You can enjoy higher quality audio by turning off the video processing and output" which you would think means that there is some evidence that this is true.

Does this apply to analog audio only?

It would turn off the video "processing".
However, as stated, it would not completely turn off the video signal.

Sure hope "audio only" on the 95 is better implemented than the "AO" was on the Oppo 980.
Had too frigging turn on "AO" for each & every disc.
And the disc had too be fully loaded; not like you could just push play & push "AO".
So, needless too say, on multi-disc listening sessions, I'd fail too engage for a disc or push "AO" too soon & have too use the remote again.
Not uncommon when listening too maybe five audio discs too miss one having "AO" on.

EDitEDbyEd:
Not a BIG diff w/"AO" on (w/my system).
Tighter bass was the BIGGEST diff IMO.