Official OPPO BDP-95 Owner's Thread - Page 238

Bob or anybody......just a curiosity question.......is it known what DSP chip(s) are inside the 95 doing the mch decoding?

DSP chip (main CPU) inside BDP95 is an Oppo processor. Multichannel decoding (as stereo as well) is made by an dedicated ESS9018 DAC chip

I mean what chip is doing the Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio decoding? The DAC chip is after that right? TI Aureas, Analog Devices SHARC etc??

Decoding is handled by a recent generation MediaTek chip. In the past, Oppo has worked with MediaTek to get additional improvements in their stock chip. I don't know if that is the case this time.
--Bob

The 93 and 95 use a custom implementation of the Mediatek decoder chip. This is a "special" version of the standard Mediatek 8530. It's unknown if the "OP8531" is actually any different from the MT8530. We do know that players using the MT8530 do not have as robust a list of media file type support.

It seems that this is done by the main processor (OP8531). Is also logic in this way... The Marvell QDEO chip is involved in video processing. DAC chip is after this, right.

Here's an off-speed question for you. On the spec sheet of the 95, it says the signal to noise ratio is 125db with auto mute, or 115db without it. What is this auto mute and can one simply toggle it on or off for 2 channel music? I couldn't find anything on this in the manual or set up menu.

I wondered te same thing yesterday as i was looking at the specs again. Probably it means the Oppo shuts off (mutes) its output after a certain amount of time, sort of like a screen saver for audio...but i'm guessing here

Automute is a function of the DAC chip. This is controlled by the software/firmware. Mainly it means that ESS9018 automute function (the corresponding chip pin) become active when is detected zeros data in the digital streaming signals (no sound). This function block the output when is no signal to be outputted. Is active every time the silence is detected by the DAC chip, and the algorithm/conditions are specified by software. In this way the whole system become more quiet, and the general noise level decrease (as stated by Oppo 125db with this ON, 115db when OFF).
How this function is used in the BDP95 is not very clear. It has to be connected to an external mute circuit/system. The multichannel stage it seems to have a such mute control system, but not the stereo stage...
Is unclear too for me why this parameter is specified in the player spec sheet, so long the user have no control to it. As Oppo have software control of this function is not well known how and when this is used. I suppose that the multichannel stage can have a better signal to noise ratio than the stereo stage (when use this function). I couldn`t find a such control in the stereo stage of the player. It is also possible that the function is active all the time (multichannel) to provide a good signal to noise ratio for the device...
Mailing to Oppo this question can clarify better the case...

I was chatting with another forum member about preamps and suggested that he sell his preamp and Oppo 93 and get a 95 with analog out. Then connect this directly to his amplifiers. Since he only uses a BD player with this system and so far any type of room correction doesn't seem to help, I thought this would make for a better system.

It makes sense to me but it seems that I'm leaving something out. Any suggestions?

He uses his system to play BD movies only.

If I set subwoofer OFF in multichannel setup what happens to redirected bass? I ask only because I have a dedicated 2 channel and separate 7.1 system with crossover bass handled at sub. A/V receiver sub off redirected to fronts set as large. Does the Oppo handle bass the same way? Using Stereo L/R ( LF/RF setting) and C,SR,SL,SBR,SBL with Stereo L/R set to large and all other speakers set to small, no sub. All bass will be re-directed to Stereo L/R and in turn thru my sub?

Yes, but expect the LF/RF signal to be attenuated to provide the necessary headroom. Check your speaker levels with a calibration disc, and try to provide any necessary boost external to the Oppo so that you don't risk clipping the LF/RF input at your preamp.

If the Sub is OFF and LF/RF are Large then both LFE content and bass steered from other, "Small" speakers (according to the crossover) will be steered to LF/RF.

If the dedicated L/R stereo outputs are re-assigned to act in place of LF/RF, then the same thing happens there.

Note that if L/R are left in their normal, independent configuration, then LFE is discarded in the down mix to stereo on the dedicated L/R for x.1 tracks.

Note also that all audio processing, including down mix and bass steering is disabled when you have DSD-direct-to-analog conversion active while listening to SACD discs. So if Sub is OFF, the .1 channel of any SACD discs will be lost. So use SACD Output PCM instead of SACD Output DSD. Of course quite a few SACD discs simply don't use the .1 channel in their 5.1 layer, so no problem for those.

Thanks for the clarification. I was going to ask about the sacd setting to pcm but you answered that also!
The most difficult aspect of this setup for me is balancing the crossover and volume of my SVS PB-13 Ultra. SVS recommends a crossover of 50 hz for music ( thru Anthem Pre 2l SE ) and 60 hz for Onkyo 805 A/V processor to my Paradigm 100 V.4. I have been tweaking for all sources ( SACD, BD, CD etc..) between 50-70hz. I have used a few different setup discs but wondering which you prefer?

For setting audio levels I recommend two discs:

AIX Audio Calibration, Blu-ray
Stay in Tune with PentaTone, SACD

For the AIX disc I recommend using the LPCM Channel ID tracks to check levels. AIX also has a combined crossover/phase correctness test which sweeps a tone in the LF channel back and forth across the crossover frequency range. At the low end all the audio will be coming from the sub due to the crossover. At the high end it is all coming from LF. If your crossover is set correctly, and your sub Phase is right, and you have properly tamed any room response problems for bass, then the test tone should maintain constant volume throughout its range.

For the SACD disc, be sure to use the level setting tests in tracks 43-48 of the 5.1 layer and *NOT* the similar sounding channel ID tests earlier on that disc as the Channel ID tests have the .1 channel boosted to make it easier to hear. NOTE: As is common with SACD titles, the music sampler portion of this PentaTone disc does not use the .1 channel in the 5.1 layer. But the level tests do include a correct .1 channel level in track 48.
--Bob

Perfect! I will get both. I have a dedicated sound room that is tuned with bass traps, diffusers etc... so these will be extremely helpful.

If you're going analog out on the 95, are the back surrounds matrixed from the side surrounds on 5.1 content?

In general, no. There is no surround sound processing in the player to raise a smaller number of content channels into a larger number of output channels. However DTS-HD MA tracks have special rules that say they have to follow the down mix setting in some non-intuitive ways. So there's supposedly some weird stuff that goes on there that I don't think anyone truly understands.

Yet another reason why I continue to call DTS, "The Bane of Blu-ray".
--Bob

Does anyone have a problem with doing the firmware update via the network?

If I check for new firmware, it says it found it and when I proceed to download it, it times out. I tried it a few days ago and today, still no go.

The Connection Test is successful. I was able to do network updates for my (now sold) BDP-83 several times before on the same plug with no issues.

I also don't seem to be able to play YouTube movies. It goes to YouTube, I can search around, but when a movie is selected, it never starts to play. My network seems fine, there is a TiVo unit on the same router that plays YouTube just fine. It is all wired.

I did a firmware update just yesterday and it all went fine. I'm connected via wired ethernet.

You might want to take your player somewhere where you can hook it up wired to see if that has anything to do with your problem.

This sounds like some reports we got a while back that turned out to be due to older firmware in the poster's internet modem. In particular, if you are using an older DSL modem, you should check with your ISP to see if they can swap you out with a more up to date model.

What happens is that the ISPs change the firmware on their side but don't update the customer modems until they get complaints.
--Bob

It's easy enough to download and perform an update with USB or CD.

I picked up a yamaha a-s2000 to use with the balanced outs of the bdp-95. The amp and pre-amp are balanced all way through. Tone controls have a center position where they are totally out of circuit. There is no problem with the remote volume control steps being too large, as I saw written in some old review.

I've been considering something like that as well. How does it sound and what speakers are you using with it?

I own this pair also and they sound fantastic together BUT the balanced input of the Yamaha A-S2000 max voltage is 2.8v and the BDP-95s balanced output is 4v which overloaded the input of the Yamaha. I had to drop the BDP-95s volume down to 90 to keep everything working right. The signs of the input being overloaded were severely decreased dynamics,bass was a shallow blat instead of a smooth deep note and the highs were scratchy. After lowering the BDP-95s volume to 90 everything sounds fantastic. I am really impressed with this amplifier. I have BG Radia 520i speakers and a Golden Ear Forcefield 3 subwoofer making beautiful music.

Bob, you were right on the money! My Linksys router did have the latest firmware, but it was not the router that I got from Verizon when I switched to fiber. So I swapped it for the Verizon branded D-Link router and voila!

Thanks!
Alex Khain

^ Cool! Glad it worked for you.
--Bob

Hi

OPPO is the owner of 95 in Italy, and we here last Firmware UNIVERSAL happens that many titles are not read by most players.

You have encountered this problem, or and 'just a matter of European FW?

What happens is that after loading the UNIVERSAL logo, when it should load the main menu ', is a black screen and disk crashes.

It happens mainly on the following films:

The gladiator (second edition)
Despicable me (rel. 2D)
Scarface
The Blues Brothers
Robin Hood (ridley scott)
Cape Fear

you have these problems with these movies?

Thanks

Would the xlr outs on the 95 power headphones or would you need a separate headphone amplifier?

this post may be interesting for you: http://www.jensign.com/bdp95/headphones/

No, QDEO and DAC are working in parallel, they both take decoded signals from main processor at the same time.
QDEO's video processing only applies to HDMI 1.