Official OPPO BDP-95 Owner's Thread - Page 257

^ The 1080p/24 setting and the 3D Mode setting are the two exceptions. Leave those at Auto if you want to use those features. Basically that insures those features are only active when appropriate.

We've also had several other Kuro users who discovered their Kuro was happier if the Oppo was set to HDMI Color Space "RGB Video Level" output. I do not know if that's true across all Kuro models, but it's something to keep in mind when you are exploring different setups.
--Bob

Another data point is that our 6010 8G Kuro was set to YCbCr 4:4:4 by UMR when he calibrated the display. Given the current (it's been adjusted twice by UMR for minor drift) picture quality, it's never occurred to me to experiment.

+1 ... My Pioneer PRO-151FD is most accurate in RGB mode. Calibration measurements certainly say so.

Video RGB is the best for all Kuros, regardless of source, followed by 4:2:2.

Any opinion on best hdmi color space for Panny vt30? Mine is currently 4:2:2.

+1, After using the test patterns via Spears and Munsil, I found RGB followed by 4:2:2 to be the best for my Mitsu 73738 Dlp

You shouldn't see any difference on the Panny, it converts everything to 4:4:4 for processing anyhow. If you use RGB, there are specific settings in the Panny to make that right, but there's no reason to use it.

I have a 55" Panasonic VT-30 and I currently have it paired with a Panasonic BDP-110.

I hardline everything so wifi wasn't important to me.

I'm thinking of returning the BDP-110 and ordering the Oppo BDP-93.

Is there a significant enough difference in playback quality for me to notice a difference... in order to justify the extra $$$ for the upgrade in players?

I have an overkill of a recevier for the speakers I'm using (Pioneer Elite VSX-52 w/ a Boston Acoustics HTIB). Plan on upgrading the speakers soon... probably to some B&Ws but with that said... is that sufficient enough equipment to take advantage of the Oppo for its audio quality?

I don't know, but don't forget your ears and your room. You can't do anything about your ears, but your room could possible defeat any advantage the 95 has. Thirty day trials are useful.

Hi guys I'm having a problem with my Oppo 95. I have finally determined that the Oppo is causing a ground loop buzz when I plug in the hdmi out to my marantz av7005. So I decided to use a ps3 in it's place and no buzz from any of my speakers.

Any idea on how to solve this?

Thanks guys. The RGB thing is really interesting cos' I too have always had my players outputing in AUTO for Color Space. Oh well. I will try RGB from now on and see what happens. Will there be much difference do you think?

So... just to doublecheck...

Output resolution setting... I set it to 1080p on the Oppo
1080P/24hz setting... I set it to AUTO on the Oppo
3D setting... I set it to AUTO on the Oppo (even though my Pioneer KURO isn't 3D capable).
HDMI Color Space setting... I set it to "RGB Video Level"
And Deep Color... I leave ON or in AUTO.

Is this correct? My Pioneer KURO is the KRP-600A (the UK set).

Thanks again guys... roll on Thursday!

The odds are excellent that the source of the problem is the cable TV or satellite TV feed wire coming out of the wall. Try disconnecting that at the wall. If the buzz goes away then that's the culprit.

The real fix in that case is to correct the grounding where that feed ENTERS your house, but there are also little in-line gadgets called ground blockers that electrically separate the cable ground shield on either side of the gadget to keep the garbage from getting past.

The Oppo is almost certainly not the cause. Rather when it is connected via that HDMI it is providing the missing link in a path back to ground for the garbage coming in from elsewhere (e.g., on the cable shield of that cable TV feed wire). This is likely happening along the 3rd prong of the Oppo's power cord. Since the PS3 uses a 2 prong power cord it won't do that.

Once the addition of the Oppo into your collected set of equipment provides a circuit back to ground, that garbage current flows and you hear the buzzing.

A ground loop is garbage current that flows along the shields of the cables connecting your equipment. It will hop across multiple pieces of equipment if it can find a path back to ground so current can flow. The devices in the path don't even need to be turned on. These days, power line interference (60Hz Hum) entering your house on the shield of a cable TV or satellite TV feed is far and away the single most common source of such garbage. The feed is supposed to be grounded where it enters your house so the garbage current drains to ground out there.
--Bob

Bob,
Thanks, but the problem is I have no cable line that is connected in my AV rack. Currently the server is disconnected. I have 2 subs on a dedicated 20amp. Then two dedicated 20amp line running into the av rack. Which powers my av7005, Oppo, emotive amps, server (disconnected) and belkin av1500 ups. I only found the buzz when I connected the submersive, and finally diagnosed it down to the Oppo. But yes, I always thought it was something like a coaxial cable that caused ground loops, but now I dont know.

If I remove the submersive, it also goes away.

Thnks
Tom

One more question: Do you have the Oppo connected to the AVR via XLR-->RCA cables? Although this never created a hum in my setup, I see it listed as a potential pitfall of not maintaining a pure unbalanced or balanced signal path.

If you are using such a cable, please try and use a simple RCA connection instead.

KS

^^ The Submerssive likely also has a 3 prong power plug. Power lines for subwoofers are a common path back to ground for such garbage. You can test by simply putting a 3 prong to 2 prong cheater on that power plug and not connecting the ground wire on the 2 prong side. NOTE: You may need to try both ways around of the 2 prong in the socket to completely isolate the garbage from the path back to ground. The same trick would work with the Oppo. This is a DIAGNOSTIC. It is better to find and fix the real source of the problem rather than depending on cheater plugs to "fix" it.

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You may have the OTHER type of Ground Loop -- what used to be the common version before crappy Cable TV feeds reared their heads. That would be that the separate power circuits into your AV area are at different ground potential.

A typical way for this to happen is that the electrician has added the new circuits on both feeds in the fuse box instead of on the same feed. If the electrician did not know you were going to use them for AV equipment that was sensitive to mismatched ground potential this would be the "normal" thing for him to do. As I understand it, putting the new breakers in adjacent slots in the box -- one on top of the other -- would do this.

ETA: A way to test this is to temporarily power all of your stuff (the minimal set necessary to exhibit the problem) from a SINGLE 20 amp circuit. You may need to turn things on one at a time to keep from popping that breaker. I would recommend also excluding the Belkin UPS while chasing this down.

The LEAST likely problem is that you have a fault in one of your devices. If that's what's going on, then the fault is most commonly found in devices with amps in them -- which would include your subwoofers. The nature of the fault is that the amp or its power supply is leaking current to the ground shield.

Check the Hum/Hiss FAQ sticky thread in the Audio Theory forum here for additional suggestions.

By the way, not to beat a dead horse, but if you have any wires running from your AV rack to someplace else in your house where you *DO* have a Cable TV feed, then that feed wire could still be the culprit. Again the devices between the feed wire and your AV rack do not even need to be turned on. Just wiring them together is enough to provide the electrical path for the garbage to flow.
--Bob

Since the av7005 has no XLR inputs, I kept all analog connections to RCA only. But those are currently not connected since I was trying to diagnose.

Thanks


I created a cheater cable and used it on the Oppo and the buzz/humming went away. Unfortunately I can't use that same cable on the Submersive since the end of one connection is proprietary. So i'll try to get a cheater plug.

I moved the submersive over to my other 5.1 setup and it was dead silent, maybe I should move the Oppo over there to check also.

I did go over to the power panel and it looks like all 4 20amp runs were all stacked ontop of each other.

I guess I can move everything onto a single 20amp circuit and see what trips it first.

Thanks
Tom

If it turns out to be the way the circuit breakers are wired to the power feed lines, my understanding is that fixing that is easy for an electrician.

I don't know how good my information is on this, but my understanding is that with 4 of them stacked like that, two circuits are on one feed and the other two are on the other feed (using the default method of connecting them up).

ETA: Which would mean, with some experimentation you may be able to find which PAIR of circuits is on each side -- and thus test stuff using two circuits instead of just one. I.e., circuits 1 and 3 should be on one side and 2 and 4 on the other side if I've got this right. So if everything was running off 1 and 3 (in this scenario) the hum should be gone the same way it would work if you powered everything off of just circuit 1.
--Bob

Thanks Bob.

One thing that I noticed. One of my amp doesn't have a XLR connection, so the rear left and right channels don't produce the hum/buzz. Now I just switched all the xlr's aside from the subwoofer connections (only XLR) and no hum/buzz. Now could it be that since XLR has a higher gain, that I could be hearing it? I'm going to connect one at a time and see which could be the one causing it.

No, it is more likely that the XLR connection simply supplies the necessary path for the garbage current to get to the ground prong on the power cord -- so the circuit is complete and the current flows. I.e., the XLR is connected more directly to the sub's chassis shield.
--Bob

Actually, it converts everything to 4:2:2.

Set 1080p/24 to On and Deep Color Off.

A nice solution is to get one of the Ps Audio Perfectwave cables and remove the ground pin I used to have a hum problem on my amp and had to use the cheater route until I had the option to simply unscrew the ground pin! luckily when I switched to xlr ( to the amp from prepro) the hum went away and I simply put the ground pin back in. An AC3 should do the trick without the thought of a cheap cheater in the path. I use an AC3 on my 95 and love it.

Hope this helps!

Many thanks D-Nice!

There certainly does seem to be some debate about these settings...

1080p/24 set to ON or AUTO ?

With regard to Deep Color I keep hearing conflicting things. What is the pros and cons of having Deep Color ON or OFF or AUTO?

Another member said this about Deep Color:

"You should really enable deep colour even if your display isn't capable. Qdeo True Color (QTC) is only enabled on the HDMI1output if deep colour is turned on. Qdeo True Color helps eliminate contouring seen when viewing typical 8-bit consumer video."

Thanks Bob.



$125 for a cable, i'll try to diagnose the problem haha

1080p/24 ON will send /24 to the display (when present in the content) EVEN IF the display says it can't accept it. If connecting through an AVR the same thing applies to what the AVR says.

It is for rare cases of older displays that really can handle /24 input properly but which don't publish that fact during the HDMI handshake. Normally if you force /24 into a display that says it can't accept it you will get no picture.

So most people should NOT use ON. Use AUTO or OFF. The same is true for 3D Mode.

In both cases if the content does not consist of /24 or of 3D video then OFF is used anyway. I.E., the player does not try to CONVERT video to /24 or to 3D.

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The correct combination of HDMI Color Space and Deep Color settings, including whether or not to use Dithering, is not something subject to any pat answer. That's because way too many AVRs and Displays do non-intuitive things with some of these data format combos. I.E., they have bugs or are cutting corners with some of them.

You just have to try the various combos and see which works best with your particular model of AVR and TV, the firmware installed in each, and the settings you have picked in each.

For one way to do this, search the 93 sticky thread for a post by me citing "Ratatouiille", Blu-ray. Note that a prerequisite for making such a comparison is that you have the basic video settings and levels correct in the display to begin with. For that you need to FIRST use a good video calibration disc like Spears & Munsil.

Be aware that some displays have bugs requiring you to use slightly different "best" levels settings for different video input data formats. So having picked the correct settings for one format, you then have to run through the other combos of OPPO output (Color Space and Deep Color) to make sure the same settings work for all of them -- or that you know what changes are needed for any of them. Only THEN can you do a useful comparison with that Ratatouille scene.

There are even cases such as some Samsung displays where the correct levels get screwed up if you use /24 input. And some displays will have bugs which keep you from getting good results AT ALL with some input formats. Just discard the video data format combos that can't be handled properly in your display and choose between the rest to see which seems to work best.

NOTE: HDMI Color Space RGB PC Level is intended for use with displays designed primarily to be computer monitors. Most people should NOT use that choice. Use it only if none of the other Color Space choices can be made to work well. Changing between RGB Video Level (the normal choice for RGB for home theater) and RGB PC Level will ALSO require you to manually toggle an RGB "black levels" setting in your AVR or Display to match. The HDMI handshake can not do that for you. RGB Video level sends Black as 16, White as 235, and includes Blacker Than Black and Peak White data. RGB PC Level sends Black as 0, White as 255, but DISCARDS any Blacker Than Black or Peak White data since values below 0 or above 255 are not possible.

NOTE 2: There are all sorts of theoretical arguments as to which data format combo should be used based on the format used to record the data on disc (which is actually something called YCbCr 4:2:0 with no "Deep Color") or the format that is closest to the "native" format used by the display for its internal video processing. The problem is, quirks (bugs) in AVRs and displays trump all that. So do the comparisons yourself and trust what your eyes, the test charts, and critical test scenes like that Ratatouille scene are telling you. Be sure to check the owner's thread for both your AVR and Display for advice, but in the end trust the results you yourself are getting. The people reporting in those threads may have different firmware installed for example.

NOTE 3: In MY setup, the "best" video data format is DIFFERENT for HDMI 1 video and for HDMI 2 video. That's partly because Dithering is not available on HDMI 2. The point being, if you intend to use video from both outputs (which I have to do for Beta Testing purposes), check the two of them separately.

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ETA: Here's the post discussing that useful test scene in "Ratatouille", Blu-ray, I cited above:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post19915778

--Bob

It is DEFINITELY better to diagnose the problem and eliminate the source of the garbage current than to just block the flow of that garbage. If you block it, it will always be lurking there trying to find some new path back to ground so it can flow again. A different flow path might be hum free but still screw up your video for example.

Blocking it (breaking the ground loop circuit so current can't flow) is a useful workaround, but the need to do that is a red flag that something is still not right in your setup.
--Bob

If you use 7.1 analog outs, yes. I did not think the BDP-110 had them, and I do not know if your Elite has 7.1 analog in. I had a Panny BD-85K with 7.1 analog outs, supposedly decent audio stage (this was Panny's best player for that generation - 2010 - until the 3D craze hit the street). The Oppo demolished it for audio, the bluray PQ on the Oppo is slightly better in my opinion (I have it paired with a Panny GT series plasma).

I have an older pre/pro + amp combo (both Nuforce), no HDMI, only 7.1 analog and toslink in. I cannot tell you if you will see an audio improvement with HDMI, but my bet is that you will. I did not notice any significant improvement with toslink, comparing the Oppo with the Panny. With analog in, night and day difference. However, speakers also make a difference - if you are planning an upgrade to B&Ws, I would say the answer is most definitely yes.

I have an OPPO 95 and an Anthem MRX 700. I want to download and stream from HD Tracks some 192kHX/24 bit in addition to serius . My computer is a new IMac, I use Hdmi for my system. I also have wireless and Cat 5 at the system rack. When I asked the Anthem thread about going thru the 95 to the mrx700 I was informed that the 700 would use its dacs to reconvert the signal from the 95. I believe the 95 Dacs are better than the 700 Dacs. How do I do this and still use the 95 dacs? Is the 700 reconverting all my 95 output when I play Sacd or CD?

Bob "The odds are excellent that the source of the problem is the cable TV or satellite TV feed wire coming out of the wall. Try disconnecting that at the wall. If the buzz goes away then that's the culprit."
+1 Bob! I had a ground hum with my 95 plugged in after a few minutes when using cable content from Comcast. I didn't bother this message board as I knew it must be the layout. I just left the 95 unplugged when not in use. When I switched to FIOS and got a Cisco 450 the hum was gone. Now my OPPO 95 is happily plugged in all the time

If you use HDMI for your audio output from the Oppo, then the DACs in the 95 are not being used at all. HDMI carries digital audio. The DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) drive the ANALOG audio outputs of the player.

So with HDMI audio the only DACs involved are the ones driving the Analog output stage of your AVR -- in your case of the MRX 700.

If you use ANALOG audio output from the 95, then the DACs in the 95 are converting the audio tracks you are playing (which are digital of course) to Analog for output.

Now, my understanding is that the Anthem MRX Receivers do not offer Analog "pass through". They re-digitize Analog audio input so that Anthem Room Correction (ARC) processing can be done on it. If I'm correct in this, then the DACs of the MRX are also still involved as they are used to re-convert the now processed audio BACK to Analog for output from the MRX.

My Anthem Statement D2v offers both Direct (pass through) and DSP (re-digitized and processed) handling for Analog audio input, but I think Direct is not offered in the MRX units.

So the first thing to do is check to see if I've got this correct -- that the MRX units don't offer a Direct mode for handling Analog audio input. If that's the case, and you still want to hear the unaltered output of the 95's DACs then you will need to bypass the MRX to do that.

Keep in mind that ARC in the MRX is really something special. To take advantage of it, Analog audio input must be re-digitized. So the net audio quality of allowing the MRX to correct for the audio response characteristics of your room MAY outweigh any difference between the DACs in the two units.
--Bob