Need a 3D BR player that plays ripped media

Hey guys,

I have finally given up using my HTPC...it's driven me crazy for the last time. I will be replacing the two media centers I have in my house with more stable devices. I decided on the WD TV Live Plus for my bedroom as it seems to play pretty much everything out there (including DVD menu support, which is a pretty big deal for me). What I REALLY need everyone's help on is a 3D Blu Ray player for my living room that can play my ripped media and works well with my TV (Panasonic TC-P50GT25 Plasma). Here's what I'm hoping for:

- 3D Blu ray player, not just a standard blu ray.
- Plays mkv's on my local network.
- Plays DVD's and blu ray's that have been ripped to a hard drive in folder structure (not .iso). I'd prefer they were playable from a network share, but if it only supports a USB device, I'd deal with it.
- A way to play ripped 3D blu ray (either in mkv or any other form).
- Menu support for ripped DVD's and blu ray's would be really wonderful, but at this point, I'd settle for ANYTHING.

Is there anything out there that can do all of that? I know the Popcorn Hour and Dune supposedly do all of that, but they don't support 3D blu ray's and I'm really afraid they'd be just as buggy as a media center.

I'm borrowing my friend's Oppo BD-93 tomorrow and will post my results with that player, however I was told they definitely don't support menu's.

If there isn't a blu ray player that does everything I need, I guess I could always buy two WD TV Live's and only use the blu rau player for discs...but that seems like a waste of money. There's gotta be SOMETHING out there that can do everything!

Thanks in advance for your help...you guys are always the best!

I got the WD TV Live last night and it's absolutely the PERFECT device for the bedroom. It's tiny, easy to use and play's 90% of my stuff...including ripped BR and DVD's! It's not as versatile as a media center, but for a bedroom device, it does more than I could ask for.

I'll test the Oppo tonight and post my results. Hopefully, it'll be as good as the WD...

I was able to test the Oppo BDP-93:

Good points of the Oppo:
- First of all, the Oppo was the best picture quality of any blu-ray player I've seen. I was very impressed.
- From USB, it played almost every single file I tested and about the same as the WD TV Live player. It even played uncompressed DVD and Blu-ray rips to .mkv (that were made using makemkv). A few times it gave me an error and said unsupported audio type, but it played the video anyway and once I selected the correct audio track, it worked great. It didn't play .flv files.
- It also played blu-ray's (including 3d!) WITH menu support perfectly using the AVCHD trick via USB or eSATA! I was very impressed.

Some bad points though:
- The menu's were all very slow and clunky.
- It froze a few times and I had to wait over a minute for it to recover each time.
- Network support SUCKED! It wouldn't just browse my network, I had to have a streaming service running. Also, navigating over the network was really slow (playback seems fine, it was the navigation that was slow).
- There was no "skip" when playing back files (with the exception of .mkv's that had chapter support). If you hit "next" it would move to the next file in the folder, including .vob's. The only way to skip through a file was to fast forward, which took forever. I wish there was a "skip" feature like in the WD TV player (10-min skip) or in media center.
- Ripped DVD playback was horrible. HORRIBLE. I knew there'd be no menu support, but often when you click on the 1st .vob file, it doesn't actually start from the beginning. Also, if you hit "next", it'll skip to the next .vob file, NOT the next chapter. It makes watching full-rip DVD's very hard.

So, here's my conclusion (as of 5-19-11...new firmware might change this) of the Oppo BDP-93:

This is the best 3D blu-ray player on the market for ripped media...as long as you don't need ripped DVD support. Network playback is tolerable if you use a good streaming server (Orb, Tversity, etc), however, if you can use an attached HDD via USB or eSATA instead, you'll be much happier (I have the option to do this and would consider it an acceptable solution if ripped DVD playback were better).

In short, if you are looking for something that will be used mostly for disc playback and sometimes ripped media, it's the perfect player. If you find yourself playing ripped media more than discs, you'll want to consider a different solution.

I wanted to try a cheaper solution than the Oppo, so I stopped by Best Buy and picked up the LG BD-670.

First, the good:
- The menu's were very quick to navigate, including on the network.
- I didn't have to run any server, the BD-670 navigated the shared folders on my network with no trouble.
- The files it did play (network or USB) seemed to play well.

The bad:
- Blu-ray disc playback (both 3D and regular) seemed like it produced picture quality that was MUCH worse than the Oppo, as well as even my media center.
- It barely played any of the files I tried and NONE of the uncompressed .mkv's.
- No ripped DVD or blu-ray playback at all.
- The files that did play didn't have a skip forward option, only fast forward.

Seeing as I'm looking for a player that supports many file types, this one definitely isn't for me. I didn't try the AVCHD trick, but I'll give that a shot tonight and post again if it works.



Anyone else feel like contributing to this thread? I could really use some input.

When you say "3D Full Frame", do you mean a direct 3D blu ray rip? I used AnyDVDHD to rip a few 3D blu ray's to my USB hard drive (a folder rip, not an ISO). I then added the AVCHD folder to the movies (the AVCHD trick), plugged that drive into the Oppo and browsed my hard drive. The Oppo played them FLAWLESSLY in 3D from the hard drive. If your biggest concern is blu ray rips, the Oppo BDP-93 is by far, without a doubt, your best solution...as long as you don't mind storing them on a USB or eSATA hard drive.

My biggest problem with the Oppo...or ANY device...is ripped DVD (in video_ts folder structure) playback. I have over 100 concert DVD's with menu's that can't be played (with menu support) on any blu ray player I've tried. It seems that no matter where I look, the only way I can get good 3D blu-ray playback and support my DVD rips is by using two different devices.

Unfortunately, I think buying a cheap 3D blu ray player for all discs and using an HTPC for my rips might be my best solution. I really hope someone can recommend something different though. If I do choose that route, I definitely don't want to use an LG 3D blu ray, as I was really disappointed in it. I was thinking of either a Panasonic or a Sony. Does the Sony you mention take a long time to load the disc, or is it pretty quick?

Just thought I'd post an update. I ended up buying the Oppo BDP-93 anyway, as there really isn't another 3D blu-ray player that matches its quality. They just released a beta firmware for it that solves ALL of my complaints:

- .ISO is now supported, solving my ripped DVD issues.

- Menu navigation is MUCH improved and quicker.

- Network navigation is much faster, although a DLNA server is still required. I use tversity and it runs flawlessly.

- It hasn't locked up or froze at all since I bought it. Maybe the one I borrowed from my friend was bad?

- You CAN skip through files...you've always been able to, I just didn't notice. There's a button on the remote that says "Goto". It allows you to navigate anywhere in the video, which is actually a MUCH better option than just a "skip" button.

In conclusion, there's nothing else on the market that comes close to it. I couldn't be happier and am really glad I bought it.

Honestly, it's worth the price. I've had it for almost 6 months now and nothing even comes close to the quality or performance.

Do any of these players support media playback, like .iso, .mkv, or any others?

Playing AVC burned discs seems to be pretty common, but a blu ray player that can act as a media player and support 3D is rare. As far as I know, the Oppo is the only player that can do all of it. I've seen media players that supposedly support 3D .iso's, but I've heard mixed things.

I was hoping to keep this thread dedicated to blu ray players with media player functionality.

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but I don't believe I ever said that. The only way you can play .iso's of any kind on the Oppo is via an attached USB or eSATA hard drive. For some people that's been a dealbreaker, but it doesn't bother me at all...I just keep my backup drive plugged into the Oppo, so it always has access to all my movies.

I rip all my store-bought 3D blu ray discs to .iso. They are then stored on my server and backed up to my USB backup drive...which is left plugged into my Oppo. Every time I turn on the Oppo, all my files are right there waiting and play flawlessly, including all 10 of the 3D blu ray's I own.

It's clear that we're expecting it to do two different things. Although I'd prefer network .iso playback, it works fine the way I have it set up. As a result, your "falls flat on it's face" comment is completely untrue for me.

Honestly though, I had hoped this topic would stick to finding devices that are either "media players that can blu ray discs", or "blu ray players that can play the wide variety of content, such as a device like the WDTV Live". I honestly have no knowledge of camcorder files, MVC or any of that stuff. That's clearly important to you and probably a ton of other people, but I just want to play ripped movies.

Could we keep this topic to stuff like "Hey, have you seen the new AIOS HD Media Center? I hear it plays 3D .iso's..."

Don, I've been trying non-stop to figure out a way to do either of those things. If you ever stumble across something, please PM me and I'll do the same!

I've talked to some programming guru's about writing a custom DLNA server that's designed to talk directly to the Oppo and solve the .iso issue, but none knew how to do it.

Yes, my server is close to the TV...I actually stuck it in my TV stand. I have a drive that's eSATA and USB. eSATA is hooked up to my server, USB to my Oppo. You can only access one at a time, but there's a button that toggles between the two.

I searched through every NAS manufacturer and none have a NAS drive that also allows access via USB, although that would be the ultimate solution to the problem.

I'd be willing to try, just please send me instructions on how to rip them that way. I use ANYDVDHD to rip my discs to a full .iso of the movie and never have issues. A few people are using DVDFab and I've heard of a few errors with 3D.

I've tried this before and it doesn't work. If you have a "folder rip" of a 3D blu ray, you can play it when attached via USB. The Oppo sees the folder structure and plays it like a disc.

If you try to play it over the network, the Oppo doesn't see it as a Blu ray, it just plays the individual files. You can play them in 2D this way, but it won't access the secondary video track which contains the 3D content.