What features would you like in your next Oppo BR - e.g. Oppo BDP-113 and BDP-115. - Page 9

I appreciate your interest in this topic even though our experience with the Oppo differs greatly. I'll admit I haven't been involved with their set ups so I couldn't give you a lot of details. They call me in to diagnose firewalls and the like so I haven't really done much investigation of their wireless solutions as they typically install them and call me if they have an issue. Sometimes they use access points, sometimes routers. They use very different equipment depending on the houses - some are 1 level 5000 sq ft homes and some are 3 level homes - usually CEOs for cash rich companies. I think I've seen about 7 brands of Wifi solutions depending on who they are installing for although I think two were pre-existing wireless solutions. About the only thing I see in common is they were all G AND N wireless solutions. I've seen Belkin (crap), DLink (crap), Netgear (crap), Cisco (crap), Airport Extremes (Last 2 gens reliable but not the fastest at a distance, otherwise good bang for the buck), Buffalo (hardware goes bad in my experience but good bang for the buck if they lasted longer), engenius (pretty good and reliable), Proxim (pretty good but expensive). I can't remember the two brands used for APs off the top of my head but I can look them up at the office.

I do talk to them in general about AV stuff as I do enjoy it. They pretty much complain about the Oppo for the same things that bug me although we all agree that they are the best for bang for the buck. I just would like them to consider a higher quality Wifi receiver in their next BR player.

As for my personal Oppo I've tried both a generic flashed buffalo and an Airport extreme - last 2 gens - all had the same issue although all work perfectly with my Sony Vaio Laptop, Mac Airbook, ipad and Android phone as well as my friend's Lenovo and Fujitsu laptops.

I'll have the new bridge in by the end of this week. It will plug in right where the wifi dongle is on the oppo is. If the bridge works without issue, I'll just recommend them as a more cost effective solution than wiring as wiring in some of these homes is cost prohibitive depending on their age and construction.

The Oppo wifi on the 93 is more sensitve to intense bandwidth such as a high definition streamed (not netflix streamed but PC streamed) source. I would find it hard to believe based on my experience that you'll be able to easily 4x or 5x reverse a 720p or 1080p mkv file using the wireless and never any stutter. 99% of what I stream are high def 5 channel MKVs; perhaps you are streaming another format? If that is what you are streaming we'll have to look elsewhere but I figure we might as well try to get as close to oranges to organges as possible in our tests.

Frankly since I've started downloading my TV shows I rarely ever even watch optical discs. I'd say it is more like 90% stream and 10% disc these days.

I did think of one more thing in common. If I recall since they were very nice set ups, none were using the USB extension which can help a lot but is less than ideal for some of these fancy environments. Since I can put my android phone right in the back of my Oppo and stream without issue, and my phone doesn't have a lot of room for wifi, I would have to imagine they could do better than what they currently have.

I agree wired is best but not always an option. I have not had to reset my router in about a year (apple airport). Resetting once a year I can live with - resetting my Oppo once a day is tedious. I use it every day as well as my friends. I have never had an issue connecting (NOT EVEN ONCE) with my ipad, laptop, macbook or phone. I have however had to reset my oppo nearly every day I stream as it won't reaquire the network until I power it off and on - but the moment I reboot it, it finds the network even though during that time my ipad has no problem finding the network. Wireless CAN be reliable but it requires quality access points, routers and receivers. I am willing to bet right now once I put in my wireless bridge connected directly to my oppo in the same spot my oppo currently has its receiver, I won't have issues with streaming any more. I won't change a single thing on my router to increase signal, change channels, change security - the only thing I will have to do is bridge it to my new wireless receiver I'll have this week.

Yes, I have seen the oppo lose the network connection. Sometimes I have to turn off the oppo to reaquire even though none of my other devices have issues finding the wireless. If I hard wire there doesn't seem to be an issue.

Thanks for your post.

I thought about what you said and decided to do some slightly more serious testing on the streaming/network issues with the Oppo. Here are my results; I may send this to Oppo as I really think streaming is going to be much more important as time passes.

I tried wired connectivity - ff and rew are smoother and more likely to work but still not guaranteed once you exceed 2x even with wired on higher def/larger media.

I tried putting in a wireless bridge and it seemed that I could get to network folders from history faster than using the onboard/usb nic. I also could more reliably ff and rew up to 2x than I could with the onboard nic - however as with completely wired, I will have issues once I go to higher def/large media streamed files.

I thought I'd try and figure out why I have to reboot the oppo on wireless for it to reconnect to the network. I am not positive but I believe the issue is the network client on the Oppo isn't frequently trying to reacquire a DHCP connection should there be any issue with the network connection wired or wireless. On a Windows or OSX computer the moment you can't reliably pass traffic, it will attempt to reacquire a dhcp lease - this won't necessarily make you lose your mapped drives or anything but on the Oppo - it usually just sits there for an untold amount of time before attempting to reacquire a DHCP lease unless you reboot. If you do wait long enough for it to reestablish a connection on its own- you typically have to go back through the network location, your computer, videos, folders, NCIS, Season 8... If they could temporarily map that in cache/short term memory on the oppo it wouldn't be quite so frustrating when you lose network signal and if they could have it check for dhcp connectivity more frequently it would alleviate the need to reboot the oppo.