Foruniversal players is oppo stll the way to go?

Yes, this is still the best player. If you want it to be really universal, budget another $100 for "region-free" mod.

For truely universal, get a streamer with a built-in drive such as the Dune B1. It is even less expensive than the Oppo and can stream hi-def audio and video files off of the network..

If it doesn't play SACDs or DVD-As, it's not a universal player.

And, I noticed the Dune B1 has the "B word (or T word depending on how you think of it) streaming" software built in. How convenient.

I am confused... what is the b or t word? I can play just about any digital media through the Dune including ripped SACD, DVD-Audio, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, CD, DVD, recorded live broadcasts, recorded premium content, home video, etc. When I am renting a title, I can still use the physical transport to play shiny, silver discs.

The Oppo cannot play these over network.

How do you rip SACD such that it can be streamed over the network and play in its original format?

Dune player seems to be able to play SACD ISO image from flash drive or NAS storage. One of Oppo firmware versions was working with ISO on flash drive, but this feature was removed in new versions of firmware.

The disc is ripped to an iso file using the PS3 method. It can then be played from an iso or ripped further to individual dsd, wav or flac files without changing the quality.

The dune can read the iso image but will not play anything since it doesn't know how to directly decoded dsd. You can convert to wav or flac without loss of quality to have the Dune play it. Converting to flac also has the advantage of adding cover art and informational metadata to the individual tracks.

Then the original statement is correct, Oppo is the best universal player. Unless of course you have a PS3 and can follow a rather complicated process to convert SACD.

I don't even own an Oppo, but can I just say - Next?

By the way, Oppo can play content streamed over a network:

http://oshare.sourceforge.net/

only supports dlna streaming

I did own an oppo and sold it for lack of use. My Dune stays very busy.

Yes, the firmware released 03/06/2012 removed ISO file playback

I am a very happy Oppo BDP-95 owner. If you are going to let the Oppo do the audio processing, buy the 95 and enjoy the wonderful ESS SABRE 32 bit DAC's. If you intend pass audio via HDMI and let your AVR/Processor perform all audio processing, then buy the 93 and save $500. The video processing on both players is identical. I have never listened to the Dune but the Oppo-BDP-95 is $ for $ the best money I have spent on my system IMHO.

It won't stream everything but does stream most files. The latest firmware release from a few days ago removes ISO completely so if you get one, it will come with an older version and don't update it if you want to use ISOs.

I love my 93 for video but it does not come close to my Rotel 1072 for CD playback. You need the Nu Force editions or the 95 if you are looking for killer Audio playback as well as video.

There are only two universal players that have outstanding performance across the board IMO; the OPPO BDP-95 and the Ayre DX-5.