Official OPPO BDP-103 Owner's Thread - Page 76

there's something going on here not related to the player's support of FLAC. I happen to have a folder full of FLAC test files in every possible flavor, bit depth and sample rate. the Oppo plays through them flawlessly, as it does when skipping from folder to folder and playing different types. My initial impression is probably that you are seeing random issues and attributing it to whatever you happen to be doing at the time. If you have more than a couple thousand files on that HDD, allow the player to open the drive and sit for a minute or 2 before browsing and playing, that will allow a full indexing of the drive. Avoid rapidly jumping from one file to another.

As a test, move some of those same files to a different drive or thumbdrive and try them again.

There isn't any compelling reason to use analog over HDMI for audio in your situation. The multichannel analog input on your AVR will bypass any EQ and room corrections, which is generally not a good idea.

This is classic "damaged disc" behavior. The player appears to be frozen but it's really just VERY slow at trying to find the next readable sector on the disc. A thorough cleaning of the disc is called for regardless of what it looks like.

So are you saying that if I do my usual Audessy EQ setup on the Onkyo and then use the mutilchannel analog inputs for sound, the receiver will essentially ignore the Audessy and output sound that is not correct for my room? If so, then I'll have to use HDMI then. The only reason I want to use analog for sound is a lot of people here believe it sounds better than digital. Also, I read that Oppo has improved their DAC on the 103 and made the sound "warmer". I wanted to see if the analog sounds better in my situation....

I've encountered the same issue with FLAC files, where they'll start playing from a point a minute or more into the file. I didn't record exactly what I was doing at any of the (few) times that I've encountered it. It's quite possible that this occurred after moving between a 24-bit and a 16-bit file.

I ran into an interesting problem/feature playing videos from a DLNA server on the BDP-103. I watched a video then hit the "home" key on the remote before shutting off the player. In the interim I added several titles to my media server. Note that having jumped home, when I selected the network icon again from the home screen I ended up directly back in my DLNA video list. When I tried to play another video from the list, the wrong video played (typically the next video in the list, or was it the previous - I forget).

Backing out of the DLNA server using the "return" key on the remote, then re-selecting the directory containing the videos fixed the problem (I may have power cycled after backing out). In the past I've always "backed out" of the media server before powering down and had no issue. It appears that the 103 is remembering the DLNA directory list when using the "home" button to jump back home instead of using the "return" key to back out of the server, then any changes to the list on the server cause the wrong video to be selected (I'm guessing).

So...

1. Should the player remember my previous server/directory selection when I select the network icon from the home screen if I jumped home from the video list during the previous use, or should the 103 make me select the server and walk the directories each time?

2. If the player does remember my previous media server selection and directory (considering the circumstances above), should it re-index the directory each time or just remember the previous list as it appears to be doing now?

I hope I explained this correctly

I'm one of those that like the old ABT on the 83 (and 983) very slightly better. I'm a filmmaker, and many pages back I wrote about comparing my own work, where I helped master the DVDs
and know exactly the intent, and found the 983/83 slightly more accurate to the original. That said both outputs on the 103 also looked excellent, and if I wasn't running the same scenes
through each option, staring at tiny details, who knows if I would have noticed. And if I didn't know what the film was 'supposed' to look like I would have found all 3 images excellent.

The HDMI 2 on the 103 was a bit closer in look to the ABT than the QDEO in HDMI 1, if not quite as good as the ABT with the finest detais. The QDEO seemed to add a little contrast.
It actually made for an initially more pleasing, eye catching picture, but some detail in dark areas got lost. It also occasionally added a little extra warmth beyond the original.

But you're talking very small differences, and that was on my particular 103, playing through my particular Pioneer Kuro. You won't go far wrong whatever you choose. But if you're
OCD for accuracy like me, I think the ABT wins out by a tiny margin (my solution - I use the 983 and 83 for DVDs, and the 103 for blu-ray and streaming for the speed, multiple options,
etc.)

That is correct. Multichannel analog audio inputs are not digitized. They're passed directly to the receiver's analog amplifiers. As a result, neither Audyssey nor bass management can be applied by the receiver. That also is correct. Beliefs are not always correct. The sounds which people prefer are not always the sounds which the recording mixer intended you to hear.

Some people prefer not to apply any digital processing which is not really needed. This prejudice is reasonable if you have an accurate speaker system in a high-quality listening environment -- a room with appropriate audio treatments. Most of us are not so lucky, and digital room EQ makes a significant improvement in the accuracy of the sound provided by our home entertainment equipment.

It should be noted that bass management is provided in the 103. Nothing like Audyssey, but at least distance settings, speaker size etc.

Picked up my Oppo yesterday and set everything up. So far I'm very impressed. It's my first Oppo and I really like how solid it looks and feels

I'm using it with a 1.3 Denon reciever and Pro8200 projector on a 92 inch screen.

I connected one hdmi cable from the player to the reciever and another cable from projector to reciever

Is this the rightset up for maximum audio/video?

Cheers!

Welcome to AVSForum.

You have maximum audio/audio.

-Bill

User Selden Ball already answered most of this for you, but keep in mind that Audyssey can only work with a digital signal. So for it to work with an analog signal, it would need to be converted BACK to digital in the receiver, have Audyssey processing applied, and then be converted back to analog in the receiver to be sent to the amps. Most receivers don't allow multichannel inputs to be converted to digital, but even for those that do, it makes more sense to send a digital signal to the receiver if you want Audyssey processing applied to it to avoid extra analog to digital and digital to analog conversions.
Bass management and Audyssey are really 2 completely different things. Part of the automatic Audyssey calibration process takes care of setting speaker sizes and distances for you, but Audyssey is really about the room EQ functionality.

DV is an older interlaced lossy codec for SD resolution material, compressing to about 13GB/hour with stereo PCM audio. In comparison, mpeg2 at high quality compresses to about 4GB/hour and xvid to about 1.5GB/hour. No matter what codec you use, the resulting file sizes will be smaller than the DV ones for equivalent quality.

Since DV is already lossy, you won't lose much if anything by transcoding to another lossy codec, especially since the newer codecs (eg xvid, H.264) are more efficient and compress into a smaller space for similar quality.

The main problem is that DV is interlaced and the newer codecs generally progressive, so de-interlacing must be performed and depending on how well this is done might affect the end result. I'm not familiar enough with the newer codecs to know whether they can be interlaced, although I expect it is a possibility. Mpeg2 definitely can be interlaced.

If you were playing back through a device with good de-interlacing, one of the options might be to encode as interlaced and let the player work its magic.

Many DVD Recorders were capable of inputting DV via firewire and writing out to DVD.

One of the peculiarities of 720x480i60 DV is that chroma resolution is only 1/4 in the horizontal direction, which can lead to colour bleeding.

Try a few different encodes and see which looks best on the Oppo 103. H.264 with FLAC audio in mkv might be a compact solution: at least the audio would be lossless.

It's a shame the Oppo models don't handle DV natively.

Thanks Bill

One slightly annoying thing I've found with the 103 (and I'm guessing previous models did this too)...
If I have a disc in the loader when it is off, and turn the player on, it will always start running the disc and I have to press the Home button to get back to the main screen. Is there any way to disable this? I looked through the menu and turned off the auto play option, but that didn't help. Does Oppo plan to make this possible? I guess I can just press Eject instead of Power to turn it on to avoid this, but I want to avoid unnecessary mechanical action if I can.

I have Dish Network, and their receivers (unlike Direct TV) do not allow any sort of passthough or native setting. You get one choice for output. Assuming you set your output to 1080, your Dish Network box will upscale all SD content and 720p content (poorly, IMO) to 1080i, and then send that out. The question from there is whether your TV or the Oppo does a better job of de-interlacing the 1080i into 1080p. But likely, upscaled SD content will already be poor quality, and you wouldn't know the difference. For material that is already 1080i (most HD channels), it will be output normally. I can't imagine a straight TV 1080i signal to 1080p would show much difference if the Oppo does it or your TV, but you'd have to see what other people say about your TV.

.
That's interesting. I have Sony 780 and I was planning to get either 103 or 105. You think your 790 does better up-scaling than 93? (Both 780 and 790 has super bit mapping)

I agree with that statement also.

When you get performance like that, clean the disc, even if it doesn't look obviously dirty. I wet the disc, squirt a little soft-soap (from a pump dispenser) onto my finger, and use the tiny blob of the soap (and more water) to clean the data side of the disc. Dry with a clean terry cloth or microfiber towel.

Another potential fix is to just open the drawer and close it again to re-seat the disc on the spindle... that can sometimes remove a slight eccentricity or tilt of the disc that makes it difficult for the tracking or focus servos to keep up with the corrections.

Thanks for the reply.

I do have the player set to Split A/V. The first OPPO info screen shows 24bit, 96k but the second (after page-down), shows that HDMI2 is set to 48k. This means that there is a handshake issue and the OPPO is downsampling, right?

In the Sterephile review of the NAD M51, they play hi-res files using an OPPO.

Thanks again for any advice, I have contacted NAD as well...

HDMI1 is connected to a Marantz AV7005 processor and, through it, to a Pioneer Kuro plasma display.

HDMI2 is connected directly to the M51 DAC.

Thanks

In the 103, turn Secondary Audio OFF. Also turn DTS Neo:6 surround processing OFF. Check again to be sure Split A/V is set (not Dual Display) -- actually change it to Dual Display and then back to Split A/V. See what you get now on HDMI 2.
--Bob

The 103/105 are definitely better than the 93/95 for SD-DVD upscaling. I don't have a Sony S790, so I can't comment on that comparison.
--Bob

There is a Setup setting (Auto Play) which will control this behavior for AUDIO discs but not for movie discs. I've been trying to convince OPPO for some time now that they ought to add an additional setting here for movie discs, but their past history with customer comments/confusion on this has convinced them that movie discs really should Auto Play ALL the time. Send OPPO an email.

For now, the workaround is as you've stated. Use Tray Open to both power on the player and open the tray so the disc does not start.

If you forget, the Home button is the first button that will respond to abort a disc loading that's already in progress. (Disc's are typically authored to prevent other buttons, like Stop, from working while the disc is putting up initial warning screens and studio logos.)
--Bob

Oppo BDP-103 Universal Network, 3D Blu-ray Player Reviewed

HomeTheaterReview.com

Andrew Robinson,November 19, 2012

I have a Sony BDP-S790 that I also prefer over the BDP-93, but the improvement was subtle. The picture (DVD) just looks a little cleaner. However, I preferred the BDP-93 for blu-ray playback, Now, I prefer the BDP-103 over Sony for DVD playback as the BDP-103 is much improved over the BDP-93 IMO as I spend more time with it.
Edited by bakerwi - 11/19/12 at 1:08pm

Hi.

Does anyone know of an online shop where i can order the BDP-103 in Europe (EU)?
I ordered the 93 from opposhop.eu, but it seems to be under maintenance forever.

Thanks in advance.

What is the best calibration for best picture quality of the 103? The best calibration for both DVD and Blu-ray.

Maybe someone can create a new thread on the Calibration of the 103 for best picture performance.

The standard advice is to calibrate the display, not the player.

-Bill