Official OPPO BDP-103 Owner's Thread - Page 20

smurraybhm,
You have misread my posts.

I was describing how a two-cable connection worked, if you chose to use it. There are certain cases where you will DEFINITELY want to use it such as if you have a 3D TV, but your AVR is not capable of passing 3D video.

But for MOST people, the single connection from HDMI 1 to their AVR, and then from the AVR to the Display is the best solution.
--Bob

Who you gonna believe? Me or Bob? Time to choose sides, people.

I don't think Bob said you get better quality A/V with two cables if the AVR already does what you want. I'll let him elaborate.

-Bill

Thanks for the heads up. The only reason I'm using Plex is to have streaming support on my devices and other rooms. I really have no attachment to it.

I use two strictly because I prefer to run video around the AVR, straight to the display. Less stuff in between.

Bill knows his cables.

stupid question but would a 103 be overkill for a 37" tv(set is 4 years old and am considering upgrading to a 42 or 47 3d set in the next 2 or 3 years)
Edited by swarm87 - 10/12/12 at 9:47am

I see you editted your original post but if the Motorola RNG150 is the same as the Motorola DCX 3400 you should be able to toggle between the three different 3D modes by pressing the on/off button or the swap button in the PIP section of your cable box remote, which is located at the bottom of the remote. My system switched to the Pace RNG 110/200 series boxes from the Motorola boxes and this function is no longer available. I do not know if this applies to Motorola.

Total overkill, save your money and buy a $150 bluray player and call it a day. Upgrade to Oppo when you upgrade your tv and 47" would be better.

I'm curious what people who bought the 103 are using to calibrate your TVs. I have an old Avia disc and another one that came with an optical cleaner but both are really old. I know AVIA came out with a second disc a while back but I'm wondering if there is anything newer or better or easier I should consider.

^ I recommend "Spears & Munsil", Blu-ray. Available, for example, direct from OPPO:

http://www.oppodigital.com/proddetail.asp?prod=BDSM1R

To check your audio setup, I also recommend "AIX Audio Calibration", Blu-ray:

http://www.aixrecords.com/catalog/bd/oppo_sampler_bd.html

--Bob

I use both Spears and Munsil and the free AVS HD 709 disc: http://www.avsforum.com/t/948496/avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration (which I usually run from a thumb drive rather than a disc).

-Bill

Keep in mind that the OPPO is also good for playing music. You may find that worth considering even before you upgrade your display.
--Bob

Yepp, I also keep DVE laying around too.

There at least a dozen good reasons to want/need the Oppo. Obviously you don't need it for strictly watching video discs, but any of the other reasons for buying it still exist. It does a lot more than play video discs.

Thanks - so what's the recommended alternative, if there is one, for ripping DVD's that are readable? (hate the thought of pulling 50 discs out of my BDP-CX7000 changer and redoing, but if there's a right way to do it....)

Thanks Bob. Problem solved by turning off sound in the Apple TV menu as you suggested.

We have a list of ways and means in the BDP-93 FAQ: What are the alternatives to .iso files?

I don't know of any way that retains DVD menus, or is particularly good at multiple-title discs (other than putting each title in a separate file).

HandBrake to MKV works for me. Convert the mpeg2 video mpeg4 for additional compression, just copy the audio tracks as is, and embed the vobsub subtitles as is. It will even recover the old Closed Captioned subtitles and convert them to text SRT subtitles.

If you don't want further compression then MakeMKV will copy the mpeg2 video as is.

HandBrake can accept DVD iso files as input; I'm not sure about MakeMKV.

Now, for extra points, I've always wondered about AVCHD. It can hold multiple titles and supports menus. Has anyone worked out a DVD to AVCHD workflow? On the down side it is no good for DLNA. But works for local storage and SMB.

-Bill

Good! But please do still tell OPPO Tech Support what is happening. There should not be a problem like this. (Unless of course you've now discovered those menu sounds were actually working correctly despite your earlier description.)
--Bob

Digital music playback has an inescapable analog element involved... time. Time is non-critical for digital video because you are reconstructing a series of still images to create the illusion of moving images. But music/audio doesn't progress frame-by-frame, it is a continuous process. ANYTHING that changes the timing of the bits ("gaps" between bits as well as "arrival time" will affect music. This has been both measured and mathematically proven so that it is now universally accepted as an issue in the design/engineering/technical community as well as in the high-end audio and home theater community. The one thing that distinguishes HDMI cables (aside from build-quality issues) from each other is how they sound when playing music. You get into the same sorts of sonic differences you hear when you change 75-ohm coax cables that used to be popular for sending music signals from a disc transport to an external DAC for high-end digital music playback. The cable's characteristics tend to "upset" bit timing to some degree and we already know that timing of the bits is critical for music playback. For movie sound, audio is sent "early", buffered and re-sync'd with the video. Movie sound is less susceptible to differences in HDMI cables because it is essentially reconstructed in the surround processor. I also find that differences like these are more obvious in stereo music playback than they are when you listen to 5 channels or more. I find that music sounds best through HDMI cables that are made by companies who have a long history of making analog and digital cables for high-end stereo use. I like the HDMI music playback sound quality I get from Wireworld Silver Starlight, DH Labs, and a couple of others, but the very best music playback quality I've encountered is AudioQuest's top-of-the-line Diamond DBS HDMI cable which is VERY expensive, but their Coffee cable is considerably less expensive and sounds nearly as good. The AudioQuest DBS system is unique (and pattented) and works incredibly well for digital and analog signals. I have a large number of HDMI cables from Monoprice.com that are just as good as any other HDMI cable for digital video... the 4-figure AQ Diamond's images are identical to the $6 Monoprice.com cables' images, but the AQ Diamond cable produces better stereo music sound quality... though whether it is enough better to justify the huge differential in cost is is endlessly (and uselessly) debatable.

All that said, I have not yet heard ANY disc playing system (including the '103) that sounds as good as my computer-based music playback system (Mac Mini, solid-state hard disk, external FireWire 800 hard disk with FLAC lossless music files, AQ Diamond FireWire 800 cable, outboard USB DAC (Wavelength Proton), AQ Diamond USB cable, AudioQuest Yosemite DBS analog cables from the DAC to stereo preamp, Decibel playback software, music files played back from memory so there's no disk activity most of the time unless more tracks are being loaded into memory). HDMI music playback has never quite equaled the quality I get from that dedicated music playback system. Even if I connect a duplicate hard disk with USB interface to the '103 or other disc players, even though the music file is the same, it doesn't sound quite as good as the dedicated music playback system (this refers to the disc playback component having a USB interface and compatibility with FLAC files and a connection to a high-end surround processor via HDMI, I've done this with Anthem D2v, AudioControl Maestro M3, Bryston SP3, and Cary audio processors(11A and 12)). It's not that music playback from hard disk and disc player sounds bad... it's decent. But the dedicated music playback system is a little better. Again, arguing whether the cost of the dedicated music playback system is justifiable for the small but desirable difference is endlessly (and also uselessly) debatable. Only you can decide if your budget and priorities make the expense justifiable.

Thanks - does it come with slides? The thing I like like about the Avia is the slides to help me get the color right.

"Slides"? You mean the color gel filters? Spears & Munsil comes with a 3-way Blue gel filter, i.e., 3 different density choices.
--Bob

One question for all of you 103 owners:
If I use the HDMI input to take in a video signal, will the 103 output the audio through the analog outs? I would assume it would, but one never knows.

(Sorry if it's been discussed before...)

Yes. Also the HDMI and Optical/Coax outputs.
--Bob

I thought I had an issue today with my 103 as far as resuming playback after the disc was stopped. But I think I figured it out. When I listen to SACDs I usually turn off my display after I power everything up. I listened to several hybrid SACDs and noticed that if I stopped the disc then tried to resume playback nothing would happen. This was after the 103 went to the screen saver mode. When I hit play the 103's display went from the screen saver to the home menu. I had to eject the disc to get playback to resume. I tried another hybrid SACD and it did the same thing requiring me to eject the disc then hit play (closing the drawer) to resume playback. Then I thought that it was a handshake issue and turned on my display and I still could not get the resume feature to work after hitting stop then waiting for the screen saver mode.

Then I saw what the issue was when the home menu was on the screen. When I first powered up my system with my Harmony I checked to see if I still had a network connection by launching Netflix. Then I closed out of Netflix, shut off my display, opened the drawer to insert the SACD and closed the drawer by hitting play. What I did not realize was that the home menu stayed on the Netflix icon. This was the reason the disc would not resume play because the home menu was not on the disc icon. I find it odd that when opening the 103's disc drawer then initiating playback with a disc that the home menu does not switch from Netflix icon to the disc icon. I will contact Oppo with this as I feel the 103 should automatically switch from Netflix or any of the other icons (functions) to the disc icon when a disc is played. Anyone else run into this or notice this when using the 103? Maybe the 93 and the 95 are the same but I have no experience with either player just the 83SE.

Bill

For me which is probably represents the 47% of most users on this forum(haha), the Spears disc was totally useless unless you have the a clear understanding of what your looking for or what to adjust. I tried to use it multiple times and just plain gave up and now would give it away if I could. I bought the Disney version on a whim and it does a much better job explaining on what each adjustment does and how to adjust it. I know it sounds silly to trust a Blu-Ray disc from Disney to adjust your AV rack but it really works. I've also found that the HDMI audio delay tool they uses is really helpful with a graphical interface to check your audio delays. Just my 2 cents.

But out of the box, the Oppo is fantastic and I am not using any of the on-board video adjustments or my AVR video adjustments. I leave it all up to the TV. I really don't understand why devices would even offer picture adjustments unless they are hooking them up to a display without it's own adjustments.
Edited by Tony Vega - 10/12/12 at 1:05pm

Great! I guess I mean gel filters. The Avia came with something that reminded me of slides from an old time projector.

Before you give up on the Spears & Munsil disc, check out their tutorial articles from their web site:

http://www.spearsandmunsil.com

Also, they have a thread in the Calibration forum here at AVS on that disc where they will answer questions about how to use the disc.

ETA: CORRECTION -- their thread on this disc is in the Blu-ray Software forum here at AVS:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1131344/high-definition-benchmark-bd-edition-by-stacey-spears-and-don-munsil

--Bob
Edited by Bob Pariseau - 10/12/12 at 1:41pm

Bill, I just tried and I can not reproduce this failure.

I've no doubt you've found a bug, but this just means you are going to have to be very precise in writing up the steps that reproduce it when you report it to OPPO -- preferably starting from the power up of the player.
--Bob

Interesting. I didnt' even know Disney made one.

Bob,

As always thanks for your attention to detail and for trying to duplicate what I found. I'll try it again when I get home later tonight. I'll make sure to be precise with the steps that I take. I think I'll try to duplicate the issue by powering up my system, going to Netflix, close out of Netflix then insert a disc with my display left on to see if it matters. So with your 103/105 if you launch Netflix, then close it and play a disc your home menu goes from the Netflix icon to the disc icon? Thanks again !

Bill