OPPO Digital Presents: DV-980H (1080p, SACD DSD, 7.1 Surround, USB 2.0) - Page 150

[quote=robertazimmerman;14271089]It worked! It worked.....Since I have about eight guests coming over tomorrow, having uninterrupted lossless music playing in the background is going to be really nice!/QUOTE]

Ok. Here's the followup. I copied around six hundred MLP files to my 120 GB hard drive and started playing the music about ten minutes before the first guests arrived. After a couple of hours, I started to hear funny things coming from the ol' tubed rig. I would hear a fragment of a song, about 2-4 seconds long, and then the song would play properly. This happened with every song - 2 to 4 seconds of junk followed by the complete tune. I wonder if one of the following is causing the problem:

1) Having a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB on the external drive is causing issues.
2) I needed to copy the MKT files along with the MLP files to the external drive (at least I think they're called MKT files).
3) I should have done a low-level format of the drive prior to copying the files.
4) My drive is defective.
5) The Oppo's processor can't handle MLP files on a continual basis.

Hopefully, it's 1, 2, 3 or 4. I will see if I can determine exactly where the problem starts and then see what happens if I add longer tunes at that point. I don't know if this makes a difference, but I'm using 2-channel analog outs from the Oppo to my preamp.

Sigh....Just when I thought I had reached nirvana.

Roberta

Are you aware of the limitations on the number of files the 980 can handle?

She's got 100 files to spare before hitting the 980H's threshold.

Yup....it's about 700. In any case, the worst that should happen is that the Oppo ignores the excess.

35~ hours of continuous music should be enough.

Roberta

Hi Roberta,
I apologize for taking this thread off-topic, but why does your desire to play uninterrupted lossless music revolve around your optical media player?

If this is a function of using only equipment that you already have, or if you don't have a home wireless network, I understand completely. But if, for example, you needed to purchase the external drive that your MLP files are stored on (and if you have a wireless home network), it seems that you could spend about the same amount of money and get an Airport Express. Costs about a hundred bucks, works with Windows or Macs, and allows you to wirelessly stream tunes to your receiver. If these tunes have been converted with something like the Apple Losseless Encoder, you get CD quality 2-channel music limited only by the storage capacity of your drive.

You sound like someone who has considered all the possibilities, so I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know. But if this isn't helping you, it might be helping someone else wondering how to do what you're doing.

Hope the party went ok despite the glitches in the music.
-Brad

Oops! I just thought of one reason why I might want to stick w/ the latest FW - the 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 SACD fix. I have a bunch of RCA LS and Mercury LP discs, as well as Tubular Bells.

Doug

Hi bradandbree,

The reason I want to use the Oppo, or any other stand alone device that can play files from an external hard drive, is because I was hoping that the Oppo's reputation for providing high quality sound from SACDs, DVD-As and CDs would extend itself to playing high quality sound from files stored on an external hard drive.

From what I see, the Airport Express can only stream music from a computer running iTunes. I have no desire to use a computer to supply my music. I have a stereo in my home office, a really good stereo in the family room along with an Oppo and a 37" TV used for casual viewing. The home theatre in the basement has the other Oppo. The family room rig is used almost exclusively for playing vinyl & CDs, the home theatre is used for playing DVDs, and I play an almost completely different set of CDs and (hopefully) files from an external drive in my office. I would like to be able to dump some of the music from my office onto a hard drive to play on the main rig when I'm in the mood for a "home brew" compilation, or when we have guests and I don't want to get up 5-6 times during the evening to change discs.

From what I've read, the Apple Lossless format may be lossless, but it supposedly does an inadequate job of reproducing music and is not respected by golden-eared folks. Secondly, isn't it a proprietary format? I don't "do" proprietary. I have thousands of files in FLAC format and do not intend to convert them to another format. If it isn't WAV or FLAC, I'm not interested.

Doesn't the Airport Express connect to stereos using mini-plugs? Our main stereo is an all-tubed one, connected with pricey interconnects and speaker cable. I don't want to introduce a mini-plug into the mix.

Anyways....I don't know if you feel my reasoning is sound (no joke intended), but I have checked out some of the options, and none appeal to me as much a device that play FLAC files from an external drive. I had hoped that that device would be the 980.

Regards!

Roberta

P.S. The party was fine. I switched off the hard drive and popped an audio DVD with 6 1/2 hours of music on it into the Oppo. The salmon was a bit overcooked, but everything else went smoothly.

Folks,

Just got back from vacation, and I'm busy catching up on all my threads here--as well as catching up on "real life."

Question: I'm hoping someone can give me a quick confirmation that the newest firmware has indeed corrected the 480i output issue that was present in the June release. I want to update to fix the truncation and SACD X.0 issues, but need to be sure I can still get 480i before I do.

Thanks!

Excellent. Thanks.

robertazimmerman:

I have all of my CDs ripped to FLAC format which is stored on my server, and stream it to my system using a Squeezebox. There are a number of advantages to this approach vs. the Oppo w/hard drive: no file count/size limits; noisy [1] hard drives are in another room (the fanless Squeezebox is silent); you can run multiple Squeezeboxes (say, for a multi-room system) and have them run either independently or synchronized; nice interface; can play internet audio streams.

Disadvantage: can only do two-channel up to 48K/24bit (though the pricey Transporter can do 96K/24). But for a party situation, that's plenty good enough (and still can sound really good because FLAC is lossless). For 'serious' listening (DVD-A/SACD) I use my Oppo with the original disc media.

That's why I'd like to see Oppo primarily focus on disc playback, such as fixing the 980H's SACD playback problems first (I still get the potentially-speaker-killing thumps even with the newest beta fw).

[1] I know that modern HDDs are pretty quiet, but when I say 'noisy', I mean if I can hear it at all it's too loud!

I guess the only issues for me are that I don't want to have to leave my PC on to access my music and that I haven't had consistent success with wireless networking, so I'd hope that the Squeezebox allows me to use ethernet connections.

I was hoping that the Oppo would be able to play the MLP files "out of the box", but clearly that's not the case. At least not unless someone has a solution for the problem I was having with MLP files.

Roberta

Never mind the oops. The -2 FW doesn't have a problem w/ 3.0 etc.

Doug

More camera tweaking and the use of a tripod from the '50s:

I tried this about a week ago. I copied an entire album's worth of DVD-A Multichannel sound tracks (Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad) to a USB thumb dirve after I ripped them with the software that BigBad74 provided.

The first time I put the USB drive in all I heard was static. I pulled it out and reinserted it and it played fine. Except (and it's a big exception for me) it only played in stereo. I had the Oppo set to output at 1080p and the display on my processor indicated that it was receiving a "Mulichannel" sound track and reported that it was receiving information from all 6 channels. But unfortunately it was only outputting 2 channels. When I play the DVD-A from the original disk it plays just fine and outputs all 6 channels.

As someone else mentioned, maybe I need to try it with my TV off and just navigate via the Oppo's menus.

Has anyone else experienced similar results?

Is it really necesarry to post pages of movie full screens in here? :/

Mitch,

I too have had issues with MLP 6ch tracks from my ripped DVD-A's. I can get the 2 ch versions to play fine via USB, but not the multi ch tracks. Sometimes they do work for a bit but then tons of static takes over. What I found to work best is just burning the individual tracks from different albums I prefer & making a compilation DVD-R of MLP files which plays perfectly in the oppo. I can then name the files & select them in the oppo menu and now can enjoy stereo or MCh.

I plan to test turning the TV off and using the USB playing M cH tracks again, but for me its not that big of a deal. Another cool thing I found was converting the MLPtracks to WAV files which can then be used with a squeezebox (that I dont have yet) but plan to buy soon. You must downcovert them to 48khz/24bit but this still sounds great compared to the CD counterpart.

Good luck,
Brandon

Thanks Brandon,

What software did you use to burn the selected tracks to a DVD-R? Did you use a standard burning software like Roxio or some other special software that handles the MLP files?

I recently purchased a sound system and am trying to pass it Dolby or DTS audio from my 980. My problem is that when I select 'Auto' under HDMI audio in the Oppo menu the receiver says it's only receiving 2.0 ch audio. Is there something else I need to do in order to pass 5.1 ch Dolby/DTS?
The only instance where I can pass 5.1 ch audio is if I select 'LPCM' under HDMI audio, but I'd rather pass it Dolby or DTS and let the receiver do the leg work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Mitch,

I just used the basic burning software that came with my dell(sonic I think).

I chose to make a data disc as the option and used a blank DVD-R and placed the MLP files on it and it plays flawlessly in the oppo. The files names show up as the photo above indicates except I named mine so I know whats what.

Brandon

^^Thanks for the reply.
I'm not sure if the receiver has such a setting. If it did, shouldn't it be set to 'on' if I'm connecting the receiver to my TV via HDMI?
Also, I should elaborate on the set up. I have my Oppo connected to my receiver via HDMI and the receiver connected to the TV also via HDMI. I'm passing the receiver both audio and video. The receiver is actually an integrated receiver/subwoofer which is a part of the Sony CT100 soundbar system. It's pretty barebones and is pretty much made to be connected to a TV only via HDMI and thus I believe only has an HDMI out. There is no direct connection between the Oppo and my TV.
In the Oppo 'Audio Setup' menu, I have 'Digital Output' set to 'Raw' and, as I mentioned before, 'HDMI Audio' set to 'Auto'.
Is there something I need to do in the 'Dolby Setup' submenu or the 'Speaker Setup' menu?

Well, it's not necessary to post anything, but I like seeing damnation's screenshots. I can see how it would be inconvenient if you have a slower Internet connection...

Doug

I have just received my Oppo 980 unit. This thread has a lot about the firmware updates, but I have not been able to find the answer to this question:

How do I check what firmware version has been installed at the factory?

Thanks.

Try the first post of this thread thomasb.

you most likely have the latest firmware since the last one was in October. Machines don't ship with beta.