OPPO Digital Presents: DV-980H (1080p, SACD DSD, 7.1 Surround, USB 2.0) - Page 210

tn001d,

Well, not to belabor the obvious but ...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/vbclassified.php

Try right here if you want to keep it in the family.

I don't get into the whole shipping thing, so I usually work on the local Craigslist site. If you haven't much experience there, you might want to PM me and I'll give you a few hints on how to effectively and safely post/reply on those sites.

Audiogon is another pretty good site http://www.audiogon.com/ though it does cost some money.

There are others I'm sure. e-Bay I don't do.

Best of luck.

Mkard

Well, I've taken to heart a few owner's commenting on how fun it is to play with the USB port delivering music files to our Oppo's.

Fun would not be the first word starting with "F" to come to mind right now.

The manual is a bit thin, but I read and (I thought) understood what it had to say. Called Oppo (guy picked the phone right up yesterday) and asked about file formats and bit rates. MP3 and WMA, any bitrate no problems according to the TSR. Doesn't do lossless, will play via folders. OK

So, did a trial with two folders on flashdrive. One labeled "Zselect" and empty, other labeled "Chris Botti" and holding 12 or so MP3s at 192kpbs. Couldn't seem to make anything happen without patience, and then almost accidentally selected the folder and got tracks to start playing. I thought that I had done the exact same thing a couple of key-stabs earlier without result, and suddenly got sound. shrug. Entire folder played through without problem.

So tonight, I loaded some music into the root directory of the same flash drive. Chose USB via OSD, selected to 1st track and pressed play. lights continue to flicker on flashdrive for many minutes. Never plays a note. Id's the song via text, including artist, time and bitrate (359kpbs via WMA variable), just keeps flickering lights forever. So, I try to revert to the "Chris Botti" folder used above, able to scroll up to that folder, but when I actually select it (to open, I guess), NADA. Flashdrive keeps flickering to beat all-get-out. Nothing ever changes over almost 10min.

grrrrr! I either don't have a clue of what I am doing vis-a-vis music files via USB (so, who'd have guessed that! ) , or I am doing the simplest of things wrong in my switcholgy on the Oppo. I am perfectly willing to accept either, if accompanied by sage advice wielded by stout souls withOUT baseball bats.

This is truly my first attempt at this endeavor with any device. I just ordered a rather cool 13th B-day present for my kid, and knew that I needed to glom onto a bit of new knowledge to help her put the Yamaha TSX-140 through its paces. Steep curve----Old Dog.

Mkard

Au contraire. The 980H DOES play lossless files. The player can handle MLP files which are full rez and lossless.

robertazimmerman,

The 980h plays lossless music files from USB? Could you tell me which formats work in your player. Oppo guy, as above, was quite clear that only the lossy MP3 and WMA formats work. They are as fallible as the rest of us I suppose. My experience is limited to discovering that up to WMA variable has shown itself to be ok on this player.

I have played DVD-A's using the MLP track without problem on the 980h. Do you have experience plalying MLP or other lossless via USB on this unit? I would like to know what you have found that will work.

Thanks,

Mkard

Mine play *.mlp files. I only try with 2 channels but my guess is that it will play multi-channel also. Maybe I'll try it later and let you know.

mrfranc,

Thanks for that info. I will have to research how to rip CD tracks to .mlp.

If it is not too much trouble, what software are you using for that purpose? My limited research seems to indicate that Meridian Lossless Packing is a fairly closely held proprietary format, and it might be hard to come by a free/share ripping tool that can handle it. Your thoughts please?

The YamahaStore online seems to have managed to create a delay for my kid's B-day present to be delivered. Ordered on Aug 30 early PM, wont be delivered to my home until Sept. 12. !! Shipped from NJ, 4.5 day delay from order to shipping via UPS. grrrr.

I have been so spoiled by Newegg.

On the bright side of life, I do have more time to try and learn something about how to make livable/enjoyable music files that'll play via USB. Dad's are supposed to be infallible, don'tcha know!

Thanks for your help.

Mike

I'm using SurCode MLP to convert wav to mlp.
I also try my mp3s on the Oppo player and they played without any problem. Here are the settings I use on my mp3s rips:
Constant bit rate
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 12mn 43s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 29.1 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.97
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 20.5

Variable bit rate
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 4mn 8s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 249 Kbps
Minimum bit rate : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 7.38 MiB (98%)
Writing library : LAME3.97
Encoding settings : -m j -V 0 -q 3 -lowpass 19.5 --vbr-old -b 32

I’m using mediainfo to get the mp3 properties.
And reading the TSX-140 manual it supports MP3 with a bitrate 8-320 (both constant and variable) and a sampling frequency 16-48.
Hope this will help.

Mario

mrfranc,

Thank you very much. You've certainly given me some excellent starting points to get busy on.

I'll test things as far as I can over the next couple of days and get back to you all. fun, fun...

Thanks to Mario and all who've tried to point me in the right direction.

Mike K

The only lossless audio format that the 980 will handle is the MLP one. I have played MLP files from flash drives as well as from MLP files written to DVD+RWs. An 8GB flash drive or a DVD+R DL will hold the entire Beatles oeuvre. Very handy!

Look for "DigiOnAudio2" on the Net and you'll find a (discontinued) program that can convert WAV to MLP. Unfortunately, you will have to convert FLAC files to the WAV format if you want to convert them to MLP files.

I haven't tried to play MP3 files on the 980 as our household is an MP3-free zone.

You'll also have to work your way through some Japanese, but evidently it is relatively self-explanatory.

http://www.digion.com/dl/dau2_up.htm

robertazimmerman and Dirac,

Thank you both. I did get the digionAudio2 and found that it works. Thus far I've only been able to rip directly from cd's to .mlp. I've tried my hand at a couple of WAV files, and had not much luck with the interface-trying to get the program to select what I want it to work on, and deliver it where I want it. Help files in Japanese! Still a good find and useful.

What do either of you use for converting FLAC to WAV?

Thanks

Oh! Kid's b-day present came in yesterday early PM. She set it up when she got home from school and loves it. The Yamaha TSX-140 is quite impressive as far as sound goes. Direct CD of Time Out/Dave Brubeck- very very nicely done in her room, rivals our main system for sound detail and even usable bass! This audio eval done by my wife, who was musically trained and can actually hear things, as opposed to me... But, it certainly sounds very good and both kid and wife are happy.

Mkard

What do either of you use for converting FLAC to WAV? I use Foobar2000 conversion tool.

Likewise. Foobar is pretty good at just about everything. You can also go to http://flac.sourceforge.net/ for specific FLAC tools.

mrfranc and Dirac,

Thanks. Looking into both areas and will dig into them over the weekend.

Steep curve.

Mike

To make your lives a bit easier, look for "DigionAudio2 Professional (Reloaded)". The reloaded version is in English. You should have no problem using it to convert files from WAV to MLP. Unfortunately, it doesn't handle FLAC, so you'll have to use another program to convert from FLAC to WAV. I use dbPowerAmp.

robertazimmerman,

Yes. The console of DigionAudio2 Professional (reloaded) is fully in English, as are the menus. Being a novice I had occasion to open the HELP tab, that part is in Japanese.

Thus far, I seem to be muddling thru between DigiA2 and foobar2000. VERY different interfaces can certainly confuse me. Really have to slow down and take notes of what I did on either program, and how it worked out. I've a stack of now useless cd-r's on my counter, and a massively baffling file folder structure on my external F: Drive. It'll take hours to get that figured out.

The good side is 4 G of MLP's of some excellent albums I've got. Sending direct analog 2-ch from Oppo to Yamaha AVR. Nice and effortless, and hopefully will save wear and tear on the drive/laser of my venerable Oppo.

Thank you all for your generous advice and options. Still one of the Great Threads of AVS !

Mike K

I usually bulk convert files from FLAC to WAV and then use DigionAudio2 to convert the files from WAV to MLP. Simple, painless and fairly quick.

It's nice to be able to get the entire remastered Beatles catalog on one $10 8GB flash drive!

Now if I can only find a flash drive large enough to hold the 150GB~ of unreleased Dylan in my collection.

Here you go http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/flash/dt300.asp

Of course you can probably pick up a USB HDD for a lot less with even greater capacity.

blairy

True. I likely won't be able to use it in my car's USB port.

Oh! Wait a minute.

Didn't you get the turbocharged model?




Mkard


p.s. Thanks again, all.

Not yet! Working on it.

Here's a question for those familiar with deinterlacing and upscaling:

I just got an Oppo 980H, primarily for SACD playback, but it will also be used for movies. Hooked up via HDMI to my AVR. I would prefer that the Onkyo RC360 did the video processing, so I set the Oppo to "Auto" resolution, assuming that standard-def DVDs will be output at 480i or 480p.

When I hit the display button on the Onkyo's remote, it is telling me that the input signal from the DVD player is 1280x720, meaning the Oppo is sending out 720p, which the Onkyo is then converting to 1080p to my television. "Okay", I think to myself, "so auto is confused." I manually set the player to 480i. Now the TV displays "720x480 in"--fine. The picture (anamorphic widescreen movie), however, is now squashed into a 4:3 pillarbox on the tv, with bars on all four sides.

Decided to try again with a 4:3 movie from the 1930s. Set the DVD player to 480i again. It squashed this, too--seemingly as if the signal was sent as 4:3 and then pillarboxed again.

The only other variable I can think of is the SACD audio setting on the Oppo is set to pass DSD to the receiver, and to do this, the HDMI resolution must be a minimum of 720p to handle the audio bandwidth. Would the Oppo default to a minimum of 720p out even set to "Auto" on a DVD-Video if SACD audio was not being passed?? And even so, why the squishing of the picture when I set the output to 480? TV is set on Just Scan. Any clues would be greatly appreciated.

Do you get the same effect if you connect the player directly to the display?

Do you have any other 480i signal sources for this display? It is very common for TVs to treat standard definition video differently than high definition, applying different aspect ratio controls and even considerable overscan to SD video.

I believe Just Scan would apply only to 1920x1080 input; 1:1 pixel mapping doesn't work with other formats (unless you had a display of that size).

Cycle through your other TV input modes and see if there is one that applies the proper aspect control.

Then reintroduce the receiver and see how that changes things.

-Bill

Will try when I get home in a few hours--thanks for the quick response. I have other 480i signal sources attached, yes, but they are hooked up via component or composite, not HDMI. Could very well be the receiver that's introducing the weirdness.

Aspect control issues can be maddening. It seems like every box wants to play: DVD player, AVR, display. You want to nail down who is doing what. And there is this business of standard and high definition being treated differently. And maybe switching modes for 4:3 vs 16:9 content?

The easiest approach is to emit 1080p from the player with WIDE/AUTO so it automatically pillarboxes 4:3 content. But that means deinterlacing and scaling is done in the player, and you said you wanted to leave that to the AVR.

-Bill

Is there something wrong with having the oppo upscale to the receiver? I think it does a fine job upscaling so I have my receiver set to pass-through and leave the oppo on 1080p. This is probably obvious but did you check that the widescreen setting is set to auto? I have never tested any of the resolution settings myself but it sounds like maybe it won't output anamorphic widescreen at lower resolution settings...does the manual mention anything about this?

Odd how I resolved it. I ended up changing the TV setting on the 980H to "16:9 Wide" and it worked just fine for both 4:3 pillarbox and 16:9 material. Somehow "16:9 Wide/Auto" was the issue. I had heard that the Marvell Qdeo processor in the Onkyo is terrific and assumed that a 2011 chip would likely be the way to go over the nearly 5-year-old Oppo's (Faroudja?). In real life, I can probably notice no difference whatsoever, but at the very least, it makes me feel like I am utilizing my electronics properly.

Thanks for the input, fellas.

Ok, I'm glad it's working for you.

The 980 doesn't have a separate video processor; it uses an all-in-one custom Mediatek chip for decoding, deinterlacing and scaling.

-Bill

I initially felt the same way with both my DV-980 and BDP-80 in conjunction with my Onkyo 876... older than yours, but still with a premium Reon scaler. Then I actually tested things. Turned out that the de-interlacing in the Mediatek chips was better than the Reon... less Moire issues.

All three of them were much better than any of the TVs (Samsung LCD, Panny plasma) I have had connected to that setup, so I ended up letting the Oppos handle the DVD scaling/deinterlacing and letting the Onkyo deal with the cable DVR. (Nice thing with the upper-end Onks is that you get to set that stuff per input rather than universally.)

The same may not hold true with the Marvell processor in your newer Onkyo but, if you really feel bad, you should test for yourself. The Oppo/Mediatek stuff does not do such a bad job.