Oppo BDP-103

[par4ken]

It should be obvious that any (Oppo) player that uses the prefix BDP plays Blu-rays. The older DV-970HD is a DVD player, obviously DV is for DVD not Dutton-Vocalion! The last time I checked it (the DV-970HD) was still able to play all the newer Dutton-Vocalion SACD's while my Pioneer Elite no longer could. In fact that shortcoming of the Pioneer was my reason for getting a BDP-103 in the first place. Unexpectedly I was blown away by the sound of those SACD's played back as DSD rather than when converted to PCM! There is absolutely nothing wrong with the analogue sound quality from that player!

The network streaming feature was greatly improved from the older (93/95) players to the 103/105's. With the 95 it was described as an experimental feature, and it barely worked at all. I was able to use it with my 103, streaming from my computer via my home network but I found that my artwork (folder) file was being hidden and sometimes even replaced by totally different artwork, also a smaller "small art" hidden folder being was added. I found that situation to be totally unacceptable and because of it I no longer use the streaming feature at all. I'm surprised that no one else seems to be troubled by it! Play back via a USB connected flash or hard drive works well! My only complaint is that it is not gapless!

 

[mandrix]

It should be obvious that any (Oppo) player that uses the prefix BDP plays Blu-rays. The older DV-970HD is a DVD player, obviously DV is for DVD not Dutton-Vocalion! The last time I checked it (the DV-970HD) was still able to play all the newer Dutton-Vocalion SACD's while my Pioneer Elite no longer could. In fact that shortcoming of the Pioneer was my reason for getting a BDP-103 in the first place. Unexpectedly I was blown away by the sound of those SACD's played back as DSD rather than when converted to PCM! There is absolutely nothing wrong with the analogue sound quality from that player!

The network streaming feature was greatly improved from the older (93/95) players to the 103/105's. With the 95 it was described as an experimental feature, and it barely worked at all. I was able to use it with my 103, streaming from my computer via my home network but I found that my artwork (folder) file was being hidden and sometimes even replaced by totally different artwork, also a smaller "small art" hidden folder being was added. I found that situation to be totally unacceptable and because of it I no longer use the streaming feature at all. I'm surprised that no one else seems to be troubled by it! Play back via a USB connected flash or hard drive works well! My only complaint is that it is not gapless!

Correct. The network feature on the BDP-80 is extremely limited and is there more for "BD LIve" I believe as you can't actually browse your LAN for something to play. Basically disc or USB.

I've never owned an 83, 93, or 95 so was never concerned with them. My 103 does all I need it to do, though 4K would be nice, not really necessary for me as I can do that with the pc.
Besides, we're here to explain the obvious. lol.

The BDP-80 will do one thing most of them won't, FWIW; it will play SACD-R discs.

 

[mandrix]

I don't recall seeing any extraneous art folders created by my 103. But mine has been jailbroke several years, maybe has something to do with it? But I generally use it to play .iso files, not individual files so that's more likely the reason.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I have a 103D and a 205, wasn't really looking for gapless in the 103D (have selected it though in my 205), but now that it's been mentioned, perhaps it's something they added on the 203-205 models?

 

[par4ken]

I don't recall seeing any extraneous art folders created by my 103. But mine has been jailbroke several years, maybe has something to do with it? But I generally use it to play .iso files, not individual files so that's more likely the reason.

I think that it was caused by WMP which had to be enabled for it to work. JRiver could be used instead but it caused the same problem. I could have used a workaround by labeling the "folder" file "cover" instead but those damn hidden files would still be there.

I remember being ecstatic about the network feature at first until finding out what it was doing to my music files. After multiple attempts to get it working to my satisfaction I just gave up! I also remember only being able to get it to see music files under "music" on the C drive, I couldn't make it work from any of the other drives.

 

[mandrix]

I think that it was caused by WMP which had to be enabled for it to work. JRiver could be used instead but it caused the same problem. I could have used a workaround by labeling the "folder" file "cover" instead but those damn hidden files would still be there.

I remember being ecstatic about the network feature at first until finding out what it was doing to my music files. After multiple attempts to get it working to my satisfaction I just gave up! I also remember only being able to get it to see music files under "music" on the C drive, I couldn't make it work from any of the other drives.

Wow. You should be able to browse files on any shared drive. I went the route of enabling the "media stuff" in Windows and went down a rabbit hole with that, and indeed it wanted everything in the music folder IIRC.
For sure need SMB 1.0 enabled in Windows though to make things easier
.
Windows is fickle with this stuff sometimes. I bought a cheap NFS program that enables mapping drives easier for the Oppo to see, as Windows has to be able to communicate with Unix to some extent to share files, etc.
People with NAS units using SMB seem to have no problem browsing shared drives I'm told, but for a long time the only way I could browse all shared drives / folders was with the NFS server software. (I don't have a commercial NAS) Lately it seems the Oppo has no problem finding shared drives, don't know if some changes were made in Win 11 or it's just Windows being Windows.

I admit I mostly use PowerDVD & JRiver to bitstream .iso files/mkv etc, but I can do that with the jailbroke Oppo which was super handy at the time. At least with the Oppo I can play a DVD-A .iso and see all the graphics, something no longer available in pc software I guess since PowerDVD dropped support for DVD-A many versions back.

 

[Owen Smith]

The BDP-80 will do one thing most of them won't, FWIW; it will play SACD-R discs.

The 93 and 95 will do that, even with the last firmware updates from Oppo for those models. One of the reasons I kept my 95 in my rack is for SACD-R playback which my 203 will not do.

 

[quicksrt]

While I'd love to have a 105 (or better yet a 205) they are still priced out of reach. Apparently the 105 has better DAC's than the 103. While I don't have a 105, I do have a similar but older model 95. Soundwise I don't think that the 95 sounds any better than the 103. The sweet spot of value vs performance is undoubtedly with the 103! I got my 95 at a decent price but just checking eBay they are now asking very exorbitant prices! A (95) parts unit for $500, give me a break!

The nice thing about the 95 and 105 is that they have separate stereo outputs. I use those to feed my quad decoders, with the 103 I have to use splitter cables. The 95/105 have both XLR and RCA stereo outputs, so they actually have two sets of stereo outputs in addition to the RCA multi-channel outputs!

I much prefer the sleek styling of the 103 to that of the 95/105, the latter I find to be rather ugly looking!

Yeah it does have higher end DACs, I have good hearing and so I could hear the upgrade in those DACs fairly well.

 

[mandrix]

The 93 and 95 will do that, even with the last firmware updates from Oppo for those models. One of the reasons I kept my 95 in my rack is for SACD-R playback which my 203 will not do.

Cool. I did not know that. Like I say I never owned those models. I had thought the cutoff was with the 80/83 but evidently then the 93/95 models were no longer being manufactured when the Blu Ray association stepped in and complained (read: Sony)

My 970HD will play SACD-R (free firmware hack), My ancient Sammy 841 will (free firmware hack), the Sammy 941 I gave to my stepson would (free firmware hack), the BDP-80 of course. The jailbroke BDP-103 will play SACD-R .iso over the network. All will play the DVD-A's I have authored and burned to disc.

I just don't feel like I'm missing anything by not having the models newer than the 103. I mean I only own a few 4K music discs and I can play them on the pc as I said.

Oppo was so cool. Shame they're not making disc players these days. Sans restrictions imposed by outside entities, think what capabilities they could possibly have now if manufacturing had continued.
But imovedon. lol.

 

[barfle]

Both the 93 and 105 play BD (if you mean Blu ray Disc) so your 105 purchase must have been for a different reason. Or you had something older than a 93 which couldn't play blu rays.

It’s been a decade, so the model number is likely inaccurate. It would play DVDs, CDS and SACDs, I’m pretty sure. But I know it did not have an ethernet connection.

 

[barfle]

There's an outside chance your 103 has a hardware mod added inside that makes it blu ray region selectable. You have to press buttons on the remote in a magic sequence to switch between A, B and C there's no automatic option. The same hardware mod would also make it DVD region free, don't bother with the super disc if it has one.

Easiest way to check when you get the 103 is take the case lid off, if fitted the mod will be plugged into the main PCB near the front right of the player on a short cable and then a small circuit board stuck to the base or side of the case. I bought a 203 second hand and the owner had bought it new and yet never knew (or had forgotten) it had one of the mods inside, so you might get lucky. If not you probably won't want to buy one, it'll likely be well over $100 and with postage and import duties might be not far short of what the player cost you.

Learned something new! I’ve never had the cover off my 105. Would such a mod be available for it?

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Learned something new! I’ve never had the cover off my 105. Would such a mod be available for it?

Yes but the Oppo Super Disc does just as well.

Edit: the hardware mod makes also Blu-ray discs region free. The Super Disc only does that for DVD.

 

[barfle]

It should be obvious that any (Oppo) player that uses the prefix BDP plays Blu-rays. The older DV-970HD is a DVD player, obviously DV is for DVD not Dutton-Vocalion! The last time I checked it (the DV-970HD) was still able to play all the newer Dutton-Vocalion SACD's while my Pioneer Elite no longer could. In fact that shortcoming of the Pioneer was my reason for getting a BDP-103 in the first place. Unexpectedly I was blown away by the sound of those SACD's played back as DSD rather than when converted to PCM! There is absolutely nothing wrong with the analogue sound quality from that player!

The network streaming feature was greatly improved from the older (93/95) players to the 103/105's. With the 95 it was described as an experimental feature, and it barely worked at all. I was able to use it with my 103, streaming from my computer via my home network but I found that my artwork (folder) file was being hidden and sometimes even replaced by totally different artwork, also a smaller "small art" hidden folder being was added. I found that situation to be totally unacceptable and because of it I no longer use the streaming feature at all. I'm surprised that no one else seems to be troubled by it! Play back via a USB connected flash or hard drive works well! My only complaint is that it is not gapless!

Windows will add several “album art” files to a folder whenever you usw Windows Media Player to play a file. It’s insistent, it’s fast, and it’s a royal pain in the ass. They are “hidden” so unless your PC is set upmto show them, you might never know what’s going on. I’ve stopped using that program because of the side effects.

True,the lack of gapless playback can be annoying, and at least with my 105, I can only play DSD and DXF files through the USB ports, and not through the Ethernet port.

I’ve added some “folder” images to my files to give album artwork to those DSD/DSF files on my thumb drive that I can’t add with any of the software I presently have. It works.

 

[barfle]

I have a 103D and a 205, wasn't really looking for gapless in the 103D (have selected it though in my 205), but now that it's been mentioned, perhaps it's something they added on the 203-205 models?

View attachment 111194

Actually, I’ve had a few video files (my own home movies) on the USB port that ended up with an icon from a movie with a vaguely similar name (video of my long dead cat Misty had a “Play Misty for me” poster associated with it).

 

[Petr Kropotkin]

While I'd love to have a 105 (or better yet a 205) they are still priced out of reach...

Have you tried the Canadian site canuckaudiomart.com? I check it regularly and they sometimes have Oppo models at reasonable prices (though at the moment there are two 103D's for around CAD$550 each).

 

[barfle]

Yes but the Oppo Super Disc does just as well.

Edit: the hardware mod makes also Blu-ray discs region free. The Super Disc only does that for DVD.

I bought a Region 2 BD, and even though I have run the super disc mod, it won’t play. That’s why I asked about the hardware mod. What is it called? Where might one find one?

 

[JediJoker]

I bought a Region 2 BD, and even though I have run the super disc mod, it won’t play. That’s why I asked about the hardware mod. What is it called? Where might one find one?

Do you mean a Region *B Blu-ray, or a Region 2 DVD?

 

[barfle]

Do you mean a Region *B Blu-ray, or a Region 2 DVD?

B. It seems like “1 Life on the Limit” is not available for US players.

 

[par4ken]

Have you tried the Canadian site canuckaudiomart.com? I check it regularly and they sometimes have Oppo models at reasonable prices (though at the moment there are two 103D's for around CAD$550 each).

I need another Blu-ray (universal) player like I need yet another quad decoder!

I have looked at canuck audiomart from time to time, usually finding items of interest that had sold months or even years ago. I don't think that I've ever checked there for an Oppo. Good call though, another place to browse! Nice to see prices in Canadian dollars. I've been stung more than once purchasing a "bargain" priced in US dollars then getting sticker shock when payment is converted to Canadian!

 

[Owen Smith]

Learned something new! I’ve never had the cover off my 105. Would such a mod be available for it?

Yes, available for every model from 83 to 205: https://www.oppostore.nl/en/jvb-digital-multi-purpose-interface.html. Prices have gone up quite a bit since I bought mine, and from the Netherlands is less convenient for you. When I bought my first one for my 95 we were still in the EU so no import duties neither.