Oppo BDP-83: The Official QQ Thread [BLU-RAY/SACD/DVD-A/HDCD]

[Disclord]

OK, I am not going to reconfigure for analog, but over HDMI I do admit it truncates part, but not all, of the first note on both songs. It is perhaps 1/10th of a second. When I listen to it on my yamaha player, I can hear the difference. It is interesting that all of us seem to have the problem but to varying degrees, mine barely noticeable especially after the latest firmware, and others like you and Bob much more severe. When I installed the latest firmware I did set everything back to default settings as recommended, then went back in and reconfigured manually. Maybe that helped somehow?

I wonder if we swapped players if the experiences would change, or if the rest of our systems contribute different amounts to the problem. I would try the analogs but it is a lot of work to get back there, and I already know that HDMI sounds better on my system so I will tolerate those few songs that I find will truncate on my system. I have not listened to this Foreigner disc in years!

Do most DVD-A players using HDMI have the truncation problem as the player handshakes with the receiver? I have a Panasonic DVD-S97 and Denon AVR-3808 hooked up via HDMI and none of my DVD-A's clip off the beginnings as the unit handshakes - even with Warner titles like the mentioned Foreigner and Fleetwood Mac discs. Or is it just an Oppo thing?

HDMI is such a mess of a standard - I mean, it can't even send closed captions for my TV to decode (and there are many DVD's that have much different captions than their text displays, like "Little Shop Of Horrors" - if I want to view the Closed Captions encoded on the DVD, I have to use a composite cable, which is unacceptable in this day and age. In almost every respect, HDMI has something wrong with it.

 

[The Bright Side]

I agree, I don't get how the most modern standard in A/V transmission could be so flimsy.

Perhaps I should keep my eyes open for a cheap additional player that I will use for DVD-A only. After all, the performance of the OPPO on all other formats is outstanding.

The handshake-induced dropouts are my receiver's fault, IMHO. The dropouts on e.g. REM and Foreigner (thanks for confirming, Mike - I think we have the exact same experiences here, you are describing pretty much what I hear), on the other hand, are the player's fault. And I'm sure that other players don't do this. If the discs were the problem, you'd know about it from e.g. amazon reviews.

I wrote to Oppo:

"Dear Oppo team,

I am writing you regarding an issue with the BDP-83 that you are undoubtedly already aware of. I got this player yesterday and while I was deeply amazed with its sound, and its playback capabilities for DTS CDs and SACDs, I had to discover that it has problems playing back DVD-A discs.

On several tracks, the player consistently truncates the first note of a song - it's just a matter of milliseconds, but instead of the song beginning "normally", the note is cut up.

So far, I have had this problem with REM - In Time, Foreigner's debut, and Santana - Shaman. For instance, on Foreigner, it happens consistently with "Cold as Ice" and "The Damage is Done", and on the REM disc, it's "Losing my Religion", among others. In fact, on the REM disc, it appears that all the later songs suffer from the problem (but I'll need to listen more to be sure).

When listening closely, I can hear the laser head moving back and forth when one track ends and the next begins. I heard that that Rhino and Warner discs tend to instruct the player to do these pointless movements (the disc will go to the menu, then back into the content). Yet, they are little different than the movements performed when a user skips ahead to a track, and they shouldn't cause the player to truncate the music.

I have been doing research on the Internet, and apparently, these truncations are a known issue with the BDP-83. Funnily enough, DTS CDs and SACDs never gave me problems before, but I used to have trouble with my previous player (Yamaha) on DVD-A as well. I bought the BDP-83 hoping that my troubles would be over, but for now, I'm in the same predicament I was before, left to listen to the DVD-V content from my PC.

Can you suggest anything I can try to fix the issue, or is there a firmware update on the way that solves it? Since my receiver has serious handshake issues, I am already using the analogue connection. Yet, the problem persists, which is why I strongly suspect the player as the remaining culprit.

Thanks, and kind regards,"

They answered me:

Rhino and Warner Brothers often tell the player to go back to the Main Menu before loading the next Group. This will often lead to buffer underuns, which is why you are hearing truncations with releases from these companies.

If you have a HDMI cable at all connected to the player, then digital handshakes will cause these errors. HDMI handshakes will cause the entire decoding chain to momentarily drop the audio. Try removing the HDMI cable and connect with composite or component and see if the same truncations occur.

Best Regards,

So basically, they only confirmed what I already knew. I answered them back and asked how other players on the market handle Rhino and Warner discs, then, and am waiting for their answer.

In the meantime, if you guys know a good, affordable DVD-A player (something around 100-150 bucks), let me know!

 

[The Bright Side]

I got an honest and straightforward answer:

"Unfortunately we do not know how the other players compensate for this type of authoring. This has always been an issue with our line of players as we have always relied on MTK (MediaTek) decoding solutions."

 

[The Bright Side]

I know this would be an unnecessary hassle, but would this same problem exist if one used DVD extractor to extract the MLP files, then re-author using Chrome?

Hey Old Quad Guy, I took my old DVD-A player to a friend's place the other day and found that that player, too, had problems with the Warner and Rhino discs at the same places. After a song was over, the laser moved to another point on the disc, then back to the beginning of the next song - clipping a fraction of its first note.

It really seems like the silly authoring of the DVDs is the problem! I am curious about the re-authoring you mentioned. If all the MLP audio tracks were mastered in one continuous stream, instead of making the player run around the block between tracks, my playback would be perfect.

I am a complete noob when it comes to ripping and re-authoring DVD Audio, but for the three discs, I think it's completely worth it just burning re-authored copies. Is there a tutorial out there that explains how to get the MLP tracks (audio only, I don't even care for visuals) from a disc and then re-authored to burn a new disc with them? Or do you have advice?

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Off the top of my head, not sure if there's a tutorial. But you can Get DVD extractor and get just the MLP, either Multi-Channel of Stereo and that could be played back using Foobar and the MLP extra plugin that goes with it. So you could play the MLP via one's computer. Not sure off the top of my head if Cirlinca's DVD-Audio Solo or HD-Audio Solo Ultra excepts MLP to author DVD-Audio, but the tracks do not all need to run together. For some reason it would appear that after one track is finished (MLP) the disc tells the unit to go back to the main menu, then back to the next song causing the delay because of HDMI "Handshake." Anyways, it can be done to re-author one's discs as with the Talking Heads discs on a unit that has no software upgrades.

http://www.cirlinca.com/products.htm

 

[TMEA]

I've had my oppo 95 a little over a month now and It's still working as it's suppose to. It plays every disk that I put in it without a hitch. The 5.1 analog output is superb sounding to say the least. For now.. I can honestly say that I'm a happy camper. Just hope that I never have any problems with it at all.. for life.

 

[Perp]

I've had my oppo 95 a little over a month now and It's still working as it's suppose to. It plays every disk that I put in it without a hitch. The 5.1 analog output is superb sounding to say the least. For now.. I can honestly say that I'm a happy camper. Just hope that I never have any problems with it at all.. for life.

FYI: There's a knew Public Beta Test Version firmware out that you definitely should try. I'm happy it plays iso files now.:banana:

 

[TMEA]

FYI: There's a knew Public Beta Test Version firmware out that you definitely should try. I'm happy it plays iso files now.:banana:

Thanks for the heads up on the patch. I'm still waiting on an update so that the oppo plays (QUAD) .wav from a hard drive via sata and not just from discs.

I gave the oppo company a new idea for STEREO and they grabbed it. Lets hope that they follow thru with it. Don't really want to say just yet what the idea consists of, but it's something that hasn't been tried yet by anyone.

 

[Perp]

Thanks for the heads up on the patch. I'm still waiting on an update so that the oppo plays (QUAD) .wav and .iso files from a hard drive via sata and not just from discs.

I play my Quad files via iso on the player just fine.
Also, multi-channel file play is enabled but I cannot remember what file types, off the top of my head.

 

[TMEA]

I play my Quad files via iso on the player just fine.
Also, multi-channel file play is enabled but I cannot remember what file types, off the top of my head.

Yeah.. but not from a hard drive. Even oppo support says that no oppo model can play Quad .wav from a hard drive via sata. It will play these files, but only if they're burned to disc.

 

[Perp]

I'm not sure when they told you that but I can verify that I do, indeed, play quad iso files from my hard drive attached via usb to the player.
Also, it works via a flash drive.

 

[TMEA]

I'm not sure when they told you that but I can verify that I do, indeed, play quad iso files from my hard drive attached via usb to the player.
Also, it works via a flash drive.

Are you reading my messages correctly? I said VIA SATA not USB. I never mentioned USB.

 

[TMEA]

I'm not sure when they told you that but I can verify that I do, indeed, play quad iso files from my hard drive attached via usb to the player.
Also, it works via a flash drive.

I just called oppo and they said that the player can't play DVD audio.iso files yet.. via sata. It will only play them from a disc. So you must have a special player that doesn't exists or the techs over at oppo don't know what they're doing.

I tried it on mine and it's not playing them either via sata or usb from a hard drive.

Oh well.. So ends this conversation!

 

[Perp]

Hint: Try choosing "Movies" instead of "Music" when trying to play those particular files.

And, sorry, I don't have access to an eSATA capable drive. So, I didn't know there was a difference.

 

[TMEA]

Hint: Try choosing "Movies" instead of "Music" when trying to play those particular files.

And, sorry, I don't have access to an eSATA capable drive. So, I didn't know there was a difference.

Yeah.. I just got done calling oppo again and the guy said that they are going to try and fix that problem in an update patch so that the DVD audio.iso files will be recognized via eSata also. He said that they have gotten other calls about the same problem before.

Also it seems that on my end, the movie mode via USB isn't recognizing all of my DVD audio.iso files. Meaning that like the .iso file for Big Brother doesn't even show up in its folder, where as the one for R.E.O. does!!!

 

[Perp]

Yeah.. I just got done calling oppo again and the guy said that they are going to try and fix that problem in an update patch so that the DVD audio.iso files will be recognized via eSata also. He said that they have gotten other calls about the same problem before.

I'm trying to confirm this right now.

Also it seems that on my end, the movie mode via USB isn't recognizing all of my DVD audio.iso files. Meaning that like the .iso file for Big Brother doesn't even show up in its folder, where as the one for R.E.O. does!!!

Sorry to hear this and hope you get it sorted out.
I find that all my files play.

 

[TMEA]

I'm trying to confirm this right now.


Sorry to hear this and hope you get it sorted out.
I find that all my files play.

Hey.. I found out what the problem was and all of my .iso files are playing correctly. Now to wait for the eSata update!!!

 

[Perp]

Hey.. I found out what the problem was and all of my .iso files are playing correctly. Now to wait for the eSata update!!!

That's great news!

I sent you a PM regarding the other issue.

 

[jefe1]

Thats great that they're working on that. One thing I am curious about is why thay installed USB 2.0 ports instead of USB 3.0 which is 10 times faster. USB 3 is an accepted standard and is showing up more an more. There is also an eSatap protocol which provides power like USB which would have been nice. ESata devices require external power. Just a small observation but you wonder about it.

 

[Bleedink]

I play quad wavs using DLNA all the time...You don't need to use a HDD to get quad.

OOPS...you guys seem to have figured it out...had to scroll down a bit...apologies.