OPPO BDP-103 and BDP-105 Networking Universal 3D Blu-ray Players (part2)

The issue was addressed in the most recent firmware upgrade.

"Added support for directly switching the input source by pressing the INPUT button followed by a numerical button, e.g., "1" for BLU-RAY PLAYER, "2" for HDMI/MHL-IN FRONT, etc."

 

Thanks Hammer, I have a 95, but was thinking I can have an all in one box solution with the 105 and save some space while I'm at it.

Cheers

Dan

 

In case you haven't seen this, Oppo has released new Beta Firmware. It looks as if they have finally come up with CUE support for multiple files.

 

What will be the practical use of this?

 

The Oppo can not play files from a external drive or USB drive gapless. This can be very annoying when listening to Classical Music or albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall or The Dark Side Of The Moon where the tracks blend from one to another. Playing these types of music via CUE Files allows for gapless playback. Up until now, you had to rip a whole album to one large file for the CUE Sheet. For most 2 Channel material this was fine, But I wanted to rip my multi-channel discs to wav format and this created a file in excess of 4gb and the wav format has a 4gb limitation, so one large file was not feasible. Now I will be able to put all my multi channel material on a USB Drive and have it all in one place instead of having to change discs for each album. I can store the discs away until needed again.

 

Don't be too sure of that. Just because you can now have a CUE file pointing at several files, doesn't mean the OPPO will play these files gaplessly.

Have a look at this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1466929/oppo-bdp-103-105-and-cue-files/60

 

I am aware of that thread, I started it. I have not tried this out yet, I will just have to try it and see what happens, if it can not play gapless, I do not know why Oppo would be bothering to implement it, it would be rather pointless. This is still a beta and I am sure that Oppo will work it out eventually. It seems that the people at AVS are giving Oppo a lot of feedback to work with.

 

I'll probably be getting a 103 this fall as I use HDMI and I'm pleased to see this issue is being addressed. Hay anyone region freed their player and what method did you use?

 

Indeed, that's why I asked the question. If the Oppo supported CUE-files with a single FLAC file, it would be possible to play albums (ripped as a single file) gaplessly while having direct access to tracks, thanks to the time indicators in the CUE-File.

But a CUE file with multiple track files is more like a playlist, it doesn't solve the missing gapless playback, which is due to the short pause the Oppo needs to load the next file into memory.

 

Well, I assume OPPO bothered because people were complaining that CUE files didn't work with multiple music files. The gapless controversy is a different beast, which seems harder to tackle, as you undoubtedly know.

 

It will already do gapless from a single file, we will just have to see if they can get it to work with multiple files, that was the whole point of them adding this support in the first place. If you go back in this thread some 20 or so pages, it was a hotly debated topic same on AVS as well. Oppo knows that Gapless is the goal.

 

If I want to play Beethoven's 9th with the 3rd movement flowing directly into the 4th (as marked) I can. ( At least I think that's what I can do.)

 

But CUE-file support with a single file would add direct track access within the file.

 

Sounds good Dan, I think you'd be very satisfied with the Sabre DAC
Good Luck with your decision

 

FYI, I contacted Oppo customer support about the HDCD decoding through the coax input on the 105 and got the following response:

How can the HDCD encoding be retained when a CD player is input through the digital coax on the 105 but an HDCD-encoded audio stream via Squeezebox loses that metadata? When all is said and done, an audio stream from a Squeezebox and the same audio stream from a CD player should be identical, right? I can take the same flac file and play it back on Foobar 2000 and get HDCD decoding on tracks ripped from HDCD-encoded CDs.

One of the big reasons for me getting the 105 was that digital input.

 

Does that mean it works with USB (as opposed to coaxial, optical or HDMI)?

I do recall reading somewhere that the Squeezebox volume level must be set at 100%. This makes sense as anything less and Squeezebox is changing bits.

I did that, but still no light.

I believe that with the new firmware, the Oppo can now read ALAC files. I can copy some files from a ripped HDCD onto a memory stick and see what happens.

 

My understanding is that the USB input basically bypasses every processing mechanism in the DAC, including HDCD. I could be wrong though. I'll be interest in reading the results of your memory stick experiment.

 

Right now I've posed a follow-up question (or two) to Oppo.

 

OK - after some experimentation:

The HD light does not come on when I use a memory stick. And I reconfirmed it does not come on when using the optical connector (my bad on this point, I thought I had used the coax).

However - when I am playing a track from my memory stick, and I insert an HDCD disc, the light comes on even though that is not my source at the moment. When I remove the disc, the light goes off again. This suggests to me that the HDCD light is linked specifically to discs.

 

Boy, they're quick.

They confirmed my hypothesis that the HDCD light is linked to physical media, but implied that the Oppo does decode HDCD from other sources. They suggested that if I had a receiver that decodes HDCD and turned HDCD decoding off on the Oppo, I could look to the receiver to see if an HDCD signal was being passed. Unfortunately I do not have such a receiver.

 

I guess I already know the answer, but what the hell....

When using the USB input, there is no bass managment that takes place in the DAC, correct? This means that there will be no LFE signal, resulting in no bass frequencies when playing back on a 5.1 setup with a subwoofer.

 

No lfe is different then no bass.

 

I believe he is asking about the 105's performance AS an external DAC, using its digital inputs.

 

I can vouch for this. I have a Squeezebox 3 ("Classic" now) and pass the the digital out to an HDCD DAC. The HDCD is indeed detected only when the Squeezebox volume is at 100%. This is because the HDCD codes are embedded in the digital music and it is no longer bit-perfect when the volume is reduced via digital attenuation.

 

How can I get my Oppo 103 to play the PCM portion of the Beatles "Love" DVD? It doesn't even show up in the disc menu as an option. I have the latest update and I've looked through the various settings without success. Can anyone help?