If anyone is shopping for a new BD player like myself, it appears at least the new base model BDP-103 is now available for sale from Oppo at 499.00 It has HDMI, optical, coax, and even analog audio out. I'm pretty tempted to buy this unit as I really want to upgrade from my 99.00 Panasonic, mainly for the audio. It might be a while yet.....so if anyone else happens to get one, please share your thoughts.
I must confess that this unit will not be for me; I bought it for my folks as a Christmas gift. They have an H/K DVD player (which I also bought for them over 4 years ago), but they have interest in Blu-ray capability. The plan is to upgrade them with the BDP-103, and then I will take the H/K for my system for it's DVD-A/SACD capabilities.
I'll post some thoughts here after I've had some time to review it. This will be my first OPPO.
I bought a used BDP-83 earlier this year, and I am very happy with it.
I would be interested in how the BDP-103 accesses network media, and the user interface.
Yep, I have an older unit myself and it still works fine but now that my concert collection on BR is growing I'd like a better unit. The old oppo sounds better than the cheap panasonic BR I have now. The pany works fine and I will move it to the bedroom setup, but really want a better unit for the main system.
Dark Ranger, look foward to your observations, thanks.
If you are connecting via HDMI to your receiver or pre/pro, you won't get any better sound.
Thanks Curtis, I would probably go with the analog outs as I really want to use it for SACD and DVD-A too, but you're right if it was done HDMI for the BD discs. I guess I could switch it back and forth when needed possibly. I was hoping to be able to possibly hook up the 103 both ways and switch it via the settings on the receiver maybe, but the HDMI would probably trump the analog outs if hooked up at the same time. Right now with even standard cd's the older oppo sounds nicer through the analog outs than played in the panasonic with HDMI. Just kinda wanted a unit that would play everything instead of 2 units, 1 for each. I want to move those 2 players to different systems anyways.
The unit is very cold, so I will let it warm up before applying power and testing it out. However, my first impressions are very positive. The packaging, presentation, and overall feel of the unit tells me it is worth the asking price. It's a high-quality product. The manual appears well-written (from a quick skim) and the remote buttons seem laid out well.
So far, I am very impressed! I will try to post some pics tonight.
SACD and DVD-A work over HDMI as well....it all depends on where you want the decoding to happen.
I'd really be interested, if you have the capability, on the ease of use when accessing media on a NAS drive, as well as a USB drive.
Well I would probably hook it up both ways to see which I preferred, obviously just using HDMI would be easiest. I would also be interested in accessing an external drive or NAS, that would be super sweet.
Well, I couldn't resist, ordered the BDP-103 on Thurs. and it showed up today Sat. As stated above I wanted one player to play everything, SACDS, DVD-A, blu-ray etc. I have an Oppo DV970-HD that still works well, but I needed it and a panny blu-ray to cover all the bases so decided to jump in. As much as I would love to try the new BDP-105 and the superior analog section, it's just not in the budget. Dave keeps building new and better speakers and with the pending sierra upgrades I may want to check those out later when available. I'm not a huge movie watcher but I do have some concert shows on DVD and BR that I like to watch, but the main emphasis is the audio for me. They have a nice dialog going over on the AVS forum and one guy has posted a couple you tube videos starting with unboxing the unit if anyones interested. In my case I needed to redo some cabling and stuff so finally after getting the previous players out and installing the Oppo.......first impression is.......awesome. Still have some quirks to work through to get everything where I want it, but if you just slapped it in hooked up the HDMI and network.....you're off. I have played SACD, DVD-A, Blu-ray and now I am trying from the home network and wasn't sure how that was gonna go. When first turned on the 103 wanted a firmware update to be done so did that in about 10 minutes. Out here in my man cave I have an old G4 Mac with music on a second drive in the unit. All I had to do was change a couple of the network settings in the sharing preference and then the Oppo found it, let me start browing the folders from my itunes library, select and play....no problem. I have another Mac in the house on the network that has all the itunes files in lossless so I'll get that one on the network later. When you select the folder of the artist and then begin to play you get a nice display on your TV showing the album art and then off to the side the track name, number, running time ( counting as it plays ), total track time, Artist, Album, Genre, and year. ( Nice ) This is what I was really hoping for was the networking ability and it's working nice so far. The BDP-103 comes with a nice printed manual also. So now sitting back and doing so listening with the BDP-103, marantz SR 6006, and 5 stock first gen sierras and it is delicious.
Well somewhat of an update here. I've had the unit for about a week. I had done the basic setup and things mentioned above but even though settings were working my two issues were 1. couldn't get the in house Mac to play files from itunes library although I could find the folders and browse them, select, but no play. I could play the files from the old Mac so couldn't figure it out until I checked and the old files are regular AAC files with lower bit rates and the in house files are Apple Lossless which apparently the player at this time does not support. Bummer, but the lower bit rate files (from 128k to 320k) sound very good.
2. The 103 was cabled up with both HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 out going to the TV and the Marantz. Blu ray, DVD sounded good in surround but when playing SACD or DVD-A while it sounded good, it just didn't have the full body of sound to it that my older Oppo gave me when the SACD and DVD-A were played which dismayed me. I had the analog cables connected but like I said the sound was good but somewhat more hollow sounding than I thought it should be. I would switch surround modes, levels, etc. and still couldn't get it. Tried turning off the HDMI but when I would do that my output was way weak. Finally this morning when I was able to sit down and go over stuff again with both the Oppo manual ( printed-very nice ) and the Marantz ( on cd which is ok but rather have the printed one ) I have figured it out. I removed one of the HDMI to the LG TV that was going to the ARC HDMI which I don't need cause the TV is not 3D anyways, then going into the settings on the Marantz and finding the setup for the Blu-ray player output you can boost the audio output for analog and digital separately. Pumped up the analog output and now with the cabling change I'm getting the analog sound on the DVD-A and SACD that I prefer and it is nice. The other thing I have noticed with the playback of the Oppo 103 is that when just playing regular cd's the sound seems more detailed and enjoyable than when I played the straight discs before, probably shouldn't be different so that could just my brain processing it differently. Also when you load different types of discs it just loads them right up and you are at the main menu by the time you sit down, very nice...... So the only negative for me is the lack of playing the Apple Lossless files over the network.....but even with that, the other attributes of the player are pretty sweet, and I have no buyers remorse which was starting to creep in there when I wasn't getting the SACD audio the way I thought it should sound, but that was unfounded. The Oppo's setup screen and manual are straight forward and fairly easy to follow, the Marantz although complete much more involved, but when you finally get it right....it's worth the struggle.
Well, I do have to apologize for the delay. I ended up gifting the OPPO BDP-103 to my folks on Thanksgiving as an early Christmas present. I set it up and we watched The Fellowship of the Ring. I hung out with them last night for The Two Towers. We're attempting to rewatch the trilogy before seeing The Hobbit later this month.
This is obviously a well-made product. It was packed extremely well and arrived without damage. Accessories were bundled together in a nice little box. During unboxing, it felt like I was opening an expensive and high-end piece of hardware. Oh wait, that's because it is. ;) I got a lot of positive comments on the appearance. It was an absolute slam dunk in the aesthetics department.
OPPO gets big marks from me for easy setup and an intuitive menu. I am very quick learning about new electronics, and I did not have to refer to the manual at any point during setup and configuration. It was very easy to customize options, join the wireless network, and configure the device for optimal playback.
The firmware update was also simple and painless. I had one small issue with the wireless. With the adapter plugged in on the rear of the unit, the connection stability was intermittent even though I had 78% signal strength. I decided to use the USB extension includedwith the OPPO to position the wireless adapter on top of the entertainment center. No further issues.
I set up a Split AV configuration at my parents house. HDMI output 1 is routed directly to their 32" HDTV. HDMI output 2 is routed directly to their Denon receiver. OPPO recommends this configuration for optimal video and audio quality, as well as to solve specific issues (e.g. if AVR doesn't support 3D passthrough).
The remote control unit is laid out quite well. It feels comfortable in my hand and the back-light is an added bonus.
What else can I say except the OPPO delivers stellar results here. The dedicated video processor on HDMI output 1 provided exceptional picture quality. In fact, my sister remarked that the HDTV never looked so good (she's very discerning when it comes to video quality). We only had to do minor adjustments to get a perfect picture on the LG display. Blu-rays are stunning, but DVDs look surprisingly detailed. Like I said earlier, we watched the first two films from the LotRs trilogy and both of those are on DVD. I look forward to watching The Return of the King next weekend.
As mentioned earlier, I used a Split AV configuration so that the OPPO bit-streams the audio directly to the Denon receiver via HDMI. This means that the Denon decodes everything, so there isn't much to say about the OPPO here, except that it does not tamper with the signal at all.
That said, I tried the OPPO analog outputs for kicks. They are among the best I've heard for a universal disc player. I suspect that the Denon's analog line stage was hold it back a bit, but it still sounded excellent. I did not have time to connect the OPPO's analog outputs to my own Emotiva-based system for further comparison. I suspect that most people will be completely satisfied with the analog performance. If you want something more, get the -105 for its hot-rodded analog output stage.
Besides DVD and Blu-ray movies, I tried my own DVD-Audio, SACD, Hi-res Blu-Ray Audio, and Red Book CDs. The OPPO handled them with superb sound. I'm really impressed how this "universal" player can do so many things so well.
While my parents have no need for this feature, I wanted to test it out for curtis as promised. It recognized my Squeezebox server share and I was able to browse the files with ease. I also downloaded and set up FreeNAS on a virtual machine. I configured a few shares, added content with several layers, and then tried it out on the OPPO. I can say that if you're used to traditional network streaming devices like Squeezebox, Sonos, or Sony network media players, you'll be right at home. The directories are easy to browse using the remote. It's just UP, DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT to access the content. The software was pretty responsive. I would have no qualms using this for streaming media. OPPO has done a pretty good job ensuring ease of use.
I am extremely pleased with the -103. No doubt my family will enjoy this model for many years and it has the capabilities to grow with new technology. I highly recommend this model for the ultimate in universal disc playback or as the centerpiece of an exceptional AV system.
One question, when streaming music, can you setup playlists?
Hmm, I seem to recall a playlist option with the new firmware, but let me look again to confirm. I don't remember if it applied to streaming or to USB/drive playback.
If it is easy to use, and can make playlist on the fly like a Squeezbox or Sonos, I just might to think about seriously getting one. If that happens, then I will sell my BDP-85 and my Sonos setup. That will be one less component in my setup.
For now, the BDP-103 cannot handle playlists for streaming media. I actually broke out the manual and scanned through it twice. No luck. Next step, Google. No luck.
At this time we do not support pre-generated Playlists (CUE, M3U, PLS, etc). This is something that we hope to add through a future firmware release.
This would be a killer feature. *sigh* Oh well.
Guess I will wait. Creating and playing playlists on the Sonos is not something I want to give up.