Oppo BDP-93 Networking Universal 3D Blu-ray Player

[stratford]

good news,
bluraychip them selves say that they expect to release a new firmware in the next few days, as on August 6Th

[HDTV1080P]

Blu-ray player manufactories are releasing firmware that disables region free and region selectable upgrade kits (either on purpose or by mistake). Then as a solution some companies that make region free and region selectable kits offer firmware upgrades to their upgrade kits to restore features that were disabled.

[stratford]

make no mistake, these things do not happen by accident or why dose my famous name DVD player still play DVDs from all regions with the region hack

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by stratford

make no mistake, these things do not happen by accident or why dose my famous name DVD player still play DVDs from all regions with the region hack

The MPAA and other movie studio organizations might be putting pressure on Blu-ray player manufactories to disable the third party region free and region selectable upgrade kits. They do not want consumers to import movies from a different region in the world. Once and awhile a movie released in one country on home video is still being shown in theaters in another country (The movie studios don’t want ticket sells to be hurt, etc).

[stratford]

HDTV1080P--There is no might about it, who else would it be?
Wouldn't it be more effective to chase players and/ or mod kits for famous brand players that are likely to sell in greater numbers
This sort of thing only gives piratesbay and megaupload a good name
Many titles only exist in one Territory so a mufti-region mod is needed

[HDTV1080P]

The OPPO BDP-93/95 is the ideal player for people to own if they want to play international Blu-rays that are region free or if one plans on installing a upgrade kit to play any region Blu-ray or DVD.

The problem with Panasonic, Sony, and some other region A Blu-ray players is that they cannot handle 50Hz HD and 50Hz PAL signals. The OPPO BDP-93/95 can output native PAL or convert PAL to NTSC. It can also output 1080P at 50Hz or convert HD 50Hz to 60Hz.

Other manufactories are most likely being targeted with firmware updates to disable region free and region selectable kits (or they might soon start being targeted). One Blu-ray player manufactory had a secret region menu in the offical firmware release that was later removed with a firmware update.

Since the OPPO BDP-93/95 power supply handles 100-240 volts (50/60Hz) with the ability to play International video formats it’s the ideal player to make region free or region selectable with a upgrade kit. The OPPO BDP-93/95 is also one of the easiest Blu-ray players to upgrade to region selectable (region free). Some companies make external kits that don’t even require the Blu-ray player to even be opened.

[stratford]

That is a good answer, though european players commonly handle U.S. content as is, European TVs usually handle ntsc input with out problem

[HDTV1080P]

The BD-LIVE feature is now one of the strongest features on the OPPO BDP-93/95

Problem with Showtime Blu-ray titles has been resolved and other BD-LIVE improvements seen

On July 31st 2012 OPPO Digital INC released a Public BETA firmware update that greatly improved the BD-LIVE reliability issue (Installation Instructions and Download Link: Click Here). An official release should be coming sometime in the future that will allow consumers to download the firmware directly to their Internet connected OPPO BDP-93/95 Blu-ray player.

Brief history of the problem

Originally I discovered almost a year ago that one of my family members Dexter season 4 and season 5 Blu-ray’s would lock up and not load at all on the BDP-93 when BD-LIVE network access is set to on. Both seasons 4 and 5 are suppose to automatically load to the BD-LIVE menu when the Blu-ray discs are inserted instead of going to the Blu-ray disc main title menu. Showtime Entertainment has a lot of streaming SD content for Dexter season 4 and 5 that includes both bonus interviews and a few streaming SD samples of other Showtime TV series.

Season 4 and season 5 of Dexter loaded just fine on the old OPPO BDP-83 with BD-LIVE network access on but the new OPPO BDP-93/95 would lock up and not load with those episodes. OPPO Digital INC verified this problem also.

Problem resolved in the latest BETA firmware update

I have verified that both Dexter season 4 and Dexter season 5 on Blu-ray will now load properly when BD-LIVE network access is turned on. I also streamed the bonus features using BD-LIVE for season 4 and season 5 and I have confirmed that both seasons work fine now when using BD-LIVE (some minor glitches occurred while streaming Dexter BD-LIVE material). Panasonic and Sony Blu-ray players are still a little more faster and reliable when using BD-LIVE compared to the OPPO BDP-93. The fastest and most reliable BD-LIVE experience is for those consumers that own a high-end desktop PC with a Blu-ray computer drive.

Also I noticed a major improvement in the BD-LIVE feature for other Blu-ray discs. In the past the OPPO BDP-93 had issues with some Universal Blu-ray discs that attempted to load the latest previews from the Internet and what would happen with prior firmware used is that the Blu-ray player would skip over the web based Universal previews. This new BETA firmware correctly streamed 720P Universal movie trailers over the Internet shortly after the Universal Studios Blu-ray disc is loaded.

I also manually launched the BD-LIVE feature for many Blu-ray titles. Universal BD-LIVE move trailers are streamed at a low bit rate since that is how Universal BD-LIVE servers currently work. Universal BD-LIVE movie trailers are currently streamed at 720P at 24Hz using the MPEG-4/AVC codec. Universal movie trailers were in DTS stereo. Now the Warner BD-LIVE feature has much better quality HD trailers since they use a higher bit rate when downloading. Using a high-end 2TB E-SATA hard drive formatted as FAT32 attached to the OPPO BDP-93, I was able to download several 720P HD trailers from Warner with a VC1 bit rate that peaks around 15Mbps. The Warner 720P trailers were 60Hz or 24Hz depending on the trailer being shown. The Warner BD-LIVE Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack is encoded with Dolby Prologic information. When I bit streamed the audio from the Blu-ray player a matrix flag told my Pioneer Elite A/V receiver to use Dolby Prologic IIx.

BD-LIVE once again has no loading problems with the OPPO BDP-93/95

The several Blu-ray titles I tested had no loading problems at all. Manually using BD-LIVE on the OPPO BDP-93 worked great with only a few minor glitches once and awhile. Modern Panasonic and Sony Blu-ray players are still a little more faster and reliable when using BD-LIVE compared to the OPPO BDP-93. The big advantage of the OPPO BDP-93/95 is that it contains 2GB of built in memory (1GB reserved for BD-LIVE and 1GB reserved for streaming services like VUDU). 90% of the standalone Blu-ray players released in 2012 do not contain any internal memory for BD-LIVE and require an external drive in order to use BD-LIVE. So if one only plans on streaming BD-LIVE features then the built in 1GB of memory reserved for BD-LIVE is all one needs on the OPPO BDP-93/95. If one likes to download HD quality bonus material from 20th Century Fox or 720P movie trailers from Warner then attaching a 2TB E-SATA hard drive formatted as FAT32 will offer the best BD-LIVE experience. When downloading BD-LIVE material a minimum of 4GB is needed if one wants to download all the HD trailers on some BD-LIVE enabled Blu-ray discs.

The OPPO BDP-93 with the latest BETA firmware update works better than the old OPPO BDP-83 for those that use BD-LIVE a lot.

[HDTV1080P]

The new DVD 24p Conversion feature on the OPPO BDP-93/95 is excellent at converting film based DVD’s to 1080p/24

On July 31st 2012 OPPO Digital INC released a Public BETA firmware update that offers the DVD 24p Conversion feature (Installation Instructions and Download Link: Click Here). An official release should be coming sometime in the future that will allow consumers to download the firmware directly to their Internet connected OPPO BDP-93/95 Blu-ray player.


Back in late 2010 when the OPPO BDP-93 was introduced some people were disappointed that the OPPO BDP-93 did not offer the DVD 24p Conversion feature. I emailed OPPO Digital INC back in 2010 and they informed me that they had no plans on offering the 24p DVD feature. Back in late 2010 the 24p DVD feature was a standard feature found on all modern Panasonic and Sony Blu-ray players. I heard from some consumers that they decided to keep their old OPPO BDP-83 that offered the 24p DVD feature instead of upgrading to the OPPO BDP-93.


The following is a link to this issue:

OPPO BDP-93 & OPPO BDP-83 review links that talk about the quality 24fps DVD feature

So back in 2010 when I upgraded my OPPO BDP-83 to the OPPO BDP-93 I gained the ability to do video streaming, ability to play Blu-ray 3-D movies when connected to a 3-D display, a E-SATA II interface, two HDMI 1.4a outputs, no fans for low noise operation, and other features not found on the old OPPO BDP-83. However, what I lost was the ability of my Blu-ray player to convert film based DVD’s to 1080p/24. Instead the OPPO BDP-93 would upconvert all film based DVD’s to 1080P at 60Hz with 3:2 pulldown judder.

The work around was to place my OPPO BDP-93 in the source direct mode so that all DVD’s would be outputted at their native resolution of 480i. This allowed my Pioneer Elite Signature series monitor when in the advance mode to do a reverse 3:2 pulldown for film based 480i DVD’s and upconvert the image on the screen at 1080P at 72HZ. Of course not everyone owns a display that does a reverse 3:2 pulldown for film based sources and having the 24p DVD feature in the Blu-ray player is ideal for some HD displays that lack the ability to do a reverse 3:2 pulldown.

OPPO Digital recently surprised many videophiles when their latest firmware update now offers the DVD 24p Conversion feature for the OPPO BDP-93/95 Blu-ray players

HDMI-2 cannot be used with the DVD 24p Conversion feature. The HDMI-2 and the 1080i component video output uses a custom made Mediatec decoder which is not as good as quality when compared to the Qdeo by Marvell solution found on the HDMI-1 port. So HDMI-1 needs to be used with the DVD 24p Conversion feature (HDMI-1 also offers the best video upconversion).

When I turned on the DVD 24p Conversion feature and switched off the source direct mode, this allowed the OPPO BDP-93 to upconvert film based DVD’s to 1080p/24 by performing a reverse 3:2 pulldown (video based DVD’s are still upconverted to 1080p/60 like they should be).

The Qdeo 24p DVD feature looked outstanding on the OPPO BDP-93 for the film based 480i DVD’s I played. I did not have any issues with frame drops or tearing. My Pioneer monitor received the 1080p/24 upscaling signal from the OPPO BDP-93 and displayed the image on the screen at 72Hz. The film based DVD’s I tried had naturally smooth camera pans without any noticeable 3:2 pulldown judder.

Now there is no advantage to owning the old OPPO BDP-83 as far as I am aware. The DVD 24p Conversion feature is very high quality on the OPPO BDP-93. Plus the OPPO BDP-93 offers streaming features, Blu-ray 3-D support, E-SATA II interface, two HDMI 1.4a outputs, no fans for low noise operation, and other features not found on the old OPPO BDP-83.

[HDTV1080P]

The OPPO BDP-93/95 supports YouTube video streaming at true 1080P quality

Plus other streaming information

I recently had a few email conversations with OPPO Digital Inc. and thought I would pass some useful information on.

On a Windows PC some YouTube videos are only available at 240P,360P, and 480P quality. On the higher quality YouTube videos a Windows PC allows one to stream YouTube videos at 1080P, 720P, 480P, 360P, and 240P. There is a quality selection option on the Windows PC that allows one to choose the resoultion quality of the streaming YouTube video. However, on all Blu-ray players including the OPPO BDP-93/95 the YouTube videos are streamed at the default resolution of the native source. According to OPPO Digital this means sometimes the YouTube video being sent is true 1080P quality while other times it might be 720P quality or lower. Also the OPPO BDP-93/95 will never display resolution and other onscreen information for Netflix, Pandora, Vudu, or YouTube since they have not been given permission to do this from the agreements they have with the streaming companies. So for example when streaming 480i/p content or 720P content the OPPO will upscale the image to 1080P when connected to a 1080P display, and no onscreen information is allowed to show the user what the native source resolution and codec is.

The amount of streaming services on the OPPO BDP-93/95 is the players greatest weakness when compared to other standalone Blu-ray players from Sony and Panasonic. The new Sony BDP-S790 offers 50 different streaming services. Even the Panasonic Blu-ray players offer much more streaming Internet services when compared to the OPPO BDP-93/95. Possible Amazon on Demand and USB keyboard support might be offered in the future on existing or future OPPO Blu-ray players but there is no guarantee this will every occur. Below you will find exact quotes from OPPO Digital INC. regarding these issues:

Click link for details on why the BDP-93 and BDP-95 might never offer 1080P Netflix with 5.1 surround sound

The following is Question number 1A asked to OPPO Digital:

1.On a Windows PC one has the ability to select 1080P or 720P resolution for HD YouTube videos. On the OPPO BDP-93 there is no option in the menu to play YouTube videos at 1080P, just the default HD option. It would be a nice feature to be able to select the 1080P option for YouTube videos, maybe a future firmware update to the OPPO BDP-93/95 could add 1080P YouTube.

The following is an email quote from OPPO customer service regarding question 1A:

“1. YouTube Leanback was not designed for this kind of function. YouTube Leanback was designed like a television channel where the content is streamed to you at the default resolution of the source and without any customization by the end-user. There is unfortunately no means of changing the resolution to suit your bandwidth or native television capabilities. This is a limitation of the program, and not the player.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc”

The following is Question number 1B asked to OPPO Digital:

So if YouTube is streamed to me at the native resolution could OPPO software engineers please do a firmware update that will tell OPPO users the resolution of the signal when the “info” button is pressed on the remote? Currently the OPPO BDP-93/95 is not able to show the resolution of the streaming video from any streaming source including Netflix, VUDU, YouTube, etc.

The following is an email quote from OPPO customer service regarding question 1B:

“The resolution of the stream is determined by the native resolution stored on the YouTube servers. The player can scale this up and down, but the input resolution is whatever Google supplies us. We can't force Google to always send 1080p, or 240p, as the customer's network connection demands.

The capabilities of the player are restricted by the application. All of these applications disable our OSD as they want their applications to be used in their environment only. For this reason we are not able to bring up any display information when streaming from Netflix, Pandora, VUDU or YouTube.

We have asked these companies for permission to display some level of information, but so far none have been willing to support us.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc”

The following is Question number 1C asked to OPPO Digital:

So if YouTube is sending 1080P for some videos then the OPPO BDP-93 will output 1080P YouTube using the existing firmware?

The following is an email quote from OPPO customer service regarding question 1C:

“That is correct.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.”

The following is Question number 2 asked to OPPO Digital:

2.Also on the Sony BDP-S790 a USB keyboard can be used for Internet streaming features like YouTube, etc. A firmware update to the OPPO BDP-93/95 to allow a USB keyboard would be a nice feature.

The following is an email quote from OPPO customer service regarding question 2:

“2. We have requested the engineers look into supporting USB keyboards through a future firmware release, but so far they have not been able to develop a driver for this product. We do not know if we will be able to add USB support for the current line of players

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.”

The following is Question number 3 asked to OPPO Digital:

3.On the Sony BDP-S790 it has a total of 50 streaming services which is much more then what the OPPO BDP-93/95 offers. Adding Amazon on demand would be a popular feature for OPPO BDP-93/95 owners. Also adding a local weather feature by zip code would be nice streaming feature.

The following is an email quote from OPPO customer service regarding question 3:

“3. Unfortunately Sony has more industry clout then we do, so they are able to get streaming partners that we are not able to. We have been trying to add additional streaming partners to our current players, including Amazon, but at this time none are willing to give us the additional support required to add their APKs to our players.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.”

[SLK320]

Originally Posted by sirhc55

The latest beta firmware invalidates the Pro Mod chip but I was able to reverse back from the latest beta to the last official non-beta version.

It is hoped that bluraychip.hk will have a new firmware upgrade soon.

How? I'm stuck with a non-working chip after update.

[sirhc55]

Originally Posted by SLK320

How? I'm stuck with a non-working chip after update.

Download the firmware from the Oppo site (firmware BDP9x-660413 dated April 23, 2012) and put the files onto a thumb drive.

Place the thumb drive into the front USB socket on the Oppo. Turn the Oppo on. You will then be able to downgrade your firmware to the last official version, i.e. the one on the thumbdrive.

OR, wait for Bluraychip HK to update the firmware for the pro mod

[KarmaNL]

Originally Posted by stratford

good news,
bluraychip them selves say that they expect to release a new firmware in the next few days, as on August 6Th

Have they ever released a new firmware for their pro mod or do I just not know where to download it from?

[SLK320]

Originally Posted by sirhc55

Download the firmware from the Oppo site (firmware BDP9x-660413 dated April 23, 2012) and put the files onto a thumb drive.

Place the thumb drive into the front USB socket on the Oppo. Turn the Oppo on. You will then be able to downgrade your firmware to the last official version, i.e. the one on the thumbdrive.

OR, wait for Bluraychip HK to update the firmware for the pro mod

No such luck with my EU player. Just keep getting message "faulty firmware".

[sirhc55]

Originally Posted by SLK320

No such luck with my EU player. Just keep getting message "faulty firmware".

Ah! I did not realize you had a EU model. I have the us model in Sydney Australia

[FREYMAX 3D]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

The amount of streaming services on the OPPO BDP-93/95 is the players greatest weakness when compared to other standalone Blu-ray players from Sony and Panasonic. The new Sony BDP-S790 offers 50 different streaming services. Even the Panasonic Blu-ray players offer much more streaming Internet services when compared to the OPPO BDP-93/95. Possible Amazon on Demand and USB keyboard support might be offered in the future on existing or future OPPO Blu-ray players but there is no guarantee this will every occur.

Frankly, I wish Oppo would completely forget about streaming services altogether on their Blu-ray players and concentrate all the costs and efforts into the best quality parts affordable in their player's construction. I consider Oppo a higher end player that shouldn't concern itself with all this extra crap being put into the mass-market players now. If you want streaming so bad in your theater setup, put a dang HTPC in your system. Let a Blu-ray player be a Blu-ray player, and stop trying to turn it into an adulterated computer... wtf - a USB keyboard on a BDP??

If you really want an all-in-one system, go to a flea market and buy one of those old phono/stereo/8-track units that were all the rage back in the '70s... lol.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by FreyTheater3D

Frankly, I wish Oppo would completely forget about streaming services altogether on their Blu-ray players and concentrate all the costs and efforts into the best quality parts affordable in their player's construction. I consider Oppo a higher end player that shouldn't concern itself with all this extra crap being put into the mass-market players now. If you want streaming so bad in your theater setup, put a dang HTPC in your system. Let a Blu-ray player be a Blu-ray player, and stop trying to turn it into an adulterated computer... wtf - a USB keyboard on a BDP??

If you really want an all-in-one system, go to a flea market and buy one of those old phono/stereo/8-track units that were all the rage back in the '70s... lol.

Personally I do not use the streaming features except for the free $5.99 1080P VUDU credit that is offered with all new Blu-ray players when one enters their email address (Also I briefly tested the free streaming features like YouTube). I prefer the picture and sound quality of Blu-ray discs over streaming. That being said I know other family members that are retired and have more time and they love using Netflix streaming and Blu-ray disc renting. At least OPPO Digital offers the major streaming services like VUDU and Netflix.

The problem now is that VUDU has many exclusive 1080P titles for purchase to own that have never been relaased on the Blu-ray format. If this trend keeps up then movie and TV show collectors are going to have to purchase VUDU 1080P if they want the best in picture and sound quality if the Blu-ray format is completely skipped for some titles.

Click the following source link example for exclusive VUDU 1080P titles not available on Blu-ray.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=6285949&postcount=10

[Tech-UK]

Originally Posted by FreyTheater3D

Frankly, I wish Oppo would completely forget about streaming services altogether on their Blu-ray players and concentrate all the costs and efforts into the best quality parts affordable in their player's construction. I consider Oppo a higher end player that shouldn't concern itself with all this extra crap being put into the mass-market players now. If you want streaming so bad in your theater setup, put a dang HTPC in your system. Let a Blu-ray player be a Blu-ray player, and stop trying to turn it into an adulterated computer... wtf - a USB keyboard on a BDP??

If you really want an all-in-one system, go to a flea market and buy one of those old phono/stereo/8-track units that were all the rage back in the '70s... lol.

+1. Don't get me started on "smart" TV's! With their multicore processors and apps.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by Tech-UK

+1. Don't get me started on "smart" TV's! With their multicore processors and apps.

The solution is not for OPPO Digital INC to stop offering streaming services on all future Blu-ray players, doing so would put the OPPO players in an extreme niche of a product. The problem is that some consumers would not purchase OPPO Blu-ray players if they do not offer any streaming services since streaming services are a standard feature on all 2012 Blu-ray players starting at $75.

As I mentioned before I hardly every use streaming services and I would not miss them much. My streaming activity could change if VUDU keeps getting exclusive 1080P titles that are not offered on Blu-ray.

[ckenisell]

Would still like to have HBO Go.