Oppo confirms BDP-103/105 will be last Blu-ray players without online activation

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by albey000

Hi Ruined.
I like the fact that OPPO make 4-different models of BD players at the moment, and i think it would be silly of OPPO to pull the plug on all of these models and replace with just one player at whatever price it will be. Think 105 price rather than 103. They really need to see how the players sell, before making any decisions on pulling the rest.

P.S - I personally will not buy Disc's that need to be activated online to play.

When the UHD models arrive the 2012-2013 design models are EOL. They will sell out quickly likely as a new model supersedes the old model. The QDEO/SI VRS designs that caused 4 models will not reoccur.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

When the UHD models arrive the 2012-2013 design models are EOL. They will sell out quickly likely as a new model supersedes the old model. The QDEO/SI VRS designs that caused 4 models will not reoccur.

I'm sure Sony appreciates Oppo serving up their BD business to them on a platter:
http://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/uhp-h1

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Ruined

I'm sure Sony appreciates Oppo serving up their BD business to them on a platter:
http://www.sony.com/electronics/audio-components/uhp-h1

Oh well, its like 4K TV's and 1080P TV's when the cost difference becomes somewhat negligible, what would prompt you buy a 1080P TV? This is the same thing that will occur in the BD marketplace fairly rapidly in the future. UHD players will quickly obsolete the older BD players marketplace. Still selling BD players until then is what Sony is doing while developing their UHD players as is Oppo.

[Ruined]

John, you do realize DVD still has a bigger market share than Blu-ray, right? And you think UHDBD is going to overtake Blu-ray?

[JohnAV]

Depends on how you look at it. DVD players are not that commonplace, as cheap BD players which play DVD's are abundant, at least all future/current UHD BD players can play DVD's. But the big news is that VHS players are finally EOL this year.

But if you look at the actual state of video converted to media, yes what has been released as DVD is about 150,000 versus 10,000 BD's if I had to guess. I can't find any sites that still give this info. Digitalbits used to. Then you have a few dozen UHD titles. But wait there's more at least 2/3 of a studio or content owners material still is sitting not ever been released.

[Deciazulado]

In the semi worldwide database there are ~ 159,000 Blu-ray entries and ~ 29,000 on the US alone tho that includes double and triple, etc dips and upcoming/not released things.

[rdodolak]

I just took a quick look at DVDProfiler and they show 23,869 Blu-rays and 162,959 DVDs in the US (641,521 DVDs and 115,783 Blu-rays worldwide). Granted they don't have every release in the database either.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

In the semi worldwide database there are ~ 159,000 Blu-ray entries and ~ 29,000 on the US alone tho that includes double and triple, etc dips and upcoming/not released things.

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I just took a quick look at DVDProfiler and they show 23,869 Blu-rays and 162,959 DVDs in the US (641,521 DVDs and 115,783 Blu-rays worldwide). Granted they don't have every release in the database either.

Thanks to both of you for pointing out the known statistics and a site to look that info up.

I imagine with all the localized packaging adaptions including steel cases & vendor kits 3D, BD+DVD, BD+Digital Copy, the Blu-ray entries might be huge, still what I was thinking was mostly from a release standpoint as digitalbits used to mention at the bottom of their 2 cents column. Yea gads that is a huge number of DVD/Blu-ray releases world wide.

[Deciazulado]

We have listings for only a little more than 40 countries, and probably even a big chunk from those are not entered yet so who knows how many are out there. (btw thanks to all members for all their submissions! )

[iwanttobeabmoviestar]

I dont see a point to this as wasnt it announced there is no region coding on UHD ?

[jjhunsecker]

Originally Posted by DVD Polizei

All the more reason to not buy a media player for $500. I did. I regret it. My BDP-93 became a brick (after a few really good years that I enjoyed so don't get me wrong on that), because it wouldn't play Fox movies for some reason, and Oppo support was like getting a coffee at Starbucks. Different attitude. Different days.

Why spend so much money on a media player these days? My Samsung $89 does just as good and even plays Fox Blu-rays. And if a few years later this Samsung becomes unreliable? Buy a newer model. At least I'm not out $500 and the illusion that I have something valuable.

I would certainly NOT advise people to buy Oppo players. If anything, sell the sucker now while you can, bank that cash to spend it on another brand.

Oppo was once the fiercely shining light in the world of quality products, but now they've become the politicians many of us despise. They simply go along to get along, at the consumer's expense and trust, and don't care.

I just started having the same problems. Just last week I tried to play the "Oklahoma" and "South Pacific" blu-rays that I owned for several months and had not opened. Neither disc would play. It would load up, and then freeze before getting to the menu screen, I would have to manually shut off the player to remove the disc. Today, I finally decided to watch "Return of the Jedi" in the "Star Wars" set I had for awhile, and it would not play either. I tried "The Empire Strikes Back", which I watched about 6 weeks ago with no problem, and it too will not play now. I then tried several Bond blu-rays, all of which played fine in the past, and NONE of them would load. I tried numerous blus from other labels (WB, Disney, Paramount, LionsGate) and all played with no issue, along with several DVDs and CDs, So there is some issue with the Oppo (I have the 93 for 4 years now and never had a problem) and Fox blu-rays. Anybody have a clue ?

[Vilya]

I have had my Oppo 93 since January 2012 and I have had only one small issue with one documentary about a national park where one of the extra features would not play through completely. Other than that, everything else has played perfectly. I watched all of the Star Wars movies a few months ago with no trouble.

I have no idea why my player is working fine and some people are having problems. I do wonder how common place these problems are, however. I am not finding a lot of negative reviews on Amazon for the 93 model; only 5% are 2 stars and lower out of 350 reviews. The plain 103 model also only has 5% bad reviews out of 751 reviews. I would expect a lot more negative reviews if serious problems were commonplace. Not that that is any consolation to those affected...

[TheUncool]

FWIW, I wouldn't spend 4-5x as much on a player just because I thought it'd last 4-5x as long... although 4-5 years might actually be 4-5x as long as some other brand name players out there -- I've owned several brand name BD players (chosen in large part for expected reliability) plus a PS3, and none, except one, lasted more than 1.5 year before they stopped playing BDs.

I'd say choose the Oppo for its superiority across a combo of factors that matter to you, not just one (like reliability). If you're only choosing Oppo for reliability and nothing else, then there's good likelihood you're overpaying at least to some degree -- of course, some may simply value reliability much more than others and find that part of the curve to be justified.

Some will fail prematurely no matter what brand you buy... and honestly, they really don't make consumer electronics (reliably) like they used to... But if 4 years are the *floor* for durability/reliability of Oppos, not the norm, then I'd gladly take that given even the most reliable in the brand name $100-150 range seem to have floors around 1-1.5 year -- and no, I would never buy a Samsung player and expect any reliability at all.

[78deluxe]

Originally Posted by TheUncool

FWIW, I wouldn't spend 4-5x as much on a player just because I thought it'd last 4-5x as long... although 4-5 years might actually be 4-5x as long as some other brand name players out there -- I've owned several brand name BD players (chosen in large part for expected reliability) plus a PS3, and none, except one, lasted more than 1.5 year before they stopped playing BDs.

I'd say choose the Oppo for its superiority across a combo of factors that matter to you, not just one (like reliability). If you're only choosing Oppo for reliability and nothing else, then there's good likelihood you're overpaying at least to some degree -- of course, some may simply value reliability much more than others and find that part of the curve to be justified.

Some will fail prematurely no matter what brand you buy... and honestly, they really don't make consumer electronics (reliably) like they used to... But if 4 years are the *floor* for durability/reliability of Oppos, not the norm, then I'd gladly take that given even the most reliable in the brand name $100-150 range seem to have floors around 1-1.5 year -- and no, I would never buy a Samsung player and expect any reliability at all.

Serious question, how many hours a day are you using your Bluray player that they are dying in 1.5 years (or less)?

[TheUncool]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

Serious question, how many hours a day are you using your Bluray player that they are dying in 1.5 years (or less)?

Heh... not sure now, but I do have kids. Those Panny players probably played somewhere around 2-3 BDs per day on avg (plus maybe another DVD per day), and it was always just the BD playback that stopped working -- they continued to work just fine for CDs and DVDs (and some bit of Amazon Prime streaming we did on some of them), except for the PS3, which was our 1st BD player (and wasn't used much for games) that eventually also stopped reading all optical discs and needed the drive replaced.

Prior to BDs, my kids did also wear out a Toshiba DVD player w/in maybe 2 years or so when they were little (around preschool thru kindergarten age), but that player was used waaaaay more than any of our BD players (or probably any other DVD players we've owned for that matter). That one getting worn out I understood and accepted given how much use we got out of it.

FWIW, our now ~10-yo Denon 2910 "universal" (DVD) player oddly stopped reading regular CDs (and most of its front panel controls also became progressively flakey) maybe 3-4 years into ownership, but works fine (for the most part) w/ other discs, including SACDs -- I guess the Redbook CD laser failed in this case. I still occasionally use it mainly for SACD playback in my home office these days (after the Oppo 103 took over that duty in our main system)...

But really, it's not just disc players that don't last as long as they used to, but TVs and other consumer electronics too. And Toshiba and Panny had also long been two of the most durable/reliable makers (while offering excellent A/V quality and solid value) too, but maybe not so much anymore. These days I'm reluctant to buy any new displays w/out making sure I know about whatever well-known (affordably fixable) issues common to them, eg. our prior Panny CRT RPTV, our in-laws' retired Samsung DLP RPTV, our aging Samsung LED DLP RPTV, our BenQ DLP projector, etc.

Anyway, hopefully, the Oppo 103 will last at least several more years, if not more...

[Eny-]

You must be an unlucky guy.

I play around two/three discs per day on my Oppo + whatever my kids watch.

I never had a laser go out. Much less in 1,5 year.

With the Oppo when it comes to that I will just buy the laser unit and easily replace it.

[TheUncool]

Hehheh... OTOH, I haven't had nearly as many serious/catastrophic computer/harddrive failures as other folks it seems -- really just twice in ~25 years so far across many computers at home and work, and one was more than ready for retirement (after nearly 10 years of service) anyway and the other (inexpensive laptop) seemed to be due to RAM failure that corrupted the drive/installation too much instead of outright harddrive failure (and I didn't lose anything important).

Also, haven't had much problems w/ other HT/audio gear even though I often buy them used -- my now ancient, 2nd-hand Vandersteen 2Ci's are still going strong as is my B&K 5-channel amp... both probably around 25 years old by now... My collection of (mostly Nikon DSLR) camera gear have served well too among other things...

IF anything's going to fail, I guess I'd much rather have the relatively inexpensive, easily replaceable disc players fail instead of the other stuff -- the TV/display issues over the past decade and change I've managed ok enough w/ some effort...