Magnetar UDP800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player

[hansolo]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

The 203 may well pass lossless audio via MKV but I am fairly certain it will not do lossless with Atmos or DTS:X. I could do some test if so desired.

203 can pass lossless immersive audio from mkv files. With TrueHD/Atmos audio you may need to switch audio track to lossy DD and then back to TrueHD Atmos to make it work. It's a known bug in 203 firmware or SoC. Tip. Always include legacy (core) DD (or DD commentary track) in your mkv backups to quickly bypass this bug.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by GODHOOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXJqYBm8aH8

Nice review. Still pointless to buy one though if you own an Oppo 203 or 205 but this player looks like a real top performer.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by danny24

It's not just you they are. Even the Cambridge Audio CXUHD was an Oppo clone before Oppo stopped producing new players. Than you add Reavon, Pannde and now Magnetar.

Hmmm... Lets not forget that the Cambridge CXUHD didn't offer any 'analogue audio' outputs... Along with some other features that the OPPO's had

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by hansolo

203 can pass lossless immersive audio from mkv files. With TrueHD/Atmos audio you may need to switch audio track to lossy DD and then back to TrueHD Atmos to make it work. It's a known bug in 203 firmware or SoC. Tip. Always include legacy (core) DD (or DD commentary track) in your mkv backups to quickly bypass this bug.

Indeed... Parsing Dolby Atmos audio can be a bit flaky when muxed into the .mkv container (it was much the sam with the BDP-10x players). But it works perfectly when muxed into the .m2ts container and/or authored within an AVC/BDMV folder set

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by danny24

Nice review. Still pointless to buy one though if you own an Oppo 203 or 205 but this player looks like a real top performer.

I really want to know more about the firmware/software support communication process!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by hansolo

203 can pass lossless immersive audio from mkv files. With TrueHD/Atmos audio you may need to switch audio track to lossy DD and then back to TrueHD Atmos to make it work. It's a known bug in 203 firmware or SoC. Tip. Always include legacy (core) DD (or DD commentary track) in your mkv backups to quickly bypass this bug.

Thanks for the info and tip. 90% of my files are ISO and about 99.7% sure the 203 will not play these. And I know it doesn't scrape, do movie walls, posters, etc.

[jcs913]

Nice player, but it's basically the same as the 203. Just a grand more....Hilarious how the main screen and menus are almost identical to the OPPO one. Not much innovation there. They figured since it ain't broke...copy it. It looks like it probably has the Dolby Vision forced option since I saw HDR set to AUTO??

[danny24]

Originally Posted by jcs913

Nice player, but it's basically the same as the 203. Just a grand more....Hilarious how the main screen and menus are almost identical to the OPPO one. Not much innovation there. They figured since it ain't broke...copy it. It looks like it probably has the Dolby Vision forced option since I saw HDR set to AUTO??

Yeah like I said previously it's pointless to buy this player if you already own and are using either a 203 or 205. If you own a UB9000 or 820 and want an Oppo like player brand new and not second hand this is probably a good choice. Or just for people that want a brand new Oppo like player. The price on this though is definitely inflated it should be $999 like the UB9000. Definitely though one of the premium players to get now say if you are looking at the UB9000 and want to spend a few hundred more for Oppo like quality. This definitely blows Reavon out of the water with internals and build quality and it's chipset is Oppo like as well. Pretty impressive except for it's inflated price tag.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by danny24

The price on this though is definitely inflated it should be $999 like the UB9000...

I disagree. As unlike the Magnetar the Panasonic DP-UB9000 offers 8-channel analogue outputs, it's from a well known manufacturer with known warranty arrangements!

Given its reduced feature-set, it's worth no more than the original OPPO UDP-203...

[Naiera]

It's worth whatever they can sell it for. Time will tell if they can sell enough at their current asking price to make a business of it.

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

I disagree. As unlike the Magnetar the Panasonic DP-UB9000 offers 8-channel analogue outputs, it's from a well known manufacturer with known warranty arrangements!

Given its reduced feature-set, it's worth no more than the original OPPO UDP-203...

So they removed the 7.1 channel DAC that is the most expensive hardware part (Oppo 203 has it) but they charge $1600???

Unreal!

This should cost like the Panasonic 820, not the 9000

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

So they removed the 7.1 channel DAC that is the most expensive hardware part (Oppo 203 has it) but they charge $1500???

Unreal!

This should cost like the Panasonic 820, not the 9000

But but but...it's got balanced XLR outputs! Everybody needs those!

[Hombre1]

The Oppo passes only the Full spec Dolby TrueHD Atmos. But most MKV contain Atmos with a stript core. No Dolby Digital core and that's were things go wrong.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

If it passes lossless via bitstream then it passes immersive, or Atmos at the least, as its object-based metadata is contained *within* the bitstream.

[garyd97]

I would buy one if it weren't for the ridiculous price.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Hombre1

The Oppo passes only the Full spec Dolby TrueHD Atmos. But most MKV contain Atmos with a stript core. No Dolby Digital core and that's were things go wrong.

Yes, someone said this already. (Though it's not a "core" track as it's separately encoded from the DTHD stream, i.e. it's not built on top of it.) But now that it's mentioned I'm reminded of playing an actual DTHD BD that didn't have a DD legacy embed and it did funny things there too.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by Hombre1

The Oppo passes only the Full spec Dolby TrueHD Atmos.

The OPPO can pass a Dolby TrueHD or Atmos in .mkv (or .mka) bitstreams... It's just a little hit and miss!

Indeed, if bitstreaming a Dolby TrueHD or Atmos in .mkv file doesn't work first time, the work around is to play a regular Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus, then move onto the Dolby TrueHD or Atmos in .mkv file.

Or, if that doesn't work. Turn the OPPO off and on again prior to accessing the Dolby TrueHD or Atmos in .mkv file.

Also, I've found re-muxing such .mkv contained files using MKVtoolnix GUI creates more stable .mkv files...

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

But but but...it's got balanced XLR outputs! Everybody needs those!

Yes DJs at parties need XLR stereo out

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

Yes DJs at parties need XLR stereo out

Indeed... Because they all have amps with XLR inputs

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by garyd97

I would buy one if it weren't for the ridiculous price.

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Just glad to see another disc spinner made available. And once again, IMHO the Oppo was way to cheap therefore was not profitable enough for them to keep making them.

A few items for comparison (price paid and price adjusted for inflation in 2020): 1985 Pioneer LaserDisc CLD-900 - $1100 ($2657 in 2020) ● 1985 Sony Beta Hi-F SL-HF900 - $1050 ($2536 in 2020) ● 1997 Sony DVP-S7000 DVD player - $1000 ($1619 in 2020) ● 2006 Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player - $1050 ($1354 in 2020).

This player is less than the price of the Sony DVP-S7000 ($1855 in 2022) was but it can do much more than the Sony could.

Some of us that wanted to play in the upper scale of home theater have always had to pay out the yang for hardware and software. Was not uncommon in the 80's for LD titles to be in the $30 to $50 range (in 2022 $77 to $129). Hope some of you do not plan on upper end autos, some of them will send you into cardiac arrest.

[Wendell R. Breland]

A few more of my purchase price paid and 2022 adjusted:

1984 Kloss Novabeam Model 1A, paid $2700, now $7600

2004 JVC Projector, paid $8000, now $12400

2023 Looking at a Sony VPL-XW6000, $12000. In performance - much more than the 2004 JVC yet about the same price.