Oppo 105 - Is it going to make a difference?

[duaplex]

You can buy the player with the kit for £100 extra, so its probably more cost effective. My only concern is the screws, they will be able to tell if you have opened it by looking for screwdriver marks.

That would be my only concern, but personaly im up for modding it

 

[micks_address]

One thing to watch for (or listen for) with the 95 is that it has a fan for cooling purposes and some users have complained that they can hear it over the music they are listening to. This would be a deal breaker for me.

I'm not sure what advantages the 103 offers over the 93, will 4k be any use for the next couple of years?

Cheers,
Mick

 

[Frank Harvey]

David

i was going to call you when you had your open day sales last Saturday but you did not have any oppo on your list I now know why let us know what you think and we can go from there after will you be offering a Multi region version then ?

If we'd have had them in for the open day, we would've shown them on the day, but this was a fairly late thing that we decided a couple of days ago. I have made enquiries about the multi-region for Bluray, so I'm just waiting to hear back about that.

 

[duaplex]

Mick the new range is passively cooled, there are no fans

David this saturday I will testing it out against my LX54, hopefully they allow me to perform a side by side comparison. So far all reviews of the 103 and 105 have been positive.

 

[bigboss]

You can buy the player with the kit for £100 extra, so its probably more cost effective. My only concern is the screws, they will be able to tell if you have opened it by looking for screwdriver marks.

That would be my only concern, but personaly im up for modding it

It's going to cost the same, as on bluraychip.dk site, it's €114 which is about £92. And your warranty won't be voided. Just be careful when opening or closing it.

 

[duaplex]

Its an £8 saving, some might say £8 is £8, but in this world that is minor :O I agree with you Boss. I am itching to buy the player and I hope I see an improvement over my LX54.

Now to convince my conscience that I should depart with £600

 

[bigboss]

You can buy a blu ray film with £8!

 

[duaplex]

Especially for you as I know you love a good bargain

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004S71ZK0/ref=asc_df_B004S71ZK010902812?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B004S71ZK0

 

[bigboss]

Especially for you as I know you love a good bargain

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004S71ZK0/ref=asc_df_B004S71ZK010902812?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B004S71ZK0

Already bought it at that price & watched it 3 times so far!

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Already bought it at that price & watched it 3 times so far!

Damn, it cost me £10 from Amazon in April! It plays beautifully in all three of my blu-ray players, including of course my Oppo 95 in the kitchen.

 

[bigboss]

including of course my Oppo 95 in the kitchen.

I really am curious about your systems! Can you post some pics?

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I'd love to, bigboss, but I really do need to tidy first. I'm hoping to do so over the Christmas break. And I really do need to update my signature, but I'm not quite sure how to do that since the single-line link to my equipment was kindly set up by What Hi-Fi, and I don't know how to edit the equipment details. I was lucky enough to buy a second-hand old model SVS PC13-Ultra for only £600 six weeks ago, so that's now in the parlour and the SVS PC12-Plus is now in the kitchen, and two Tannoy TS12's in my bedroom. I've now expanded to a second bedroom where the 50" Pioneer now is (it's too big for my bedroom), since the kitchen now has a refurbished LG 60PZ950T. However, returning to the topic of this thread, even if I were to win the lottery, I have NO REASON to replace my Oppo 95 Blu-ray player in the kitchen since its features are quite advanced and I don't need the facilities that the newer model Oppos offer, at least not until 4K becomes widespread, which is at least two years away I reckon.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I really am curious about your systems! Can you post some pics?

Bigboss, I've now managed to put some pictures, but mostly of the seating rather than of the equipment itself, in the thread "Inserting pictures into postings without going via the internet" under the heading "About the new site". I really don't want to hijack this Oppo 105 thread so if anything grabs you could I ask you to write to my thread rather than to this one.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Duaplex, getting back on message, the January 2013 issue of Home Cinema Choice magazine arrived in the post today. On page 81 in the Feedback section, comparing Oppo vs Audiolab, referring to the Oppo 105, it says that "But wait: Oppo is about to make your choice a whole lot easier. The new Oppo BDP-105EU ungrades the 95's video and audio performance at every level ...... its performance on screen and out of your speakers will be truly stunning. Watch out for our full review of the Oppo BDP-105EU in the next issue." And this from the magazine that had rated the outgoing Oppo 95 as a Reference Status product in its August 2011 issue! So it might be worth waiting for next month's (February) issue!

 

[Ian986]

Duaplex

How was the oppo was it that good you are speechless lol

 

[duaplex]

I have not had a chance yet . I was caught up with my new Samsung TV and it juddering on 24p playback, eventually I solved its judder problem after it drove me nuts. But I am going to test the Oppo this weekend without fail!

 

[manicm]

The Oppo 105 will surely be a belter, but like Sony's recent budget models the inclusion of '4k upscaling' is nothing more than a marketing and confusing gimmick. It is probably worse than DVDs being upscaled to 1080p. These players being advertised as such are NOT going to play native 4k material in any shape or form. That is for another time and place. And my guess is that it won't be a phyisical medium. Indeed Sony's expensive 4k tellys play the native 4k flicks via hard drive, pre-loaded, not on round disc.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I also see 4k up scaling as a gimmick currently, but 4K screens will become more popular over the next few years, and if the 105 upscales to 4K better than the integral upscaling in the screen in question, then it is a positive thing. I have seen 1080p upscaled to 4K and the decent masters look pretty stunning - whereas many DVD's look pretty bad upscaled to 1080p, basically because of the amount of compression inherent in the DVD format.

4K movies won't be available for streaming any time in the foreseeable future as we don't even have decent enough bandwidth for 1080p. So maybe for download to HDD, but thats going to take up a lot of space. I think it will be another disc format.

 

[duaplex]

David have you had a chance to test the Oppo's yet?

 

[Frank Harvey]

David have you had a chance to test the Oppo's yet?

We're waiting for the 105's to come in, but I have taken a 103 home a few days ago and got to start using it last night. I'm not usually one for messing with the settings on Bluray players with regards to picture, but I thought I'd give it a go on this one. I've always stayed away from sharpness controls as my projector looks sharp enough, and adding sharpness via my PJ's settings make only a subtle difference. I tried it on the 103 and was gobsmacked! Just knocking up the sharpness by one notch had a pretty significant effect, and I was surprised to see my PJ looking even sharper. The prison escape scene from King Fu Panda looked almost 3D it was that sharp! Flicking between the zero point and one just makes the zero point look quite soft.

Another setting was the Contrast Enhancement. Again, I usually stay away from these, but playing about between the zero point and up to max (four), I found that the plus two point made blacks look blacker, but didn't smother detail. So even though my PJ might be lagging behind a little with the current crop of PJ's, it now looks noticably better.

Having said all that, I haven't played about with these settings on my BDP5000ES, which I will do when I remove the 103 from my system. But I am finding the faster loading times useful (not a deal breaker though). I'll report more over the weekend when I've watched some more movies.

 

[duaplex]

That sounds really encouraging! I am off for a demo this saturday. I dont know what it is, but to me the sharpness and clarity has suffered a little since my upgrade to the 55inch. Either the faces are a little blurred or when the brightness is up you can see pixelation on the face of the actors (like static spots moving) I wonder if this is my LX54 simply not coping with the screen and demand. On my old 42inch LED no such problems occured.

If the oppo is having this effect on your PJ, then I am excited!

Cant wait to hear your full feedback on this

 

[Ian986]

That sounds really encouraging! I am off for a demo this saturday. I dont know what it is, but to me the sharpness and clarity has suffered a little since my upgrade to the 55inch. Either the faces are a little blurred or when the brightness is up you can see pixelation on the face of the actors (like static spots moving) I wonder if this is my LX54 simply not coping with the screen and demand. On my old 42inch LED no such problems occured.

If the oppo is having this effect on your PJ, then I am excited!

Cant wait to hear your full feedback on this

how did the demo go ? Did you buy one ?

 

[duaplex]

I went for the Demo and took my LX54 with me for testing purposes. I tested 3 films, Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides, Lord of the Rings, Empire Strikes back (Cloud City), Avatar for 3D and Signs on DVD.

I sat there for 2 hours playing with the different settings and sharpness levels to find the optimum picture and like David mentioned I found adjusting settings a real benefit. I should mention at this point, that I tested these players on both a projector and 55inch TV.

I found the colours were rich, the blacks, deep and inky with motion being smooth. The 3D playback from the Oppo was flawless and I certainly did not pick up on any Judder. The LX54 still performed admirably on the projector, but you could tell something was lacking and motion certainly was not as flawless as you would expect. Picture quality was more or less identical, until I started tweaking the settings on the Oppo, adjusting its sharpness gave it a real boost on the projector but not so noticeable on the TV. As for Audio, there was no difference to my ears, this is to be expected as I was passing the signal to an AV for decoding, however this player does possess a superior on board decoding system to that of the LX54 and should you wish it to decode video and sound, then this will not let you down

When it comes to DVD upscaling, it flattened the LX54 in every way, the upscaling was sublime. In this instance I preferred the upscaling on the TV as opposed to the projector, however the results on the projector were impressive also. The image was sharper and crisper than the LX54, whose upscale ability is good, but nothing compared to this!

My final conclusion is, if you want a high end player to go with your high end home cinema system, then this is it. It has superior video processing ability and presents a thoroughly enjoyable experience, granted this does not have some of the bells and whistles of say, the S790, but it is a cut above. As a side note, the player loads up quickly and you are able to start watching a film in roughly 15 seconds from power up. Superb!

 

[bigboss]

:cheers:

Did you buy it then?

 

[duaplex]

I held back until I decide what I'm doing with the TV situation :wall: