Those looking for a BD Player and live in close proximity to Spore can get the JVC XV-BP1 BD Player...Its pretty highly rated.

Oppo supports mkv.

Dune supports everything under the sun at the moment...It is really a universal media player. (except SACD, DVD-A but then again, I believe the number of wanting this is way less than all the other stuff)

1. Yes. It is decoded in the Oppo and sent out thru the analog outs.

2. Yes.

Does it accept a 24Hz signal? Else it would be important to get a proper BD player that can output at 1080p/60Hz to minimize post processing errors in ur set.

As ar188 says, the display is one of the most important aspects of the HT. Any deficiencies will show up there...

Will let u know the next trip. Yeah, want to check out his new Marantz and Dune as well! Will let u know.

No need to do that. SVS already in the plan. Just a matter of time.

BDs are encoded in YCbCr 4:2:0 with colour bits of 8bits per colour (24bits in all RGB). Deep Colour is essentially 30, 36, 48bits. The colour needs to be converted from 24bit to 30, 36 and 48bits. Deep Colour is supposed to reduced banding and increase colour depth and all. Most displays are 8bit displays. There are some that are 10 (30)bits, 12(36) bits and 16 (48bits). Some BD players have the ability to convert to 30bits, 36bits and 48bits. This is done via a chip or algorithms. PS3, Pioneer and Oppo can do this. Or the display can do this.

Now the interesting part, there are no BDs encoded with Deep Colour, so conversion is the only way to go. I have tested the 36bits, 30bits on my display that supposedly is 36bit capable and have seen nothing different. That said, my display does not have banding anyway, so maybe it has no effect on my display. Even on test signals I cannot see the benefit of this as yet. Maybe on some displays (Sammys are 30 bit, Sonys are 36bit, Pioneer 36bit) the colour conversion is already good enough that I cannot see the benefit. Some people have seen the benefit on test patterns, but I could not. Then again, I am an amateur, maybe I need to train my eyes more. Also will retest this on a bigger screen next month.

Also remember that your display will convert the signal (YCbCr) to RGB. This colour space conversion can also cause problems.

HDTVs do a lot of processing that people take for granted. My take is get a decent BD player (that does not mess up the signals to the display )but make sure that your display is very good. You will benefit more from that.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Aug 18 2009, 09:39 AM

The Oppo BD83 is a player capable of sending out 36bit and 30bit. I believe the Pioneers are the ones touting 48bit. I have tested the output of 30bit, 36bit on a 36bit capable display and have not seen any visible difference. I believe I need to look for animation titles that have been known to introduce banding (then again this is already in the source encoding, am not sure if the display can correct this) and check again.

The next time I have a chance to calibrate a display thru a Pioneer BD Player I will try to see if I can check....ronnt maybe will recheck in yours. The sammys are also supposed to be 10bit panels. (pls remember that a panel can be 10bit but it can have a colour processor that can output at 12bit)

My honest opinion, Deep Colour is way over rated. Don't pay too much attention for now.

Honestly, I have not played around with too many BD players to pass judgement.

I do know this though, the Oppo BD83 if not compared to anything, has good 2 channel stereo for CD as well. However, when compared to my standalone Holfi modified Xara CD player, the Xara sounds more musical and less digital.

I will probably have to borron ron's pioneer to test out side by side to see if I can judge the sound for 2 channel stereo.

PQ, I believe most people will not be able to see the difference between the BD60, Pioneer, PS3 or Oppo for Blu Ray. It is not too different, unless you have a big screen (>50in, more apparent in >80in, still very little) and you really really really look for them.

For SD upconversion, yeah you will see differences. I believe the Pioneer BD LX52 and Oppo are pretty good (better than PS3 and Pioneer DV600 DVD player)

I have played around on the BD60, Marantz (1.1), Oppo BD83, PS3, briefly the Pioneer 51FD and the older BD35. Also ron's LX52 very briefly.

moomos, when u come over to penang, let me know, u can judge for yourself and make a decision if the Oppo is good enuf for your 2 channel stereo pleasure.

Also I have not seen or meddled with the BD80, I am not even sure u can get it in Malaysia.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Aug 18 2009, 02:18 PM

I'm afraid I cannot help get the Oppo for you but I can point you in the right direction (Spore).

I got mine in the early adoption plan after the beta testing was completed. It was sent to a US address and used there by a friend before sending over to Malaysia.

Also I am not a dealer for anything. Its a more of a hobby...

I posted this in the earlier thread. Anyway, sent u a PM on the contact. SLT Technologies in Spore.

I think u r good to go. Use the old DVD player, the CD player and the new BD60 and all will be well.

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Added on August 20, 2009, 11:57 amThe prices for the Oppo are higher as compared to the rest of the players especially with the tax....

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Aug 20 2009, 11:57 AM

All if not most DVD-A have a lossy core in the DVD-Video portion of the disc (Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1). On a player that has the hardware that can handle proper DVD-A it will play the lossless portion (96kHz/16bit or higher for all channels)

I will try to answer this as simple as I can put it.

1stly, audio stream decoding.

Decoding of the Audio codecs can be either done in the BD player or the AVR.

After decoding the audio stream is in LPCM (Liner PCM, all channels have the same bits). The older PS3s hardware did not allow it to bitstream the raw lossless codecs. However, it had enough processing power to decode it to LPCM and send out the lossless data to the AVR. However, the general consensus is that possible the equalization that it carries out is not as good as the equalization that is done by the AVR during decoding. This is still being debated. One of the areas that are obvious is that for Dolby streams there is normally a dialogue normalization, among others.

Normally, BD players can decode all the streams and send out LPCM (comparable to PS3) if they have enuf processing power. The DTSHDMA that seems to require the most processing is the stream that if any the BD player cannot normally decode. However, all standalone BD players out there can bitstream the raw codecs for your AVR to decode. Most newer BD players, can decode all streams and send out LPCM or they can bitstream.

Mostly, all BD players that have analogue outs can decode all the streams and send out the individiual channels to the AVR. The only problem with this is how the bass management is handled. Some BDs have the ability to adjust this, some will not.

To explain the differences between a high end AVR and mid range AVR, in most cases the higher end AVR usually has more power thus making it easier to drive your speakers. Also normally, the high end AVRs mostly always have multi point room correction. This is an important function of an AVR (Multi EQ vs Multi EQ XT).

So after all this explanation, which is better?

This is subjective. It depends on your setup, your budget and your ears. Some people do not hear the differences lossless and lossy. Some swear there are no differences between decoding in the player and decoding in the AVR. And some say that room correction is rubbish. Audio is very subjective. Video has standards defined, unfortunately audio is not so clearly defined.

My suggestion is, examine your setup and your budget and your needs and buy accordingly.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Aug 26 2009, 10:56 AM

There is a case where some AVRs do not do any bass management and room correction for analogue inputs. So this speaker level calibration needs be done in the BD player.

No, it is not advisable to send the 5.1/7.1 out directly to a power amp. It shd be sent to a pre amp that has protective circuits in place to not send too high levels to the amps that could in turn damage your speakers. If u direct a 5.1/7.1 out from a BD player to a power amp it is at full volume control then u can damage your speakers.

Some power amps have volume controls and clipping protection for overcurrent, but still it is a big risk to take.

Some potential bad news. Some indications of someone who has made comparisons in the US indicate that it is somewhat slower than the old PS3. Pretty much slower. It is pretty much in the BD60 range...PM me if u need the link. I don't have permission to link the test results and load times.

moomos,

Its important that you see all the rankings, if you need dvd upscaling then the ranking is different. The ranking u r talking abt is for Feature and Audio.

It is important to choose a BD player based on what u want it to do.

My opinion is that if u r only looking to playback BD and are not concerned of speed and additional features then, the Panny BD60 is sufficient. Of course if the JVC XV-BP1 is available and is in the same price range, I would recommend that as well (just need to iron out reliability, basically it is a improved clone of a LG)

If u need to play games and looking for an all in all then get the PS3 slim.

If u want to use it for DVD-A, SACD, need a host of tweaking features for PQ, need analogue outs and all, consider the Oppo.

I obtained permission from the owner of the other thread to link the results. Pls see hyperlink below.

AVS Forum Blu Ray Players synthetic and subjective results threa

enjoy.

Glad ron sorted out the BD player, although I think it is a damned good player!