What was your latest tech purchase?

[Ashenor]

I like the size of iPad mini even more.

Ya i think when the iPad Retina Mini comes out i will upgrade my iPad 3 to one of them.

 

[JackBurton]

Not quite correct: "Probably the Best $1200 I could have spent on my system" would be more a much more accurate description.

...and in addition to Jack's post: it also has an exceptionally clean/clear headphone amp, driven directly off of the {separate/dedicated stereo} DAC. When I did my research before buying, I thought "that's kinda neat" before turning to other features.... but now that I have the device, I find myself listening through my headphones more often.

Exactly. Oppo players aren't competing with the junk $100 players you find at Wal-Mart with people looking to connect them to their closeout Vizio LCD's. They are competing with the high end players and doing VERY well at it. The reason people think so highly of Oppo players is because they offer the best value in the high end market. While people think $1200 is a lot for a player, it's competing with the likes of Lexicon, McIntosh, Ayre, Denon, Pioneer (Pioneer Elite more specifically), Marantz, Krell (don't know if Krell even got their $20K player out the door), etc. that offer players WELL past the $1000 price point. Krell for instance offers a player in the $20K range, McIntosh's player is around the $5K-$8K range, and Ayre's player is around the $10K range. But IMO, anything past $1500 is getting into serious diminishing return. But that's because of Oppo's offerings. They receive all their praise because they brought a high end product to market with a reasonable price tag ($500-$1200) and a customer support level that is second to none.

 

[purbeast0]

1. Like mentioned earlier, IR support
2. Great DVD upscaling
3. Great analog section (if you choose to use analog over digital)
4. The ability to run a source through the player to take advantage of its scaler
5. Support for SACD and DVD-A
6. Quiet operation
7. A very neutral picture output
8. Fantastic customer support
9. Solid build quality
10. Dual HDMI out
11. And compared to a PS3, full HDMI 1.4 compliance

Quite honestly though, a $500 Oppo (103) would do just fine for most people (actually MOST people would be fine with just a basic BD player). I paid about $1600 for my player in 2008 (Pioneer BDP-09FD which had an MSRP of $2200 back then) and would only trade it for an Oppo if something were to happen to it. Some people care about build quality, some don't. I happen to care about how solid a unit is built. I bought a $100 Sony BD player last year for my parents and that thing just feels like crap. Super cheap feel to it. Can't stand the player. But they just wanted something basic. For me, I don't give a shit about stupid apps or streaming services either. I just want my player to output the best picture and audio it can, whether it be from a BD or DVD. AND I want it to operate at a dead silent level.

And just another note, Oppo USED to be able to stream BD ISO's, but pressure from the movie studios made them remove that feature. I believe there is still a work around for it, but I think it's a just a pain to use and not worthwhile.

serious question too, since i don't know anything about oppo other than they are supposed to be the best blu ray players out there...

if i'm using the ps3 for only blu-rays, 3d and non, and don't watch any dvds at all, and the ps3 is out of sight in a closet so i can't hear it, controlled by an ios device, and will only be hooked up to 1 avr at a time, and will never need to have headphone usage, and i never use sacd or dvd-a ... is there anything that i would notice different than i do with the ps3 for viewing? like is the picture noticeably different or anything?

 

[Aharami]

serious question too, since i don't know anything about oppo other than they are supposed to be the best blu ray players out there...

if i'm using the ps3 for only blu-rays, 3d and non, and don't watch any dvds at all, and the ps3 is out of sight in a closet so i can't hear it, controlled by an ios device, and will only be hooked up to 1 avr at a time, and will never need to have headphone usage, and i never use sacd or dvd-a ... is there anything that i would notice different than i do with the ps3 for viewing? like is the picture noticeably different or anything?

buy the Oppo, do a side by side test and let us know. Im curious, even though I'd never spend that much money on a blu ray player

 

[purbeast0]

buy the Oppo, do a side by side test and let us know. Im curious, even though I'd never spend that much money on a blu ray player

well im pretty sure jackburton owns both of them so he can probably already answer this. i just don't see how the picture/sound could get any better than what i get out of the ps3 in my ht.

 

[Ashenor]

It gets to a point its subjective.

The red's of the Ps3 offends the eyes of the people that own 20k Krell's.

 

[Aharami]

well im pretty sure jackburton owns both of them so he can probably already answer this. i just don't see how the picture/sound could get any better than what i get out of the ps3 in my ht.

well when you get into anything ultra high end, the results become very subjective. I bet us three could get together and see the same side by side test and JackBurton would see the differences that would justify the price premium of the Oppo player, but we won't. Or even if we do see it, we won't be able to justify the price premium over a decent player.

 

[purbeast0]

well when you get into anything ultra high end, the results become very subjective. I bet us three could get together and see the same side by side test and JackBurton would see the differences that would justify the price premium of the Oppo player, but we won't. Or even if we do see it, we won't be able to justify the price premium over a decent player.

well i don't want to know if the difference is worth a certain price, i just want to know what the difference would be in my case. i have a pretty high end ht and am picky about telling differences between different quality of video/sound. i just want to know what the real world difference he experiences between the 2 would be in my case.

like i know the ps3 cant play sacd/dvda, i know it can't upscale dvds that much, etc. but that stuff doesn't matter to me as i don't watch dvds or listen to those types of music discs.

 

[JackBurton]

serious question too, since i don't know anything about oppo other than they are supposed to be the best blu ray players out there...

if i'm using the ps3 for only blu-rays, 3d and non, and don't watch any dvds at all, and the ps3 is out of sight in a closet so i can't hear it, controlled by an ios device, and will only be hooked up to 1 avr at a time, and will never need to have headphone usage, and i never use sacd or dvd-a ... is there anything that i would notice different than i do with the ps3 for viewing? like is the picture noticeably different or anything?

The PS3 is a pretty damn good BD player, so I think the difference will be small for you and your requirements. But here are a few differences that you may find worthwhile:

1. Depending on what version PS3 you have, you may or may not be able to bit stream to your receiver. I prefer bit streaming as I've found that the sound level is more consistent with other sources.

2. 3D performance. I'm not sure if Sony has been able to come out with a workaround for this, but since the PS3 is not HDMI 1.4 complaint, it can't do 3D AND HD audio (TrueHD or DTS-HD MA). You can either do 2D with HD audio or 3D with standard audio.

3. Since you have a projector, I believe the Oppo will let you adjust the subtitle location too. May want to double check on that one though. I'm not positive about that. This is more for people that have 2:35 screens where the subtitles get cut off because the lower black bar is not there.

I think the Oppo will also have a slight edge on picture quality too, but the difference will most likely be minimal.

Anyway, those are the main differences of the top of my head between a PS3 and an Oppo 103.


And BTW, I do not own an Oppo (I have a Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD). I just follow Oppo and the high end market pretty closely.

 

[purbeast0]

The PS3 is a pretty damn good BD player, so I think the difference will be small for you and your requirement. But here are a few differences that you may find worthwhile:

1. Depending on what version PS3 you have, you may or may not be able to bit stream to your receiver. I prefer bit streaming as I've found that the sound level is more consistent with other sources.

2. 3D performance. I'm not sure if Sony has been able to come out with a workaround for this, but since the PS3 is not HDMI 1.4 complaint, it can't do 3D AND HD audio (TrueHD or DTS-HD MA). You can either do 2D with HD audio or 3D with standard audio.

3. Since you have a projector, I believe the Oppo will let you adjust the subtitle location too. May want to double check on that one though. I'm not positive about that. This is more for people that have 2:35 screens where the subtitles get cut off because the lower black bar is not there.

I think the Oppo will also have a slight edge on picture quality too, but the difference will most likely be minimal.

Anyway, those are the main differences of the top of my head between a PS3 and an Oppo 103.

i have the ps3 fat. and to be honest i don't now what bit streaming even is lol.

as far as #2 that is interesting. the only blu rays i'm purchasing really are 3d ones since you can't rent em easily. i watched life of pi and the hobbit in 3d recently, and i'm PRETTY SURE that i was listening to the DTS track because that is what showed on my receiver, while it was in 3d.

now if it's dts-ma i am not sure. but i'm 99% sure it showed it as in dts mode not dd. but i could be wrong on that too.

 

[Aharami]

i have the ps3 fat. and to be honest i don't now what bit streaming even is lol.

as far as #2 that is interesting. the only blu rays i'm purchasing really are 3d ones since you can't rent em easily. i watched life of pi and the hobbit in 3d recently, and i'm PRETTY SURE that i was listening to the DTS track because that is what showed on my receiver, while it was in 3d.

now if it's dts-ma i am not sure. but i'm 99% sure it showed it as in dts mode not dd. but i could be wrong on that too.

DTS-MA is the HD track. DTS is not. With your speakers, i believe you'll be able to tell the difference between DTS-MA and DTS.

 

[Red Storm]

iPhone 5 for the wife. Note 2 for myself.

 

[JackBurton]

i have the ps3 fat. and to be honest i don't now what bit streaming even is lol.

as far as #2 that is interesting. the only blu rays i'm purchasing really are 3d ones since you can't rent em easily. i watched life of pi and the hobbit in 3d recently, and i'm PRETTY SURE that i was listening to the DTS track because that is what showed on my receiver, while it was in 3d.

now if it's dts-ma i am not sure. but i'm 99% sure it showed it as in dts mode not dd. but i could be wrong on that too.

Wow man, I hate to tell you, but you've just been listening to non-HD audio all this time when playing 3D BD's. DTS and Dolby Digital are your standard surround audio codec. TrueHD (Dolby) and DTS-HD MA are your HD audio codecs. So yeah, given that you have a nice theater setup, I think you'll definitely benefit from a new BD player, and I'd definitely go with an Oppo 103.

And bit streaming is a nut shell just means, the audio from the player is being passed to the receiver for decoding. With bit streaming, your receiver will be able to properly identify the HD audio tracks and display it on the receiver's front panel. Otherwise the player will decode the codec and send the signal via PCM to the receiver. In this case, the receiver will only identify the stream as PCM with no distinction of whether it is TrueHD or DTS-HD MA. Technically either way (bit stream or PCM) should sound the same, I just prefer bit streaming for volume consistency across sources and the ability for my receiver to correctly identify and display the audio codec.

 

[purbeast0]

Wow man, I hate to tell you, but you've just been listening to non-HD audio all this time when playing 3D BD's. DTS and Dolby Digital are your standard surround audio codec. TrueHD (Dolby) and DTS-HD MA are your HD audio codecs. So yeah, given that you have a nice theater setup, I think you'll definitely benefit from a new BD player, and I'd definitely go with an Oppo 103.

And bit streaming is a nut shell just means, the audio from the player is being passed to the receiver for decoding. With bit streaming, your receiver will the be able to properly identify the HD audio tracks and display it on the receiver's front panel. Otherwise the player will decode the codec and send the signal via PCM to the receiver. In this case, the receiver will only identify the stream as PCM with no distinction of whether it is TrueHD or DTS-HD MA. Technically either way (bit stream or PCM) should sound the same, I just prefer bit streaming for volume consistency across sources and the ability for my receiver to correctly identify and display the audio codec.

hah damn okay, that is crazy then considering how good those movies sound. i definitely will upgrade my bluray at some time then, but i want to wait and see what the specs of the ps4/durango are before i go and spend the money on a better bluray player, since chances are, i will own both of those by the end of the year.

 

[xeledon20005]

Latest upgrade was me buying a 2011 late macbook pro logic board, for my dead mbp

installed it and mac is backup and running, next upgrade will be ssd for it

 

[JackBurton]

hah damn okay, that is crazy then considering how good those movies sound. i definitely will upgrade my bluray at some time then, but i want to wait and see what the specs of the ps4/durango are before i go and spend the money on a better bluray player, since chances are, i will own both of those by the end of the year.

In the mean time, make sure your PS3 is set to output audio using Linear PCM. Otherwise you won't even get HD audio for 2D BD movie playback. If everything is set correctly, your receiver should display "PCM" while playing the audio portion of the BD movie. You can then hit the "display" button on your PS3 remote to pull up the onscreen display to see which codec is playing (you should see TrueHD or DTS-HD MA if the movie came with an HD audio track). Most of the time the movies default to the HD audio track, but every once in a blue moon they'll default to a standard surround audio track. Why they would do this, I have no idea. If that happens, you'll have to go into BD menu to select the correct (HD) audio track.

 

[rasczak]

Couple things recently.

1. IPad 2 for my wife
2. Asus NT RU66 Router
3. Buffalo 2tb network drive


Fun stuff

 

[Scotteq]

hah damn okay, that is crazy then considering how good those movies sound. i definitely will upgrade my bluray at some time then, but i want to wait and see what the specs of the ps4/durango are before i go and spend the money on a better bluray player, since chances are, i will own both of those by the end of the year.

The primary reason I went with the 105 is because the analogue/stereo output stage received such great reviews from the audio types. Deservedly so, IMHO, based on a couple hundred hours on mine. The networking and internet features were also a big bonus for me, since I can stream directly to the player rather than be forced to use my noisy gaming comp. I also was keenly interested in SACD and DVD-A. And the kicker was getting all that and upsampling on the video side to WQHD.

If you don't need that stuff, the Oppo BDP103 is roughly half the cost.

Do your research before buying - and feel free to check with more specialized AV reviews, and sites like Audioholics.

 

[Ichinisan]

I just don't see how anyone can justify buying an iPad 2 for more money than an iPad mini. The internal hardware specs are practically the same, except the mini has superior cameras and a smaller (optimal) screen size. Everyone I know that has used the mini prefers the screen size and calls it "perfect."

 

[shortylickens]

Just picked up a slim case for my Note 2. It fits in the dock if you remove the little adapter.

Got tired of the Otterbox. Way too damn big on a phone like that. Did not fit in any pockets. If I go hiking and I have cargo pants, I may reconsider it.

 

[ControlD]

I just don't see how anyone can justify buying an iPad 2 for more money than an iPad mini. The internal hardware specs are practically the same, except the mini has superior cameras and a smaller (optimal) screen size. Everyone I know that has used the mini prefers the screen size and calls it "perfect."

I guess I have had just the opposite experience. All the people I know prefer the larger screen (myself included). I think it really depends on what you are using it for. I would much rather have a 10" screen when running on the treadmill and watching Netflix.

 

[Ashenor]

Just picked up a slim case for my Note 2. It fits in the dock if you remove the little adapter.

Got tired of the Otterbox. Way too damn big on a phone like that. Did not fit in any pockets. If I go hiking and I have cargo pants, I may reconsider it.

Took my flip case off about a week ago and just rolling naked now. Love how slim it feels now.

 

[Imported]

I just don't see how anyone can justify buying an iPad 2 for more money than an iPad mini. The internal hardware specs are practically the same, except the mini has superior cameras and a smaller (optimal) screen size. Everyone I know that has used the mini prefers the screen size and calls it "perfect."

The Mini is too small and too close to a cell phone for what I'd use a tablet for. Everything else I can do on my phone. Have an SGS2 (soon to be HTC One) and iPad 4.

 

[exdeath]

Wow man, I hate to tell you, but you've just been listening to non-HD audio all this time when playing 3D BD's. DTS and Dolby Digital are your standard surround audio codec. TrueHD (Dolby) and DTS-HD MA are your HD audio codecs. So yeah, given that you have a nice theater setup, I think you'll definitely benefit from a new BD player, and I'd definitely go with an Oppo 103.

And bit streaming is a nut shell just means, the audio from the player is being passed to the receiver for decoding. With bit streaming, your receiver will be able to properly identify the HD audio tracks and display it on the receiver's front panel. Otherwise the player will decode the codec and send the signal via PCM to the receiver. In this case, the receiver will only identify the stream as PCM with no distinction of whether it is TrueHD or DTS-HD MA. Technically either way (bit stream or PCM) should sound the same, I just prefer bit streaming for volume consistency across sources and the ability for my receiver to correctly identify and display the audio codec.

This seems like common knowledge to me. Only the A/V receiver/processor should ever be touching anything, everything else should just send/recv raw data.

 

[JackBurton]

This seems like common knowledge to me. Only the A/V receiver/processor should ever be touching anything, everything else should just send/recv raw data.

I agree, but the original PS3 doesn't have the capability to send the raw data stream (bit streaming). So instead you'll have to settle for decoding on the player and sending a PCM signal to the receiver. Both are digital, but I prefer the decoding to be done on the receiver/processor rather than on the player.

The other instance where you'd want to bypass the chain (source>processor>TV) is if you have a receiver that's not HDMI 1.4 compliant but want to view 3D movies on your new 3D HDTV. Instead of buying a new receiver, a dual HDMI 1.4 player will let you send the audio stream to the receiver and let you connect the other HDMI cable to your 3D capable TV for the video. Definitely a good option to have.