Unofficial OPPO BDP-93 Frequently Asked Questions

Questions frequently asked at AVSForum.

Updated April 06, 2014, 14:00 CDT. See the Change log.

Attention!

This page is not approved or sponsored by OPPO Digital or AVSForum or anyone else.

Everything here is just my opinion, nothing more.

Help improve this FAQ: send me your corrections and comments.

Table of Contents

General Topics

Is the manual available online?

Yes: BDP-93 Online Manual (pdf).

Tip

The table of contents entries in the online manual are clickable.

How is the BDP-93 different from the BDP-83?

Many of the features of the BDP-83 are carried forward into this player. See the Unofficial OPPO BDP-83 Frequently Asked Questions page for more.

These features are the same as for the BDP-83:

  • Both HDMI and component output
  • Source Direct output
  • Front and back USB
  • Ethernet
  • BD profile 2.0, SACD, DVD-A
  • 1GB built-in memory for Blu-ray persistent storage (plus another 1GB for other purposes)
  • Internal decoding of high-def audio codecs
  • Subtitle shift and On Screen Display positioning
  • HDCD decoding can be turned on and off
  • Accepts 1080i50 and 576i50 PAL content; will optionally convert to 60hz
  • Cirrus CS4382A DACs for analog audio
  • Zoom modes for vertical stretch Constant Image Height, full screen black bar elimination, underscan (3D Blu-ray discs with java are not zoomable)
  • DLNA
  • Demo Mode (not working yet)

These features are different:

  • Uses Marvell Qdeo 88DE2750 instead of ABT VRS
  • No fan
  • IR IN but no OUT
  • no special cable required for IR IN
  • RS232 is standard rather than optional

These features are added:

  • 3D
  • two HDMI outputs
  • USB wireless adapter included
  • Online services:
    • Netflix
    • Picasa Web Album
    • Film Fresh
    • VUDU
    • YouTube
    • Pandora
  • other network sources: to be announced when certified
  • New media file support: mp4, wmv, mov, m4a, m4v, ts, m2ts, wav, ogm, ogg, flac, aac, ape, asf, bdmv
  • NTFS on external media
  • eSATA in addition to USB
  • test tones for analog audio
  • multiple crossover selections for analog audio
  • Secondary Audio with lossless
  • Component video uses the same zoom modes as HDMI
  • three setup profiles, different for both HDMI outputs (six total)
  • smoother fast forward
  • DivX Plus HD certified
  • DLNA certified

These features are subtracted:

  • No dedicated analog stereo output (use the FR & FL 7.1 connections with the proper downmix setting)
  • No adjustable audio delay for HDMI
  • Does not include the Spears & Munsil or AIX calibration discs. (The S&M disc is still available from OPPO separately or as an option at checkout time).

How is the BDP-93 different from the BDP-95?

The BDP-95 is an audiophile upgrade from the BDP-93. They use the same firmware, but as OPPO says:

The OPPO BDP-95 Blu-ray Disc Player is specially designed for the audiophile who demands the highest quality analog audio performance. Its features include:

  • an all new analog audio stage powered by two ESS SABRE32 Reference Digital-to-Analog Converters
  • balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) dedicated stereo outputs
  • toroidal linear power supply
  • a unique chassis with touch controls
  • optional rack-mounting capability.

OPPO Digital recommends the BDP-95 to customers who primarily use the analog audio output to connect to either a high-end dedicated stereo or a multi-channel surround system. For customers who use the HDMI, analog, and/or digital optical/coaxial audio connections, the standard BDP-93 is recommended.

OPPO also provides this Comparison Chart.

Features

Is DVD 24hz conversion supported?

Yes, this was added in firmware 71-0723B, July 2012. The setting is controlled in the Setup Menu: Video Setup -> DVD 24p Conversion, where the values are On and Off. The default is Off.

Peformance on film-cadenced material is quite a bit better than on the BDP-83. You can sometimes see a slight stutter at poor edit points, or when coming out of Pause, but it recovers quickly.

Important notes:

  • This works only on HDMI1 with 1080p output resolution.
  • Obviously, the display must accept a 24hz signal.
  • Video Setup -> 1080p24 Output must also be On (or Auto and attached to a display that responds correctly).
  • It is an entirely manual setting. Unlike the BDP-83, there is no automatic detection of properly cadenced material. You have to turn it on and off as appropriate to the disc you are playing.
  • If you turn the setting On for DVD titles that do not have film-based cadence, the image will have a jerky, stuttering motion. This sometimes looks like an artistic effect, but it is defintely incorrect for the material.

What DVDs are appropriate for this setting?

  • NTSC DVDs with film-based cadence

What DVDs are NOT appropriate for this setting?

  • NTSC DVDs with video-based cadence (many concert videos, some TV shows, some movies)

Where does it not matter what the setting is?

  • PAL DVDs (PAL has no 3:2 pulldown and the player does not attempt to recover a 24hz frame rate)
  • Blu-ray (both main features and 480i supplements)
  • media files

Note that because of the way titles are edited, the cadence is sometimes broken and the algorithm will briefly fail, producing a visible jerky motion in the image. In my testing it recovers quickly.

It is also common to see a mixture of material on the same DVD. Previews or extras may be video-based and will display jerky motion at 24p, but the main feature may be film-based and smooth.

Note that some other players offering this option simply drop every third frame whether or not it is the frame that is supposed to be dropped. That can't give good results. OPPO's solution is considerably more sophisticated.

Why no automatic cadence detection?

That proved troublesome on the BDP-83. The industry never presumed that people would want to recover the 24hz frame rate from DVDs and the authoring procedures are pretty rough and make the job difficult.

Switching between 24hz and 60hz output causes a new HDMI handshake all the way down the display chain which can cause severe delays and reliability problems. Doing this continually is very bad.

A manual setting is a simpler solution.

OPPO's comments:

We found the performance on the BDP-83 for DVD 24Hz Conversion to be below our quality threshold. It suffered from a lot of frame tearing and relied explicitly on the disc being 3:2 Cadence derivative. Most film media will have breaks in the cadence, which will cause unwanted visual errors such as screen tearing and increased video judder (the precise thing you want to remove in the first place).

Historical note

The BDP-93 did not have this feature for a long time. OPPO said:

It is unlikely (though not ruled out) that DVD 24Hz Conversion will be used in the BDP-93 if we find that this player has the same limitations [as the BDP-83]. We design our products to improve on the video and audio performance, not degrade it. Unfortunately we sometimes have to make hard decisions based on the benefits and detriments, and this means removing features that some customers may find desirable.

Here is an example of where they stuck with a problem and delivered an improvement long after the product entered production.

How is it done?

The OPPO developer who implemented this feature provided these comments:

As noted, there is no on-the-fly switching from 1080p60 output to the 1080p24 output when 3:2 cadence is detected. Once DVD 24P Conversion is set to ON, the player will output 1080p24 for any 480i content source. If the source does not have the proper 3:2 cadence, the output will have apparent motion judder caused by incorrect frame dropping.

The BDP-83's DVD 24p implementation was to monitor the de-interlacer to detect reliable 3:2 cadence. Once it is detected, the video processor is then switched to 1080p24 output. This causes a new HDMI handshake in the middle of playback. If later on the de-interlacer loses lock to the 3:2 cadence, frame tearing can happen.

For the BDP-93's Marvell Qdeo KG2 processor, we can program it to any output frame rate. During the initial development we tried 1080p24 output for DVD, and the result was not good. The video processor drops frames based on the required output frame rate. We randomly got smooth video at one time, and very jerky motion at another try. Any trick play operation such as pausing or fast forwarding could turn a good case into bad. Marvell told us that the KG2's frame rate converter could not be controlled by the de-interlacer to drop only the duplicated frames. This is why DVD 24P Conversion was not offered for the BDP-93/95.

Fast forward two years and I learned a way to isolate the input and output video clock. The de-interlacer can then be configured to do 3:2 -> 1:1 cadence conversion, and write the results to a frame buffer chain. The output side, no longer constrained by the input video clock, can read from the frame buffer chain and output at 23.976 frames/second. Although the KG2's documentation and reference code do not show such a use case, we were able to apply it successfully to the KG2 processor used in the BDP-93/95.

The 3:2 -> 1:1 cadence conversion works well in our test if the input is really 3:2. It can recover from a bad cadence nicely, unlike the BDP-83. If the input is not 3:2, but 2:2 or video, the result will be incorrect but there will no tearing. Users can expect to see motion judder if the input cadence is not suitable for 24p conversion. We make the conversion option available during playback so users can switch it off if it does not work well for the content being played.

The developer said this work was nothing to brag about, but I say: I'm not worthy.

Are there any restrictions on using both HDMI outputs at the same time?

  • You can get 3D video on either HDMI1 or HDMI2, but not both at the same time.
  • When HDMI2 is active, audio on HDMI1 will be downmixed to stereo.

Are there any hidden features?

  • Pressing Eject on the remote will power on the player and eject the tray.
  • If you press and hold the Setup button on the remote you will get the Picture Adjustment menu directly.
  • Pressing the Display button for 10 or 15 seconds will reset the Video Setup options when you release the button. This includes the HDMI Options but not the Picture Adjustment settings. This is handy if you've accidentally made a change (Color Space, for example) that your display does not accept.
  • For DVD the Top Menu remote button is the same as TITLE, and the Popup Menu remote button is the same as the MENU function on DVD remotes. (Not all discs use both functions).
  • When playing DVD (not Blu-ray), pressing the YELLOW button on the remote will take you to chapter 1 of the longest title on the disc. You can use this during startup to skip the introductory material.
  • When playing DVD, the BLUE button performs the random/shuffle cycle for titles and chapters, just as with media files and audio tracks.
  • JACKET_P images on DVD are supported. JACKET_P is optional cover art that displays when a disc is stopped.
  • The browser will display ID3v2 tags, including "PIC" cover art images, for several media file types. Vorbis-style tags are also supported for FLAC files.
  • CD-Text is shown on the On Screen Display: album name, artist and track title.
  • You can play AVCHD. See Is AVCHD video supported?
  • You can get Slow playback in forward and reverse by pressing Pause and then using the FWD and REV buttons. The speed steps are 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2. (This is in the manual now: Basic Operations -> Slow Playback).
  • You can switch Secondary Audio processing on and off by pressing and holding the SAP button on the remote. See What is Secondary Audio?
  • BDMV directories are (unofficially) supported. See Are .iso files or Blu-ray or DVD directory structures supported on external media?
  • You can toggle between the browser Home screen and the OPPO splash screen with the Home button. This is handy when you want to interrupt disc loading at startup time if a disc is already in the player.
  • The player defaults to the OPPO splash screen at startup. If no disc is in the player, you can default to the browser Home screen by leaving a USB stick mounted in the player.
  • In the Media Browser, the Goto button allows you to skip ahead to specific index numbers in long lists.
  • Subtitles are visible at Fast Forward levels 1 (=2x) and 2 (=4x). They are not shown in Reverse modes.
  • DVD-Audio discs have a "Direct Play" feature. After loading the disc, pressing Stop followed by Play on the remote will directly access the first Group/Title, bypassing any menu.

Performance

What Qdeo video processing features are implemented in the BDP-93?

According to the OPPO wiki, the following features from the Qdeo Extended Technology Brief (pdf) are implemented in the BDP-93:

  • 3D Video Noise Reduction (VNR): Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Noise Reduction levels 4-8

  • 3D De-interlacing: Automatically applied to any interlaced content.

    (Please note that the above "3D" references are not related to the Blu-ray 3D format. Here 3D means the three dimensions (X, Y, time) for per-pixel video processing. Basically the video processor checks adjacent pixels and frames to make a processing decision).

  • Nonlinear scaling: Not in use. However linear scaling is used for video up-conversion.

  • 2D Edge Enhancement: Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Sharpness

  • Adaptive Contrast Enhancement (ACE): Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Contrast Enhancement

  • Intelligent Color Remapping (ICR): Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Color Enhancement

  • Compression Artifact Reduction (CAR): Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Noise Reduction levels 1-3

  • Qdeo True Color(QTC): Applied to HDMI1 when a deep color mode is enabled

  • Natural Depth Expansion (NDE): This is just another name for the detail and edge enhancement function. Video Setup - Picture Adjustment - Sharpness

Hardware

What decoding chip does the BDP-93 use?

The Mediatek MT8530HEFG.

How do the two HDMI outputs differ?

Only HDMI1 uses the Marvell QDEO processor. HDMI2 uses the Mediatek decoder chip.

Does the player have gigabit ethernet?

No gigabit, just 10/100. A gigabit connection is excessive for this kind of device. 10/100 is more than enough for current streaming technologies, which includes sending high resolution, high bandwidth video files across the network.

Can the USB ports power an external hard drive?

The BDP-93 supports sending 1000mA over USB. This is twice the value of the BDP-83 (500mA). Most 2.5" bus power enclosures should now load properly on the BDP-93, but for trouble-free use a powered HDD should be used.

According to the manual:

The USB ports are rated to provide a maximum of 5 V, 1000 mA power to the USB drive. It is sufficient for USB thumb drives and flash memory card readers, but may not be sufficient for USB hard disks. It is recommended that you use a USB hard disk with an external power supply.

What is the difference between the Home and Source buttons on the remote?

The Home button toggles between the Browser screen, used to select media file types, DLNA servers, and internet services, and the OPPO Splash screen, used to begin disc playback.

The Source button goes directly to the list of internet services: Netflix, etc.

Audio

How do I use headphones without dedicated stereo outputs?

See the manual on configuring for 2-channel stereo. Use the FL and FR analog outputs with the proper downmix setting in Setup and multichannel audio sources will be mixed to stereo and sent to those outputs. Of course this works with stereo sources as well.

What is Secondary Audio?

Secondary Audio is an optional yak-track that goes with the Blu-ray Picture-in-Picture (PIP) feature. It is mixed in with the main audio so both tracks are audible together. See the manual (Basic Operations / Picture-in-Picture and Secondary Audio).

Like BD-Live and excessively complicated menus, it is a marketing-driven Blu-ray feature that no one ever asked for.

Is audio quality reduced when using Secondary Audio?

Yes, in some cases. See the two charts in the manual (Setup Menu Options / Audio Format Setup / Audio Signal Reference Chart). They show the different results for various formats and outputs when Secondary Audio is off and on.

  • If you have HDMI Audio set to LPCM, the audio format is not changed. You can leave Secondary Audio set to On all the time.
  • If you have HDMI Audio set to Bitstream, the audio is re-encoded to plain DTS. You may want to switch Secondary Audio on and off as you need it to use specific disc features.

How can I tell when Secondary Audio processing is being used?

The On Screen Display has a special icon for this.

On the lower left of the screen, the normal audio icon is three overlapping circles. When Secondary Audio processing is enabled, the icon changes to a jagged waveform.

Why am I not getting any Secondary Audio with my Picture-in-Picture?

  • Make sure you have Setup -> Audio Format Setup -> Secondary Audio set to On.

  • Some discs are authored in such a way that you must turn features off and on through the disc's menus; not everything can be done with the remote.

    For example, I have noticed this with several of Universal Studio's discs with "U-Control". You can toggle Picture-in-Picture on and off with the remote's PIP button, but toggling Secondary Audio on and off with the SAP button does not work unless you first turn on U-Control in the menu.

    Further, the disc's instructions state that U-Control can be toggled with the RED button; this works, but I've found you still get no SAP audio unless you do it with the menus.

    I've also encountered discs (Serenity, for example) where PIP and SAP cannot be toggled from the remote; everything has to be done from the disc menu or U-Control widget.

Can I toggle Secondary Audio on and off without using the setup menu?

Yes: press and hold the SAP button on the remote to switch Secondary Audio processing on and off. As to why you would want to, see Is audio quality reduced when using Secondary Audio?

Note that if the disc uses BD-Java the disc software must cooperate in making the PIP and SAP features work correctly. See Why am I not getting any Secondary Audio with my Picture-in-Picture?

Why is the HDCD light on my receiver flickering on and off?

This is normal. The problem is not in the OPPO nor in your receiver, but rather in the design of HDCD itself, which assumed the output of a decoding player would be via ANALOG audio cabling.

HDCD is a format that encodes 20 bits worth of dynamic range into 16 bits worth of data (at the expense of raising the noise floor a bit). The PROBLEM is that when "decoded" into a digital output signal (i.e., HDMI) there's enough of the original encoding matrix left that a SECOND decoder can get confused into thinking the HDCD still needs to be decoded. So if you set the OPPO to decode for HDMI output, your receiver will periodically see enough of the original HDCD that it kicks in its own decoder, with the consequences you describe.

The solution is simple:

  • If using HDMI audio output, turn HDCD Decoding OFF in the OPPO if and only if your AVR also does HDCD decoding.
  • For Analog audio output, or for HDMI into an AVR that does not do HDCD decoding, then turn HDCD decoding ON in the OPPO.

The LPCM/Bistream setting for HDMI audio output does not matter in the -93 or -95 as regards HDCD playback with decoding either ON or OFF. In the older -83 player, LPCM had to be set for HDCD Decoding ON to function on the HDMI output.

Again, this is not an implementation bug in either the OPPO or the receiver. It's simply that the design of HDCD encoding/decoding predates HDMI digital output.

By the way, whether or not your AVR can also decode HDMI HDCD input is not something that can be detected during the HDMI handshake. That's why the choice to do decoding in the OPPO or not is something you have to set yourself.

3D

Can 3D titles be zoomed or vertically stretched?

We thought not, but apparently this works on discs without BD-Java.

Media Files

What are the supported media container and file types?

  • AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
  • APE (Monkey's Audio)
  • ASF (Advanced Systems Format)
  • AVCHD
  • AVI (Audio Video Interleave)
  • BDMV
  • DIVX Media Format
  • FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
  • GIF
  • JPG
  • M2TS (BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream)
  • M4A (same as MP4)
  • M4V (same as MP4)
  • MKV (Matroska, both .mkv and .mka)
  • MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)
  • MP4
  • MPG (MPEG-1)
  • MOV (Quicktime)
  • OGG
  • OGM
  • PNG
  • TS (Transport Stream)
  • VOB (Video Object)
  • WAV
  • WMA (Windows Media Audio) (not WMA Pro, Lossless or Voice)
  • WMV (Windows Media Video)

See:

What audio/video codecs are NOT supported?

These are not supported in media files at this time:

  • Apple Lossless (ALAC)
  • Apple's ADPCM IMA4
  • Dolby TrueHD (works in M2TS containers)
  • DTS-HD MA (works in M2TS containers)
  • MJPG (Motion JPEG)
  • MS WMA Pro, Lossless and Voice
  • MS WMA v3
  • MS WMV v8 (v7 & 9 are ok)
  • QDesign (QDM2)
  • Sorenson Video 3 (SVQ3)
  • SOWT (Apple QuickTime SOWT Little Endian PCM)

In addition, these combinations are currently not working:

  • FLAC is not working in MKV containers.
  • VORBIS is not working in MKV containers (but works in OGM containers)
  • 3GP/AVC video from an Android phone will not work in the MP4 container the phone creates, but will work in an MKV container, as created by mkvmerge.
  • OGG 5.1 audio
  • Dolby Digital Plus produces no audio in 1080i MPG files recorded from the French DVB-T

Note

These are files I have in my test suite. If you have other codecs that are not working, please send me your comments. Small example files would be especially appreciated.

Is album art displayed for media files?

Yes, for embedded PIC tags in MP3, APE and FLAC files. The image is displayed while the file is playing, but not in the browser.

Is AVCHD video supported?

Yes, on both disc and USB/eSATA.

The AVCHD directory name must be all capital letters as shown, but can be within any subdirectory, meaning you can have a collection of AVCHD directories on one disc or USB device.

See the directory layout in the AVCHD wiki article.

Are .iso files or Blu-ray or DVD directory structures supported on external media?

Attention!

ISO file support appeared in firmware 50-0608 and was removed in firmware 64-0119.

It was removed because the studios objected.

This was done by the decoder chip maker and there was nothing OPPO could do about it.

DVD directory structures: no. Some DLNA servers such as PS3 Media Server offer those through transcoding.

As of firmware 50-0608, Blu-ray BDMV directories are supported on local storage.

BDMV folders appear under each browser category: Music, Photos, and Movies. This is like AVCHD.

What are the alternatives to .iso files?

Attention!

All of the following presumes you have a legal right to copy your source content. If unsure, consult the law or a lawyer. When in doubt: DON'T COPY.

If you have any corrections or contributions to this section, please send me your comments.

For many guides to media file creation, see the vast respository at VideoHelp. I give just a subset of tools here.

None of these methods exactly replicate the convenience of ISO files.

The Tools

  • AnyDVD HD (Windows)

    Used to mount Blu-rays so they can be processed by other tools. Clown-BD seems to be a popular accessory.

  • DVDFab (Windows, Mac, Linux under Wine -- sort of)

    An all-in-one solution, it does just about everything in this section. It is an alternative to AnyDVD HD + other tools.

    It is one piece of software, but you license different functions within it separately.

  • Handbrake (cross platform) (FREE)

    Converts both Blu-ray and DVD to MKV. It always re-encodes and has no video pass-thru, so there are size and quality considerations. It has many presets and quality parameters.

    Both GUI and command line versions.

  • makemkv (cross platform)

    Converts both Blu-ray and DVD to MKV. Has video pass-thru so the size and quality remains the same. Does not re-encode. Pass-thru is faster than re-encoding.

  • mkvmerge (cross platform) (FREE)

    This is actually part of a package called "MKVToolNix -- Cross-platform tools for Matroska". A handy toolkit for assembling MKV containers and splitting them apart again.

  • multiAVCHD (Windows) (FREE)

    For creating various types of AVCHD from various sources.

  • tsMuxeR (cross platform) (FREE)

    Splits sources into their components and combines them back again: Blu-ray, M2TS, AVCHD, MKV.

  • Linux-specfic tools:

    • k9copy (DVD backup) (FREE)
    • vobcopy (command line DVD backup) (FREE)
    • dvdbackup (command line DVD backup) (FREE)

Blu-ray

  • BDMV directories

    The idea is to simply copy an unencrypted Blu-ray folder as is.

    • pros:
      • Should be identical to the original disc.
    • cons:
      • Does not work over DLNA.
      • Likely to be removed in the future?
    • tools:
      • Just copy the folder.
  • AVCHD

    This is similar to BDMV folder structure but is defined as a "consumer" format and is produced by camcorders, for example.

    Sometimes it's possible just to copy the BDMV folder into an empty folder called "AVCHD". Else, there are tools that will create new AVCHD structures.

    • pros:
      • Supports hidef audio.
      • Supports Blu-ray PGS/SUP subtitles.
      • Supports chapters.
      • Possible to make new menus.
      • Even without menus, multiple titles are accessible with the GOTO button.
    • cons:
      • Does not work over DLNA.
      • Likely to be restricted to one folder per disc in the future?
    • tools:
  • M2TS

    A container type used in Blu-ray.

    • pros:
      • Supports hidef audio.
      • Supports Blu-ray PGS/SUP subtitles.
      • Works over DLNA.
    • cons:
      • No menus.
      • (?) No chapters.
    • tools:
  • MKV

    There are other general-purpose container formats (like MP4 and MOV) but MKV appears to be the best supported by various tools.

    • pros:
      • Works over DLNA.
      • Supports chapters.
      • The OPPO creates 10 virtual chapters if the file has none.
      • The OPPO supports .srt text subtitles, as found at OpenSubtitles.org.
    • cons:
      • The OPPO does not support hidef audio in MKV.
      • The OPPO does not support PGS/SUP subtitles or hidef vobsub subtitles in MKV.
      • No menus.
    • tools:

DVD Video

  • MKV

    • pros:
      • Works over DLNA.
      • Supports standard def DVD vobsub subtitles.
      • Supports chapters.
      • The OPPO creates 10 virtual chapters if the file has none.
    • cons:
      • No menus.
    • tools:
  • AVCHD

    • pros:
      • Supports DVD vobsub subtitles.
      • Supports chapters.
      • Possible to make new menus.
      • Even without menus, multiple titles are accessible with the GOTO button.
    • cons:
      • Does not work over DLNA.
      • Likely to be restricted to one folder per disc in the future?
    • tools:
  • VOB

    This is the primitive container used for DVD Video. Normally the video is split into multiple files but these can be combined into one to avoid inter-file pauses.

    • pros:
      • Works over DLNA.
    • cons:
      • Subtitles may be badly rendered because the body and outline color definition is not in the VOB file itself and the OPPO does not read the other structures.
      • (?) No chapters.
      • (?) Track defaults may be assigned wrong.
      • No menus.
  • MPG

    DVD Video can be converted to a simple .mpg file.

    The MPG container supports subtitles and multiple audio tracks if you create it with the right tools. Convert DVDs to single .mpg files with DVD Shrink (to select streams) and VOB2MPG (to combine the .vobs into an .mpg, as well as correct any PTS errors). It can also be done in just one step, using the paid version of VOB2MPG (dispensing with DVD Shrink).

    • pros:
      • Works over DLNA.
    • cons:
      • No chapters, menus.
    • tools:

DVD Audio

Copy the tracks to PCM files with DVD-Audio Explorer and convert those to FLAC.

Another tool: DVD Audio Extractor: "a powerful software DVD audio extracting / ripping tool."

What partition tables are supported on attached hard drives?

The player supports drives with the older MBR (Master boot record) type of partitioning, which limits partition size to a maximum of 2TB.

It does not support the newer GPT (GUID Partition Table) type of partitioning which would allow larger discs and partitions.

OPPO says:

At this time the player only supports MBR and not GPT. We have requested from the engineering group that they add GPT through a future firmware release, but we do not know when or if this may occur.

...and later:

Unfortunately this is likely a limitation of the hardware, not the software, so we will not be able to add GPT support through a future firmware release.

What is the maximum supported size of an attached hard drive?

2TB, the maximum allowed by the MBR (Master boot record) type of partitioning

Networking

What is DLNA?

Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) "is a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network."

With a DLNA server running on a PC or NAS box, the player can access and play certain media files over the network.

Benefits:

  • Network access might be more convenient than optical discs, USB or eSATA devices.
  • You are no longer limited to the 4GB file limit size imposed by the FAT file system on USB and eSATA devices. (NTFS on local storage also removes this limit).

Limitations:

  • The player only accepts and plays a limited number of file types. The server may offer more types but the player either will not see them, or they will be visible in the browser but not playable.

    Currently these file types are supported:

    • aac
    • ape
    • asf
    • avi
    • divx
    • flac
    • gif
    • jpg
    • m4a
    • m4v
    • mkv
    • mp3
    • mp4
    • mpg
    • mov
    • m2ts
    • pcm
    • png
    • ts
    • vob
    • wav
    • wma
    • wmv

What are some DLNA servers?

See a list at How to choose a DLNA Media Server for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

Here are some servers people are using with the BDP-93. If you have any usage notes on these please send me your comments:

How do I get DLNA working?

Networking is a big topic, beyond the scope of this FAQ. If anyone has links to online resources that address just this problem, please send me your comments.

Some resources:

Some brief notes:

  • You need a DLNA server.

  • You have to have a working network connection between the player and the server. If Setup -> Network Setup displays correct DHCP settings from your server, you should be ok.

  • There may be firewall and security issues on your PC. DLNA requires port 1900 open for both TCP and UDP.

  • The server must be looking at the correct network interface. For me, Twonky works without specifying any additional parameters, but I have to startup Mediatomb as:

    mediatomb -e eth0

  • The OPPO has to be working correctly. DLNA support is still experimental and you may have to try an operation more than once to get it to work.

Netflix

Can I get 5.1 audio from Netflix?

No, not on the OPPO at this time.

Can I get better picture quality from Netflix?

Netflix decides what quality video you will receive, based on your internet connection. It's also possible to see Netflix shifting playback quality during a title if connection speed changes. Obviously, picture quality varies from title to title.

Firmware

Is there a listing of the Setup options and their defaults?

Yes: BDP-93 Settings Checklist.

The purpose of this document is:

  • To show the default settings when you use Setup -> Device Setup -> Reset Factory Default and run the Setup Wizard again.
  • To provide a convenient place to note your own Setup customizations.
  • To show the differences between the Setup Wizard "Compatible" and "Advanced" Audio Settings: all the differences are in the Audio Format Setup section.

Problems

Why is Primary Output greyed out?

Stop disc playback completely before changing this. Or just eject the disc to be sure.

Why is Persistent Storage greyed out?

Stop disc playback completely before changing this. Or just eject the disc to be sure.

How do I remove a disc that is stuck in the player?

First, with the player powered off, press the Eject button on the remote or on the player front panel. This will power on the player and eject the tray.

If that doesn't work:

Turn the player upside down. Towards the front you will see a slot with an arrow etched into it going left to right.

Put a flat object into this slot and then slide it left to right. You will feel some resistance as the tray is manually released.

If you feel only resistance, then you are too deep. Lift up a little bit on your flat object.

If you feel no resistance, then you need to put the flat object in deeper.

Why do my DVDs have jerky motion?

Set Video Setup -> DVD 24p Conversion to Off.

See Is DVD 24hz conversion supported? for more.

Change log


Special thanks to the beta testers.

This document was generated on April 06, 2014 at 14:00 CDT with docutils.

Comments?

Bill McClain (wmcclain@watershade.net)