Eric5676

http://www.everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/2012/09/audiophile-player-preview-oppo-readies.html

If you have the patience, that AVS thread has basically gotten into a back and forth about AIFF and it's best for you all to read it for yourselves but long/short: There's ways to get around the problem and so forth so IMO...best read but others may come away different...I don't see a "deal breaker" situation here.

I'm amazed someone under NDA could post this but here goes: Still seeing some warnings about speculation, too, so don't sign off completely on everything yet. I think this person knew they had to put out a potential fire as best possible.

Odds and ends:

Not surprisingly, I'm seeing hints that the 105 "might" be a little more expensive than the 95 simply because it's a whole new animal of sorts. It's essentially this "all in one" preamp player type device instead of just being a disc and media file player only.

Very likely.

Ta da! IThey have HDCD! Someone asked in 133, confirmed by insider in post 134 of that same AVS thread. That 105 unit is practically a pre-amp/player the way this is shaping up. E-sata looks dead. When asked why E-sata is dead another insider responded: IMO someone under NDA saying that means (hopefully?) something equal and/or better than what E-sata was there for is on these new units instead. My best guess.

As expected: Got the NDA coverage response as far as the HDMI inputs question goes. They told me to "ask again later" so that's going to be interesting.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1428214/official-oppo-bdp-103-bdp-105-anticipation-thread/100_100#post_22384837 TRANSLATION: The Oppo will be recognized (by the PC) as an external sound card to decode all your audio files, including DSD files (SACD ISO or DSDiff files, as offered by some music sites like HighResAudio) That's credible. No one's shot it down including the guys in that thread that I know are pretty close to Oppo and under NDAs. The silence speaks volumes.

All part of the service. It is pretty easy to get lost in the techno jargon and some of the crazy arguments that happen. I skim and lurk when I'm interested in something. My patience goes out the window not too long after that.

Quite. The folks under NDA are doing some clever tapdancing in that AVS thread I linked to but there's some tidbits that are getting posted that are worth taking a glance at that thread every so often for. recstar: I asked about those directly in the thread. We'll see if the NDA allows them to answer it yet. If they say yes and the Oppos can be used like external videoprocessors and switchers ... the QDEO videoprocessing is the best on the market and I'll be making plans to sell my DVDO Duo in short order to subsidize the upgrade.

If their usual patterns hold it's going to be pretty close.

^^ A lot of you here wanted Oppo to add onboard DAC capabilities and that is confirmed for the new 105 unit in the previous post. What DACs are they going to use? I'm sure it'll be some of the best...probably ESS Sabre again in a "worse case" scenario. I think these players are going to hit a lot of marks for a lot of people. Stay tuned. For the hit and runs: These are the confirmed new features thus far over the existing 93/95 line: New or Enhanced BDP-103/105 Shared Features: Latest generation QDEO which supports 4K upscaling 2x2 HDMI. Two HDMI inputs; Two HDMI outputs. The Front HDMI input supports MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) which allows some of the newer smartphones to be connected direct to the player and transmits the phones screen to the television. This also allows for ROKU Stick support. Newest Netflix interface which supports 1080p video, multi-channel audio, subtitle and alternative language selection, and Family Interface Gracenote for looking up media information such as album art, artist, album, and track information for your CD, SACD, and user generated media Backlit Eject buttons. No more thumbing around in the dark. No more analog video. There is a "DIAG" port, but this is to only see the OPPO UI when there is no media playback. So for those of you who use a small monitor for media playback, you will need to upgrade to a DVI/HDMI capable display. New BDP-105 Only Features: Fanless (unlike the BDP-95) Headphone Amplifier Optical, Digital Coaxial and asynchronous USB DAC Properly oriented XLR outputs That's right. The 105 is going to be DAC, headphone amp, and a partridge in a pear tree basically.

Something a lot more meaningful and specific as a response to an email I sent directly: I emailed them and got back this: More: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1384419/2012-oppo-or-other-new-bd-player-coming-out-this-year-worth-waiting-for/0_100#post_22379222 Start from that post and work your way down. We have some cam shots and the units will be the 103 and 105. This will turn heads here:

From yesterday: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1291855/official-oppo-bdp-93-owners-thread/22700_100#post_22371755 http://www.oppodigital.com/ The 93 is out of stock. This is the typical "something's about to happen or be announced" pattern for Oppo. 95 is still in stock for now.

These: And these: http://www.twice.com...a-and-us/103030

Huh. Wasn't expecting this popular response. Glad I was able to drop off some good news.

Very disappointed in this decision and the possible trend it could stand for.

Right direct from Oppo themselves on their Twitter page: https://twitter.com/OPPODIGITAL Best bets: Dual core at least, 4k, latest Marvell QDEO video processing, wouldn't be surprised to see a higher end variant come out in 2013 to succeed the 95. Overall, I expect to see further improvements and streamlining/addition of features for the Internet, streaming, supported files, etc. etc. That's been their cycle to a tee and it's a safe bet it's going to happen again here if that's anything to go by. Stay tuned.

http://www.bigpictur...eadphones.shtml

For folks not happy with Diablo 3 I'm getting the idea Torchlight 2 might be where it's at. The Steam preorder on that is super generous. You get the first game and you're set for the second game for a mere $20. Crazy value and the beta feedbacks and such suggest a potential huge lovefest in the makings. If you go on the Runic forums it's looking like mid June thereabouts for a release. The folks in the beta are saying the game feels fairly polished and complete even now.

Been happy with my pair since the day they first came out.

http://www.bigpictur...ecordings.shtml Awesome. Hope there's plenty more where this is coming from.

I keep seeing these sorts of developments and I keep inching a little bit closer to taking one of these for a test spin myself.

If it's even true. What I basically get out of all of this rumoring and such is: Valve wants to make Steam the Android of the gaming world. Frankly I feel like I'm already seeing that in progress. I can use Steam on the PC, the PS3, the Mac, this: http://store.steampowered.com/mobile this: http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/thebigpicture.php and so forth. I can't see Valve making hardware for themselves and they don't have to. Look at Google with Google TV, for example. So it's going to be interesting to watch unfold.