No more Oppo 203 waiting list.

**Tracy Rainwater** · 07-12-2018, 07:52 AM

People are holding on to the BDP-95, and to some extent the BDP-93, now since it was the last player to support ISO playback. Providing the owner didn't install any of the later firmware updates which locks out that feature.

**k0rww** · 07-12-2018, 10:24 AM

Hi Brandon,

I agree except I believe technology will produce a better UHD player faster than you think. Now that my attempt to buy a 203 failed, I intend to sit back and enjoy my low rent Sony UBP-800 player. The Panasonic 9000 is suppose to have a little better video, but at a much higher price point. The small improvement in video may only be noticed with testing. I don't think anyone has a better transport that the 203, which was way ahead the group when released.
I have an Oppo 83 & 93 which are still working. I had planned to buy Oppo's successor to the 203.
Oppo went out on top

**jerrich** · 07-12-2018, 12:43 PM

Hopefully I will come out long by one model 93 if anyone is interested in it. They came out with a 95 a few microseconds after I bought it. Works fine and looks new.
JR

**jerrich** · 07-18-2018, 07:13 AM

Got my refurb 203 yesterday and got it installed in my rack. Looks the same as the 93 except for setup menu and screen saver pictures. Now I can look again at the B7 oled at costco that calls my name every time I walk by.

JR

**Tracy Rainwater** · 07-18-2018, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by jerrich

Got my refurb 203 yesterday and got it installed in my rack. Looks the same as the 93 except for setup menu and screen saver pictures. Now I can look again at the B7 oled at costco that calls my name every time I walk by.

JR

Nice and yes, you need that OLED.

**moomoomoomoo** · 07-18-2018, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by Tracy Rainwater

Is Oppo under new ownership? I hadn't read that part but admit that I haven't dug very deep.

It was my understanding that the company's shareholders looked at the Oppo Digital part of the business and decided it wasn't worth continuing. Not everybody has a Blu-ray player or is into home theater. Of those, very few see the need to buy an Oppo when it's easily 2X -3X the price of most Blu-ray players on the market.

On the other hand, you would be hard-pressed to find an adult that doesn't have a mobile phone, and Oppo sells a ton of them in the Asian market.

I certainly don't like that they stopped making the best universal disc player on the planet, but they didn't ask my opinion.

The thing about Oppo's wasn't just the video (though the video is superb). I bought my 95 as a Demo for $800. If it was just a universal audio player of that quality I wouldn't have felt the least bit ripped off. From a price/quality pov, the Oppo .05's were the av bargain of the century. With the video quality (& the 95 played burned SACD's & had a $30 br region hack) they probably could have doubled the price & still at least been competitive. I have read that both the 105 & 205 sound better than my 95; but I'ev never heard either.

From an audiophile pov, what was especially interesting is that their last flagship dvd only player (which I heard in a friend's mega bucks (over $30k) stereo system) sounded awful. Bright & Screechy. They obviously changed their audio philosophy when they went blu-ray.

**moomoomoomoo** · 07-18-2018, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by Tracy Rainwater

People are holding on to the BDP-95, and to some extent the BDP-93, now since it was the last player to support ISO playback. Providing the owner didn't install any of the later firmware updates which locks out that feature.

FYI: the last firmware which supports iso was Dec 2012. In all these years I've only run across 2 blu-ray discs the 95 wouldn't play with the 2012 firmware (both played fine on other players). Ironically one of the 2 discs was manufactured in 2011!

The main issue with the 95 (which in my understanding Oppo didn't fix until the 105) is that it added about 2 seconds between all audio files in all non-disc formats; so if 2 tracks were meant to blend together, it sounded pretty odd. At the time Oppo told me "live with it"; that the flac encoding chip they chose for the .9x series had that issue & couldn't be fixed with firmware. If I'd had the $'s I would have bought a 205 & also kept the 95; but not an option with my finances today. Being able to play raw dsd would have been nice also.

**moomoomoomoo** · 07-18-2018, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by Brandon Eberhart

I predict the Oppo players will go down in history like Kuros, with people holding onto them for long after their intended life cycle is over. I think when something is so impressive to you in its day it can be hard to accept that something else that has come out is better. And that you don't have it.

I mean, eventually something will come out that's better than Oppo UDP, right? And at the same price point. Right? Soon?

There's many players that are better, but not at that price point & not that do so many things.

**Tracy Rainwater** · 07-19-2018, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by moomoomoomoo

There's many players that are better, but not at that price point & not that do so many things.

I know that there are some crazy priced CD/SACD players out there which I would never consider. The same can also be said for digital media players. As for BD and 4K BD, more and more are coming to the market but none of them appear to be really great music players.

Putting it all together at a reasonable price was what Oppo did best.

**moomoomoomoo** · 07-19-2018, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by Tracy Rainwater

I know that there are some crazy priced CD/SACD players out there which I would never consider. The same can also be said for digital media players. As for BD and 4K BD, more and more are coming to the market but none of them appear to be really great music players.

Putting it all together at a reasonable price was what Oppo did best.

Yep; that was my long winded point!