OPPO Digital Ends Audio Products Production (April 2018)

[MrSmithers]

They’ve obviously decided to focus on the phone handheld business? Clearly a lot of bean counter involvement. Just such a strange decision considering the likes of the Apples and Samsungs etc having such a stronghold in that market already. And the iPhone X hasn’t even sold that well because it’s so expensive so I can’t see how Oppo can break through?

I don’t even have an Oppo but it was nice to know they were there if I was able to upgrade to a better system.

However fear not folks - even if the physical media ‘system of delivery’ is on the decline, it doesn’t necessarily mean MCH music is... As Robert Van Diggele said earlier in the post, the door is open for a high quality streaming MCH DAC ‘machine’. And that is what a lot of us are using already in one way or another

The future is surround, just you wait and see...

 

[ar surround]

I saw this thread and nearly blew a fuse. I had been looking at buying my first OPPO, the UD-205, to replace my Japanese-made 12 year old Marantz DV9600 and Sony Blu-ray player. Finally overcoming my phobia of having a piece of Chinese-made gear in the audio chain, I was going to ask you OPPO owners some questions. AND NOW THIS!!!

 

[MCDave]

I saw this thread and nearly blew a fuse. I had been looking at buying my first OPPO, the UD-205, to replace my Japanese-made 12 year old Marantz DV9600 and Sony Blu-ray player. Finally overcoming my phobia of having a piece of Chinese-made gear in the audio chain, I was going to ask you OPPO owners some questions. AND NOW THIS!!!

What's stopping you from getting one now? Production is expected to continue until June, and Oppo will continue to support these players for years to come, including out of warranty repairs and firmware updates. They're not going out of business, they're just not going to make any more players after the end of the final production run. A new Oppo today will likely last 25 years if you don't abuse it.

I just bought a 203 this morning, but I was going to buy one anyway within a month or so.

 

[ar surround]

What's stopping you from getting one now?...

1. I want more time to perform due diligence on the UD-205. I.e. How does it sound compared to what I have now?
2. I want more time to purchase a new unit while other higher priority obligations (those with high WAF) are first addressed.

 

[HomerJAU]

I would have been concerned about this 5 years ago. Every disc the OPPO supports can be converted to a file format and played without a disc transport on a PC or media player. I never play discs now.

Our only protection against losing all equipment to playback DVDA and SACD (LPs and Tapes too) is to get your music off original media. Converting to file format also give you a backup of the disc too, many of which are irreplaceable now. There’s disk rot going on (e.g. PF DSOTM BDA), not to mention fire and theft.

I wouldn’t run out and by a new OPPO 200 series. Spend your cash moving you discs to files on disc drives and get set up to play files (there’s also many additional benefits)

 

[Ninecats]

For my Oppo 105D I don't care so much if the disc spinner craps out so long as the DACs are working welL. I bought it strictly for the 5.1 output from USB and server files. I will keep using it long after the laser and spinner have quit working.... I hope.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done on other players - Sony X800 for instance?

 

[markshan]

Can you verify that OPPO Digital IS serious about honoring their warranties and will continue to offer firmware updates, when available?

My fear is that Oppo has been bought out and whoever is taking over will send out firmware updates that remove all of the cool features that the industry hates. The LAST thing I plan to do now is any firmware update.

 

[Steve Schoultz]

I would have been concerned about this 5 years ago. Every disc the OPPO supports can be converted to a file format and played without a disc transport on a PC or media player. I never play discs now.

Our only protection against losing all equipment to playback DVDA and SACD (LPs and Tapes too) is to get your music off original media. Converting to file format also give you a backup of the disc too, many of which are irreplaceable now. There’s disk rot going on (e.g. PF DSOTM BDA), not to mention fire and theft.

I wouldn’t run out and by a new OPPO 200 series. Spend your cash moving you discs to files on disc drives and get set up to play files (there’s also many additional benefits)

You make some excellent points. I really appreciate your detailed instructions on how to set up a NUC as a media server. Most definitely everyone should be converting their media even if it is only for backup purposes. You still require an Oppo 103 or 105 to convert SACDs. Luckily I have one of each. While I believe media servers can make excellent audio players, I not convinced they can beat an Oppo for video. This is where the Oppo excels. I believe the hardware/software design of the Oppo is better at processing video than a media server. I have been considering an Oppo 203 for 4K. I’m not so sure now, but probably will hedge my bets and purchase one. One last note, I still need physical DVD-Audio discs for my Acura.

 

[markshan]

I have never seen an Oppo cell phone. I had no idea they made them. Are they Android? Maybe I need to get one.

 

[HomerJAU]

I have never seen an Oppo cell phone. I had no idea they made them. Are they Android? Maybe I need to get one.

They are huge in Asia. Their retail displays and advertising > Apple.

 

[atrocity]

I would have been concerned about this 5 years ago. Every disc the OPPO supports can be converted to a file format and played without a disc transport on a PC or media player. I never play discs now.

Our only protection against losing all equipment to playback DVDA and SACD (LPs and Tapes too) is to get your music off original media. Converting to file format also give you a backup of the disc too, many of which are irreplaceable now. There’s disk rot going on (e.g. PF DSOTM BDA), not to mention fire and theft.

I largely agree with this, except for the fact that while SACD is technically doable, it is a very, very small subset of real-world hardware that's capable of reading the bits onto a server. I'm not particularly worried about any other format (maybe some day I'll be annoyed that I can't copy 4k), but there's some good stuff that's only on SACD for now.

I've got a 103 and have done my SACDs, but have to start over to rip them as large single-track files since that's the only way I can play them gaplessly at the moment. I should probably refresh my memory about which non-Oppo hardware can rip, too.

 

[atrocity]

While I believe media servers can make excellent audio players, I not convinced they can beat an Oppo for video. This is where the Oppo excels. I believe the hardware/software design of the Oppo is better at processing video than a media server.

The good news is that it isn't either/or. Video converted to MKV (which is re-containerization but NOT re-rendering or re-encoding or transcoding, i.e., you keep exactly the same bits that were on the disc) is playable on the Oppo, though frustratingly with some odd constraints. As far as I know, there are no limitations when it comes to material copied from DVD, but there are some edge cases that continue to bite me. The two that come to mind are refusals to play uncompressed PCM or Dolby Digital Plus in an MKV. There are workarounds, but they should absolutely not be necessary. This is one of my only two complaints with Oppo, the other being weirdness about gapless audio playback.

I'm hoping that one or both of these has been remedied in the 203, though I don't have a lot of confidence.

I've had a few situations over the years where damaged (or even just badly-authored) discs received from Netflix couldn't be played in either of two Oppos, but ripping the bits to MKV and streaming them to the players worked just fine.

 

[atrocity]

My fear is that Oppo has been bought out and whoever is taking over will send out firmware updates that remove all of the cool features that the industry hates. The LAST thing I plan to do now is any firmware update.

They haven't been bought out, they're just abandoning this market segment.

My fantasy: Since they're getting out of the business and will no longer be beholden to the MPAA and related extremist hate groups, they'll release one last firmware update that restores all the cool functions they were forced to delete over the years.

Hey, I can dream.

 

[quicksrt]

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done on other players - Sony X800 for instance?

Other players often do play files from USB, but none of them did as many different formats as the Oppos did. For instance, some do not do M/C, some don't do DSD, etc. Perhaps a receiver will come along that has USB and HDMI inputs and can accept more formats than usual incl. M/C.

 

[peterzach]

Yes I was sad to see this information today, they sure made a fantastic product for us audio/video fans. I have bought 4 Oppo's in my time and still have 3(80,93,103) in my possession which I mostly use the 80 and 103 and have the 93 iso version unplugged for now.
Not sure if I will pickup a 203 or not.

 

[markshan]

They haven't been bought out, they're just abandoning this market segment.

My fantasy: Since they're getting out of the business and will no longer be beholden to the MPAA and related extremist hate groups, they'll release one last firmware update that restores all the cool functions they were forced to delete over the years.

Hey, I can dream.

I like that possibility. However, as phones increasingly become multi-media devices, won't they only become more beholden to those agencies?

 

[ubertrout]

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done on other players - Sony X800 for instance?

The X800 - and honestly any recent Sony blu-ray player, plays content off USB and network extremely well. Both the X800 as well as consumer models like the BDP-6500 could play MCH 24/96 FLAC and even MCH DSD (uncompressed, no ISOs) to my AVR, and even sent the MCH DSD to the AVR as DSD.

Man, that's a lot of acronyms. But it was part of why I chose the Sony. It did everything really well. If only it did Dolby Vision. And then they announce that the X700 is going to support Dolby Vision but is dropping DVD-Audio...

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I would have been concerned about this 5 years ago. Every disc the OPPO supports can be converted to a file format and played without a disc transport on a PC or media player. I never play discs now.

Our only protection against losing all equipment to playback DVDA and SACD (LPs and Tapes too) is to get your music off original media. Converting to file format also give you a backup of the disc too, many of which are irreplaceable now. There’s disk rot going on (e.g. PF DSOTM BDA), not to mention fire and theft.

I wouldn’t run out and by a new OPPO 200 series. Spend your cash moving you discs to files on disc drives and get set up to play files (there’s also many additional benefits)

Well said.

I have an OPPO 83 SE. I haven't felt the need to update it because I seldom use it. I usually play a new disk only once or twice at most. I like to see the "presentation" and any video extras but I really never care to see most of it again. It all gets quickly ripped to the NAS. If I need to play the video the disc is there, and I can play it with an OPPO or any other brand of Blue Ray player. The big capability of the OPPO while I used it was the universal disk playback and the analog output. I don't use the analog out anymore, I never play CDs anymore either, except for in the car, and I'm pretty convinced the days of doing that are numbered as well (my sig other can't even get a CD player in the new Chrysler 300s she leases every 3 years).

The only real glitch is SACD, but again there are players available that can play those. I'd only spend money on an OPPO if it were a used 103 or 105 in order to rip the occasional SACD.

 

[humprof]

I would have been concerned about this 5 years ago. Every disc the OPPO supports can be converted to a file format and played without a disc transport on a PC or media player. I never play discs now.

Our only protection against losing all equipment to playback DVDA and SACD (LPs and Tapes too) is to get your music off original media. Converting to file format also give you a backup of the disc too, many of which are irreplaceable now. There’s disk rot going on (e.g. PF DSOTM BDA), not to mention fire and theft.

I wouldn’t run out and by a new OPPO 200 series. Spend your cash moving you discs to files on disc drives and get set up to play files (there’s also many additional benefits)

Point taken--and I really appreciate the detailed DIY threads (stickys, I hope?) that you've begun authoring over the past week or so. One day I'll replace my old laptop with a dedicated NUC-based player.

That said: one of the things I like about DVD-As and Blu-Rays, even the klunkily authored and slow-loading ones, is the visuals that go with the music. Just today I was listening to Gentle Giant's The Power and the Glory and digging the extremely cool animations that go with the lyrics. You don't get that with a FLAC.

My 980 has been in service for thirteen years (I think) and my 103 for three; I don't expect to see either of them crap out any time soon. The rest of my systems aren't good enough to benefit from a DAC upgrade and probably never will be, and I can't really afford to drop 600 bucks right now on a backup machine (the 203) that I'd probably never need, anyway. (1200 bucks for a 205 is just plain out of the question.) So why am I still filled with Fear of Missing Out...?

 

[jamoke]

FWIW:

I jumped in and purchased a UDP-203 today and got a call from Oppo Customer Service concerning a problem with my credit card. Got to talking about staffing moving forward. The guy said he and most everyone else was getting cut at the end of April. There was just going to be a skeleton crew holding it together for warranty and updates etc.

He also said they sold a boatload of inventory today.