Oppo to wind down and cease manufacturing

[lovinthehd]

It's a nice feature, especially if you are not native to the country you live in and want to watch some legacy discs that you already own.

Back in the day (days of DVD), region free was great to get to watch Anime that was not available in the USA, or if you wanted to watch anime or kung-fu with the original Chinese or Japanese audio and read the sub-titles (most purist will tell you that the US dubs suck, and sometimes they are right).

With modern streaming options and such, it just isn't a prime feature like it used to be.

Yes, I can think of a few kung fu flicks where the dub was just horrible (translation too probably).

 

[sterling shoote]

I bought a BDP-105D in 2005, though I also own a broken down BDP-83. Luckily, I held onto the BDP-83, and so I sent it out to Oppo today to get it repaired. On Tuesday, I ordered a UDP-205, and it's on the way to me. All of the units that I bought are hardware-modified "Region-Free" units. Now, I don't have to worry, that if my BDP-105D were to fail (and service not be available) that I would be unable to play roughly 1500 of my discs ever again. These include SACD's, DVD-Audio discs, DVD's containing foreign format video, my one "50Hz" Blu-ray disc, and more than 800 home-burned DVD-Audio discs.
When the day comes when I can no longer buy music in a format where I can permanently posess it, then I'm out of here. I'll keep on rockin' with all of the physical media that I've collected in the past 52 years. In fact, my 92-year old mom has speculated that I may not be able to play through my more than 2000 disc backlog of yet-to-be-played CD-R's during all of the remaining years of my life. She may be right. And I've got downloaded files from which I could burn(at least) another 500 discs. And I continue to buy manufactured CD's, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio & Blu-ray discs, SACD's (and occasional vinyl) and I'll continue to buy them as long as they are available.

Right-On, Right-On!

 

[PhilCohen]

But the problem is almost certainly the Laser, and has nothing to do with the modification. Playback failed suddenly while playing a music CD. Luckily, I was able to get the disc tray to open, and I got my disc out of the machine. The Minutes/Seconds display also failed. But, I got my money's worth. I got 7 years of good service (2008-2015)

The region coding system was forced on the DVD & Blu-ray hardware manufacturers by the patent holders. The Movie industry threatened to not release any software without the option of region coding the discs. The region coding system has often been abused; used on non-theatrical materials (such as music videos & concerts) that were never intended for movie theater distribution. With only two exceptions, none of the "Region Two" discs that I bought were ever released in Region One"(U.S.A./Canada) or "All Regions" version.

 

[PhilCohen]

Wow! A mere 3 days after I ordered my UDP-205, the internet dealer that I bought from became aware of the product shortage and took advantage of it, increasing the price of a (region-free) unit from $1499 to $2600. I was quite lucky to buy my unit at the lower price. It's in route and will be here April 9th. I ordered exactly one day after Oppo Digital announced its impending demise. the UDP-205 will be a great spare player. After I verify that the UDP-205 works, it will go back into its carton to be held for a "rainy day". I don't own a 4k Television. (I'm quite happy with my 1080p Panasonic Plasma T.V.) As for my BDP-105, its features, and audio & video quality are great too, and serve all of my present needs. I've also sent my broken down BDP-83 to Oppo for repair.
As for those of you who wonder why Oppo's newest generation of players don't support HDCD, it was a chip maker's decision in which Oppo had no say.
My "Man Cave" has now become a "Physical Product" "Bomb Shelter" equiped to play all my digital discs (CD,DVD-Video,DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray-Audio, Blu-ray video & Video CD) for the remaining years of my life and (potentially) my heir. And I'm equiped for vinyl,DAT, Minidisc,VHS, S-VHS and Laserdisc too.
As for my future purchases of music "Physical Product", I'm mostly interested in Classic Rock" archival product from the 1964-1984 period. I'm confident that that the music industry will supply the remaining materials that I'm seeking.

 

[sterling shoote]

Wow! A mere 3 days after I ordered my UDP-205, the internet dealer that I bought from became aware of the product shortage and took advantage of it, increasing the price of a (region-free) unit from $1499 to $2600. I was quite lucky to buy my unit at the lower price. It's in route and will be here April 9th. I ordered exactly one day after Oppo Digital announced its impending demise. the UDP-205 will be a great spare player. After I verify that the UDP-205 works, it will go back into its carton to be held for a "rainy day". I don't own a 4k Television. (I'm quite happy with my 1080p Panasonic Plasma T.V.) As for my BDP-105, its features, and audio & video quality are great too, and serve all of my present needs. I've also sent my broken down BDP-83 to Oppo for repair.
As for those of you who wonder why Oppo's newest generation of players don't support HDCD, it was a chip maker's decision in which Oppo had no say.
My "Man Cave" has now become a "Physical Product" "Bomb Shelter" equiped to play all my digital discs (CD,DVD-Video,DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray-Audio, Blu-ray video & Video CD) for the remaining years of my life and (potentially) my heir. And I'm equiped for vinyl,DAT, Minidisc,VHS, S-VHS and Laserdisc too.
As for my future purchases of music "Physical Product", I'm mostly interested in Classic Rock" archival product from the 1964-1984 period. I'm confident that that the music industry will supply the remaining materials that I'm seeking.

How do you enjoy DAT media, that's to say, what DAT Recorder do you own; and, who keeps it running? I've got two DAT Recorders, each is used for playback or recording about 15 minutes each month. Both recorders have about 450 hours of use. If either broke down I'm clueless to how I'd get it repaired. Last time I needed repair (time-code reader-generator circuit board went out) back in 2010, I had to send it to Sony Professional Repair and Service Center in LA. cost me $950. Now, that facility has run out of parts and personnel to fix my recorders should one and/or the other need repair again. My DAT Recorders are important to me; but, I do fear, no matter how I try to maintain them, they might just become bookends.

 

[slipperybidness]

How do you enjoy DAT media, that's to say, what DAT Recorder do you own; and, who keeps it running? I've got two DAT Recorders, each is used for playback or recording about 15 minutes each month. Both recorders have about 450 hours of use. If either broke down I'm clueless to how I'd get it repaired. Last time I needed repair (time-code reader-generator circuit board went out) back in 2010, I had to send it to Sony Professional Repair and Service Center in LA. cost me $950. Now, that facility has run out of parts and personnel to fix my recorders should one and/or the other need repair again. My DAT Recorders are important to me; but, I do fear, no matter how I try to maintain them, they might just become bookends.

Likely, @TLS Guy will be your best resource to advise on this

 

[sterling shoote]

Likely, @TLS Guy will be your best resource to advise on this

Thanks for that tip. I had a conversation with TLS regarding a "bad condition" error on one of my recorders, which manifested itself in terrible distortion of recorded music. He thought like me, that it was a problem with deteriorating tape, that's what "bad cond." refers to. I purchased a few new DAT cassettes and had same issue. We were wrong in our diagnosis. I left the recorder on for about an hour, and tried to play the unrecorded tape again. Bingo, it played fine, so apparently my issue has something to do with a circuit that is now only working when things warm up. I asked TLS about that and he alluded to it being too many things. And there we have it, I do not have any electronics repair facility in my area which will even open up my unit to look into it. There are a few facilities in LA but just to ship my 58 pound recorder round trip is about $200 dollars. So, the bottom line is I let the unit warm up.

 

[slipperybidness]

View attachment 23938
Thanks for that tip. I had a conversation with TLS regarding a "bad condition" error on one of my recorders, which manifested itself in terrible distortion of recorded music. He thought like me, that it was a problem with deteriorating tape, that's what "bad cond." refers to. I purchased a few new DAT cassettes and had same issue. We were wrong in our diagnosis. I left the recorder on for about an hour, and tried to play the unrecorded tape again. Bingo, it played fine, so apparently my issue has something to do with a circuit that is now only working when things warm up. I asked TLS about that and he alluded to it being too many things. And there we have it, I do not have any electronics repair facility in my area which will even open up my unit to look into it. There are a few facilities in LA but just to ship my 58 pound recorder round trip is about $200 dollars. So, the bottom line is I let the unit warm up.

Unfortunately, the reality is that learning to work on this type of stuff yourself is quickly becoming the only option.

 

[j_garcia]

I got wait listed for a 205 yesterday. We'll see if I can get one before they're gone. Looks like inventory is near zero now.

 

[RichB]

I got wait listed for a 205 yesterday. We'll see if I can get one before they're gone. Looks like inventory is near zero now.

Are you buying directly from Oppo?

- Rich

 

[j_garcia]

Are you buying directly from Oppo?

- Rich

Yes. Not paying frenzy pricing.

 

[RichB]

The region coding system was forced on the DVD & Blu-ray hardware manufacturers by the patent holders. The Movie industry threatened to not release any software without the option of region coding the discs. The region coding system has often been abused; used on non-theatrical materials (such as music videos & concerts) that were never intended for movie theater distribution. With only two exceptions, none of the "Region Two" discs that I bought were ever released in Region One"(U.S.A./Canada) or "All Regions" version.

Thankfully, they removed region coding UHD/4K Bd's.

- Rich

 

[sterling shoote]

Unfortunately, the reality is that learning to work on this type of stuff yourself is quickly becoming the only option.

Hey, I could not get a basic AM crystal radio from a Heathkit to work when I was a kid. Interestingly enough, I did install, successfully, the remote board and 15 pin connector to both of my DAT Recorders to use the units with a digital edit controller. I must have been out of my mind to do that. At any rate, I know you are right. And, thanks again for your suggestions. You're a neat guy.

 

[PhilCohen]

How do you enjoy DAT media, that's to say, what DAT Recorder do you own; and, who keeps it running? I've got two DAT Recorders, each is used for playback or recording about 15 minutes each month. Both recorders have about 450 hours of use. If either broke down I'm clueless to how I'd get it repaired. Last time I needed repair (time-code reader-generator circuit board went out) back in 2010, I had to send it to Sony Professional Repair and Service Center in LA. cost me $950. Now, that facility has run out of parts and personnel to fix my recorders should one and/or the other need repair again. My DAT Recorders are important to me; but, I do fear, no matter how I try to maintain them, they might just become bookends.

My portable DAT died many years ago, but I still own a home recorder (Sony DTC 75ES), but I rarely use this machine. In fact, I only use it when copying a DAT to CD-R (I have a Fostex CR200 CD-R recorder, which also gets used to dub vinyl onto CD-R). The CR200 is, in effect a professional version of the Pioneer PD-R05, but the serial copy management system (SCMS) can be turned off. I have fewer than 100 homemade DAT tapes, and four pre-recorded DAT's that came with the DTC-75ES.

 

[Schrodinger23]

I bought a BDP-105D in 2005, though I also own a broken down BDP-83. Luckily, I held onto the BDP-83, and so I sent it out to Oppo today to get it repaired. On Tuesday, I ordered a UDP-205, and it's on the way to me. All of the units that I bought are hardware-modified "Region-Free" units. Now, I don't have to worry, that if my BDP-105D were to fail (and service not be available) that I would be unable to play roughly 1500 of my discs ever again. These include SACD's, DVD-Audio discs, DVD's containing foreign format video, my one "50Hz" Blu-ray disc, and more than 800 home-burned DVD-Audio discs.
When the day comes when I can no longer buy music in a format where I can permanently posess it, then I'm out of here. I'll keep on rockin' with all of the physical media that I've collected in the past 52 years. In fact, my 92-year old mom has speculated that I may not be able to play through my more than 2000 disc backlog of yet-to-be-played CD-R's during all of the remaining years of my life. She may be right. And I've got downloaded files from which I could burn(at least) another 500 discs. And I continue to buy manufactured CD's, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio & Blu-ray discs, SACD's (and occasional vinyl) and I'll continue to buy them as long as they are available.

I too was first drawn to Oppo because they make players that can be modified to the best region free players ever in existence. Before Oppo came around I had a Jaton modified region free DVD player. The video and audio quality were not good and it was a bit buggy. Sure, I could pay close to $1,000 for modifications to name brand players like Panasonic and Sony, but none of them handled PAL conversion.

Oppo handled PAL conversion as well as it did everything else. It is a reference quality player. To this day I'm not aware of another player that has subtitle shift, for moving subtitles that were put down in the black bars. It's been almost 10 years since I got an easy $60 ribbon strap modification to all the player to change Blu Ray regions between A,B and C. Oppo left an easy back door in for us and the only reason that they couldn't allow it to be naturally region free for Blu-Rays was so that the Blu-Ray disc qualifications were met. The region free hardware modification has continued working even with firmware updates, because Oppo didn't want to hamstring this very niche group of individuals that has large collections of international discs. This is sad news indeed. I can't think of a better A/V manufacturer out there than Oppo.

Maybe us enthusiasts will luck out and Oppo's work can live on somewhere else. I could easily see the Oppo disc players and headphones finding a nice home with Monoprice's Monolith line. I'm not sure if Monoprice's customer service is up to the level of Oppo, but the Monolith line has the look and price/performance ratio for Oppo's products.

 

[gene]

I guess Harman Int never forgave AH for the original article, might as well rub it in anew again. Nothing to loose anyhow, Right?

We actually have a very close working relationship with Harman,but why deny history or pretend it didn't happen?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

We actually have a very close working relationship with Harman,but why deny history or pretend it didn't happen?

Fair enough. At least before Samsung's grabby hands, Harman was actually using science to engineer their products.

 

[little wing]

Very sad indeed about Oppo.

I guess getting a 203 or 205 is pretty much out of the question now.. One of the many great things about their products was their absolutely first rate remote controls. I wish other manufacturers would take a queue from Oppo on this. So many remotes are just pure crap these days. Oppo proves you could build a great one if you really wanted to.

 

[roadwarrior]

My "Man Cave" has now become a "Physical Product" "Bomb Shelter" equiped to play all my digital discs (CD,DVD-Video,DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray-Audio, Blu-ray video & Video CD) for the remaining years of my life and (potentially) my heir. And I'm equiped for vinyl,DAT, Minidisc,VHS, S-VHS and Laserdisc too.
As for my future purchases of music "Physical Product", I'm mostly interested in Classic Rock" archival product from the 1964-1984 period. I'm confident that that the music industry will supply the remaining materials that I'm seeking.

https://i.imgur.com/XrBBaSQ.mp4

 

[lovinthehd]

Very sad indeed about Oppo.

I guess getting a 203 or 205 is pretty much out of the question now.. One of the many great things about their products was their absolutely first rate remote controls. I wish other manufacturers would take a queue from Oppo on this. So many remotes are just pure crap these days. Oppo proves you could build a great one if you really wanted to.

So I take it you don't trust them to complete warranty/service commitments?