Oppo 203 vs current 4k players. Secondary use.

[krb813]

I have 2 4k TV's. 75" and a 65". One of them has an Oppo 203 hooked to it. What is a good 4k player that is around $500 or less? What stacks up picture wise to the 203?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

[Verdinut]

I have 2 4k TV's. 75" and a 65". One of them has an Oppo 203 hooked to it. What is a good 4k player that is around $500 or less? What stacks up picture wise to the 203?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

At $299, the Sony is a good contender. I have the previous X800 player and I'm very satisfied with it. Since it's production was stopped, the OPPO is now definitely overpriced.

 

[2channel lover]

I have 2 4k TV's. 75" and a 65". One of them has an Oppo 203 hooked to it. What is a good 4k player that is around $500 or less? What stacks up picture wise to the 203?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I think most of the 4k blu ray players will suffice for comparable 4k video...it's the audio/build quality/and the fact they are universal players that really sets the Oppo 203 units apart.

 

[ParisB]

I have 2 4k TV's. 75" and a 65". One of them has an Oppo 203 hooked to it. What is a good 4k player that is around $500 or less? What stacks up picture wise to the 203?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Panasonic 820

 

[DigitalDawn]

I think most of the 4k blu ray players will suffice for comparable 4k video...it's the audio/build quality/and the fact they are universal players that really sets the Oppo 203 units apart.

The other thing that Oppo has that I have yet to see on other BD players, is the ability to move subtitles up and into the video image. This is especially important when using a projector and you are zooming or using an anamorphic lens. No one ever mentions this capability.

 

[lovinthehd]

The other thing that Oppo has that I have yet to see on other BD players, is the ability to move subtitles up and into the video image. This is especially important when using a projector and you are zooming or using an anamorphic lens. No one ever mentions this capability.

LOL didn't even realize my 203 had the adjustment for that reason....but no projection for me yet either.

 

[SimplyEpic]

I've been looking myself in the same price range. Basically been coming up with 3 models so far, Panasonic DP-UB820 which is the most expensive at $399, Sony UBP-X800M2 or the Samsung UBD-M8500. Still have more research to do but been leaning between the first 2 for features on the audio side and possibly better up scaling although I am still researching on that.

 

[SimplyEpic]

Scratch the Samsung. Not great reviews on audio quality when compared to others in it's price range. Good budget player is the way it is being described.

 

[lovinthehd]

Scratch the Samsung. Not great reviews on audio quality when compared to others in it's price range. Good budget player is the way it is being described.

Curious, who came up with such comparisons? Are you needing on-board dacs?

 

[SimplyEpic]

No need for the DAC. Mine will be attached to a Marantz SR6014 which can be used for processing with a 5.2 speaker setup. 70% music and 30% movies. Might be an occasional gaming session but just got some of my speakers setup and was working on breaking them in with a movie last night and found my PS4 doesn't read 4k Blue Rays so I started looking for a new component to use for movies when I do watch them. I have been leaning towards the Sony with it's support for SACD and other similar audio formats.

 

[lovinthehd]

How could anyone judge the sound quality of the unit without consideration of its built in dac/analog circuitry that would give it a "sound"? Even when I got my Oppo 203 there was no discernible "sound" difference (even using its dac too but I use optical disc players only as transports except on old analog only gear) from the several Sony bluray players that I have (and the SACD feature is nice). That said, the only bluray player I ever had that truly sucked was a Samsung several years back. It just worked poorly in terms of reading discs consistently and the onboard apps were lousy.

 

[snakeeyes]

I don’t see any reason to pick the Sony x800 over the x700 unless you have dvd-Audio discs.

 

[SimplyEpic]

I do have a few but not many. Some of the Joe Satriani G3 tours, I also have Judas Priest Live in London I believe and an old Iron Maiden concert and Pink Floyd. At least those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[bombadil]

I have the top model of the Panasonic 4k player, 900 or something similar; $1000. It has been very buggy, with flashing lights, audio but no video, etc. It also reverts to the beginning of any disc when turned off and then back on, where my Oppo 103 would always offer the option of returning to where you left off. If ONLY I had bought the 203 or 205 when they were available! Oppo is/was in another league altogether. If I were buying now I'd get something mid priced, 400-500 bucks and avoid the Panasonics.

 

[Kaskade89052]

I have the top model of the Panasonic 4k player, 900 or something similar; $1000. It has been very buggy, with flashing lights, audio but no video, etc. It also reverts to the beginning of any disc when turned off and then back on, where my Oppo 103 would always offer the option of returning to where you left off. If ONLY I had bought the 203 or 205 when they were available! Oppo is/was in another league altogether. If I were buying now I'd get something mid priced, 400-500 bucks and avoid the Panasonics.

I have the UB9000, which I believe you're referring to -- it was the closest thing, build quality wise, to the Oppos, which, like you, I missed out on before the company closed up. I ended up getting a Cambridge Audio CXUHD, which was a clone of the UDP-203, but that gave me issues with DVD playback that their repair center could never fix, even after the unit went back twice. I am going to sell that when I can.

Getting back to the 9000 -- this thing, as with all Panasonic UHD players including the overpriced IMO 820, exhibits a TON of quirks which I can't stand, including the automatic power off after 20 minutes with no override, no aspect ratio controls, no zoom functions, no standby indicator on the front panel and the issue you brought up, the lack of resume playback functionality...

However, that last element I mentioned isn't really a "bug," as it's a known limitation with these Panasonics (i.e. they were designed this way); I ABSOLUTELY HATE the fact that these players don't have that resume feature (which Oppos and the Cambridge had, even in their first generation Blu-ray decks), as it came in VERY handy when resuming a disc you may have been watching the night before. As it stands, Blu-rays with Java encoding in them WILL remember where you left off the next time you put the disc in, wherein that message pops up "RESUME: YES/NO?" but this is strictly up to the DISC and the way it was authored; in the past, EVERY DVD at least would allow you to stop, eject a disc and then pick up where you left off the next time you power up the player -- but the Panasonics don't.

I know a million of these kinds of complaints were fired off to Panasonic reps via various sources, but they don't seem to care; one of the contacts I had claimed an upcoming firmware update should address at least some of these issues, such as the power-off-after-20-minutes thing, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[bombadil]

I have the UB9000, which I believe you're referring to -- it was the closest thing, build quality wise, to the Oppos, which, like you, I missed out on before the company closed up. I ended up getting a Cambridge Audio CXUHD, which was a clone of the UDP-203, but that gave me issues with DVD playback that their repair center could never fix, even after the unit went back twice. I am going to sell that when I can.

Getting back to the 9000 -- this thing, as with all Panasonic UHD players including the overpriced IMO 820, exhibits a TON of quirks which I can't stand, including the automatic power off after 20 minutes with no override, no aspect ratio controls, no zoom functions, no standby indicator on the front panel and the issue you brought up, the lack of resume playback functionality...

However, that last element I mentioned isn't really a "bug," as it's a known limitation with these Panasonics (i.e. they were designed this way); I ABSOLUTELY HATE the fact that these players don't have that resume feature (which Oppos and the Cambridge had, even in their first generation Blu-ray decks), as it came in VERY handy when resuming a disc you may have been watching the night before. As it stands, Blu-rays with Java encoding in them WILL remember where you left off the next time you put the disc in, wherein that message pops up "RESUME: YES/NO?" but this is strictly up to the DISC and the way it was authored; in the past, EVERY DVD at least would allow you to stop, eject a disc and then pick up where you left off the next time you power up the player -- but the Panasonics don't.

I know a million of these kinds of complaints were fired off to Panasonic reps via various sources, but they don't seem to care; one of the contacts I had claimed an upcoming firmware update should address at least some of these issues, such as the power-off-after-20-minutes thing, but I'm not holding my breath.

Couldn't agree more, in fact I'm going back to using my Oppo 103 and likely selling the UB9000. That says quite a bit.

 

[Kaskade89052]

Couldn't agree more, in fact I'm going back to using my Oppo 103 and likely selling the UB9000. That says quite a bit.

Wow; yeah, you're really unhappy if you're selling the 9000...

For me, it's the best-built player I've EVER owned, and that was a big factor for me (I didn't want a hunk of plastic); I'm trying to deal with the quirks as best I could, so we've been rebuying many of our favorite titles that were on non-anamorphic DVD or full screen DVD (since the UB9000 can't blow these up via zoom or aspect ratio controls) on Blu-ray, but this is becoming an expensive proposition. The real kick in the nuts here is that the Panny really does exhibit jaw-dropping picture quality, especially using the unit's HDR Optimizer with 4Ks, but the decisions they made when designing this thing are just head-scratching in terms of features...

I actually think the UB9000 makes regular Blu-rays and 4K Blus look SIGNIFICANTLY better than the Cambridge unit I had. And that's saying something.

For me, I still have a first generation Oppo BDP-83 that I need to have repaired via Oppo at some point (it succumbed to the loading issue), and I'm NEVER getting rid of that thing, given it's the BEST DVD player I've ever owned (the Anchor Bay VRS processor in this deck wipes the floor with just about every player I've ever used in terms of DVD upconversion, which is still very important to me because we have a massive library). But being that I still want to stay on the 4K bandwagon, I'm going to keep my UB9000, as I'm not paying $2,000 for a used UDP-203 and there are no other premium options on the market anymore now that the Cambridge CXUHD is gone, too. I was originally going to look into the Pioneer LX500, as that thing makes the UB9000 look and feel a bit budget, if you can imagine that, but since the pandemic, they haven't come back into stock.

 

[Joost80]

I have the Panasonic ub420 and it does have resume playback functionality. Hasn't skipped a beat with whatever I play through and no bugs that I have encountered.

Would be weird of the UB9000 doesn't have this future.

 

[Blue Dude]

I replaced my Oppo 203 with a Panny 820, since the money offered for the Oppo was just too good to pass up. Plus I didn't want to be left with an orphaned machine in a few years. There are a few features on the Oppo that I took for granted and still miss (memorized disc positions, digital zoom for non-anamorphic DVDs, etc.) but for most discs the Panny is more than adequate. I will say that the build quality of the Oppo was most impressive, and I really wish they had stayed in the business.

 

[lovinthehd]

I thought resume playback functionality was largely to do with the disc authoring for blurays....but all my dvd players had that that I remember.