![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
quote: Scott NorwoodIt's quite a bit considering I paid $228 for my Sony UBP-X700 a couple of weeks ago The Sony supports Dolby Vision and damn near any audio format you can throw at it from traditional CD's to FLAC files. And it also has two HDMI outs, one audio only, just like the Oppo.
And, honestly, $500-something for a 4k Blu-Ray player isn't that expensive for home use in relative terms.
quote: Steve GuttagIf you read my post again, you'll see the quote I was responding to was specific to being a "4k Blu-ray player".
As for the Sony in comparison to the Oppo...where are the analog outputs? Where is the integration features like RS232?
quote: Carsten KurzWe've done some pretty elaborate scripting, including "juke-boxing" over tracks using the RS232 interface. We're also using the RS232 interface to display the remaining time in the current track and even to dynamically fire cues on it, including intermissions, lights on, etc.
Honestly I never considered remote control as important as other features. As in general, in a cinema, all you typically need is play/pause. It's not that you actually need it to juke-box over RS232. Many discs can not simply stay in pause because they use their own authored screen saver, so, simply issuing 'play' will typically not work for them anyway as soon as the player is pausing for more than a few seconds. It is also very easy to generate the necessary 'play' infrared signal from any server through GPOs even if the player has no RS232/TCP remote control option.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
quote: Carsten KurzThat's unfortunately true, they're treated as some audiophile specialty item, which makes them pretty hard to get at reasonable prices in Europe.
OPPO players are very expensive to get in europe. For a long time, they did not even bother having european resellers.
quote:And that's exactly why they won't root out piracy. As long as pirates have a less shitty experience watching their content as those who are willing to pay for it, it will never vanish.
Of course, now you get to deal with service drops, lower quality and limited selection, so... wow, way better!
quote: Martin BrooksI think some of it boils down to a "down-sizing" trend among a couple of different age-generation demographics. I've been hearing about the trend of older, "empty nest" couples ditching big, family-sized houses for more modest sized homes (with far more modest house payments, utility bills, etc). If you're going to down-size to a smaller living space you're not going to have room for nearly as much "stuff." They have to get rid of boxes filled with books, magazines and movies on VHS, DVD, etc. Then you have young adults trying to launch. They can't be dragging around boxes of stuff, like a giant collection of music CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, etc, especially if they'll have to share an apartment with other roommates.
For better or worse, it's a streaming world. Maybe at some point the culture will change again and people will want to own stuff, but as of right now, the masses don't.
quote: Mike BlakesleyI read that also, but then I read that it was fake news or a severe misinterpretation of what Apple is planning. The part that makes sense is that overall, in the U.S., downloads are only 15.7% of the music business (in dollars) and streaming is now 66.7%. But there's much greater margin in downloads than there is in the Apple Music subscription service and the incremental costs to operate the download service are probably small because Apple has to store all that music anyway.
I read yesterday somewhere (can't remember where) that in the next couple of years, Apple/iTunes wants to be out of the download business and just do streaming only.
quote: Jesse SkeenI guess with "digital" you're referring to streaming and download services?
I have literally thousands of movies and other video programs in every past and present format, and still get joy in buying new ones. I get no such joy from "digital"- the quality still leaves much to be desired, and I don't like the idea of someone being able to take it off-line for any reason.
quote: Marcel BirgelenI'm not sure that this is accurate. I've never heard of such a requirement. What is your basis for this?
Keep in mind that much of the physical digital media you buy those days is pretty much a farce too, since it often needs active DRM to be able to be played. This is also true for almost all 4K content out there. Somebody could remotely pull the license and you're stuck with unplayable content.
quote: Steve GuttagI'm still deliberating on whether to take a chance and purchase a -203 before they're gone (the opportunity to get the best player that was made for the format) and not taking the risk of buying into a dead product that won't be supported any longer than the company deems necessary to not cause a firestorm.
BTW...update on Oppo. We can no longer supply the rackmount for the UDP-203/BDP-103 though they are still showing it for retail so they are down to the last batch (not a huge deal, they fit on a Mid-Atlantic U2 shelf (or equivalent) without issue, just not quite as finished. We did place another multi-unit order without issue for the UDP-203.
quote: Marcel BirgelenI do seem to recall hearing about AACS 2.0 Enhanced being a possibility, but after some outcry, basically every studio said that they wouldn't use it (or at least that's how I remember it possibly going).
Any media using Enhanced AACS 2.0 (primarily UHD and HDR content), needs an active Internet connection for the first playback on any device, to load the title key. You won't be able to play the disc on the device, unless this key exchange has happened. If the disc or device is blacklisted or if the license server has gone haywire: No content for you.
quote: Scott JentschIt's not only a possibility, it's part of the specs and it is being used. None of the first batch of UHD releases did use the AACS 2.0 Enhanced options, but I've got some HDR releases here that are most definitely require a working Internet connection in order to be "validated" on the player. The thing is, the industry itself isn't transparent in what kind of protection they use on their releases and it might also vary between regions or type of release...
I do seem to recall hearing about AACS 2.0 Enhanced being a possibility, but after some outcry, basically every studio said that they wouldn't use it (or at least that's how I remember it possibly going).
quote: Scott JentschMicrosoft has a great track record here, back in 2008 they shut down their MSN Music store and took the DRM servers with them, people had to switch to Zune... Now, last year, Microsoft switched off the Zune DRM servers...
Active DRM is one of the three main reasons why I do not purchase streaming content that I wish to keep (the first and second being video and audio quality). I think I've purchased two streaming movies, because they weren't available to rent, I wanted to watch them right then, and they were cheap. Aside from that, streaming is best for TV shows and for movies I wouldn't otherwise have taken the time to get from Netflix DVD-by-mail or purchase on disc.
quote: Steve GuttagI have given up on Denon. Their CD transports and players are made fomr the crappiest plastic they could possibly find. Once they get to be 5 or 6 years old, some of the plastic parts in the transports literally start to crumble. I just shit caned two high end denon units last week.
Denon has a 1080p Blu-ray player with many of the features of the Oppo but likely not the same robustness of the Oppo.
It has been 521 days since the last post.