Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Best Bluray Player

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Posted by Paul Shuttleworth (Member # 9057) on 08-18-2017, 07:16 AM:

Hi guys,

We have a Cambridge Audio Bluray Player, our previous technical director chose this because it has the 'best audio output' but its not a great machine as we have had some trouble with this.

Can anyone recommend the best Bluray Player that is Multiregional and has a option to turn off the OSD?

Cheers,

Paul

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-18-2017, 07:29 AM:

If you don't mind the price (you probably don't, as you used a Cambridge Audio before), get an Oppo player. It has all the bit's an pieces you need for cinema use, among them:

OSD off
serial/network remote control, can be remotely controlled from most servers by issuing play/pause/stop commands
subtitle position can be shifted into the visual display areas, e.g. up from the black bars in letterboxed scope movies on Bluray and DVD.

etc. etc.

- Carsten

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 08-18-2017, 09:42 AM:

quote: Carsten Kurz
OSD off

Carsten- Just curious- - I know they've been promising this for years,but
do you know for sure if their latest software has totally removed all OSD?

The problem encountered wasn't with OSD text but with a 'play' icon that
appeared on screen for a few seconds whenever you went into play, even
with "OSD" turned off. They've been promising to "fix" this for a couple
of years- - but I'm just curious if they've actually done so.

That being said- - I agree the OPPO is the best professional player out
there. They've got one or more installed in all of the high-end screening
rooms I work at, and they're also used a every major film festival I work
with too. (Although many of the big fests I work for have been moving
away from blu-ray, and a couple already have totally dumped blue ray
as a playback format because when dealing with semi-professional
film-makers, it's just not reliable enough for 'prime-time' work.)
I could write a book (as could many others here) on this topic!

But if you're stuck using blue-ray- then OPPO is the best player for it.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 08-18-2017, 10:25 AM:

Jim,

The OSD off feature has been there FOR YEARS now and will "fix" at least as far back as the BDP-93. I can confirm that the play and other icons do NOT show. This is a setting you have to choose. Merely updating the firmware does not activate the feature.

As for the best sound, if you are having the player decode it, then the UDP-205 is one of if not the best audio reproducers. Much of the extra money in that player is for the fancy D-A converters.

The Oppo players have definitely been our standard player for years now. Unfortunately, the UDP series (4K) ended the great feature of the built-in HDMI DA so you could have a preview monitor and projector feed. The second HDMI out is strictly audio now.

The other thing I wish Oppo would do is activate their "serial" commands on the Ethernet port since we rarely use serial now. It is possible to control them via Ethernet but the handshake is anything but easy and it amounts to pressing the remote buttons via Ethernet.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-18-2017, 07:54 PM:

Agreed with the Oppo recommendation. They are as reliable as anything and have all of the features needed for cinema exhibition. The newer ones do not have analog video outputs, which may or may not be a concern (they were useful for monitoring, especially in older installations).

On a budget (or if you need analog video outputs), look for a used Panasonic DMP-BD30. Although this is an older model, I have one at home that I got for almost nothing on Ebay and it works well. The OSD can be disabled and it will hold a pause for forever, making it semi-suitable for cinema use. There is also an older Sony model that seems to work well.

That said, I am not a fan of Blu-Ray in cinemas. It is somewhat necessary for rentals and emergency backup, but it is not a professional exhibition format.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-19-2017, 01:54 PM:

We also recommend Oppos to our customers for new installs, for all the reasons above; which boiled down, means:

1 - the OSD can be killed quickly and easily

2 - There are no region restrictions

3 - The video and audio outputs are easily configurable to work with whatever scaler and/or audio processor it's hooked to

4 - They are not fussy about different brands and dye types of home-burnt media, and, in short, will play pretty much anything - even BD-RW media, and even discs with moderate to heavy dirt and scratching.

The range starts at about $500, which is steep for a home (unless the home in question is on the Bel-Air Circuit, in which case it's small change, but steep for yours or my home!), but for a theater that needs to play BDs out to a live audience even a few times a year, I'd opine that it's worth it.

We didn't have any at my last workplace, which was part of the reason why I insisted on making DCPs from any BD content we had to play to an audience if time allowed.

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 08-19-2017, 10:19 PM:

The Oppo 203. The Oppo 205 only if you plan to use the internal DAC, otherwise save your money and get the 203. I own the 203 and love it.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 08-21-2017, 05:41 PM:

For theatrical applications, I would go for the Oppo 205. Getting multi-channel audio over HDMI to your audio processor is a pretty flaky thing, even anno 2017.

For home theatre setups, the 203 usually is fine, since your receiver or processor most likely also acts as your HDMI switchbox.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-22-2017, 05:00 PM:

They are probably not 'the best' Bluray players, but even the cheapest Sony players allow to turn off the OSD. I recently had to get a backup unit and decided to buy a 70US$ Sony after I looked up the manual. They still have direct access keys for audio and subtitle track (no need to open a menu to change audio or subtitle track). The recent models also allow to transcode dts audio to dolby, so that is a solution for those many auditoriums using a CP750 when there is one of those many discs with a dts only main audio track and no other means to convey audio into the system than S/P-DIF.

No multiregion, of course, but that has never been an issue for us here.

- Carsten

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 08-22-2017, 11:14 PM:

quote: Leo Enticknap
2 - There are no region restrictions

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect unless you also buy one of the mod kits from a third party or buy it from someone who integrates a mod kid.