[45longcolt]

Opera fans may want to check out "Wagnerism, Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music" by Alex Ross (2020.) Hardly a light read (as seems appropriate,) but fascinating. And you will learn some new vocabulary words.

 

[oryan_dunn]

For video you rent from Netflix, Prime, etc, get another box. The 103 has some of those built in that I've never used. The 203 doesn't even have them.
For audio-only streaming, get another box.

The OPPO excels at playing media you own that is video-related. For videophiles the OPPO also has a bunch of features that are a tweaker's delight and are apparently very helpful for projectors. For transcoding video during playback from DVD->2160p, BD->2160p, 2160p->720p it's hard to beat.

As I've said before, if all you want to do is put a disc in and play it, go to Costco and get the cheapest UHD player you can find. They're all the same in that respect. It's the other features the OPPO has that no other player has. I've even used it as a pre-pro. See here for what it can do: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/official-oppo-udp-203-owners-thread.2676801/

It's funny you have no experience with the OPPO and yet come across a bit belligerent about it's lack of capability. Maybe I'm misreading your tone?

Yeah, you're misreading my tone. I'm very familiar with Oppo, I've lusted over their stuff since the Faroudja DCDi upscaling players in the mid 00's up through the UHD players, never having the means to really justify the purchase.

I think @bosiemoncrieff originally just asked for a blu-ray transport, but I guess he'd need to chime in to describe his use case. For DVD/BD/UHD, any player would suffice, and most TVs now likely have just as good if not better scalers than the Oppo. If you need universal audio disc support the X800M2 is a decent player. The Oppo still has the multichannel analog out, but the use for those is likely rare, and you'd know if you need it. I'll be interested to see what the Reavon players will be like, and if they'll be able to fill the Oppo void.

You'd brought up the network capabilities of the Oppo, which I thought in nearly all cases would be better served by a modern streaming box paired with Plex for local streaming. DLNA on these players, even the Oppo (I watched Lon's review) just don't seem to cut it.

 

[artur9]

You'd brought up the network capabilities of the Oppo, which I thought in nearly all cases would be better served by a modern streaming box paired with Plex for local streaming. DLNA on these players, even the Oppo (I watched Lon's review) just don't seem to cut it.

AFAIK, no player but the OPPO does this one thing (which I do fairly often):
rip a disc with makemkv to a backup.
Play it over the network. With menus and extras etc.

That can't be done over DLNA. DLNA is terrible for all but the simplest of uses.

I have never gotten Plex or Emby to work on any of my computers, high end server hardware or not. Dunno why. I'm trying JellyFin now. Causing just as much trouble. Well, they all "work" if one doesn't mind the video stuttering every so often. Maybe it's because I need subtitles always?

 

[hearditontheX]

Mike (and others) are interviewed about British Audio, https://audio-head.com/what-is-british-hifi-andrew-jones-rob-watts-and-mike-moffat-weigh-in/.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I began Wagnerism as an audiobook a few months ago, shortly after it came out. But frankly I found it tedious. Right now I'm listening to the 1959 political classic 'advise and consent' - very good book. Looking forward to the bifrost w/ unison to come back soon.

Will a non-4k blu ray look any better on a 4k OLED TV than on a 1080p OLED TV?

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Bosie, found this and thought you might be interested.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57145383

 

[Ableza]

Will a non-4k blu ray look any better on a 4k OLED TV than on a 1080p OLED TV?

Yes. 4K displays upsample incoming signals to take advantage of higher display resolution.

 

[RickB]

Yes. 4K displays upsample incoming signals to take advantage of higher display resolution.

Something for nothing, and your bits for free?

 

[artur9]

Will a non-4k blu ray look any better on a 4k OLED TV than on a 1080p OLED TV?

Depends on the upscaler. Naively, just taking each of the pixels from 1080p and making them "bigger" to take up the space on 4K would look like crap.
Common wisdom says that Sony, Panny and OPPO have the best scalers. LG's is starting to be competitive.

Hisense and TCL lag.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Is the upscaler inside the LG 4k TV, or in the Oppo blu-ray player?

 

[artur9]

Is the upscaler inside the LG 4k TV, or in the Oppo blu-ray player?

There's one in each. If you have both you'll have to compare and see which you prefer. Then there are all the adjustments. Or you can pay a calibrator to come in and deal with it for you. For LGs, each year has a different scaler, IIRC, the latest and greatest being the so-called A.I. one.

Many think that the one in the TV should be better since it has "inside knowledge."

I found that the Sony upscaler is a bit softer than the one in the OPPO 203. I preferred the sharper OPPO version. Others may prefer the Sony.

 

[Ableza]

Depends on the upscaler. Naively, just taking each of the pixels from 1080p and making them "bigger" to take up the space on 4K would look like crap.

Yea except that's not how the good ones work. It's much more that that. Not as good as native UHD, of course, but noticeably better than the same signal in 1080.

 

[artur9]

Yea except that's not how the good ones work. It's much more that that. Not as good as native UHD, of course, but noticeably better than the same signal in 1080.

Never meant to suggest any upscaler worked like that. Sorry if I caused that impression.

There's all the bicubic this and and Lanczos interpolation that. It's an area which is a hotbed of research.

 

[tincanear]

IMO if you get a 4K OLED, then get a 4K Ultra Blu-Ray as well, so that you will have highest native resolution when playing back UHD 4K discs.

When playing back regular (non-4K) media, then try both the player's and display's scaler to see which looks better to your eyes.

 

[artur9]

Yeah.

It's fun to shop for someone else. If it were me, let's see capping the budget at $1,500 (arbitrarily, don't recall @bosiemoncrieff saying) for opera watching.

4K TV because why not: A TCL 55" 4K TV. Built-in Roku allows watching the Met Opera channel (my daughter is addicted). ca $300
A UHD player: Panny UHD player ca $149
Pioneer SX-S30 ca $500

That leaves ca $600 for speakers. Darn it, I'll eat ramen and get the Sonus Faber Lumina: https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/sonus-faber-lumina (that issue has other budget speakers. I know the sound of SF and like it. Besides, Italian speakers for Italian opera sounds like a win).

1749 isn't too painful, maybe. hth.

If @bosiemoncrieff already has the TV then we save $300 and buy a Roku stick for $50 to get the Met Opera.