Oppo 203 v 103

[rplace]

Any first hand experience out there with an Oppo 103 playing .MKV files? My 203 does and I'd like a player for a second location. 203 prices are a bit much for my intended location. I don't need 4K. 

 

Beyond 4K what are the significant differences?

[Schu]

Significant... the ability to decode and display UHD and HDR (which you don't need if you don't need 4k resolution) and a better DAC are probably the two most notable that I can think of right now.

for 1080, the 103 is plenty... you may even be able to get something cheaper from Panasonic or other brand.

 

what are secondary market 203's going for these days?

 

I am sure I am under utilizing mine because I barely play SACD's and I believe the Panasonic unit has out stripped the Oppo in terms of performance...

[rplace]

20 hours ago, Schu said:

Significant... the ability to decode and display UHD and HDR (which you don't need if you don't need 4k resolution) and a better DAC are probably the two most notable that I can think of right now.

for 1080, the 103 is plenty... you may even be able to get something cheaper from Panasonic or other brand.

 

what are secondary market 203's going for these days?

 

I am sure I am under utilizing mine because I barely play SACD's and I believe the Panasonic unit has out stripped the Oppo in terms of performance...

 

Thanks for the input. DAC not mission critical for this space either.

 

I don't really know the 203 market all that well. I seem to recall asking prices of 1K and beyond. I'm trying to eliminate some devices in a different room and my 203 does everything I need it to. Unfortunately it can't be in two places. I'll have to do some reading on the Panasonic. I've liked all the PSonic projectors I've had in the past. Got any input on models to check out?

[Schu]

UB820 499$

Ub9000 999$

Both are 4k though.

[rplace]

I was just looking over the 820 at Crutchfield. They have excellent return policy so I guess if it does not function like the Oppo for .MKV files I can return it. Still I'd rather know ahead of time. Online manual says is supports them.

 

More broad spectrum what are others doing out there for archiving DVDs and Blu-Rays for playback? The goal is to not have all the discs laying about. I'd like to put them in out of the way storage.

 

I've got all my CDs ripped to FLAC and now trying to do the equivalent for my video discs. For now I don't envision the need for a PLEX server and multiple trans coding on the fly. I've got about 20 Discs so far saved off as .MKV files so I have all audio and video formats that the native discs came with in that single container. In my HT the OPPO plays them back flawlessly I can even use the remote to switch between supported audio formats just like the original disc was playing.

 

Problem is have a cheap "smart" TV that is not so smart. It only plays ACC stereo tracks for .MKV files. This TV is in a converted part of the basement for working out. No need for anything but TV-type speakers. If there is no stereo only track inside the .MKV container the workout TV won't play them. I have recently found a way to add ACC tracks to these files by using ffmpeg to downmix a 7.1 or 5.1 track to ACC.

 

Final piece of the puzzle is getting rid of my popcorn hour (media player) in my living room. This is where I'd like to have the same functionality of the OPPO but in my living room, not HT. Living room is 5.1 with Klipsch in-wall speakers and non-4K TV. Nice set up for every day viewing but nothing special. I'd still like to be able to play any discs I convert in that location. Totally possible I'd have 4K in the future when that TV is replaced.

 

My NAS is not powerful enough to run PLEX and I don't really want another piece of hardware to set up and maintain. I can't envision ever using PLEX to transcode for smaller/different devices, as I just don't consume my media that way.

 

 

[rplace]

Anyone?

[robert_kc]

Have you tried contacting Oppo with your question?  Even though they've stopped manufacturing new products, I believe they're still proving some level of support.

[ClaudeJ1]

On 1/26/2020 at 10:26 AM, Schu said:

what are secondary market 203's going for these days?

Got over a Kilobuck for mine, but I paid about 900, so I broke even after commission and shipping.

[mark1101]

I stuck with the 105 because the 203 discontinued support for HDCD.............which is about 80% of my Grateful Dead collection.

[Schu]

17 hours ago, rplace said:

Anyone?

I can't really answer that... I am still physical disc in all my playback. The group over at avs would more than likely have an immediate answer to your idea. I'd be interested also in what you learned. The idea of instant playback access to all my media is intriguing.  I did go thru a period where I ran a music server using Roon, but I found the experience extremely frustrating because the wireless connection between my server and my controller running roon constantly disconnected... so I sold everything. Going down that path with movies would probabpy be the same for me. 

[ninaholm05@gmail.com]

I have not experienced but my friend have Oppo 203 and she told me its great better then 103

[CHASLS2]

I have both in my bedroom and only use them to play normal BD's. Other than playing 4K the 103 is just as good as the 203.

[Maximus89]

I'm glad i came across this thread as i was looking at used Oppo's or the new Panasonic players. Don't mean to derail, but my question is regarding the use of an AVR/control center and if i have a purpose for it?
All i use are: a samsung ubd-m8500 4k blu ray player and my PC in which i do all my lossless music listening to, multi-channel music ripped on it and played through foobar2000 with necessary codecs but downsampled to PCM as my AVR doesn't do DSD. That AVR is a Marantz SR7007.  No HDR and only 1 working HDMI input in the front plus the monitor 2 out to TV. 
I use my PC on it via my GPU(NVIDIA GTX 970) hdmi out to the Marantz. So i do HDMI 2ch and multichannel music along with movies/games/browsing.  I'd just swap HDMI if i wanted to watch a blu ray disc.
The Marantz amps went very faint/quiet/barely audible even at full volume and the pre outs sounded bad as well-cutting in and out and making scratchy noise,so i figured the Marantz was done for and packed it away and used a cheap yammie in it's place until i decided to one day use DEOXIT on pretty much the entire Marantz interior and the volume.  The Amps worked again, all the pre outs worked again with the exception of my center pre out. While it works, I find it still has a lot of noise even when not playing anything. Scratchy noise and hiss  and it seems to be lower output even with 320wpc fed into it. Oddly enough, the built in CENTER amp sounds just fine, but i want to be able to use the pre out to separate power amp. 

@Born2RockU can confirm as i took the Marantz to his place to test and the center pre out was definitely much lower output than left and right or surrounds. 

Kind of tired of the Marantz issues so my question is will one of the top of the line Panasonic or a used Oppo work as my pre amp using the speaker outs directly to a power amp, HDMI in from the TV, but how then would i used my PC with it(excluding optical-no dsd, etc or coaxil-only 2.0)? The cheaper Panasonic DP-UB820 or the top of the line UB9000 have HDMI VIDEO OUT and a dedicated HDMI AUDIO OUT, but would my PC work with the HDMI OUT? Wouldn't it need to be IN? I was thinking DisplayPort2.0 to HDMI fed to TV for video for which i would need to turn off the digital audio in NVIDIA Control Panel, then HDMI from HDMI AUDIO OUT on Panasonic to GTX970 HDMI.  

Would this work and would i benefit from skipping the AVR altogether?