Oppo 105 - Is it going to make a difference?

You can buy a blu ray film with £8! 

Especially for you as I know you love a good bargain  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004S71ZK0/ref=asc_df_B004S71ZK010902812?smid...

Already bought it at that price & watched it 3 times so far!

Damn, it cost me £10 from Amazon in April! It plays beautifully in all three of my blu-ray players, including of course my Oppo 95 in the kitchen.

I really am curious about your systems! Can you post some pics? 

I'd love to, bigboss, but I really do need to tidy first. I'm hoping to do so over the Christmas break. And I really do need to update my signature, but I'm not quite sure how to do that since the single-line link to my equipment was kindly set up by What Hi-Fi, and I don't know how to edit the equipment details. I was lucky enough to buy a second-hand old model SVS PC13-Ultra for only £600 six weeks ago, so that's now in the parlour and the SVS PC12-Plus is now in the kitchen, and two Tannoy TS12's in my bedroom. I've now expanded to a second bedroom where the 50" Pioneer now is (it's too big for my bedroom), since the kitchen now has a refurbished LG 60PZ950T. However, returning to the topic of this thread, even if I were to win the lottery, I have NO REASON to replace my Oppo 95 Blu-ray player in the kitchen since its features are quite advanced and I don't need the facilities that the newer model Oppos offer, at least not until 4K becomes widespread, which is at least two years away I reckon.

Bigboss, I've now managed to put some pictures, but mostly of the seating rather than of the equipment itself, in the thread "Inserting pictures into postings without going via the internet" under the heading "About the new site". I really don't want to hijack this Oppo 105 thread so if anything grabs you could I ask you to write to my thread rather than to this one.

Duaplex, getting back on message, the January 2013 issue of Home Cinema Choice magazine arrived in the post today. On page 81 in the Feedback section, comparing Oppo vs Audiolab, referring to the Oppo 105, it says that "But wait: Oppo is about to make your choice a whole lot easier. The new Oppo BDP-105EU ungrades the 95's video and audio performance at every level ...... its  performance on screen and out of your speakers will be truly stunning. Watch out for our full review of the Oppo BDP-105EU in the next issue." And this from the magazine that had rated the outgoing Oppo 95 as a Reference Status product in its August 2011 issue! So it might be worth waiting for next month's (February) issue!

Duaplex

How was the oppo was it that good you are speechless lol

I have not had a chance yet . I was caught up with my new Samsung TV and it juddering on 24p playback, eventually I solved its judder problem after it drove me nuts.  But I am going to test the Oppo this weekend without fail!

The Oppo 105 will surely be a belter, but like Sony's recent budget models the inclusion of '4k upscaling' is nothing more than a marketing and confusing gimmick. It is probably worse than DVDs being upscaled to 1080p. These players being advertised as such are NOT going to play native 4k material in any shape or form. That is for another time and place. And my guess is that it won't be a phyisical medium. Indeed Sony's expensive 4k tellys play the native 4k flicks via hard drive, pre-loaded, not on round disc.

I also see 4k up scaling as a gimmick currently, but 4K screens will become more popular over the next few years, and if the 105 upscales to 4K better than the integral upscaling in the screen in question, then it is a positive thing. I have seen 1080p upscaled to 4K and the decent masters look pretty stunning - whereas many DVD's look pretty bad upscaled to 1080p, basically because of the amount of compression inherent in the DVD format.

4K movies won't be available for streaming any time in the foreseeable future as we don't even have decent enough bandwidth for 1080p. So maybe for download to HDD, but thats going to take up a lot of space. I think it will be another disc format.

David have you had a chance to test the Oppo's yet?

We're waiting for the 105's to come in, but I have taken a 103 home a few days ago and got to start using it last night. I'm not usually one for messing with the settings on Bluray players with regards to picture, but I thought I'd give it a go on this one. I've always stayed away from sharpness controls as my projector looks sharp enough, and adding sharpness via my PJ's settings make only a subtle difference. I tried it on the 103 and was gobsmacked! Just knocking up the sharpness by one notch had a pretty significant effect, and I was surprised to see my PJ looking even sharper. The prison escape scene from King Fu Panda looked almost 3D it was that sharp! Flicking between the zero point and one just makes the zero point look quite soft.

Another setting was the Contrast Enhancement. Again, I usually stay away from these, but playing about between the zero point and up to max (four), I found that the plus two point made blacks look blacker, but didn't smother detail. So even though my PJ might be lagging behind a little with the current crop of PJ's, it now looks noticably better.

Having said all that, I haven't played about with these settings on my BDP5000ES, which I will do when I remove the 103 from my system. But I am finding the faster loading times useful (not a deal breaker though). I'll report more over the weekend when I've watched some more movies.

That sounds really encouraging! I am off for a demo this saturday.  I dont know what it is, but to me the sharpness and clarity has suffered a little since my upgrade to the 55inch.  Either the faces are a little blurred or when the brightness is up you can see pixelation on the face of the actors (like static spots moving) I wonder if this is my LX54 simply not coping with the screen and demand.  On my old 42inch LED no such problems occured.  If the oppo is having this effect on your PJ, then I am excited!   

Cant wait to hear your full feedback on this