Re: [SurroundSound] OPPO 103 or new HTPC / Upgrades?

 

I'm not sure there is a single box solution acceptable to all. 

 

The HTPC route is good for some things; poor at others; whilst the hardware route can be compromising.  I've all three and use whatever suits at the time, for the job, but nowhere near the esoteric levels of your oppo.  HTPC, Wireless keyboard with trackball, media centre remote control.  Not the most straightforward family orientated solution.  Mine is mainly used for streaming internet video content from Sky now and little else, apart from the SK Jukebox app (recently overtaken by my Apple TV, airplay, and QCS Jukebox app; might even need to bite the bullet and try Apples ALAC proprietary flac version despite my hatred of them). 

 

Blu-Ray, SACD, DVD....  I just want to plop the disc in and watch/listen without any hassle.  I use the PS3 for Blu-ray, and my Pioneer for SACD/DVD-A, DVD (Pioneer is silent).  Power up the amp and player, sit on the couch and listen.

 

Simplest overall solution is my Popcorn C-200 for playing anything over the network.  There are many high end solutions out there for more recognised HiFi solutions from expensive providers if anyone is worried about the best quality, sound, etc.  I can't be bothered with any remastering of DVD to SACD-R etc.  What's the point when you can rip anything to multichannel flac, stick it on the Network (WHS and NAS in my case) then play it anytime, quickly, silently???

 

I suspect we'll have a compromise for many years yet, especially till optical media is retired.  My discs are used solely for movies (and many of them get ripped to NAS if the kids watch often) and SACD.  CD's are ripped and stored immediately, not required anywhere after that. 

 

Maybe one day we'll maybe get an Oppo (or similar) that rips everything inserted to its own storage (or our network) and we never need to use the actual disk again.  Some hardware already does this for standard CDs and it's surely just a matter of time and marketing.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, 27 April 2013 19:37:46 UTC+1, Nor22 wrote:

I've gone the HTPC route. Can't think of any format I can't play well with J.River Media Center. Granted, I usually have to rip my discs and maybe muck around with converting from one format to another for convenience, like Blu-ray -> mkv. I wouldn't recommend an HTPC for my non techie friends.

I wish someone would come out with an HTPC that was a combination of pretty affordable, quiet hardware, powerful enough to play anything produced today with software that had the quality of J.River Media Center and the interface for TV and movies (along with EPG) of Windows Media Center. However, instead of waiting for Microsoft to completely abandon media center, it would be produced by a company that was excited to make it into something great.  A new HTPC breed of fast, cheap media players with output ports for the best audio/video hardware available today and the near future.

Maybe an enhanced version of Android that worked well with media servers or other forms of network storage (not just cloud storage). And this device would have great synergy between the media player, tablets and phones.

On Apr 27, 2013 12:45 PM, "August Bleed" <blee...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was just going through a similar discussion with folks on other forums.  It seems the ultimate media box is a seriously elusive beast.  Even an HTPC has it's limitations--I just got tired of the endless configurations and one software playing one thing well, the other software playing this format well--and neither doing so particularly well as one has to sometimes switch applications and even operating systems to get one file type to work as opposed to another.  I can't see a future proof machine not composed of 2 machines:  the old 93/95 before firmware and the 105.  The former requires a DSD DAC to complete, the latter requires the former to play ISO's and BDMV as well as SACD-R.  The only format I can think of right now curiously is DSD.  Obviously not a great choice in many many ways.  Flac is about the only format I know that carries just about all PCM info as well as MC at all sample bit rates.  I feel a bit better with the older model and AVCHD and BDMV and ISO support.  But time will tell.  There are a bunch of BDAs of good artists coming out soon (nothing we haven't seen but still...) from Universal or EMI (can't remember).  I know I was jealous as all hell when the new Oppos came out but now that some time has passed I am not quite as sold on giving up my 93 for little or no gain.

 

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