ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
OPPO announced their goodbye to bluray players.
So what?
How do you feel about this?
https://www.oppodigital.com/farewell.aspx
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
I dont own any of their kit - if i did, i'd be a little sad.
Looks like they're basically shutting down completely as its an expensive business.
As such, not a good sign for physical discs - lets see if the other disc player brands keep going.
The relentless march of streaming eh....
I've picked up a bunch of Blu-Rays (HD not UHD) over the last year pretty cheaply - i still have times where i want to watch one of my more beloved films, and not everything is easily available on streams, so hopefully this "niche" will still be a viable option in 5+ years time.
Well, I guess that had to come sooner or later.
To be a highend manufacturer (i.e expensive) in a fast pace technology domain is challenging, especially when the physical media that you develop your products around is used by fewer and fewer people.
An UHD stream with high bitrate provide an awesome viewing experience.
Livingroom: BL3, BL11, BV11-46 Kitchen: Beosound 1 GVA, Beocom 2 Bathroom: M3 Homeoffice: M3, Beocom 2 Library: Beosound Emerge, Beocom 6000 Bedroom: M5, Essence remote Travel: Beoplay E8 2.0, Beoplay EQ, Beoplay Earset
Very strange announcement. They've reached the pinnacle..... so it's time to say goodbye?
Presumably this also means the end of the Cambridge players which to all intents and purposes were rebadged Oppos.
At least they say support will continue.
Graham
Hiort: An UHD stream with high bitrate provide an awesome viewing experience.
...yes, for those with sufficient internet speed.
And what about sound/sound quality?
I read the announcement as meaning the closure of. OPPO Digital...... is that the whole company or just Blu-ray players?
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
Indeed, whenever i use a BluRay, the sound signal just seems so much better than a stream.
Unfortunately, as we know, convenience is king, and the stream quality is generally plenty good enough for the vast majority.
The comment i saw from Oppo referred to lacking the resources to keep going.
Reminds me of the Pioneer pulling the Kuro moment...
they are stopping physical products - not sure what else there is.
Maybe B&O should buy / hire Oppo's video competency, if it makes sense.
That was me, and was just reporting my dealers guess that Oppo were the 3rd party providing the video competency to a potential BS5....he didnt know, he was just speculating, but he's relatively senior, so i didnt completely dismiss it.
Sandyb: Indeed, whenever i use a BluRay, the sound signal just seems so much better than a stream. Unfortunately, as we know, convenience is king, and the stream quality is generally plenty good enough for the vast majority.
And it is a fact, that most people haven’t even experienced the superiority of the BRDisc/sound quality.
People just get used to streaming quality.....or can’t benefit of this superiority.
Sandyb:they are stopping physical products - not sure what else there is.
Website shows headphones and multi room speakers. Of course these might be made by someone else for OPPO.
Sad news... What is the point of a cutting-edge 4K OLED screen and associated lossless sound quality if you cannot make full use of them? Oppo really is (was) the reference.
Current: Beovision Eclipse 65" v1 - Beolab 50 - Beolab 28 - 2 x BS2 (GVA) - 1 x BS1 (GVA) - Beoremote Halo - H9i
Past:
Beovision MX4000 - Beovision 3-32 - Beovision 7-55
Beosound 9000 - Beosound 5 / Beomaster 5
Beolab 6000 - Beolab 8000 - Beolab 5 - Beolab 3 - Beolab 17
Millemissen: Hiort: An UHD stream with high bitrate provide an awesome viewing experience. ...yes, for those with sufficient internet speed. And what about sound/sound quality? MM
I see no reason to why sound cannot be distributed with maintained quality with streaming. It also require bandwith, but technically there is no limitations. Generally there is always a tradeoff between available bandwith and quality. Also, streaming companies normally pay per GB delivered to the Content Delivery Network owners, so they always want to do certain compression.
The demise (?) of OPPO just proves what an uphill struggle B&O are going to have keeping up with the competition in related areas. Speakers as wall art, speakers with (necessary) moving parts..these are still relevant .... B&O's strength was always in the innovative and artistic presentation of technologies.
But in all other respects the field is shrinking and the competition is increasing.
But theory and practice are far apart sometimes - BluRays are watched at home, where there's a good chance the owner has some kind fo surround setup, so the discs need to come with full fat sound.
Netflix and other streams are watched on a variety of devices, even if TV's still dominate Netflix views - i don't think the streaming companies think its that important to provide the full fat audio in their stream, so i wouldn't expect it any time soon. They're growing subscriber numbers with their current offering.
Much like FLAC quality with Spotify and Apple Music, they'll regard it as niche and feel no need to bother.
Hiort is right - there is no technical reason for not delievering lossless sound quality with a UHD stream.
But it just doesn’t happen.
Also it could be possible to make the stream adaptive....for different needs.
There is absolutely no need for a lossless soundtrack, when watching Netflix on a handheld device.
On the other hand, there is also absolutely no need for an Atmos track with handheld devices....and still Atmos is offered.
I guess, it is a question of what is wanted by the streaming companies - and they don’t see the need for lossless sound quality.
IMO they should offer the option of lossless sound as well - I’d be glad to switch to streaming....
....if it wasn’t for the lot of titles, that aren’t available there - e.g. music concert BR’s.
I fear not only for mainstream quality, but also for the variety of titles available, if streaming becomes king/the one and only.
The big question is, will this just be OPPODigital closing down, or will this happen soon to other companies.
OPPO is (or was) really for the few of the few, who prefer the disc.
There are still a lot of good BRPlayers out there - and owners of the OPPO’s will still be able to play their discs....
....as long as you can buy these.
OPPO DIGITAL is owned by the chinese company BBK Electronics, which is a huge player in the electronic market.
I wonder, why they did not try to sell OPPODigital - or maybe they already did....and did not succeed ;-(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppo_Digital
I was very much reading whole company; no new products, just the provision of support to existing portfolio.
I have often wondered why B&O never made a play for a business like Oppo, or at least sought a deep partnership. I always considered the demand for these players was enough beyond being a niche category, and that would potentially allow the business to reach beyond their core B&O customer base, in the way that Oppo does. If they got it right, the halo effect has the potential to bring new customers into the brand, like BeoPlay has done, albeit with a different target audience. Out of curiosity, I'd love to know what the conversion rate is from a pair of headphones to the Horizon or Eclipse.
Given all the (still on-going) software development issues, it would appear in-house capability is seriously lacking. I'd be seriously scoping businesses to acquire with the relevant IP, product and skills base to turn B&O UX and functionality around to bring some of that B&O magic back. Getting back into the video business would probably require the same strategy. Maybe there's an opportunity here... no pun intended.
mrCTE: I have often wondered why B&O never made a play for a business like Oppo, or at least sought a deep partnership.
I have often wondered why B&O never made a play for a business like Oppo, or at least sought a deep partnership.
B&O long ago stopped focussing on disc playback.
The nice thing about B&O however, is that they are versatile - they offer solutions for integration of products,
that are not in their portfolio.....and maybe not asked for by the lot of their main costumers.
Which was exactly my point earlier on in this thread.
Unless all of Oppo's video capability staffing have moved on already, surely there is merit in B&O exploring what they have to offer?
Merely to remain relevant in the TV / video game - unless partnerships such as the LG/B&O one is essentially B&O saying that they are happy to let others do that going forward.
Millemissen: Also it could be possible to make the stream adaptive....for different needs.
Yep, that is possible. The videostream is adaptive already today, and you get the fileformat and bitrate that the device you use can handle. The player negotiate with the edgeserver holding the content, so dependant on available bandwith you are served the appropriate bitrate.
Should be possible with the sound as well, but I guess the demand is not there. Most focus is on getting e.g 1080 and 4K as well as 5.1 sound.