OPPO Digital shutting down! (1 Viewer)

[PMF]

If you play the "waiting for the latest technology" game, you end up waiting forever and never buying anything.

Oh so true. I fell into that cycle when Plasma displays were being scooped up; just like the Oppo; but then was told to wait for a thing called 4K. Upon its arrival, I was then told to wait on any purchasing until the technology settled, the kinks got worked out and the price became lower. I am now a goodly three years older.

 

[Malcolm R]

Oh so true. I fell into that cycle when Plasma displays were being scooped up; just like the Oppo; but then was told to wait for a thing called 4K. Upon its arrival, I was then told to wait on any purchasing until the technology settled, the kinks got worked out and the price became lower. I am now a goodly three years older.

Yep, paralysis by analysis. You can find a reason to NOT buy anything. Eventually you just have to decide that it's something you want and take the plunge.

 

[PMF]

Yep, paralysis by analysis. You can find a reason to NOT buy anything. Eventually you just have to decide that it's something you want and take the plunge.

A place to which I have now arrived. Sometimes perfection just comes from being fluid. Even with Blu Rays, I've now arrived at a place where I am no longer waiting for particular releases and have recently returned to capturing those desired titles that still exist on DVD.

 

[CraigF]

I just got my 203, plugged it in, and love it.
......
I did try putting in an HD-DVD, just in case, but it wouldn’t play.

Excuse my ignorance, but now that you mention it, why couldn't they have made a "universal" disc player that plays HD-DVD too? Funny I never wondered about that before...

[I never got into HD-DVD, and forget everything I may once have known about them. I barely remember WB waffling on the red/blue thing. So do HD-DVD use red lasers vs BD blue lasers, vs DVD (etc.) red LED, and a universal player would require a 3-device optical head and it's too difficult?]

 

[Worth]

LG made an HD-DVD blu-ray combo player back in the day, so it's probably feasible to add UHD playback to that as well. But I'd imagine it would bump up the price a fair bit for something only a handful of people would get any use out of.

Maybe they could add laserdisc and CED playback also.

 

[jcroy]

..

Maybe they could add laserdisc and CED playback also.

Also add in 8-track tape and edison cylinder playback.

 

[TJPC]

But then how could they make us buy new equipment every 5 years?

 

[skylark68]

Also add in 8-track tape and edison cylinder playback.

They tried this back in the late '70s... well, outside of the edison cylinder... LOL

 

[CraigF]

Well, the diff is HD-DVD was contemporary with the other formats, and the same disc size, and not quite dead yet. As best I can recall, HD-DVD was still slightly ongoing when I got the Oppo 83 in '08. At least you could still buy them. Mostly I was just surprised that I never wondered about this before, as a curiosity thing, even though I never had any HD-DVDs so I can see why *I* didn't care.

You forgot to mention MD. Not big in NA, but big enough in some places where Oppo sells (sold...). Even though not popular in NA, the e.g. 83 (and others) played the physically smaller discs just fine (mostly European CD singles, in my case).

 

[Matt Hough]

They tried this back in the late '70s... well, outside of the edison cylinder... LOL

I had a unit very similar to that in my first apartment, and it got quite a workout daily. Brings back such memories to see that again.

 

[Edwin-S]

Excuse my ignorance, but now that you mention it, why couldn't they have made a "universal" disc player that plays HD-DVD too? Funny I never wondered about that before...

[I never got into HD-DVD, and forget everything I may once have known about them. I barely remember WB waffling on the red/blue thing. So do HD-DVD use red lasers vs BD blue lasers, vs DVD (etc.) red LED, and a universal player would require a 3-device optical head and it's too difficult?]

HD-DVD original spec was to use a red laser pick-up. The cartel controlling DVD and HD DVD was forced to re-spec HD-DVD for a blue laser pick-up when SONY decided to release Blu-ray as a direct competitor. I believe the original HD DVD red laser spec meant discs with a limit of 9 GB while changing over to a blue laser meant an increase in capacity to 30 GB which was still well short of Blu-rays 50 GB capacity.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I believe the original HD DVD red laser spec meant discs with a limit of 9 GB while changing over to a blue laser meant an increase in capacity to 30 GB which was still well short of Blu-rays 50 GB capacity.

It's funny, they had that whole format war for HD-DVD vs BD, and I remember the very first thing I thought as the formats were being announced was: "One format has a 30gb maximum per disc, the other has 50gb per disc. I have not one shred of loyalty or favoritism for any party in this battle, but the bigger disc capacity should and will win." And that's exactly what happened.

 

[Matt Hough]

I looked at the studios supporting each format and made my decision that way. I went Blu-ray with the PS3 (the cheapest alternative at the time). I eventually got an HD-DVD player for reviews, but my choice from the get-go was Blu-ray.

 

[jcroy]

I looked at the studios supporting each format and made my decision that way. I went Blu-ray with the PS3 (the cheapest alternative at the time). I eventually got an HD-DVD player for reviews, but my choice from the get-go was Blu-ray.

(As a silly aside).

This may sound really stupid, but I'll mention it anyways.

I had very little to no interest in dvd/bluray over the entire 2000s decade.

When hd-dvd and bluray were first released, I was hoping both would tear each other apart and utterly fail spectacularly.

 

[skylark68]

(As a silly aside).

This may sound really stupid, but I'll mention it anyways.

I had very little to no interest in dvd/bluray over the entire 2000s decade.

When hd-dvd and bluray were first released, I was hoping both would tear each other apart and utterly fail spectacularly.

What were you hoping to win out? VHS? A return of Betamax? LOL

 

[jcroy]

What were you hoping to win out? VHS? A return of Betamax? LOL

Not so much who would win out.

I was thinking along the lines of Microsoft (hd-dvd) and Sony (bluray) flipping the bird at one another.

If there were to be a "winner", in those days I was thinking of flat-rate streaming and eliminating the "disc middleman" entirely.

 

[Nelson Au]

I didn’t really have a feeling for HD-DVD or Blu Ray in terms of which side I was for or against. At the time though, Toshiba was the main backer of HD-DVD and helped to fund the restoration to HD of Star Trek The Original Series. If I recall correctly, that was the story at the time. They then released the first season of Star Trek on HD-DVD and I dived in at that time with a Toshiba player and the first season of Star Trek. I did not invest too heavily into discs so my pile is small, under 10 titles of so. All I wanted was Star Trek. I’m glad the war ended. The blu ray of Star Trek was great because unlike the HD-DVD, there is the option for watching with the original effects or the new CGI effects as well as the 5.1 audio or mono original.

I seemed to have dived into formats once Star Trek was there, VHS, laser disc, DVD, etc.

 

[PMF]

[...] I bought the 205
[...] I picked it up and it’s sitting at home.
[...]I’ll think I’ll set mine up this weekend.

I, myself, would never be able to wait this long.
Well, Nelson Au...it's Saturday...and you're killin' me.
So, what's the verdict? (as if I didn't know).
P.S. If you don't set it up by 2:05 p.m., I will send a Repo Man to your state.

 

[SAhmed]

Although this thread is supposed to be about Oppo shutting down ( nudge, nudge, wink wink - but it's all interesting ), I got into HD DVD only to pick some of the Bob Hope/Road movies, Streets Of Fire and yes I'll admit it, Mr Bean's Holiday in high def

Regards,

 

[jcroy]

(On a huge tangent).

Another filter/prism I was looking through in regard to hd-dvd vs bluray in those days, was Microsoft vs. Sun Micrososystems (ie. java).

In spite of my misgivings about Java, in those days I thought Sun Microsystems was the "lesser of two evils" compared to Microsoft. Back in the early-mid 2000s, Microsoft was still widely regarded as the "evil empire" of the computer world. (Even after Bill Gates resigned the ceo job in y2k).

So even if bluray were to win, I mistakenly thought Sun Microsystems would not be able to completely undermine Java. It turns out Sun Microsystems was bought out by Oracle in 2009-10, which was slowly replacing Microsoft as another pretender to the throne of the "evil empire" . (Even if Ellison was just a "mini-me" version of Gates).

In the end, it was moot as to who actually won. They could be equally undermined by various visible and then-emerging "evil empires".