Media Center IV

The quest for the perfect media center setup continues...

So far we have been fairly happy with the combination of TVersity media center server and Xbox client. The only problems have been the poor support of Windows for such essential codecs as flac and mkv among others. However it does work ok, playlists seem broken and tagging is a pain but livable.

Today we hooked up the Oppo BDP-93, a player with usb/e-sata, wired and wireless network and a built-in upnp media client. First we downloaded and updated the firmware, a very easy process using a USB stick.

Next we access the Home menu which displays all the options.

Note the built-in Netflix client which works and the Blockbuster client which is banned by the Canadian Gov't (courtesy of the CTRC apparatchiks). These are useful services that are a lot cheaper than Robber's Cable but since your internet comes from Robber's Cable (ya gotta love monopolies) you end up paying through the nose anyway.

With an attached hard drive (USB or eSata!) the movies and music functions read files directly from the drive. This could be handy but then i've have to copy files to that device. I'm more interested in playing streaming audio/video from a media server in the basement. The My Network option lists any media centers on the local network.

One neat thing about TVersity is that you can add YouTube channels and then stream those videos to your TV. We decide to play Dire Straights, "Money for Nothing" because it has also been banned by the Canadian Gov't because 1 person complained. This file is in flac format but it is listed as WAV by the media player.

The audio files work well and sound great. Really cant hear a difference between Oppo and Xbox, which is as it should as the source files are just strings of bits. I didn't try some of the more esoteric files such as DTS and BD (blue-ray rips) yet.

Where there was clearly a problem is in streaming video. Some quicktime (MOV) and MKV and MPEG4 files would not play. When the software has problems with a file it keeps on trying to play it, the streaming does not stop. With one file it even managed to lock up the player, forcing a hard reboot with the power button. In fairness to Oppo it notes this is an experimental feature, albeit one i was very interested in and which partly influenced my purchasing decision. On the plus side, since this is software, updates may come along to fix problems, add codecs and features. I'll have to test all the MKV video files as the Oppo FAQ on the wiki indicates it does support mkv.

Conclusion

A nice upgrade to the old Oppo 980HD (i had two, going to keep one) but the streaming is still a bit rough. The blu-ray video and audio quality was excellent! Much better than it's predecessor, a consumer-grade $250 Toshiba that was really disappointing and turned me off blu-ray.

Postscript - while the streaming is a bit rough and doesn't support all formats, plugging in an external hard drive (i used e-sata) works wonderfully. The oppo plays just about everything including ape, dts, mkv, flac etc - it does all the things you want (which windows media center will not) and the sound quality is excellent - much better than the same track streamed from the media server. I couldn't believe it but they sound so much better non-streamed. Compression perhaps? Anyway, i think the search for the media center is over. So i shutdown the windows 7 media server, the mac pro connect 360 media server and the windows xp Tversity media server. They all worked, some better than others but none were universal. The oppo comes closest so i'm going to use the external hard disk option. This presents a few problems - how do you get the new stuff onto the external disk? The current solution is very low tech - new stuff goes to a folder and once a week unplug the external from upstairs and bring it downstairs and copy over the new stuff. Buy an Oppo-93, the almost universal machine.