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Oppo No More
- Thread starter DonH56
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- oppo bd sacd dvd
watchnerd
Grand Contributor
Another "fucked by streaming" casualty.
They became too expensive catering for the limited golden-eared market.
My DV-980H was low-priced, high performance at the time. It sold into the discerning-consumer market as well as the HiFi crowd.
OPPO left the discerning consumer behind.
For the price of their current models I would expect them to include audio streaming capability/connectivity. My Panasonic Blu-Ray recorder/player has this capability.
I guess mobile phones are their focus now.
I am sorry to see them go. I was sad when Nakamichi went.
My DV-980H was low-priced, high performance at the time. It sold into the discerning-consumer market as well as the HiFi crowd.
OPPO left the discerning consumer behind.
For the price of their current models I would expect them to include audio streaming capability/connectivity. My Panasonic Blu-Ray recorder/player has this capability.
I guess mobile phones are their focus now.
I am sorry to see them go. I was sad when Nakamichi went.
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This is a coincident as just a few days ago I was wondering the reason for continued existence of Oppo. Their main claim to fame originally was handling DVD upscaling/decoding correctly. At that time, many did not. Then came the Blu-ray and they used a much faster SoC (processor), leaving everyone else in the dust in disc start-up which can be very long with Blu-ray. Over time of course, importance of DVD went away and other companies used faster processors just the same. All of a sudden, the appeal of a player that costs hundreds of dollars more than mass market ones went away.
Yes the enthusiasts still cater to them but take away the larger market out there and the volumes become too small to sustain the business.
It is amazing by the way that they are going to continue supporting the customers. That is something I have not seen. Kudos to them.
Yes the enthusiasts still cater to them but take away the larger market out there and the volumes become too small to sustain the business.
It is amazing by the way that they are going to continue supporting the customers. That is something I have not seen. Kudos to them.
Just another notch in the "death of the high end" belt?
I'm a bit surprised, I would have thought there was room for one manufacturer to make something better than the usual Samsung/Sony fare?
Maybe in the end the video market was just a bit smarter than the audiophiles. Not enough could be convinced they'd get better hdmi connected video-audio performance from their UHD 4K BR's with a expensive Oppo than a $179 Samsung? Maybe Oppo needed some PR/Marketing guy from the high end to do a better job? Maybe none of this matters and it was just some bad management internally?
But yes surprising since they did have kind of a corner on the "something better" market.
I'm a bit surprised, I would have thought there was room for one manufacturer to make something better than the usual Samsung/Sony fare?
Maybe in the end the video market was just a bit smarter than the audiophiles. Not enough could be convinced they'd get better hdmi connected video-audio performance from their UHD 4K BR's with a expensive Oppo than a $179 Samsung? Maybe Oppo needed some PR/Marketing guy from the high end to do a better job? Maybe none of this matters and it was just some bad management internally?
But yes surprising since they did have kind of a corner on the "something better" market.
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The main problem they face is that no chip or component manufacture for blu-ray wants to deal with small volumes. Worse yet, some of the suppliers like major Japanese companies (e.g. Panasonic, Sony, etc.) are their direct competitors and hate the Chinese on top of that! Net result is that there is no way to make low volume Blu-ray/UHD players. This is why you don't see any high-end offerings from anyone. The component companies only want to supply mass market companies.
OP
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Amir is correct; from conversations I had a few years ago, one of their problems was getting support from their suppliers when they were such a small-volume player.
There are not that many players that can handle SACDs; typically, only the top-tier models. Oppo's customer support was also legendary, both with FW updates and reasonable repair fees (given the price of their players) for years after model production ceased. My guess would be a combination of factors, including:
There are not that many players that can handle SACDs; typically, only the top-tier models. Oppo's customer support was also legendary, both with FW updates and reasonable repair fees (given the price of their players) for years after model production ceased. My guess would be a combination of factors, including:
- Late with their 4K player and the initial product was buggy (not abnormal); it took a few months to sort things out.
- High price relative to other players, even those that support SACDs and other formats, and on-going price pressure makes it hard for a small player to compete.
- Limited market, essentially high-end audio/videophiles, probably a shrinking market.
- Lack of network features and functionality with streaming services that were expected in a high-end (or low-end) player.
- Oppo's parent company is big in other areas and may have decided to cut costs (or losses); chances are margins were decent given the sales price but development costs may have been high and sales not enough to compensate.
svart-hvitt
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Isn’t this software replacing hardware, streaming replacing physical media?
Should we cry or rejoice?
Should we cry or rejoice?
Though I use and enjoy Tidal, I'm generally not a fan of video streaming, which in my view has homogenized viewing habits. Why look for that interesting Takashi Miike film on DVD when you can much more conveniently watch less interesting stuff on Netflix?
Maybe my original dismissal of Oppo was a bit harsh. You got to say their build quality was commensurate with their pricing, hopefully the reliability factor was equal. (unlike a large portion of the high end).
Probably a part of the equation. But for now the video streaming is usually involving a level of compression that doesn't make it the true equal of hard media. AFAIK.
WHO
Maybe my original dismissal of Oppo was a bit harsh. You got to say their build quality was commensurate with their pricing, hopefully the reliability factor was equal. (unlike a large portion of the high end).
Probably a part of the equation. But for now the video streaming is usually involving a level of compression that doesn't make it the true equal of hard media. AFAIK.
WHO
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They had one other claim to fame back in the day: they had the first player on the market, or at least the first sensibly-priced player, that carried multichannel over HDMI, including DVD-A and SACD.
For a long time, they also made the only sensibly-priced player, that played everything. I imagine that when Sony moved into that market at half the price that hurt their market quite a bit. I know it hurt their sales by at least one, because I bought a Sony instead of a 203.
+1
Although it does seem OPPO development has been stalled for a while. For example, they never got their HA-2SE headphone amp to work well with the iPhone X. It has random dropouts, and you can't wirelessly charge on a pad while using the amp to play music.
Too sad...
I really liked the Sonica DAC and it was measuring so damned well (Archimago test it). I was kinda waiting a price-drop to get it myself.
Also, BD player UDP-205 has ES9038 inside; the audio stereo part is identical with the Sonica DAC.
I really liked the Sonica DAC and it was measuring so damned well (Archimago test it). I was kinda waiting a price-drop to get it myself.
Also, BD player UDP-205 has ES9038 inside; the audio stereo part is identical with the Sonica DAC.
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