Originally Posted By: 73Bruin

I agree, I posted pretty much the same thing in the feature suggestions thread in March of 2010 (about the BDP-83SE). Since you mentioned Gonk, it was his thought that the two were too different.


Originally Posted By: Kevin C Brown

I was a beta tester for the 83SE and the 95 too. And believe me, I mentioned this to them every chance I got. They just kept saying that AVR's/SSP's were markets they didn't want to be in. I keep hoping their view changes though, because I think the days of physical media are numbered. Or at least diminishing. Ever decreasing total sales from here on out, except for maybe lp.


Let's see, to turn an Oppo BDP-95 into an A-V Processor, they would have to:

1. ditch the Mediatek transport
2. add a System-on-Chip (SoC) or use the DSPs (with required software) to handle all the media format decoding you lost by removing the Mediatek transport, which is pretty much every format it decodes
3. add an HDMI input switching SoC with additional HDMI connectors
4. add a SoC to switch the legacy video inputs (composite, S-Video, component) and the associated connectors
5. add some S/PDIF inputs (coaxial, optical and maybe one AES/EBU(XLR))
6. add the various analog stereo and multichannel audio inputs with required ADC, the switching circuitry, the RCA connectors and ideally a pair of balanced XLR inputs
7. add a phono input stage (MC/MM)
8. add the remaining analog multichannel balanced (XLR) and unbalanced RCA outputs
9. add a pair of TI Aureus DSPs to handle audio decoding and some flavor of digital room correction (Audyssey MultEQ is probably the fastest solution to implement)
10. add the microphone input circuitry for the digital room correction and provide a microphone
11. they may need to add a more powerful micro-controller or an ARM processor running some OS, either proprietary, embedded Linux or QNX to integrate and control all the different systems
12. increase the system RAM and perhaps the flash memory
13. extend or redesign the system bus to accommodate the new digital systems
14. write the custom software to control the various systems
15. replace the front display with a lager more flexible one
16. add a radio tuner
17. add the radio antenna circuitry, connectors and supply an antenna
18. increase the capacity of the power supply
19. design a larger case
20. for whatever else I forgot

OK, so maybe they don't quite have half of the design done as I previously over-enthusiastically indicated but I believe that they have the potential to accomplish it.

Even if the sales of physical media are diminishing and/or they'll be replaced by streaming services sometime in the future, you're still going to need some form of preamp-processor or hub to at least control the audio decoding and multichannel features and outputs. Otherwise, the whole multichannel market will collapse. I don't believe everybody wants to go around listening to music only on headphones.

Another thought, most folks are greatly under-utilizing their 1080P displays and not even watching 1080P but 720P while using most streaming services. Most homes still don't have the adequate network bandwidth to do 1080P with the audio codec and have some leftover bandwidth for surfing the net at the same time. Now imagine having 3 or 4 members of a family watching 1080P or even 720P simultaneously on their personal displays. And when 4K becomes available, then, you'll need at least four times more bandwidth. I think that the market and some consumers are still going to want physical media for a little longer than expected, at least I hope.


Edited by jam (05/04/12 05:50 PM)
Edit Reason: typo