Oppo BD95 as a streamer

[Reid Malenfant]

Perhaps some nice kind person could help out a streaming thicko here :lol:

I have an Oppo BD95 universal player that has an E-SATA socket on the rear of the unit. Apparently it'll recognise FLAC & other goodies sitting on an external HDD & act like a streamer.

But just what the heck is an E-SATA cable?

Am I being naive in assuming that all I need is possibly an external HDD in a caddy, PSU for the HDD & this E-SATA connection thing?

Apart from files on the HDD of course :eyebrows:


I'd like to give it a try & I'd like to get things organised so I don't have to pull everything out of the rack again to install it.. So sooner the better really :scratch:

[Tim]

Yup, you have pretty much got it right Mark - eSATA is just an external SATA connection and many external Hard Drive enclosures have eSATA connections, so all you would need is to plug it into the OPPO and away you go playing music files.

http://thingsfinder.com/files/img/1/18/G_46.jpg

eSATA is a different connection to SATA but thats the only difference, you can connect ordinary SATA drives to an eSATA socket.

[Tim]

I'm just looking for some caddies for you, eSATA ones tend to be a little more pricey than a USB external drive. You can buy a nice caddy by Lian Li or IcyBox with an eSATA connection and just pop in your own hard drive.

[Reid Malenfant]

Ah, cheers Tim, at least I wasn't a country mile out after all :D

[Tim]

Here's a couple of starter's for ten - you should have the idea now.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AeQkeyWrL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Icy-Box-Ib-318stus2-b-Aluminium-Interface/dp/B001KWDOOQ/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

Lian Li make very good quality enclosures, with single bays all the way up to 5 like this one.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21ytdU0ccIL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lian-Li-eSATA-Enclosure-EX-50/dp/B00383WAVS/ref=sr_1_28?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1339263799&sr=1-28

[Tim]

Ah, cheers Tim, at least I wasn't a country mile out after all :D
Nah, spot on really - its just another connector which should give you the same transfer speeds as fitting a SATA drive internally to the motherboard. Very popular with folk who build their own music streamers who don't want to fit a mechanical drive inside the player box, but still want the same transfer speeds. Some caddies don't give you the exact same transfer speeds, but you are still way ahead of a USB connection.

[Reid Malenfant]

I guess I'll be needing a quality DVD/CD ROM drive to rip with to won't I :) Lappy drive not really up to the job.

Some kind of software as well? I can rip to an ISO file, but I'm not sure if the Oppo will recognise it or not..

This is where I start not knowing a lot :doh:


Cheers for your help so far fella :)

[Tim]

Here's a bunch of eSATA drives;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_5?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=esata+external+hard+drive&sprefix=esata%2Ccomputers%2C230

You can rip with a lappy, but it's not really ideal, depends on how many CD's you have and if you are going to rip one after the other. Doing it properly with proper software like EAC or dBpoweramp and the drive will get hot very soon, which can induce errors. It's also a lot slower than a full speed optical drive. You would need to rip your music files to FLAC I believe, ISO will use up too much space and I'm not sure it would mount or recognise and ISO music image. ISO would be good for movies however, so you could get a large capacity eSATA drive and rip both CD's and DVD's to it having both FLAC for the music and ISO for the movies. I reckon with your DVD collection you would need a big feck off eSATA enclosure though with a forest of 3TB drives in it :lol:

[Reid Malenfant]

He'll, there's loads of them :lol:

So which software rips to FLAC & is free or cheap?

You can forget the DVDs going on there & I have about 700 blu rays & they certainly aren't :eek:

[keiths]

So which software rips to FLAC & is free or cheap?


EAC is free, dbPowerAmp is cheap ($38). I use dbPowerAmp and find it excellent.

[Reid Malenfant]

EAC is free, dbPowerAmp is cheap ($38). I use dbPowerAmp and find it excellent.
Cheers Keith, free is very tempting you know :D

I'm not bothered about getting artwork or things like that on there, just the FLAC music file or WAV, probably the latter :cool:


By the way, I was looking on ebay for an E-SATA caddy & came accross this seller.. (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-5-HDD-SATA-eSATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Caddy-Case-B2-/200773890964?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosure s_RL&hash=item2ebf0e7394)

You might remember the boss has a bit of a fascination with jobbies so it seems :lol:

[Tim]

I'm not bothered about getting artwork or things like that on there, just the FLAC music file or WAV, probably the latter.
Go for EAC then Mark, I use it all the time for my rips but I do have dBpoweramp as well, which is use for converting .mp2 to .mp3. EAC will accurately rip to WAV and free is always good :)

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

This is good for default setup profile info, but there are lots of tips out there for EAC - just Google http://www.hifivision.com/portable-audio-players-accessories/2157-ripping-flac-using-eac.html

[Reid Malenfant]

Nice to see it'll rip to WAV :) This is just an experiment you understand, so I'll not be going too mad just yet, you never know what the future may hold though :eek:

Cheers for all the help Tim & Keith :)

[Tim]

Keep us informed Mark, as I have an OPPO on my list of wants for streaming both music and films from a NAS, so will be interested in what you think?

[Reid Malenfant]

Keep us informed Mark, as I have an OPPO on my list of wants for streaming both music and films from a NAS, so will be interested in what you think?
Sure thing Tim, this interest has only come about as I have discovered the online streaming thing using the MF V-Link.

I have tried CDs from the lappy drive & it's frankly not so good (loadsa glitches), but file based, even if it's on the web has appeared to be better even if it's an MP3 (though I have no way of knowing what I'm listening to on Grooveshark).

It did kind of get me thinking.. :scratch:

[jon1]

Mark you can get a trial version of dbpoweramp won't cost a penny...i prefer that than any other


jon

[Tim]

. . . but file based, even if it's on the web has appeared to be better even if it's an MP3
File based audio is the future Mark whether we like it or not ;)


All music upload by users to Grooveshark is transcoded into an MP3 file with a minimum bit rate of 128 kbps.

Source (http://help.grooveshark.com/customer/portal/articles/2130-audio-format-and-bit-rate-on-grooveshark)

[Reid Malenfant]

File based audio is the future Mark whether we like it or not ;)
:eyebrows: There is something about it that I like, though I can't put my finger on what it is right now as it's early days & I need to gain more experience of it..


Cheers John, I'll bear that in mind as it's only an experiment, for now ;) Good to see you about to fella!

[jon1]

:eyebrows: There is something about it that I like, though I can't put my finger on what it is right now as it's early days & I need to gain more experience of it..


Cheers John, I'll bear that in mind as it's only an experiment, for now ;) Good to see you about to fella!



Always in the back ground mark;)



jon

[slate]

I bought this cable a while back; it has been handy several times
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002MV2468/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

Granted it can not Work with the heavier 3,5" drives as they likely Draw to much current for the eSATAp; in that case the drive will need it's own supply

[Ali Tait]

EAC is free, dbPowerAmp is cheap ($38). I use dbPowerAmp and find it excellent.

Seconded. db is very good IMHO. EAC is also good but not the most user friendly, and it wouldn't run on my Win7 machine for some reason, so I went to poweramp and haven't looked back.

Mark, I just bought a cheap external cd rom to rip all my cd's with, more to save heavy use of the internal one in my Vaio than anything else. The internal one worked perfectly doing this.

[Ali Tait]

BTW, very interested in this Mark, please keep us up to date on how it goes. :)

[Reid Malenfant]

Right guys, I really want to go somewhere with this kind of like right now :lol:

I overdid things going out last Friday & then shopping on Sunday, so I had another few days on my back to calm things down. However, just before I did that I had BT Infinity installed, & I kind of had a look about for some music... I made sure the engineer left me more than enough cable, so I simply took everything except the hifi upstairs :eyebrows:

Lets just say that I now have over 15Gb of FLAC albums & it's growing at a rapid rate :doh:

What's more is they sound stunning! I only tried one out & nearly crapped myself at the quality, that's using Winamp on my laptop & the V-Link. Listening to a few more now & I know I'm onto a winner, gotta be as none of the albums have cost me a penny :mental:

There must be thousands out there for free on FLAC, just type Netlable music into google... I still haven't finished downloading from the first one I came accross :eek:


So, looking at things the best bang on Tb for the buck appears to be a 2Tb drive... Western digital appear to be the dogs danglies, but the Caviar Black are damn expensive (5 year guarantee), though the Caviar Green are looking good price wise with a 3 year guarantee...

Any other suggestions for a 2Tb HDD? Seagate & Samsung are out of the window as they are now one & the same...

Oh, I guess I'll need two of them :eyebrows: One as a backup...

Now I need some suggestions for a caddy, though it needs to have both an eSATA & USB2 port... One so I can load the data from my lappy, the other so I can plug it into the Oppo...

This doesn't look too bad (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190520598376?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649), I have seen plastic ones at over £20... Again any suggestions more than welcome :)


Hopefully I can get stuff on the way here by early next week :cool:

[Ali Tait]

Not the cheapest, but I use and like the Drobo, and you can pick them up secondhand on the bay. Good thing with these is it automatically backs itself up between the four drives. You can hot swap the drives too, and use different makes/sizes. I still keep another backup though..

[Reid Malenfant]

Looks good, but no eSATA, so no good :(

[Reid Malenfant]

What I intend to do is use a single drive, but with one backup kept in a fire safe (loadsa steel round it). Whenever I have enough new albums to warrant putting them on the drives, I do them both at the same time & return the working drive to the Oppo & the other to the safe..

It can't really go wrong if it's not being used or spinning ;)


I reckon with a 2Tb drive that's 4000+ albums of FLAC, that'll take me forever to download :lol:

[Ali Tait]

Yep that's what I do, keep a separate 2tb drive just for backup. Some of the Drobos have eSATA I believe Mark.

[Mark Grant]

looking at things the best bang on Tb for the buck appears to be a 2Tb drive... Western digital appear to be the dogs danglies, but the Caviar Black are damn expensive (5 year guarantee), though the Caviar Green are looking good price wise with a 3 year guarantee...

Any other suggestions for a 2Tb HDD? Seagate & Samsung are out of the window as they are now one & the same...



The Caviar black are fast but run warm and are more noisy than the slower 5400 rpm drives which are plenty fast enough even for streaming 1080P video to multiple devices at the same time so Flac no problem at all.

All you need for streaming audio are the slowest and cheapest hard drives you can find with the best value.

Nothing wrong with the samung 2tb
http://www.ebuyer.com/237908-samsung-hd204ui-spinpoint-f4-2tb-hard-drive-sata-5400rpm-32mb-cache-hd204ui

If you decide to buy a NAS always check that the drives you are looking at are compatible as some have issues in a some makes of NAS.

[bobbasrah]

Nothing wrong with the samung 2tb
http://www.ebuyer.com/237908-samsung-hd204ui-spinpoint-f4-2tb-hard-drive-sata-5400rpm-32mb-cache-hd204ui

If you decide to buy a NAS always check that the drives you are looking at are compatible as some have issues in a some makes of NAS.

Agreed on both points made by Mark.
Have 2 of the 204UI in the rack and they've not skipped a beat. Something sticks in my mind about the new generation format capability, but I forget now what the issue was for older v newer machines.

Another option in the same price range is the WD20EARS etc which have a 64Mb cache...

[slate]

bummer... now that Netflix have opened for streaming in UK+Irland and shortly opens up in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark; I asked OPPO support if they would add Netflix support the EU firmware as well? but alas

Our players are certified for and can run Netflix 2.0 which is used in the USA. This has only stereo audio and no subtitle support. Netflix Europe uses a completely incompatible application version 3.0 which supports 5.1 audio and subtitles. We are not able to support version 3.0 in current hardware.

[Reid Malenfant]

Another option in the same price range is the WD20EARS etc which have a 64Mb cache...
As it happens, they are the ones I'm looking at & at about the same price as the Samsung drives that Mark linked to :)

Three year warranty might just sway me to (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-2TB-Internal-Hard-Drive-SATA-600-64MB-3-5-HDD-New-/320901601650?forcev4exp=true) :lol:

What a messed up listing that is :scratch:

I'll probably grap a couple this evening or tomorrow :cool: I doubt they'll sell 160 of them between now & then.

[bobbasrah]

As it happens, they are the ones I'm looking at & at about the same price as the Samsung drives that Mark linked to :)

Three year warranty might just sway me to (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-2TB-Internal-Hard-Drive-SATA-600-64MB-3-5-HDD-New-/320901601650?forcev4exp=true) :lol:

What a messed up listing that is :scratch:

I'll probably grap a couple this evening or tomorrow :cool: I doubt they'll sell 160 of them between now & then.

Fair enough Mark, but I noted them also on the site previously listed. I guess you don't want Samsung for a particular reason....
Cannot remember what the difference on the WD20 is between EARS, EARX etc, perhaps one of the lads can chip in if they know......
One in the PC is the EARS version, my daughter uses a EARX in the Tvix with no complaints

[Reid Malenfant]

Samsung HDDs used to be very good indeed (so I have read recently), but they are now owned by Seagate & the quality isn't what it used to be (apparently) :scratch:

I always thought Seagate were ok, but this is going on information I got maybe over ten years ago :eyebrows: All my PC & lappy drives are Hitachi, no problem there, but I don't fancy splashing out another £20 for a Hitachi drive when WD are apparently as good & cheaper & with a longer guarantee...

[Ali Tait]

I've been using a Seagate external drive for the last two years with no problems.

[Reid Malenfant]

Yeah well I always thought they were ok...

The thing is I used google to check on different drives & WD came up as about the most reliable on various forums.

I guess if you want to find things out you need to take a sample or look at peoples experiences :)

[Tim]

TBH there really isn't much in it with modern drives, the failure rates are all comparable, unless you buy Enterprise class hard drives, which is pointless for a home PC IMO. Seagate had a problem awhile back (3 years ago) with their 1TB drives, but that was solved with a firmware upgrade. We use all the main manufacturers at work and none are better than the other in my experience. Just find the drive that fits what you want for the best price and warranty and you are good to go. I only tend to favour WD as I buy for their near silent running and rely on recommendations from the SilentPCReview website. Whatever they say is the quietest drive, is the one I buy.

Just remember that all hard drive makes can and do fail, so always keep a backup :)

[Ali Tait]

That's the good thing with the Drobo, you can lose a drive without losing any data, just slot a new one in and away you go.

[Reid Malenfant]

Cannot remember what the difference on the WD20 is between EARS, EARX etc, perhaps one of the lads can chip in if they know......
One in the PC is the EARS version, my daughter uses a EARX in the Tvix with no complaints
Just discovered the difference :)

EARS = 3GBPS, EARX = 6GBPS...


Just bagged a pair of EARX for £148.88 delivered by 24 hour courier :)

Time to buy the caddy & eSATA cable I reckon :cool:

[Ali Tait]

Good price Mark, where was that from?

[Reid Malenfant]

Good price Mark, where was that from?
Here (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130762319434?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649) :)

[Tim]

These are the new kids on the block for home servers - not cheap yet and a little harder to come by, but ones to watch.

http://cdn0.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net///art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20270/PCF270.w_rev12.wd_red-380-75.jpg

http://www.silentpcreview.com/WD_Red

[Reid Malenfant]

Ok, I now have a couple of caddys on the way & they also include an eSATA cable...

Looks like you may well at last get an opinion on what the OPPO sounds like as a streamer fairly shortly Ali :)

Until I strip & refit the Fridge it'll be using the internal DACs though, so right now it may well not be as good a quality as it will be when it outputs to the dCS upsampler & DAC though..

We'll see ;)

[Reid Malenfant]

These are the new kids on the block for home servers - not cheap yet and a little harder to come by, but ones to watch.

http://cdn0.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net///art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20270/PCF270.w_rev12.wd_red-380-75.jpg

http://www.silentpcreview.com/WD_Red
:lol: How the hell have they managed to establish a MTBF of 1Mega hour? :scratch:

I suppose they designed & built the first back in 1898 did they :mental:


Looks interesting though Tim :)

[Ali Tait]

Nice one, cheers.

[Reid Malenfant]

Just got the Oppo streaming, literally on the first track of a FLAC album :) The interesting thing is I'll be able to compare the Oppo to my laptop directly, though I'll try that a bit later on.

Wow was that ever easy :lol: Plug & play or what, just hit the home button on the Oppo remote, then the music button displayed on the TV, then select the album - doddle :cool: Surprisingly the player knows what it's playing, where it is on whatever track, who the artist/s are, as it's all displayed on the TV :scratch:

Cool.

First impressions, well it sounds pretty good to me :D This is using the Oppos internal DACS, though I'll be eventually using the Monarchy & dCS kit via the digital output.

I honestly don't want to have to format another 2TB drive, made the mistake of starting one yesterday evening at about 6:30PM, I was still sitting here when it completed at 1AM this morning :rolleyes: :eyebrows:



E2A:- One annoying thing, tracks that are mixed into each other have a half second of silence between them :doh:

[Reid Malenfant]

Hmmm, not sure if I'm imagining things, but this is beginning to sound mighty fine indeed :scratch: :)

Now I know new equipment needs time to settle down / burn in etc, but the Oppo isn't new... However this eSATA thing has never been used previously, so maybe that's it?

I Guess the PSU for the 2TB HDD is pretty new & so is the electronics in the HDD.

So I'll just enjoy what's going on & let it all burn in :eyebrows:

[synsei]

E2A:- One annoying thing, tracks that are mixed into each other have a half second of silence between them :doh:

There may be an option in the menu somewhere to stop that from happening Mark, might be worth a gander ;)

[Reid Malenfant]

Good point Dave :)

All I have done is plug the HDD in via the eSATA & hit play :eyebrows:

It's not that bad once you get used to it, but I'll take a look at some stage!

Just enjoying the music right now & some :D


Hope you & yours have a good weekend buddy :cool:

[synsei]

Cheers bud, you too :D

[Reid Malenfant]

I took a look at the Manual, pleased I did as I reckon you may well be right :)

It doesn't mention anything about getting rid of gaps, however it did tell me about the "playlist" & if that is anything like Winamp, it'll get rid of the gaps :eyebrows:


It also means I can program in a whole evening of music & just let it get on with it :rfl:

Blimey :D

[synsei]

Welcome to the world of computer audio :D

I make huge playlists with Spotify when I'm busy and just let it get on with it. Made up a cracking, cheesy disco one last week, even my arse was wiggling to the music and that takes some doing... :rfl:

[Reid Malenfant]

Well this is interesting :D

I can't tell the difference between the laptop feeding V-Link to Monarchy + dCS kit compared to the Oppo, I guess what I need to do now is feed the digital output of the Oppo to the Monarchy etc...

Played the same track, timed to the second & simply switched inputs on the pre amp with volume set the same & I got lost, I didn't know what I was listening to transport wise :eyebrows:

I had to look at the pre amp to see what input I had selected to know which to switch to next...

On that note it's good news, because even stuffing music into the Oppos playlist still doesn't kill the 1/2 second gap between mixed in tracks :rolleyes:


So it's good to know that I'll be happy as Larry (like I most certainly was) listening to the laptop where I get no gaps using Winamp :)

I guess as I have two HDDs I might as well connect one up to the lappy & the other to the Oppo, best of both worlds.


Nothing lost & a backup HDD if one fails :cool:

[Tim]

I honestly don't want to have to format another 2TB drive, made the mistake of starting one yesterday evening at about 6:30PM, I was still sitting here when it completed at 1AM this morning.
Hi Mark, there is no need to do a full format at all with a new drive (or any drive really TBH) :scratch: If you select 'Perform a quick format' then you should be able to complete a 2TB drive in a few of minutes with a Windows machine ;)

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w63/greatgig/format.jpg

[Reid Malenfant]

Yeah well I was informed it's best to give any new drive a full format years ago, just to make sure it was 100% ok.. Old habits die hard :eyebrows: You know how it is :cool:

As it is I have two perfect HDDs & a couple of seriously nice caddies :D I ended up with the ones I linked to, except these have black covers & not silver - bonus as far as I'm concerned.

[Tim]

Yeah, I know what you mean about old habits ;)

Good to know it's all coming together too.

[Reid Malenfant]

Well it's interesting Tim :) I have discovered something else & I didn't think it'd matter, but I reckon it does.

When I was spinning the tunes earlier I was using the 2TB HDD connected to the Oppo & the HDD of the laptop (partitioned) to compare things. Obviously I downloaded the FLAC files to the lappy & defragged so no fragmented files.

The interesting thing is that after deciding there wasn't any real difference I could make out, I disconnected the 2TB HDD from the Oppo & connected it via USB to the lappy & then changed from using the partitioned HDD in the lappy to the externally powered drive....

It sounded better :lol:

I can get that as the same partitioned HDD also runs the operating system, where as the external drive is just data.

Which brought me to this question here (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=362224#post362224) :)

I have already just bought a Belkin USB cable, the same type as I use from the lappy to the V-Link as the supplied cable is probably a bag 'o' shite...

It's just the USB plugs can be bought seperately, so I'm wondering if making some kind of super data cable might be worthwhile :scratch:

[Tim]

It sounded better :lol:
Well you are not alone there either Mark, I think the file based boys here have discovered this too. My first server had a partitioned 2TB drive with the O/S on one partition and all the music on the other - sounded great, or so I thought.

But . . . when I plugged an external USB drive in, it sounded better, John (Welder) found this too and I believe that's what he uses, an external USB.

Next I found the best of all was having an SSD drive for the O/S and player software, with external music files, currently I stream these from a file server, but I will go back to a USB plugged into the server when I build v3.0 of my music server.

[Reid Malenfant]

:D Damn, nice to know we are either all going mad together, or we are on to something :cool:

Cheers Tim!

[synsei]

I use a 2TB external myself for the same reason ;)

[bobbasrah]

FWIW, my external usb drives are now used solely as backups.
There are 4 data drives on the SATA3 controller, and the system drives etc on the SATA2 controller. There are also USB3 and USB2 controllers on the board.

I tried every permutation imaginable after building the machine, including usb, before settling on the above arrangement, which provided the best audio performance (albeit that the system drive(s) could not go usb without some faffing about). From memory there was no difference which SATA handled the data, so long as it was separate from the system.

I am fairly convinced that sharing duties on the controller is the issue rather than whether it is usb or sata IMHO, but maybe I just got lucky.

[Reid Malenfant]

After some fairly extensive late night listening, I have now come to the conclusion that the Oppo, using it's own build in DAC & being fed via the eSATA connection to the HDD does a better job than the laptop :cool:

I reckon it's the lack of any other processes such as the operating system etc on the lappy that gives it the edge. It now has a much better eSATA cable fitted than the one given away with the caddy, this made a bit of a difference as well.


This has all been a bit of a steep learning curve in all honesty :lol: I was having problems with a few files that I downloaded, specifically 24 bit FLAC files. After a whole lot of messing about I eventually found out what the problem was, you'd be quite surprised I reckon...

Turns out it was something to do with the ethernet port on my Acer laptop :scratch: I remember a while back that when I was streaming video & audio files (wide bandwidth) that there was occasional crackles, pops & clicks with the audio stream. This kind of went away (as they do :rolleyes:), like most intermittent faults...

But it turns out that the 24 bit FLAC files I was downloading managed to do the same trick & got semi corrupted, this resulted in some sections of music playing back, but other stuff with bitrates higher than about 1250Kbps going nuts & then no sound all together...

Changing to the Dell XPS I bought off of Joe a good while back, downloading the same files again resulted in nirvana :D



It'll be interesting to hear how the Oppo performs feeding the dCS gear, though I'll have to wait a while for that :cool:

[synsei]

If that is the same XPS that I looked at when I was over last Mark then I'm not surprised you are getting better results, it's a bit of a rocketship ;)

[Reid Malenfant]

Yes, the very same Dave :)

However, it was a fault with the ethernet port that was causing downloads to get corrupted on the Acer. Only 24 bit FLAC files, WAV & 16 bit 96KHz FLAC were not affected, only 24 bit stuff with a bitrate over 1250Kbps :scratch: :rolleyes:



Took me an age to think of the port & a swap in laptops. As soon as I did & downloaded one of the previously problematic files it was obvious I had hit the nail squarely on the head :cool:


I haven't transfered any of this 24 bit material to the 2TB HDDs yet, so the Oppo hasn't had a chance to really show what it can do :eyebrows:

[synsei]

It makes a difference running off a fast external drive, at least it did for me ;)

[Reid Malenfant]

Yes, that is what I found to, as mentioned earlier in the thread :)

Doesn't help if the files are corrupted though :rfl:

[synsei]

Yes, that is what I found to, as mentioned earlier in the thread :)

Doesn't help if the files are corrupted though :rfl:

REMIX!!! :lol:

[jon1]

Yes, that is what I found to, as mentioned earlier in the thread :)

Doesn't help if the files are corrupted though :rfl:


Bugger corrupted files files mark? get some proper ones:D


jon

[Reid Malenfant]

They are alright now, honestly guv :D

[jon1]

They are alright now, honestly guv :D


Mark you would corrupted the devil :whistle::D


jon

[jon1]

Mark fancy a dabble at this new oppo?:eyebrows:



jon

[Reid Malenfant]

New Oppo? Hmm, I seem to remember seeing something recently about it from some home theatre forum newsletter I keep receiving :scratch:


Often makes interesting reading :)


Think I'll stick with this one :cool:

[synsei]

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-105/

;)

[Reid Malenfant]

Noooo :donk:


Stop the temptation - please :eyebrows:


Actually I'm very happy with this one... I must admit to wondering what it'd perform like with high quality regulated supplies & the SMPS part replaced for a linear supply though ;)

[jon1]

Noooo :donk:


Stop the temptation - please :eyebrows:


Actually I'm very happy with this one... I must admit to wondering what it'd perform like with high quality regulated supplies & the SMPS part replaced for a linear supply though ;)



Mark treat your self you know you what to:christmas::eyebrows:




jon

[Tim]

Good to know its working out Mark, I'm going to be experimenting with a linear power supply for my server soon, just need to try and find the time :scratch:

[Ali Tait]

Noooo :donk:


Stop the temptation - please :eyebrows:


Actually I'm very happy with this one... I must admit to wondering what it'd perform like with high quality regulated supplies & the SMPS part replaced for a linear supply though ;)

I think this is what really raises the bar. I'm now using an NVA TFS, which has it's own bespoke PS. Having listened to similar servers alongside using the same software, the TFS was always better, I think purely down to the PS.

Not news really, tis always the case is it not? :)

[Reid Malenfant]

Aye Ali, at the end of the day you are always listening to the PSU ;)

I'm even considering giving the HDD used for data storage a dedicated linear 12V & 5V PSU, rather than the SMPS which was supplied.


I guess I have the streaming bug :eyebrows:


Though I have no compulsion to rip my CDs yet, I do happen to have nearly 200GB of FLAC files already, in just over a month & a half :eek:

They do sound superb though :) Loads of 24 bit FLAC to be transferred to the very same HDDs as soon as possible for evaluation & big grins :D


They say that something that is free has no value, I beg to differ ;)

[Ali Tait]

Aye, it all does seem to sound better doesn't it?

I have my Drobo and the router run from a PF30, which really does seem to make things sound better.

[Reid Malenfant]

:lol:

While we are on the subject....

I decided to replace the standard give away eSATA cable that came with the HDD caddy...

So I thought I'd do an ebay search, looking for quality I put postage & packing highest first ;)

This is what I found (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300333571423?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649) :rfl:

I got the same cable delivered for £3.49, & that was bumping up the shipping from second to first class :eyebrows:

Look at the sellers other items.... Some mistake - surely :lol:

[Tim]

:stalks: that cannot be right, 24 people have bought an eSATA cable for a grand, surely not?

[Reid Malenfant]

:stalks: that cannot be right, 24 people have bought an eSATA cable for a grand, surely not?
No, it isn't... If you check the sellers feedback you'll see the more realistic prices :eyebrows:

No idea what happened, wonder if the seller has noticed... Everything he is selling is priced at £1000 :rfl:

[Reid Malenfant]

Not sure if there is anyone else on here streaming with an Oppo BDP95...

For some reason I just cannot fathom the Oppo only displays album art on a single album that I have found - so far :scratch:

It's kind of annoying as when it does, it looks superb!

I have tried just about everything I can think of, & none of it works :(


So if there is anyone on here who can help, or anyone who isn't a member that is reading this & fancies joining up to help out a dimwit :D Please feel free to give me a hefty poke in the right direction :)

[Mothman]

Mark, not sure if it's the same problem as your experiencing but post '12' in this thread seems to describe something similar to do with embedded artwork in FLAC files

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/oppo-bdp-95-player-dac-play-flac-files-13434/

[bobbasrah]

Still having fun I see.... Only had one issue over album art on the (MediaPortal) system I use, and that was when I embedded a HQ cover. It stopped the player dead for reasons unknown. Changing to a lower resolution file and swapping out the embedded cover, it played no problem. 1st and only time that has ever happened...

If you are referring to embedded artwork in the FLAC files Mark, have a look at the files using mp3tag. If there is no embedded art you can add it to one/all tracks, and if it is too big you can swap it etc.. Think it accepts additional images also but don't use that functionality here.
If you are talking about album folders as tiles, not sure on your system requirements. MP defaults to a graphic image at the root of the folder, although I have a habit of renaming the cover image as folder.jpg....

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers for the replies chaps :)

None of the album art is embedded in the music files, they are different jpeg files, though in the same folder that the album is in. Apparently the Oppo looks for these, though I can tell you it rarely finds them :doh:

As I say, it finds one which is a 600 x 600 jpeg file every time! Though the thing is I have plenty more of the same size which it just ignores :rolleyes:

I have relabeled some to the same as the one it picks up, but to no avail... I have tried lots of other things as well, though as it's not exactly fresh in my memory right now I have kind of forgotten what they were. I think I tried everything that I could think of..

I'm at a bit of a loss as I say. It would be super if it displayed the front cover of the albums when they were playing, as there is a section on the TV screen just for this. When it doesn't display the artwork there is just a dark box with a musical note displayed in the middle - hardly quite the same thing, I think you'll agree :eyebrows:

[bobbasrah]

From what you are describing and the solutions attempted Mark, it is a puzzle.
I'm not conversant with the system you use, but I would still have a look at the different files/folders in mp3tag just to make certain that there is no embedment already.
I realise that it should not happen if you are converting them yourself, but I thought you bought and downloaded some albums also?
Either way, if you try to embed a cover in a few files, you can see if that works on the system.

On the early Tvix system from hazy memory, the image had to be of jpg type (not jpeg, img or any other) at a certain size and relabelled "folder" to work, otherwise zilch displayed.... Other than that, I'm stumped...

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers Bob, food for thought at least :)

I did buy a couple of downloads, thought the rest cost absolutely nothing.


I haven't given up yet, time for a bit of experimentation me thinks & luckily I happen to have a spare 40GB drive in the same type of caddy.

Probably best to get it done as soon as possible, while the 2TB drives are only 9% full. Defragging them if I remove image files & replace them in well over 700+ album folders isn't my idea of fun ;)

Better now than when there are nearer to 7000 though :eek:


:lol:

[bobbasrah]

If you are using Win7 and SATA, defragging should be a legacy issue... Fragmentation on the 6 drives here, as I just checked, is 0%... The music drive through MP runs flawlessly, and I use mp3tag to modify or screen new files before doing a copy to backup.

As said previously, I would check the embedment out first before chasing any other issues as file tags are not so visible on explorer etc.....
Not sure what the equivalent prog is for file tagging on Linux etc but the upshot is the same.

[Reid Malenfant]

Still no news on the displaying of album art via the Oppo BDP95 I'm afraid :eyebrows:

I think I'm learning that not all laptops or computers for that matter are created equal.


While I occasionally had the odd audio glitch with the Acer laptop, since I replaced it with the Dell XPS due to having a slight problem with high res FLAC files, I haven't heard a single glitch, not a crackle, not anything :scratch:

At the present time I'm streaming audio from an external USB drive that is powered via the USB bus & it frankly sounds rather good to say the least :D


I guess I'll experiment with various picture files to see if I can get something displayed, my latest idea is to name the picture file 00, so it gets read first :eyebrows:


We shall see...


PS, loving the audio streaming, at times I am lost for words on the quality of music that is available for precisely nothing out there :mental:

[Reid Malenfant]

News... The Oppo is displaying every artwork from a artist called Bing Satellites. Superb ambient music, but I have a lead at long last :D

Must have tried about 10 albums, every artwork is displayed as it should be :)


At last... I'll suss this out!

[Reid Malenfant]

Lots of hair pulling today, but from what I have seen I have now sussed it all out :rolleyes:

The Oppo doesn't apparently care what file type the album art is, it'll display jpeg files & it'll even display png files :eyebrows:

It'll happily display from 350 x 350 to 2000 x 2000 pixel images on the TV screen in it's little allocated box, maybe bigger, I don't know...

The absolutely critical thing though is what that graphics file is called... It's the magic word as far as I can make out...

It is...... cover :lol:


If it's joined to anything else it will not work, IE music-cover or sausages_cover & you are out of luck.

You will not get it to display any graphics files if you simply try & rename them on the HDD used to stream from, that threw me for a bit in all honesty :mental:

However, if you rename the graphics file before copying it & the music to the HDD used as a streamer it does work.

What I haven't tried yet is making a copy of the artwork & on a different HDD renaming it & then dropping that into the folder on the streamer drive. I reckon that will work, so I'll give it a go tomorrow :cool:


I think I finally got there, but more time will only reinforce the theory that I have. I'm not about to flick through well over 1500 albums just to make sure :D

[bobbasrah]

Lots of hair pulling today, but from what I have seen I have now sussed it all out :rolleyes:

:mex:

[Reid Malenfant]

Yeah, well I guess I'm chuffed Bob :D

Ok, so the TV screen has a nice pic of a TT & tonearm spinning the black stuff in the background, but it was that big grey box with a musical note in that always hacked me off :(

As soon as I discovered that it'd display the album art in said box, it was pretty obvious that I'd want everything displaying it, as frankly it looks much better.


This afternoon I loaded a whole load of albums onto the drive feeding the Oppo right now, everything that I have been bothered to check is now displaying the artwork :champagne:

[bobbasrah]

Amused that the unimportance at the start turned into a challenge, ultimately resolved as a objective or subjective improvement... Enjoy....

[Reid Malenfant]

Well it won't improve the sound, that's for sure :lol: Either objectively or subjectively, it'll remain the same.


On a different note I have taken the plunge & purchased another Western Digital 2TB drive of the same type... Bought it today, it'll be here tomorrow.

Before the amount of data on these two drives (which have the same files on) gets totally out of hand I have decided to change the way I access them. It's already at well over 200GB.

At the present the first thing the Oppo displays is three folders...

FLAC albums
MP3 albums
WAV albums

Upon hitting whichever is selected it'll display 27 folders going from #, A, B, C etc to Z.


What I wasn't bargaining on was having well over 200 albums in the FLAC section under "S". The way you go through them is to use the up/down button on the remote & quite frankly it's a right pita :steam:

So what I'll now do is have the name of any band etc with more than say 5 releases as a sub folder.

So the things like the Sadayatana podcasts I regularly download, can go in there & out of the bloody way :rfl:


I guess it also means that I can sort out the album art & get it all running properly.


Hindsight is a wonderful thing innit :mental:

:eyebrows:

[synsei]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing innit :mental:

:eyebrows:

AIn't it just... ;)

[bobbasrah]

......What I wasn't bargaining on was having well over 200 albums in the FLAC section under "S". The way you go through them is to use the up/down button on the remote & quite frankly it's a right pita :steam:

So what I'll now do is have the name of any band etc with more than say 5 releases as a sub folder.

.....Hindsight is a wonderful thing innit :mental:

:eyebrows:

Had similar same issues some time ago with the Tvix, the first problem I found was remembering to remove 'The' from the band name (stupidity).
Root directories were HD, Lossless, Mp3 (so they displayed alphabetically).
Scrolling through a few ripped albums was easy, but as my collection was ripped, hundreds became absurd to scroll through, remote or not.
Lossless was bulky, so was subdivided to Genre, Artist, year/album, CD1/2 etc. Genre generally was OK, but some artists cross over, so it did not work 100% and genre got dumped wjen I changed system. :doh:

Moving over to current setup with TV display scrolling 12 artists per page was easier, but I ended up breaking that further by replacing Lossless with LosslessClassical and LosslessModern, reducing the latter to 53 pages at the last count. :rolleyes:
Only problem with this is remembering which albums I have from any particular artist, so I resorted to a 20th century solution, a paper file for reference, notes, and addenda. :D

Hindsight is never a one off event.....:mental:

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Bob, well it looks like the cock (that is me :eyebrows:) crowed too bloody soon...

I need to have a chat with you about mp3tag ;)

After a spectacular 90% failure rate in displaying various album art as an experiment, I decided to do a web search. I found some official Oppo BDP95 thread on somewhere or other, only about 9000 posts long, or was that pages :eek:

Anyway, it turns out that some of the stuff I downloaded is obviously tagged & even changing the name of the artwork file doesn't stop it displaying.

Of course I got all excited the other day as all the stuff I renamed before stuffing it on the HDD came from Bandcamp, was in zip files & obviously pre-tagged :wah:

:lol:

I know I can't attach album art to WAV files, though I have downloded a program that I can tag them with, there is no way to add album art though.

I have also downloaded mp3tag, but man it's not exactly the most simple thing to use :rolleyes:


I'll get in touch some time soon via PM if you don't mind having a chat about it, I need to kind of chill out a bit right now :rfl:


ATB!

[bobbasrah]

No worries Mark, if you have a landline PM that and can talk you through it (free calls from here), if not ask away...
Like any unfamiliar program, mp3tag appears more complicated than it actually is..

[MartinT]

I have also downloaded mp3tag, but man it's not exactly the most simple thing to use :rolleyes:

It's a good little program, Mark. Essentially you select all the tracks to receive the same album cover and then press the button on the toolbar that says 'album art'. You use its auto feature to find the album cover it thinks you want (there is usually a selection) and then it will write the cover artwork out to each file once you hit ok. It certainly works on my Touch and displays all the artwork correctly.

[bobbasrah]

It's a good little program, Mark. Essentially you select all the tracks to receive the same album cover and then press the button on the toolbar that says 'album art'. You use its auto feature to find the album cover it thinks you want (there is usually a selection) and then it will write the cover artwork out to each file once you hit ok. It certainly works on my Touch and displays all the artwork correctly.

Just to add to what Martin said....as I use it as downloaded with no changes

For album art per album rather than a compilation, the cover will be the same for all tracks, just make sure the jpg or whatever is in the same folder.... If it has CD1 CD2 subdirectories I tend to copy the art to each subfolder but not strictly necessary.

To load - Open mp3tag, open explorer, go to the target folder in explorer, click and drag the entire folder to the right pane of mp3tag.

To modify single track - Highlight a track by clicking on it in the right pane, details appear in left pane. Alter what you want in left pane, click save up top. Next....:D

To modify for ALL tracks - Click first track in right pane to highlight, shift+click last track to highlight all.
Anything you wish to alter such as genre, album name, artist, album artist, ART can be changed in the left pane, becoming effective when you click save up top.
DO NOT ALTER TITLE OR TRACK at folder level and save, it's a pain to resolve after.... Been there...:doh:

Now what you are after, with all tracks highlighted...
Square bottom left is album art - With all tracks highlighted, right click this window, click add cover, select what you want, save, done.
Voila ;)

A neat bonus of mp3tag incidentally is that individual file names can be modified in the right pane and are changed back to the folder automatically....much faster than in Windows. :eyebrows:

[MartinT]

One little funny I get with mp3tag, Bob, is that my car display says "Various Artists" for some albums, rather than the correct artist (for music on my USB drive). I can't for the life of me see what's wrong with those files. Any ideas?

[bobbasrah]

One little funny I get with mp3tag, Bob, is that my car display says "Various Artists" for some albums, rather than the correct artist (for music on my USB drive). I can't for the life of me see what's wrong with those files. Any ideas?

Don't use a usb drive ? :ner:

Sorry Martin, started to say don't use a usb drive (resistance was futile) this end. I guess you are talking mp3 via usb?
I have noticed with some CD/mp3s that one car's player will load album artist, while another will load artist for the same CD. I have to guess the tag recognition is different in each car's machine.:scratch:

It cannot make it's own mind up based on multiple artists, so must be reading it off the filetag. Try replicating the artist on the stick files to album artist and give it a try... ;)

[MartinT]

Thanks, I'll take another look although I thought I had done that already.

When I ordered this car I had an idea that the USB option was going to work out well, and so it has. It saved me from adding an expensive CD changer, which would have been completely redundant. Having a couple of hundred albums on tap from one USB stick is excellent.

[bobbasrah]

Thanks, I'll take another look although I thought I had done that already.

When I ordered this car I had an idea that the USB option was going to work out well, and so it has. It saved me from adding an expensive CD changer, which would have been completely redundant. Having a couple of hundred albums on tap from one USB stick is excellent.

Fair enough Martin, unfortunately, the extent to which media etc distorted what made sense to the rest of mankind has affected most pogress regards audio on a hardware, software etcv basis and will remain a source of revenue for too so long as the gravy train lasts :mental:

[MartinT]

Fair enough Martin, unfortunately, the extent to which media etc distorted what made sense to the rest of mankind has affected most pogress regards audio on a hardware, software etcv basis and will remain a source of revenue for too so long as the gravy train lasts :mental:

:scratch:

[bobbasrah]

:scratch:

Ouch, sorry Martin, that is the danger of trying to type late at night before collapsing in a combination of sleep deprivation and alcoholic haze, :doh: but I think it should have read more like this:-
The extent to which media playing capabilities have been restricted by other vested interests rather than available technology slows progress for all the wrong reasons IMHO. Zone-free players for instance only undid what was forced by the media companies to enable them to control markets, mp3 capable CD players are no new thing yet it took the iPod explosion to force the issue just when memory prices went through the floor. :rolleyes:
USB and bluetooth connectivity versus multi-CD player? No contest. :cool:

I imagine that pretty soon, you will have a small computerised player in the dashboard as standard fitting, so FLAC may be possible if the industry can live with no longer being dictated to by the media vendors.
Lots of kids have already done so as custom jobs, and highly effective they are too.;)

[Stratmangler]

One little funny I get with mp3tag, Bob, is that my car display says "Various Artists" for some albums, rather than the correct artist (for music on my USB drive). I can't for the life of me see what's wrong with those files. Any ideas?

LMS has a similar issue, Martin, and doesn't really get on with "Various Artist" albums.
I now tag the album artist as "Compilation", and enter the the artist in the artist field, and it seems to work OK with LMS.

YMMV, as a lot will depend on how the media player processes the files.

[MartinT]

Thanks both, will check my mp3tag settings and play with a few variations.

Bob - I agree with you as regards portable music. However, I'm one of those people who wants physical media to store on his lovely shelves.

[Reid Malenfant]

Just to add to what Martin said....as I use it as downloaded with no changes

For album art per album rather than a compilation, the cover will be the same for all tracks, just make sure the jpg or whatever is in the same folder.... If it has CD1 CD2 subdirectories I tend to copy the art to each subfolder but not strictly necessary.

To load - Open mp3tag, open explorer, go to the target folder in explorer, click and drag the entire folder to the right pane of mp3tag.

To modify single track - Highlight a track by clicking on it in the right pane, details appear in left pane. Alter what you want in left pane, click save up top. Next....:D

To modify for ALL tracks - Click first track in right pane to highlight, shift+click last track to highlight all.
Anything you wish to alter such as genre, album name, artist, album artist, ART can be changed in the left pane, becoming effective when you click save up top.
DO NOT ALTER TITLE OR TRACK at folder level and save, it's a pain to resolve after.... Been there...:doh:

Now what you are after, with all tracks highlighted...
Square bottom left is album art - With all tracks highlighted, right click this window, click add cover, select what you want, save, done.
Voila ;)

A neat bonus of mp3tag incidentally is that individual file names can be modified in the right pane and are changed back to the folder automatically....much faster than in Windows. :eyebrows:
Ah, I think you read my mind sir :D

I'll give this a go tomorrow :cool:

That is 100% precisely what I was going to ask about, I'm not interested in having mp3tag search for album art on the net. I just want to use what I already have in folders..

Job should be a good one now, I'll get back to you & let you know how I get on :eyebrows:


On a totally different note, well kind of, I downloaded a load of AIFF files figuring that I'd be able to convert them to WAV somehow..

First up I tried playing them with winamp, for some strange reason one album just made a lot of noise, though I could hear something under the noise. The other seven played fine.

A quick search of the web brought up an old friend - Audacity. Downloaded that & quickly converted the files to WAV, surprised to find they were half the size! It appears AIFF runs at 2822kbps or precisely double WAV, once converted files are half the size for the same quality :scratch:

What the heck. Anyway the album that wouldn't play before now plays 100% fine in WAV. It was sampled at 48KHz, so the bitrate is now 1536kbps. Some of the other albums were also sampled at the same frequency & bitrate though, so I have zero idea why this one wouldn't play previously.

I guess I shouldn't worry, as it certainly does now.

[bobbasrah]

Bob - I agree with you as regards portable music. However, I'm one of those people who wants physical media to store on his lovely shelves.

You have shelves in your car ? :eek:
In a domestic environment, point taken, although I think my archive boxes look quite fetching in the store, only leaving the portable bacjup drives to gather dust....;)

Good luck with the tagging issues....

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers for the help Bob, as I'm sure you realise, if I followed your instructions then it should have worked ;)

Well that would be a very big yes!

Easy as pie, even found an album that had only 10 out of 12 tracks tagged - now sorted :D

Needs a whole load of defragmentation after it's done though, those files just don't have enough elbow room :rfl:

Cheers chap, if you are ever in this neck of the woods I'd love to buy you a few beers :cool:



Just thought I'd pop on & give you the good news, I have company right now, say may be on again later on...

Cheers!

[bobbasrah]

Excellent, a couple of weeks of frustration maybe, but you have resolved it now and learned something in the process. Should be a breeze from now on.

While you have these folders loaded by the way, it is worth checking the filenames out on your way through, as (not sure if the Oppo does this TBH) a few of my folders had all correct tags such as track numbers etc, but the filenames were displayed in the wrong sequence, ie 1 instead of 01 at the start of a filename in a folder with over 10 tracks. 1 follows 10, 2 follows 20 sort of thing....

In mp3tag, double click on the errant filename in the RHS pane, Home takes you to the start of the text line, hit the 0 you want to insert, Enter, you are now ready on the next filename to edit, Home, 0, Enter, etc.. All very quick...

Have fun.