Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Oppo BDP-93

Since the 93 has the ability to split out the audio via the second HDMI output, would this work to pass high resolution audio? It seems all you would need is an HDMI to RCA cable for this to work. Since the player can decode the lossless formats and output them as LPCM it sounds like it could be a replacement for a Shawn Fogg modded player.

Has anyone tried this?

Hi Brax

With my BDP93, I had to add a Gefen HDMI Detective Plus between the player and the Clux (Shawn Fogg modified for 4xSPDIF output) to achieve multichannel output. Prior to that, I could only get a 2 channel downmix via HDMI, despite the front display of the '93 reporting that it was reading multichannel from the disc.

Cheers

George

An "HDMI to RCA cable" is a complete non starter as it needs active electronics and processing.

Avii

+1. You need an active device, with 3 * SPDIF output, such as:

A modified Player.
A modified HDMI 'switch' (Clux, Octiva).
A Meridian HD621.

Besides, what would you like to do with that high-res audio? If you would send it directly to your DSP-speakers, you will not be able to do what a normal processor or one with room-correction could do relating to:
- Timing/delay per speaker
- Gain/volume-balance per speaker
(- treble/mid/bass adjustments that room-correction can do based on different traveling speeds of sound and reflections, and/or a more simple speaker-size setting)
- Bass management/10dB-adjustment
- Master volume control

From the options listed by Carl, only the modified Oppo allows you to adjust the settings above (except for the one between brackets) according to this post by Shawn. Therefore, I think that you would either need a processor (861v6+HD621 / one with SPDIF+modded-switch), or you need a modified Oppo, or am I mistaken?

"Since the 93 has the ability to split out the audio via the second HDMI output, would this work to pass high resolution audio?"

Audio on HDMI is carried in the vertical blanking interval of the video. You can see this in the amount of audio bandwidth available depending upon the video resolution. You can't carry 6 channels of 96/24 on a 480p signal for example.

The Oppo 'splits out' the audio on the second output by using a video carrier. I don't know what resolution the Oppo uses but on the Radiance XD when you set the second output to be 'audio only' what it actually does is spit out a blank 720p video signal with the audio carried within it.

This is the long way of saying it isn't possible to just have a cable that is HDMI on one side and SPDIF on the other. You must have a HDMI receiver chip which extracts the audio from the link.

Shawn

@Shawn:

Oppo just released new (beta) firmware, which amongst other improvements, includes, quote:

"This version is designed for the Oppo BDP-93 and BDP-95 Blu-ray Disc players. Comparing to the previous official release version BDP9x-42-0323, the major changes included in this version are:

1.Improved the Speaker Configuration options under Audio Processing. It is now possible to independently set distances for each speaker (previously speaker groups were treated as linked pairs), speaker distances can now be set to the actual spatial distance of the speakers (previously no speaker could be set further from listening position and the Front Left/Right speakers), �Test Tones� can now be used in conjunction with the player�s internal trim controls, speaker distances can now be set in quarter foot increments and speakers no longer require a minimum distance."
Unquote.

To your opinion, does this mean that a modified Oppo-93 now includes almost all possible settings that are usually adjusted by room-correction software?

Yes, all except for room-correction.

Thanks for the replys. Thought that would be too easy of a solution. I guess if I want to add the second system, I'll have to include a HD621 or keep a sharp eye out for some sort of modded unit.

What, like this one?

You can buy pre-modified players, including Oppo, that spit out SPDIF 5.1 from JVB.