UMC-1 vs. Oppo for DVD upscaling

[Mike Ronesia]

I'm guessing this has been covered but there is so much stuff in here. I need a new BD player and am wondering if the UMC-1 will do as good a job at upscaling DVD's at the Oppo 83. I'd like to save the $200+ and get the 80 as long as I can just let the UMC-1 do the processing. I've read the Oppo's are about the same for BD's but are noticeably different with DVDs.

Any thoughts or first hand experience? I have a Samsung 52a850 display.

[mdanderson]

Mar 8, 2010 23:03:58 GMT -5 Mike Ronesia said:

I'm guessing this has been covered but there is so much stuff in here. I need a new BD player and am wondering if the UMC-1 will do as good a job at upscaling DVD's at the Oppo 83. I'd like to save the $200+ and get the 80 as long as I can just let the UMC-1 do the processing. I've read the Oppo's are about the same for BD's but are noticeably different with DVDs.

Any thoughts or first hand experience? I have a Samsung 52a850 display.

Mike,
For me the UMC-1 does a great job with hd sources like directv and with blurays but I liked the way my Oppo 83 handles dvds better. I noticed a number of jaggies in opening credits when I play regular dvds and let the UMC-1 do the processing but the Oppo looks much smoother to me.

Overall, I love the sound of the UMC-1 and I will certainly be pleased to keep this unit.

[Mike Ronesia]

Thanks, I was hoping it would be as good.

[jimsfield]

I had the same experience as mda. I noticed the difference on the Spears and Muncil setup disc on diagonal lines.

[Bruce]

The Oppo is better at upscalling DVD .I also beleive the OppoBDP-83 has a great BluRay picture and is easy to upgrade with a stick.I wish Emotiva would use this type of upgrade feature on the UMC-1 and the upcoming XMC-1.

[billmac]

Not having the BDP-83 anymore I can not comment on how the upscaling of the UMC-1 compares to the BDP-83. But one big difference is the BDP-83 has many more user settings to tweak the picture if you wish.

I just went into the UMC-1s video menu to tweak some of the settings assuming it had noise or block reduction type settings but it does not. So my guess would be that the BDP-83 would provide better overall video processing with the many available settings.

Bill

[moe]

From where I set(about 15ft)the UMC looks about as good as the oppo.I haven't used my Calibration disc,just watching and have no complaint.That said,I've never been as impressed with the oppo as some are(60inch lcd).The ps3 has actually been picked my family as having the best BLURAY picture,they are not videophiles though..

[macer18]

To follow up on this...those that don't want to spring for an OPPO 80 or 83...if you get your run-o-the-mill Sony/Samsung etc bluray player...it really shouldn't matter all that much since you are letting the UMC do the upscale/cleanup right?

I was getting caught up in which Bluray player to buy, and whether I should lose Netflix and other add-ons in favor of the OPPO. If some are saying its only slightly better, I think I am fine with letter my UMC handle it (when I finally get it).

Thoughts?

[hemster]

macer18, in comparing the Oppo-83 with other "run-of-the-mill" bluray players as you put it, please remember that the Oppo has the ABT chip with VRS processing. This does yield excellent bluray video. I also think that DVD upconversion is outstanding.

I have both the Oppo and the UMC-1 and have decided to let the Oppo do the processing (for now!). The UMC video output was very good indeed when I initially tried it out and I still need to experiment some more.

I do wish that Oppo would add Netflix though. Maybe this is possible via a firmware upgrade. They did add DLNA capability. Oppo does play SACDs and DVD-Audio if that's of interest to you. Otherwise Samsung and LG would be on my list.

[macer18]

My comparison was not between the OPPO and Sony, but the OPPO processing vs the Sony + UMC processing. I know the OPPO has some bad@ss hardware processing and that it may be "better" than having the UMC do it. It was more about...ok, lets take brand X bluray player and let the UMC do its magic...then compare it to the OPPO.

Knowing its hard to be objective about "looks", is the OPPO processing 50% better than generic bluray + UMC, or just 10%...at 10%, I'm gunna save some money and get the bag o tricks some of the other bluray players provide.

I will be playing all of this on a LN-52A650 samsung, sitting about 7-8' away.

[johnnyg]

Mar 9, 2010 14:17:51 GMT -5 hemster said:

... please remember that the Oppo has the ABT chip with VRS processing. This does yield excellent bluray video. I also think that DVD upconversion is outstanding.

This may be a stupid question, but here goes...
I understand about upconversion of DVD, but if the Blu-Ray player is reading an HD video stream from the disk, decompressing it and sending it out digitally via HDMI, what processing is taking place that would make one players picture better than another?

[odeen]

Here's what I'm thinking...

The disc player has access to raw MPEG2 data on the DVD. The processor only has access to uncompressed data after it has gone through the DVD player's MPEG2 decoder.

Is it possible that a high-end disc player can analyze the raw (compressed) data and make determinations about the data? For example, it could determine that certain bit patterns are the result of overly high compression and then work to actively reduce the "ringing" that would result from the compression. Another bit pattern could be characteristic of diagonal lines, so the player would smooth it out instead of naively outputting it jagged.

On the other hand, an outboard video processor does not have access to this data, so it has to make its decisions based on decoded video. If the decoded video contains jaggies or ringing, it's much more difficult to determine what the original video should have looked like.

[macer18]

I think your logic makes sense....what I want to know is someone with an OPPO and a decent "Best Buy" Bluray player to do a side by side test of dvd upscaling...one with OPPO doing all the processing and feeding into the UMC, and one with the BestBuy player passing to the UMC doing all the processing.

If there is a large difference...I'll save up for the OPPO and sacrifice some of the cool gadgets the new-gen blu ray players are including.

[hemster]

Mar 9, 2010 15:34:32 GMT -5 @johnnyg said:

Mar 9, 2010 14:17:51 GMT -5 hemster said:

... please remember that the Oppo has the ABT chip with VRS processing. This does yield excellent bluray video. I also think that DVD upconversion is outstanding.

This may be a stupid question, but here goes...
I understand about upconversion of DVD, but if the Blu-Ray player is reading an HD video stream from the disk, decompressing it and sending it out digitally via HDMI, what processing is taking place that would make one players picture better than another?

Video processing such as mosquito noise reduction, fine detail & edge enhancement etc. would have a distinct part to play on the end result. Check out www.anchorbaytech.com/vrs_technology/ for more.

[nashty1]

I had been struggling with the same issue... let the UMC do the video or get the OPPO and have a sure thing. I finally opted to let the UMC do the video. I figured this is what I bought it for, I might as well let it do it! I just picked up a LG BD590. I will report back once things are up and running. I am excited to get it going... lots of extras that swayed me away from the Oppo, not least of all being the 250 HDD for my music! ;D

[Mike Ronesia]

Decisions, decisions...

[dfdo]

I have compared UMC-1 upscaling vs. Pioneer BDP-51FD vs. Oppo BDP-83. I prefer the Pioneer and Oppo. But that could be because the scaling algorithms used by my BR players match well with the display.

[smitty4ut]

I do have a OPPO BDP-83, and from everything that I have read, Blu-Rays should look the same for the most part from one player to another. Where the OPPO shines is up-scaling DVD's. Also some of the other features it has. Like being able to zoom a image, without distorting it too much. I sometimes stretch a Widescreen picture, so I don't end up burning in the black bars on my plasma. It is also great to listen to Dark Side of the moon on SACD.

[hemster]

I use the Oppo's vertical stretch capability as I have a 1:2.35 screen (i.e. cinemascope). I did look at other players as I was also looking for Netflix etc. but in the end v-stretch won out. I am hopeful that Oppo will add Netflix streaming.

nashty1, as for streaming music from your 250GB HDD, the Oppo allows that now with the latest firmware update (via DLNA).

[bob (aka *bleep*)]

Mar 10, 2010 13:58:32 GMT -5 smitty4ut said:

I do have a OPPO BDP-83, and from everything that I have read, Blu-Rays should look the same for the most part from one player to another. Where the OPPO shines is up-scaling DVD's. Also some of the other features it has. Like being able to zoom a image, without distorting it too much. I sometimes stretch a Widescreen picture, so I don't end up burning in the black bars on my plasma. It is also great to listen to Dark Side of the moon on SACD.

Proper Blu-Ray playback is essentially identical among all players from the $50 refurbished Magnavox all the way up to the Oppo, There are far far more similarities than differences in BLU RAY PLAYBACK.
DVD upscaling is another story. Using a Pioneer 23 Elite in "source direct mode, i.e 480i) to my Reon in the Onkyo 3007 yields DVD upscaling almost identical to the Oppo 83 with a slight, (and I mean slight) edge to the Oppo. Feeding the same signal to a Denon 4810 (which uses ABT) yields almost exactly the same results. This is viewed on a 120" screen as well, so most flaws are easily seen.
Viewers with smaller screens will have some "flaws" masked due to the size of their screen and viewing distance.
My point is that I have seen and played with a UMC upscaled DVD and it is no where close to the Oppo on a large screen. Once again, if you have a smaller screen you may not notice things that are blown up to 120"!
The preceding is my opinion only and as always, your results may vary!