Technical Issues and Questions

[knives]

An idiot's question. I just got the Goodbye to Language Bluray. My Player is a 3D one (the 3D promoting sticker is still on) and my television does too. All the same when I put the disc in to test it out a message comes up saying, exactly, "You current setup does not allow for playback of 3D Blu-ray discs." Is there something I need to do additionally to get it to work. The television is a Vizio and player a Sony BDP-BX520. Thanks for any info.

[Drucker]

There could be a display setting where you need to actively turn 3d on. My Samsung TV has the same thing. Look thru your display menu.

[knives]

It gives me a choice between 2D, SBS TB, and Sensio. Which should I go with?

Edit: Nevermind. I got it to work properly by choosing 3D-2D on the televsion and auto turning on on the player.

[Roger Ryan]

As I noted in the Arrow "Woody Allen Collection" thread, I experienced the audio sync problem on the MGM Blu-ray of Annie Hall that others had reported. I tried playing the disc with the "1080/24p" option turned off on my Sony player and the audio sync issue was corrected. This same "fix" corrected the audio sync problem on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me from the "Complete Mystery" Blu-ray box set. The downside to this is that the image is altered to "1080/60p".

I'm curious if this could be an issue with the way the audio is encoded on these discs? I have not experienced this problem (to the best of my recollection) on any other Blu-ray I've played on the same equipment.

[Drucker]

A quick question about the Oppo players, specifically my question is for the Oppo 93:

In setup>video options, do you leave the color space as auto?

With a few films recently, I've noticed something was off with the general color set-up, as the black bars on the tops/sides of the screen were a bit grey. Also, intros to the movies that detailed restoration info was just not as pure black as it should be. I was able to remedy this by going into this section, and selecting a different color space.

FYI, the choices are: Auto/RBG Video Level/RBG PC Level/YCbCr 4:4:4 and YCbCR 4:2:2

I changed it to the 4:4:4 option, then back to auto, as my understanding is that it should be set to auto. This puts the black bars back at the pure black level they should be at. To avoid this in the future, though, is either the 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 option more reliable? Has anyone else had this trouble?

[swo17]

I believe I usually have mine on auto but change it to PC for those titles that have been identified as having color space issues like you describe.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

The Long, Final Goodbye of the VCR

[TMDaines]

Recently moved into a new property and having some trouble with receiving Freeview.

There are two aerial sockets in my lounge: one works great, but we want to use the other. Plugging the coaxial cable into the wall socket and the TV and then tuning the TV brought a very weak signal with very few channels that were completely unwatchable. Later the TV could not find anything at all. After switching the cables around in the loft on a three way splitter and that not helping, I decided to take the wall plate off the wall to have a look behind. Removing the coaxial cable from the plate and inserting it into a female adapter now gets me basically all the channels in a stable picture. I am not getting any of the HD ones, such as BBC 1 HD etc. I am assuming that this is because the signal is too weak due to poor shielding and a bare wire just sitting loose in a female coaxial connector?

Please see the pics below:

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Any suggestions from anyone on what I should do? I am guessing I should cut the end of the cable off, neatly strip and prep it and put a new wall plate in?

[ellipsis7]

I'm just wondering (& something similar has happened to me in the past) that with the end of the coaxial cable bent, the copper core element has maybe snapped inside the insulation, which would produce the poor & intermittent signal you describe... In which case you should trim the cable back a few centimetres (to before the bend) & connect it up to the socket plate again...

[Adam X]

Yes, definitely that, and the outer insulation stripped back that far wouldn't be helping either. Once inserted it should sit inside the sleeve of the connector.
Also, using a 3-way splitter wouldn't help any with a weak signal, given that every time an additional lead, connector or splitter is attached, you get a potential degradation in signal strength which is obviously far more of an issue when the signal's a digital one.

[TMDaines]

Well, it turns out. this wall socket and cable isn't connected to the aerial in my attic as I removed all three cables from the splitter and the signal was uninterrupted. It appears to be connected to an aerial on the roof instead, which looks like it is on my neighbours part of the terraced roof. I presume the one on the other side of the room is too, but am not certain and will try and check now.

I have already recut and reprepped the coaxial cable. Signal strength on YouvVew box is still in low 30s percentage-wise, although I am still just laying the end of the cable into the female connector. Still no HD channels.

[Adam X]

Have you made sure that the copper braiding is making contact with the inside of the socket's sleeve to maintain the ground/earth, without them touching the center female socket that the copper core inserts into (wow, that was a convoluted sentence)?

I'm far from an expert on aerial connections (nor HD TV, as I don't watch any), but if the coax cable appears physically fine & is making a solid connection with the connector then I guess there's other things to consider; like is the coax rated 75 ohms, is the connection at the aerial solid, do you need a new aerial, is reception in your area just simply shit?

Though the weirdness of your antenna cables apparently not being connected to your own antenna does suggest a solution might be a little less simple than any of that.

[Drucker]

Audio question for people knowledgeable about turntables.

For a while now, I have felt that my left speaker in general is slightly weaker than my right speaker when I'm playing records. This is not a matter of something obvious, or the balance being off...just very subtle. I've chalked it up to a mixture of imperfect hearing and stereo mixing decisions in general, where maybe the bass, which is mixed lower, is mostly in the left channel, and a guitar, which is louder in the right channel.

However, last week I hooked up my tape deck. I started making a mixtape today with a ton of mono vinyl, and sure enough, the tape deck is reading the left input just slightly behind the right input! Even though input balance is dead center. For comparison, with a mono CD the tape deck is reading both channels nearly identically.

So: could the RCA cables for the turntable be producing this result? Or more likely is it that no stereo needle ever can perfectly be balanced, and it's just a slight imbalance that I have to live with? Any thoughts? A new needle perhaps (turntable is less than 2 years old and brand new).

[fdm]

Perhaps your anti-skating setting needs to be adjusted. My recollection is that the tonearm/needle by default is pulled more towards the center spindle of the turntable, so anti-skating is used to counterbalance that pull.

[kuzine]

Audio question for people knowledgeable about turntables.

For a while now, I have felt that my left speaker in general is slightly weaker than my right speaker when I'm playing records. This is not a matter of something obvious, or the balance being off...just very subtle. I've chalked it up to a mixture of imperfect hearing and stereo mixing decisions in general, where maybe the bass, which is mixed lower, is mostly in the left channel, and a guitar, which is louder in the right channel.

However, last week I hooked up my tape deck. I started making a mixtape today with a ton of mono vinyl, and sure enough, the tape deck is reading the left input just slightly behind the right input! Even though input balance is dead center. For comparison, with a mono CD the tape deck is reading both channels nearly identically.

So: could the RCA cables for the turntable be producing this result? Or more likely is it that no stereo needle ever can perfectly be balanced, and it's just a slight imbalance that I have to live with? Any thoughts? A new needle perhaps (turntable is less than 2 years old and brand new).

I've noticed the exactly same issue with my setup since a few months (no solution yet, but have been procrastinating with looking for one). It's noticeable with the turntable while there's no issue when playing cd, dvd or if my laptop is hooked up to my tuner. I'm pretty sure it's something with the turntable (or cables?) as the imbalance changes when I switch the L/R cables. Turntable is a second hand Sony ps-lx100 which has served me well for the past 10+ years. RCA cables are fixed to it so haven't been able to isolate it completely to the turntable, there's no anti-skating controls or anything on there that I can fiddle with.

[Drucker]

I'll look into the arm, but I will say that when I set the arm up initially, I brought it back to the audio store and they insisted they could not have done a better job balancing the arm if they had done it with a machine. Can it adjust over time?

[TMDaines]

Have you made sure that the copper braiding is making contact with the inside of the socket's sleeve to maintain the ground/earth, without them touching the center female socket that the copper core inserts into (wow, that was a convoluted sentence)?

I'm far from an expert on aerial connections (nor HD TV, as I don't watch any), but if the coax cable appears physically fine & is making a solid connection with the connector then I guess there's other things to consider; like is the coax rated 75 ohms, is the connection at the aerial solid, do you need a new aerial, is reception in your area just simply shit?

Though the weirdness of your antenna cables apparently not being connected to your own antenna does suggest a solution might be a little less simple than any of that.

I never managed to work out what was wrong with this socket or where the aerial was that it is attached to. In the end I just ran a cable from the other socket, which definitely is connected to my attic aerial, under the carpet to the other side of the room. No problem with any channels now.

[Adam X]

Sounds like the issue might be in the wall, then.
Glad it worked out in the end!

[barryconvex]

If i were to buy the Oppo BDP-103 3D would i need to modify it in any way to make it a region free player of both blu-rays and dvds? Any and all responses are appreciated..

[artfilmfan]

If you buy it from 220 Electronics, their Oppo players are already modified to play DVDs and Blu-rays from anywhere.

[jindianajonz]

The Oppo is not inherently region free, but I can second Artfilmfan's recommendation of getting a modded one from 220 electronics.

[joshua]

If i were to buy the Oppo BDP-103 3D would i need to modify it in any way to make it a region free player of both blu-rays and dvds? Any and all responses are appreciated..

You could get one of these. It is compatible with the 103/105 as well as the earlier models.

[perkizitore]

If i were to buy the Oppo BDP-103 3D would i need to modify it in any way to make it a region free player of both blu-rays and dvds? Any and all responses are appreciated..

I would strongly advise to wait a few months for the upcoming Oppo UHD player, it will reportedly cost $499.

[fdm]

Only thing (maybe) about waiting for the 203 is (maybe) waiting even longer for the region free mods. Plus if barryconvex wants Darby built in that's an even longer wait for a different player.

For the 103 etc I concur with joshua about the cheap-ish mod that can just be attached to the back, they work great, no need to open up the player. Although stock of these players does seem to be drying up (not currently available from Oppo, for example).

[ZHansen]

Apologies if this has been addressed in the previous 60 pages of this thread:

Last night my wife and I were watching a DVD of Love & Friendship from the library. We use a region-free Toshiba blu-ray player. About 20 minutes in, the film suddenly muted and a message from the player popped up directing me to a website for more info. I don't recall the site or the exact wording, but it had something to do with not having a properly licensed copy of the film. Two "fixes" were suggested, one of which was to obtain the proper license (???). The other was to pause the DVD for 30 seconds, put in a different DVD and watch it for ten minutes, then put the first DVD back on.

The easiest fix ended up being...to stream it from Amazon Prime, instead. Tut it was super-weird, and I've never encountered this in the three years I've been using this player. Our player is not Internet-equipped, so I can't run updates or anything. Anyone else have this experience?