Streaming Services

I use Netflix mainly through my Oppo 105 to catch-up on recent TV series rather than films. I also think some of the films' sound quality on the Netflix library is mediocre at best, although more recent titles such as Star Trek Into Darkness seemed less compressed.

Another advantage of using the Netlfix app on the Oppo is that you can force it to output video at NTSC/60Hz rather than PAL/50Hz so it removes a lot of the juddering for film and 24p shot material. The multi-format option in the Video settings didn't seem to work properly for me.

Hi Felty,

Thx, I'll have a look at the settings.

M

Amazon - Fire TV

Being a user of Prime this allowed me to tap into the streaming services when they came online. I used my second system Sony BR player and my laptop via HDMI into my Oppo 105D in the primary system. The latter is OK but is not something that I could point my wife at and I took delivery of a Fire TV today.

The Fire TV is an impressive bit of kit that sits neatly and discretely on the Oppo between the two sets of cooling holes. This is a small box a la Apple TV with RJ45, Toslink and HDMI inputs. I have set this up to output into my system via the HDMI input on the back of the Oppo.

The Fire TV doesn't appear to support a static IP and so I have enabled an DHCP server and constrained it to one address matching the Fire's MAC.

Picture Quality: Excellent.

Sound Quality: See Netflix above. I used The Man of Steel as the demo piece. Whilst I agree this film has its share of issues I love the soundtrack and there is a lot of excellent design work, both in terms of the production and the sound.

M

Will Streaming Services Change my AV Approach?

Potentially. I watch a lot of movies where an advanced audio system is of little benefit. IF the supplied libraries include classic movies then I could imagine that this might start to make me think. In terms of music, musicals and any movie where a surround soundtrack adds markedly to the experience ....no, not until the quality of what is on offer improves. But, as a mechanism for sorting the chaff from the wheat this is a very handy tool, as I use Qobuz for for my music.

Interesting times.

M

I agree with you regarding the Fire TV Mr Underhill. I think it's a wonderful device, far better than the Apple TV. We've now got three of them in different places. Despite initially thinking it a gimmick, I've found the voice recognition to be excellent. As you rightly point out there are a large number of films where the relatively poor sound quality you get from Netflix & Amazon Prime isn't too relevent. If I think a movie will benefit from better sound I'll buy it on BluRay.

Incidentally, I use PLEX on the Fire TVs to stream ripped movies that I keep on my computer and NAS. The sound quality in this case is very good, depending on how I've ripped the soundtrack.

Hi Tony,

I've been doing some digging into what can be loaded onto the Fire, and how to access the Netflix US video library, which is more extensive and up to date than the UK.

I don't think I will look to stream my local films as the only place I can stream to already has the Oppo. I have the 2nd system (and my daughters) on a separate vLan to keep them partitioned from my data assets - they have a tendency to click and load anything!! At least I have trained them NOT to browse with an account that has admin privileges.

Cheers,

M

Hi Mr Underhill, that's very interesting! I've just done a quick Google on the subject; maybe you could drop me an e-mail (in my profile) sometime if you decide to proceed. 

Hi Tony,

Wilco.

I do like the voice searching - shame it only covers the Amazon content.

M

My wife (and her mother) try every day to put Netflix out of business; its good for quantity, pretty good quality.

Blu Ray on the Oppo is better, and will allow you to "Zoom" which I like.  I hate the damned black horizontal lines on the TV...maybe I should get a wider screen or something.  Anyway I use zoom on DVD and Blu-Ray but doesn't work with Netflix.

Hi Tony,

Had a chat with my daughter yesterday about accessing the US content .....I am not going to go there for moral reasons. However, I am going to investigate it from a technical perspective. I will email you what I find.

M

Thanks for that Mr Underhill. I've done an investigation myself but it ends up getting a bit complicated and involves lying about your country of residence. So I'm not going to go there.

Fire TV - Kodi (XBMC)

Fairly straight-forward to side load this, and then enables me to access my NAS based content and stream it to my TV via the Oppo.

This works well and has a good user interface.

Loading up the add-ons opens a world of illegal content. I block torrent on my firewall and so many of the popular apps do not work, even so it is disturbing how many do .....for the sake of the entertainment industry and those it employs this really does need to be addressed.

M

Fire TV - Kodi II

Having used this for a while I have to say that I prefer it to using the Oppo interface, which is basic.

The Fire TV is fed into the Oppo and so I can leverage the Darbee processing and the audio processing, and all the Oppo apps I use are on the FTV.

Kodi has become my standard AV interface.

M

Fire TV - Kodi III

I have been comparing the Sound Quality of the films streamed from my NAS to the Fire TV vs  the Oppo 105D ....and the Oppo wins hands down.

M

That's interesting MrUnderhill. I don't currently use a NAS to store my movies on; they're on a HD attached to my iMac. Still, should be able to stream them across the network directly to the Oppo.

Hi Tony,

That was what I was comparing here, films streamed from the NAS via the Fire TV to the Oppo or direct to the Oppo.

The shame is that the user interface using Kodi on the FTV is a mile better than the Oppo's clunky affair, but the SQ is impacted .....so back to the Oppo I go.

Just been watching Clear and Present Danger - great film and great sound track.

M

Well done Mr Underhill, the Oppo does sound better in these circumstances, and not just with streamed movies from my HD, Netflix is also much better in both picture and sound quality than with the Fire TV. I route the Fire's HDMI through the Oppo to gain the benefit of the Darbee video processing but the Oppo's still better.