Using HDD docking station with the Oppo 205

@desray I understand you use a HDD docking station with your Oppo. when you do that, does your Oppo recognise all the drives that are currently installed on the docking station? for some reason, my 205 only shows one drive instead of two on my 4 bay docking station.

Oppo customer service says the docking station needs to be able to combine both drives as a single share. Any ideas on how to do this?

thanks man and I hope you find a home for your 203 soon :slight_smile:

Right now, my docking station has been moved to my new Zidoo UHD3000. Oppo no longer connected to any HDD docking station. FWIW I have no problem identifying > 1 drive using a docking station BUT unlike you, I’m NOT using a 4 bay docking station but 2.

On a separate note, there is a buyer interested in my Pioneer LX500 and if the deal goes through, I’ll most likely keep the Oppo 203. Of course, if the price is right, I’ll consider it.

There is no problem identifying > 4 hard drives on the docking bay.

I’m using the oricco for that, no problem.

Able to connect to all 4 drives simultaneously

image

It has its own power supply, so two from the back of Oppo 205 is using USB 3, and one in front USB 2, total 6 hard disk connected no problem

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Yes. I’m also using the Orico brand but only 2 bay.

Thank you very much guys. I realized that the HDD that was not showing up is due to the file format. in hindsight, I should’ve checked the HDD file format first before suspecting the docking station :grin:

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Odd, care to share what file system format besides the 2 commonly used one - i.e FAT32 and NTFS UNLESS you are talking about Mac file system?

Ya I think I shared some years back on xtremeplace, it could also be because of the disk structure being set to MBR instead of GPT. Set it all to GPT

At times, it can be due to the disk signature number being the same, many years ago, on the Western Digital hard disc, there was this problem, especially on the 2TB disc

So if 2 same hard disc with the same signature number is being inserted into the docking, the player will recognise only 1 of it. We have a disk signature collision situation

One way to solve this is to change the number of one of the disc. So there are steps to follow for changing this .

See below

This should definitely solve it, then make sure disc is in NTFS or FAT32.

Also, avoid using this type of multi-way connectors if possible

yes it is a mac file system that I am having trouble with - the Oppo will not recognise mac os extended journaled file system. I can’t remember why that particular HDD is formatted in such a way. perhaps back then I might have had a reason for choosing that file format but I can’t remember anymore :laughing: so what I have to do now is to transfer the contents of the 8TB HDD to another place, format that HDD as exfat and then transfer back my files. what a PITA… :roll_eyes:

That explains everything…I hope you have a Windows setup at the very least? This is the reason why Windows setup is STILL a must even though one may be a hardcore Apple fan or Mac OS user.

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That is correct…GPT is the new file system format as opposed to the antiquated Master Boot Record (MBR)…this is attributed to the bigger disk capacity of our HDD these days. Same analogy on why some USB thumb drive can only be formatted in exFAT rather than the older FAT32…all because of the capacity.

FWIW GPT is “not” the root cause for a media player not to recognize the HDD when docked to a HDD docking station so long the capacity is within the limit.

Yes, diskpart command prompt is the MOST POWERFUL DOS command for any super user. You can revive any kind of hard drive with different file system format. :slight_smile: Alternatively one can also use Manage Disk feature by right-clicking the My Computer icon on your desktop. Delete the partition/volume and re-initialize it and this is much easier for normal user to work on.

@Ronildoq thanks for sharing this image. it took me a while to register that you are using a total of SIX HDDs connected to your Oppo! that’s just hardcore man! :laughing: I can see myself going that direction somewhere down the road since I have much better performance playing UHD ISOs when the HDD is connected via USB as opposed to via Network. I don’t have this issue for regular BD ISOs.

how do you handle the HDDs powering down naturally? do you switch off your Oppo first before switching off the docking station or something? I just want to make sure that the HDDs installed on the docking station live as long as possible with no accidental damage to them due to abrupt shutdown.

FYI, this is the Sabrent that I am using:

You can just switch off the HDD docking station so long you are not playing any media from the HDD itself. Reading vs Writing information into the HDD is a different thing altogether. Most of the time, we “read” info, not “writing” info to the HDD.

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I always off the oppo 205 first, followed by the hard disk power. No issues that way. So far so good

I spilt the disc by genre, so I’ll have terrabyes of disc on animation, documentary, foreign movies, Chinese movies, adventure, sci fi, action, horror, thriller, Tekno3d , music, dramas … so many, cannot finish

So ya I have terrabyes of movies stored on multiple disc

Why not use NAS instead of dock station? Wouldn’t NAS safeguard your data so a better storage solution as opposed to dock?

It’s about bandwidth (throughput rate) between NAS and a SATA HDD.

Typical video stream is <100mbps with some scenes >100mbps so shld be well within normal network capability, not arguing with you just wanna know the advantages of using dock vs NAS

Honestly both DAS & NAS would work perfectly fine.

NAS is inherently a little more flexible, allowing multiple clients to access directly via network.

DAS is dedicated to the connected playback device. Of course the playback device could still share the media on the network.

I am using a 8 bay Synology NAS. playing BD ISOs and folders is not a problem. it is when I play UHD ISOs and folders that I sometimes experience stuttering. that is why I decided to investigate a docking station for playing UHD files exclusively.

If you can, you should just use a HDD docking station. As I’ve mentioned, it is about a consistent throughput rate when playback high bitrate video files - e.g. 4K UHD ISO. For BD ISO/BDMV playback via NAS, I do not foresee any network bottleneck issue, so streaming from a good NAS like Synology should not be a problem. But since you have better luck with the SMB v3 protocol, by all means, use it.