Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD 3-D Blu-ray player (January 2012 Home Theater magazine review)

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Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD 3-D Blu-ray player (January 2012 Home Theater magazine review)

Internet connection problems with current firmware version according to the review

A low $400 list price for a Pioneer Elite 3-D Blu-ray player that plays SACD’s and DVD Audio discs

Pioneer Blu-ray players in the past have received bad reviews for slow loading times and various other issues. The latest 2011 Pioneer Blu-ray players like the Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD have made some major improvements compared to prior Pioneer models. The Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD has super-fast disc loading time of less than 30 seconds for even the most complicated JAVA based discs. Also the Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD will play SACD’s and DVD-Audio discs for a list price of only $400. This is the first time Pioneer has offered SACD and DVD-Audio playback capabilities in a Blu-ray player. The Pioneer BDP-52FD passed all the video tests and is an excellent Blu-ray player for video scaling according to the Home Theater magazine review.


There are some negatives with the Pioneer BDP-52FD. Like many other brands of Blu-ray players Pioneer does not offer any 480i component video outputs, just 480i composite video and HDMI 1.4 (HDMI supports resolutions up to 1080p/24 and 1080p/60). Also the BDP-52FD has no 7.1 analog outputs for older A/V receivers. Also Pioneer does not have 1GB of built in memory for BD-LIVE and requires a 1GB or larger USB flash drive to be used for BD-LIVE. There is also no source direct feature offered on the BDP-52FD.The worse part of this review is that Pioneer needs to issue a firmware update to correct a problem with the BDP-52FD not being able to connect to the Internet. Plus the wireless adapter (dongle) is an optional feature for $149.

If one pays $99 more they could own a OPPO BDP-93 for $499 that offers two HDMI 1.4a outputs with a source direct option, legacy 1080i component video, 2GB of built in memory with 1GB reserved for BD-LIVE, 7.1 analog audio outputs, and a wireless N adapter included.

It should be mentioned that the top of the line Pioneer BDP-53FD for $499 has everything the $399 BDP-52FD offers plus two HDMI 1.4 outputs and the Marvell QDEO video processing just like the OPPO BDP-93.

The following are select word for word quotes from the January 2012 Home Theater magazine (Review located on pages 52-54)

“Solid build quality”


"Speedy loading”


“The player is BD-LIVE compliant, but you must add your own 1 gigabyte of USB memory to one of the two USB ports in order to torture yourself with usual half-baked online featurettes and trailers.”


“There is no source direct mode, which would output the signals as encoded on the disc with no video processing applied. This would be a great option for users with outboard scalers.”


“Unfortunately, I had some network connection issues with this player that couldn’t be resolved prior to our press date, even with Pioneer’s help. While it would hook up to my home network and accept an IP address, any attempt to access the Internet caused the player to lock up and require a reboot.”


“Ever disc I threw at it loaded in less than 30 seconds even the most Java intensive titles and 3D playback was flawless.”

http://www.hometheater.com/content/p...-ray-3d-player