Pioneer BDP-05FD & BDP-51FD Thread

[bluewatergrigsby]

Anyone seen or heard when the new Pioneer BDP-05FD is set to release. The page says July 18 but no dealers have seen or heard of a delivery.

[rragland]

Originally Posted by bluewatergrigsby

Anyone seen or heard when the new Pioneer BDP-05FD is set to release. The page says July 18 but no dealers have seen or heard of a delivery.

Not until mid-late August, can't wait.

[theprophecy247]

Pioneer = sickkk

[Ben]

I spoke with Chris Walker from Pioneer yesterday (article to come) and he confirmed that the non-Elite version of this player, the BDP-51FD is shipping now, while the Elite BDP-05FD will ship in early August. He went in to a lot of depth on WHY these players will be the cream of the crop and I feel pretty confident in stating that when released, these players will have the finest PQ and AQ of any players on the market to date. Pioneer has done some amazing things with these players...

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Ben

I spoke with Chris Walker from Pioneer yesterday (article to come) and he confirmed that the non-Elite version of this player, the BDP-51FD is shipping now, while the Elite BDP-05FD will ship in early August. He went in to a lot of depth on WHY these players will be the cream of the crop and I feel pretty confident in stating that when released, these players will have the finest PQ and AQ of any players on the market to date. Pioneer has done some amazing things with these players...

Sounds good, Ben. I'm looking for a player that will - if even slightly - give me better PQ than my BD30 at 1080p/24.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Ben

I spoke with Chris Walker from Pioneer yesterday (article to come) and he confirmed that the non-Elite version of this player, the BDP-51FD is shipping now, while the Elite BDP-05FD will ship in early August. He went in to a lot of depth on WHY these players will be the cream of the crop and I feel pretty confident in stating that when released, these players will have the finest PQ and AQ of any players on the market to date. Pioneer has done some amazing things with these players...

While I definitely agree they should be fantastic players, I'd still put my money on the Denon 3800 to have a better PQ... especially when upscaling DVDs. If Pioneer has managed to create a scaling chip that beats the Realta I'll be amazed.

They also STILL don't have SACD playback capability, which, for a high-end player, should be included.

Otherwise, I'd definitely take a long look at these players if buying a player in the next few months. Pioneer's got a fantastic track record with Blu-ray... and now they'll have the features (BonusView) to match. It's sad they dropped the ethernet port and home network playback features, though.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

While I definitely agree they should be fantastic players, I'd still put my money on the Denon 3800 to have a better PQ...

What may make the new Pioneer stand out from all other Blu-ray units will be its ability to upsample BDs to Deep Color (if you have a capable display).

No other player has this capability today and should be interesting to see how this performs in practice.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

What may make the new Pioneer stand out from all other Blu-ray units will be its ability to upsample BDs to Deep Color (if you have a capable display).

No other player has this capability today and should be interesting to see how this performs in practice.

I'm eager to see more on these, especially the Elite unit.

I'm wondering what the Denon units and Marantz counterpart honestly have/will have over the new Pioneer Elite unit for a good $1000 or so in price difference?

I'm not doubting those Denon and Marantz units are awesome, but I'll just be interested to see/hear what the differences end up being.

[Ben]

Upsampling to 12-Bit colorspace is a big deal for Pioneer... I eagerly await the results of this technology. In addition, what Pioneer has done with the audio side of the equation should equal vastly improved audio quality. That's something I'm very excited about.

[AtomHeart]

I just wish these players included SOME bass management, and time alignment features. You basically have to set all speakers at large or all speakers at small, live with the factory default Subwoofer cross-over frequency (whatever that is set at), and get no time alignment features.

The biggest advantage I saw to this player was that it decoded the High Definition Audio codecs right in the player, so those of us with older high-end recievers or preamps that dont have HDMI ports, could now get DTS-MA, and DD-HD to our receivers via the analog outputs on the player. Problem is, most receivers and pre-amps that have 7.1 analog inputs try to have those be "Source Direct" inputs that bypass all internal bass management, and time alignment features in the receiver. That means that a player that is going to decode these signals and send them out via analog outputs really needs to have bass management, time alignment, and an adjustable subwoofer crossover built in.

It will be interesting to see if these players can add these important features via firmware updates. If not, these players are not the saviour they appeared to be for those of us with non-HDMI receivers. My sunfire receiver was $4000+ and works brilliantly, so I am not replacing it just because it has no HDMI inputs or DTS-MA/DD-HD decoding onboard, ya know? If pioneer addresses these issues with a firmware update in the future, this player would definitely be a "holy grail" player for a lot of us out here in pre-HDMI audio land.

[JTK]

In my case, my Yamaha 2700 is not even two years old. It's only "weakness" is that it's HDMI 1.2a instead of 1.3.

I really have no plans to replace this thing until it dies so should the time come that I want to relegate the PS3 to gaming only duties and go standalone (starting to feel the itch even now)...I guess I can forget bitstreaming.

[Ace]

Someone just picked up a 51FD at Best Buy in Palo Alto, California.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post14306946

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by JTK

I'm eager to see more on these, especially the Elite unit.

I'm wondering what the Denon units and Marantz counterpart honestly have/will have over the new Pioneer Elite unit for a good $1000 or so in price difference?

I'm not doubting those Denon and Marantz units are awesome, but I'll just be interested to see/hear what the differences end up being.

One reason why the higher end Denon and Marantz are more is because of the Realta chipset which is used for deinterlacing and scaling for BD and SD DVD. The Realta is pretty much top notch in this regard. Build quality and features may be another reason, though Elite is built quite well.

[welwynnick]

Originally Posted by Ben

In addition, what Pioneer has done with the audio side of the equation should equal vastly improved audio quality. That's something I'm very excited about.

Are you talking about Audio Rate Control over HDMI V1.3a here, or something else like audio up-sampling?

Cheers, Nick

[twoboyz]

Would there be any reason to upgrade from the BDP-95FD to the new 05. I am using all HDMI connections to a Denon AVR4308ci reciever. Just curious if it would be worth it or not. Any suggestions.

EQUIP:
Denon AVR4308ci
Denon DVD3930ci
Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD
Samsung 5084 1080p
Def Tech BP 7002's, CLR 2500, UIW BPZ/A (2), UIW 94/A (2) 7.1
Richard Grays 600s Power Conditioner
Monster HTS 5100 MK2
No Sub Needed

[rragland]

Originally Posted by twoboyz

Would there be any reason to upgrade from the BDP-95FD to the new 05. I am using all HDMI connections to a Denon AVR4308ci reciever. Just curious if it would be worth it or not. Any suggestions.

EQUIP:
Denon AVR4308ci
Denon DVD3930ci
Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD
Samsung 5084 1080p
Def Tech BP 7002's, CLR 2500, UIW BPZ/A (2), UIW 94/A (2) 7.1
Richard Grays 600s Power Conditioner
Monster HTS 5100 MK2
No Sub Needed

I am upgrading from the BDP-94HD to the BDP-05FD with hopes of improved performance in load times, picture quality, and audio quality from the Wolfson Audio DAC's. Also the BDP-05FD offers Bonus play.

My order has been confirmed, so now all I have to do is wait.

[Blu-RayLover]

Originally Posted by twoboyz

Would there be any reason to upgrade from the BDP-95FD to the new 05. I am using all HDMI connections to a Denon AVR4308ci reciever. Just curious if it would be worth it or not. Any suggestions.

EQUIP:
Denon AVR4308ci
Denon DVD3930ci
Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD
Samsung 5084 1080p
Def Tech BP 7002's, CLR 2500, UIW BPZ/A (2), UIW 94/A (2) 7.1
Richard Grays 600s Power Conditioner
Monster HTS 5100 MK2
No Sub Needed

There is absolutely no reason for you to upgrade. I’m been doing extensive research on all the new players and all the audio specs are the same for the Pioneer 95, 05 and 51. You will still have to do firmware updates even with the new players hitting the market! As far as the video specs go, there won’t be much of a big difference there either. The only problem with these or any 3rd generation Blu-Ray player is in fact the analog situation. Most audio/videophiles have not upgraded to a new processor or receiver accepting HDMI and therefore have to deal with the limited process of using the analog outputs from the player. This simply means that a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver will utilize its Multi-Channel system that was originally meant for SACD and DVD-Audio. Since analog is on the way out, not all the new surround sound codecs are processed on the analog side, preferring to use the more flexible or practical use of HDMI cabling. The only limitation the BDP-95FD has is not being able to play back 7.1 DTS HD MA directly from the player, only being able to down mix to 5.1. However, most users won’t even notice if they use a receiver with either analog or HDMI inputs, since most systems will have a means to split the extra rear channels up, by applying a matrix process that combines both (extra) rear signals. Most likely on the external process of having the signals go directly to your receiver, you should be getting the full capacity of the 7.1 process encoded from the disc itself. So, there’s no real need to worry in your situation.

I had tremendous problems with Pioneer and their customer service that I believe is the worst out there!! The customer service support consist of people who simply don’t have first hand engineering knowledge and therefore refer to the instruction manual when you call!! While Pioneer Blu-Ray players are superb on video playback, their audio systems are quite confusing when trying to figure out what the player might be doing. Since you have a top-of-the-line receiver, I doubt you will have to worry about anything concerning a reason to upgrade. . .Yet, I can’t help but think that the companion player to your receiver would have been a Denon model 2500 or 3800. Personally, I would have invested in a Denon 2500, to match off my system, while the model 3800 is a little bit high in price and even its overall size! The only situation that has now surfaced with Pioneer is the coming introduction of a new spectacular Elite player, the BDP-09FD that I have done extensive research on and promises to be a cut above all other current players out there! This includes the Denon model 3800, that up to now has been the supreme Blu-Ray player on the market and will be dethrone once the Pioneer BDP-09FD makes its appearance!

[twoboyz]

I bought the BDP95Fd before the 2500 came out. I appreciate the help. I may look at the 3800 or the 09 Elite. I have not had any issues with the 95 only the slow start time. The reciever will decode the DTS-HD so I am not too worried about that. Thanks for the help.

[jibucha]

Hello

Reading of the range of opinions regarding Pioneer Third Generation Blu-ray Player's, I am compelled to simply point out that their players coming out presently are definitely the most interesting of all announced Blu-ray Players and possibly of considerable significance. Certainly, they may be the best players to be available throughout the year into next year.

While I am extremely happy with my current player, I can't wait to see both of the new player's to decide whether to transition to them or not. Already having many Blu-ray Player's, this will be quite costly, but if the performance is there, I will acquire many of them without reservation.

My point here is simply that these two player's, the BDP-05FD & BDP-05FD are not to be taken lightly, as they have the potential to be the most significant Blu-ray Player's offered to date, possibly setting an entirely new standard of performance of both audio and picture quality.

Thank You

[Woody]

Originally Posted by rragland

I am upgrading from the BDP-94HD to the BDP-05FD with hopes of improved performance in load times, picture quality, and audio quality from the Wolfson Audio DAC's. Also the BDP-05FD offers Bonus play.

My order has been confirmed, so now all I have to do is wait.

Yep, that's it. Faster load times and 1.1 capability.

If you need internal decoding for analog outs, that is a different story, but these are the benefits avaliable to someone who has a newer receiver.