Official Pioneer Dec 20 Ship Date from Chris Walker of Pioneer

[Blu-Light]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=768409

Official BDP-HD1 Shipping Date
Hey Everyone,

Sorry for not being on for some time... The BDP-HD1 will be shipping from our warehouse next Wednesday (December 20th). Depending on how the retailers receive product (Distribution centers or direct shipment) there should be product in retailers by Christmas... Units have also been sent to all of the Major Publications for Review.

Also, each player will come with two Blu-ray Movies-- Invincible (Disney) and Eight Below (Buena Vista)....


Chris Walker

[theknub]

damn, it is by x-mas as hoped. second, a reference quality movie and something that should at least be fun

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Chris Walker

each player will come with two Blu-ray Movies-- Invincible (Disney) and Eight Below (Buena Vista)....

No Aladdin demo?

Well, with the Pioneer finally shipping, that makes it 5 BD-players and 2 variations of a Blu-ray game console released within 6 months.

Great news, as the Pioneer demo units I've seen looked fantastic, playing the best video image I've ever seen.


I wish Mr. Walker posted here too.

[marine92104]

I wish they would say if there would be firmware updated for the advanced audio codecs (Dolby True HD & Dolby HD MA). Also it's not HDMI 1.3. I confirmed that with Pioneer themselves.

I have called their tech support & they said they didn't think there would be an upgrade for the advanced audio codecs as far as they knew.

Of course they probably would be the last to know.

I went with the Panasonic since it comes with a card to mail in to get the advanced codecs upgrade. I just got an email from them this week saying I would have it in April 07.

I would trade my Panasonic in if Pioneer would ever answer the question about if there would be an upgrade on the advanced audio codecs.

Also their unit only has 5.1 analog outs versus the 7.1 analog out on the Panasonic. It doesn't play CDs & it doesn't play DVD-Audio like my Panasonic.

I got my Panasonic for $999 at Tweeter on sale & it's hard to justify paying the extra $500 for a player that has about the same picture quality & doesn't do have the things the Panasonic does & doesn't have 7.1 analog outs & no promised audio upgrades. By the way I got 3 Blu-Ray DVDs with the Panny.

Everything else I have is Pioneer Elite so it's not that I'm against Pioneer I just wish as long as they had to get it out it would have been a player that did more.

In case you didn't know it they maxed out the bitrate of their demo disc so it looked great. I had Best Buy put in a regular Blu-Ray DVD & it didn't look any better than the Panasonic.

I'm hoping their 2nd generation Blu-Ray player will have the advanced codecs & HDMI 1.3 on it so I can but a Pioneer Elite unit. That's the only reason I went with the Panny for the 1st generation unit.

[bferr1]

marine, I'm a Pioneer Elite guy myself and I went for the Panasonic for the same reasons. Brand loyalty works only when it makes sense, and it definitely doesn't seem to in this case.

[shamus]

Originally Posted by bferr1

marine, I'm a Pioneer Elite guy myself and I went for the Panasonic for the same reasons. Brand loyalty works only when it makes sense, and it definitely doesn't seem to in this case.

ditto

[Vader]

If your retailer get direct shipment then its possible you can have one before Xmas. Mine is on order.

[Blu-Light]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=4085

[marine92104]

The specs are up now at www.pioneerelectronics.com

For audio it says only Dolby Digital 5.1

Nothing about a firmware upgrade for the advanced codecs.

It also confirms it doesn't play CDs & confirms the HDMI is 1.2 & according to what it say that isn't upgradeable to 1.3 either.

It doesn't look promising.

[bferr1]

Has anyone found the owner's manual online yet? I was able to find the Panasonic manual online about two weeks before the players started showing up in stores.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by marine92104

I wish they would say if there would be firmware updated for the advanced audio codecs (Dolby True HD & Dolby HD MA). Also it's not HDMI 1.3. I confirmed that with Pioneer themselves.

I have called their tech support & they said they didn't think there would be an upgrade for the advanced audio codecs as far as they knew.
I'm hoping their 2nd generation Blu-Ray player will have the advanced codecs & HDMI 1.3 on it so I can but a Pioneer Elite unit. That's the only reason I went with the Panny for the 1st generation unit.

This is curious as I just received the following email from them asking about the Elite Blu-ray player and the HDMI 1.3 receivers. I also confirmed this with their technical support team.

-----Original Message-----
From: customer.support@pioneerservice.com
[mailto:customer.support@pioneerservice.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 5:38 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE:Warranty and Service Issues|A00001|9056876705 [#1075996]


Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc
The Blue-ray does have the 1.3 capabilities. As far as the new products that
will be out in the new year we have no information on them until after the
Consumer Electronics Show thats held in Las Vegas.
The dates for the show is January 8-11,2007.


Thank You,

Lakesha
Customer Service Representative

Inquiry:Hello I am interested in two things.
1) Will the upcoming Pioneer Elite Blu-ray player have HDMI 1.3 capabilities
2) When might we see the first HDMI 1.3 enabled receivers from Pioneer?
I have an Elite DV45a and VSX1014TX and am looking forward to upgrading to
HDMI and Blu-ray, but I don't want to do so until the DTS-MA compatible
receiver is out.
Thanks for your help

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by marine92104

The specs are up now at www.pioneerelectronics.com
For audio it says only Dolby Digital 5.1
Nothing about a firmware upgrade for the advanced codecs.
It also confirms it doesn't play CDs & confirms the HDMI is 1.2 & according to what it say that isn't upgradeable to 1.3 either.
It doesn't look promising.

Where exactly are you seeing this?
I'm looking at the connection options (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...288834,00.html) the playback options (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...288796,00.html) and the Quality Audio section (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...288796,00.html) and there's nothing anywhere that lists the HDMI version.
It doesn't support SACD so there's no reason to have HDMI 1.2 specs onboard.
It should either have HDMI 1.1 or HDMI 1.3

[marine92104]

Here's the link for the specs on the player:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...tailsComponent

As for them confirming it doesn't have HDMI 1.3 I spoke with the supervisor of their Blu-Ray department & he said he can definitely confirm it has HDMI 1.2 on it not HDMI 1.3 & that that wouldn't be upgradeable.

He said he hadn't heard anything about upgradeable audio codecs & didn't expect any for that particular unit.

Trust me I wanted to get the Pioneer Elite unit. My whole system including my T.V. & speakers is Pioneer Elite. That's all I've bought for the last 10 years. But I wouldn't make a decision on it until I talked to them.

[b2bonez]

Sounds like they got caught between a rock and a hard spot in the design phase. It will probably end up being known as the "tank" of the 1G BD players.

Five years from now everyone will be wishing they could get a new one just like it...

b2b

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by marine92104

As for them confirming it doesn't have HDMI 1.3 I spoke with the supervisor of their Blu-Ray department & he said he can definitely confirm it has HDMI 1.2 on it not HDMI 1.3 & that that wouldn't be upgradeable.

Is that 1.2 or 1.2a?

[dobyblue]

We need to compare names of the people we've spoken to at Pioneer because the technical guys I've been speaking to say it's HDMI 1.3
This would make sense as it can pass TrueHD and DTS-MA through as data to an HDMI 1.3 compatible receiver, which Pioneer will be announcing at CES 2007 for release dates.
It doens't support SACD, which is the main upgrade in HDMI 1.2 specs and the reason why all of Denon's equipment is currently HDMI 1.1 right up to the flagship receiver, because it uses the Denon Lin kfor 1 bit DSD decoding.
I'd like to find out that guy's name, because what he's saying doesn't make sense.
If it doesn't have HDMI 1.3 and it doesn't have TrueHD and DTS-MA decoding then we're getting something that's of the same value as the HD DVD add-on for the 360, except for the PCM capabilities.
I seriously doubt Pioneer would be so short sighted as to only support PCM; this will guarantee very few sales of this unit if it's true.

[marine92104]

I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks then. I've talked to 3 different people (one of them a supervisor in their Blu-Ray Department) & everyone of them confirmed to me that it will not be HDMI 1.3

They said they can convey to Japan what people here are wanting but it's up to the engineers in Japan to make the final decision what is on it. This unit was supposed to be released at the latest 2nd quarter of this year. He told me going to HDMI 1.3 they would have had to start all over on the design of the unit & they were unwilling to do that.

I did ask him about the advanced codecs & he said it would not do it out of the box & they had no information that they would be releasing an upgrade on the 1st generation unit. He did say the ethernet port in the back would not be for any upgrades & that was a certainty.

I've been to Pioneer in Long Beach several times since I live near there & I know many of the people that work there. I don't think they would steer me wrong on this unless they're keeping it as a surprise.

I've been calling every 2 weeks for the last 3 months to find out when it was coming out & the specs on the machine so I could make a decision on which Blu-Ray player to buy.

If you don't believe me ask Chris Walker.

I'm a Pioneer Elite man & have been for years. Trust me I wanted to buy this unit but I'm not going to spend that money on a unit that can't do the advanced codecs & has no promise that it will.

If they did go back to the drawing board & redesign the unit & they're keeping it a surprise to people about the HDMI 1.3 & the advanced codecs I would definitely buy it. And yes I know they are going to be releasing a new flagship receiver supposedly announced at CES 2007. I guess I'll have to replace mine then if it has HDMI 1.3 & the ability to decode the new advanced codecs.

[dobyblue]

And if you do buy an HDMI 1.3 receiver with DTS-MA and TrueHD decoding then you won't have to worry about whether or not the player can support the advance codecs, as long as it has an HDMI 1.3 port it can send them as data.
Two more days to go.

Originally Posted by marine92104

They said they can convey to Japan what people here are wanting but it's up to the engineers in Japan to make the final decision what is on it. This unit was supposed to be released at the latest 2nd quarter of this year. He told me going to HDMI 1.3 they would have had to start all over on the design of the unit & they were unwilling to do that.

This does make a lot of sense.
I don't see them selling too many units if it's still on the Q2/06 original design.

[bferr1]

Whoever gets this player first, please check its boot/load times. I seem to remember back in the Spring Chris Walker (Walkamo) from Pioneer mentioning on AVS Forum the slow boot times on the Toshiba and how the Pioneer would strike a balance between speedy boot times and fast menu/chapter access. Yet the HD Guru review says it takes 1:25 to boot up with a disc already in the player, and that it takes about :34 to load a fresh disc when the player's already booted up. If true, that doesn't sound significantly faster than the G1 Toshibas to me.

Thanks!

[marine92104]

Here's one of the 1st reviews of the unit & as I stated earlier no HDMI 1.3

http://www.guidetohometheater.com/hd...1206piobdphd1/

"There is an HDMI output, but not the vaunted HDMI 1.3"

"The BDP-HD1 is not compatible with either Dolby TrueHD lossless or DTS-HD Master Audio lossless, other than the ability to playback the "core streams" for each, which are compatible with existing lossy Dolby Digital and DTS decoders at 640kbps and 1.5Mbps, respectively."

"It's also worth noting too that the analog multichannel outs on the BDP-S1 are 5.1-channels, not 7.1."

"As with the BDP-S1, the startup time on this player is long, clocking in at around 45 seconds from power up to the Pioneer logo appearing on screen. Like the Sony, it takes the BDP-HD1 35-40 seconds to load a 50GB Blu-ray Disc to its first menu."

I'm glad I went with the Panny for the 7.1 analog outs & the promised upgrades to the advanced codecs. I'll wait for the 2nd generation player from Pioneer Elite. I'm sure by then they'll have all the bells & whistles.