Pioneer BDP-51FD vs. Sony BDP-S550

[budkole]

Originally Posted by onehothemi

The BDP-51FD is not an Elite series unit from Pioneer anywhere. Pioneer's Elite line of products is top notch, but Sony's populatiry stems from the units tiny size, cost and affordability, and features like bitstream, and video settings. Again, I really think it's personal preference.

Well actually the 51fd and the 05 are pretty much exactly the same except for cosmetic differences, see below:

Internal differences:
-05FD has higher quality analog component video DAC. (most use hdmi anyways, not many people use componet video out anymore))
-05FD can use HDMI for audio WITHOUT using HDMI for video. 51FD requires you use HDMI for video in order to support HDMI for audio.

Cosmetic differences:
-05FD has touch capacitance controls vs. buttons on the 51FD
-05FD has glossy black metal front plate (likely to enable touch cap.) vs. glossy black plastic front plate on the 51FD
-05FD has gold plated rear terminals vs. standard terminals on the 51FD
-05FD has primarily gold highlights vs. silver highlights on the 51FD
-05FD has amber LED display vs. white LED display on the 51FD
-05FD remote has metal buttons vs. plastic buttons on 51FD - enter button feels cheap on both, however.
-05FD has Elite badge, 51FD does not.

Other differences:
-05FD has a 2yr warranty, 51FD only has a 1yr warranty.

Non-differences:
-Both have the same analog audio DACs
-Both have identical output quality over HDMI (Audio & Video)
-Both have the Pioneer-specific PQLS jitter-elimination circuit
-Both have a general jitter-reduction circuit
-Both support the same sound formats, have the same outputs, and support the same features in software
-Both are of the same general build quality
-Both use the same firmware