The Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD Review Thread

[Eddie_O]

Originally Posted by rragland

My BDP-05FD will be delivered today!!
Package Progress
Location Date Local Time Description
MEMPHIS,TN, US 08/21/2008 6:55 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY

I love package tracking!!!

I'm going to assume that the picture will be at least as good as previous Pioneer Elite products, and that the sound decoding to 5.1 or 7.1 analog is quite good as well, and that the formats listed, especially that higher resolution dolby and DTS formats are all processed correctly.

My big question will be: how fast does it get a BluRay (and DVD for that matter) disc up and ready to view? My Shuttle XPS with LG Bluray (HD-DVD, too) is pretty quick, as is my PS-3; I've heard that the Denon 3800 is glacially S L O W as are other dedicated set top BluRay players.

So, has Pioneer managed to fix that little problem? Waiting a minute or more just to get started is just too long - one begins to think something is wrong. My LG DVD player/burner (set top) is slow on DVDs and has enough problems that I always think it's broken. I hope the Pioneers have fixed that. At about 1/3 the price of the Denon, that would be cool.

Eddie O

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Eddie_O

I love package tracking!!!

I'm going to assume that the picture will be at least as good as previous Pioneer Elite products, and that the sound decoding to 5.1 or 7.1 analog is quite good as well, and that the formats listed, especially that higher resolution dolby and DTS formats are all processed correctly.

My big question will be: how fast does it get a BluRay (and DVD for that matter) disc up and ready to view? My Shuttle XPS with LG Bluray (HD-DVD, too) is pretty quick, as is my PS-3; I've heard that the Denon 3800 is glacially S L O W as are other dedicated set top BluRay players.

So, has Pioneer managed to fix that little problem? Waiting a minute or more just to get started is just too long - one begins to think something is wrong. My LG DVD player/burner (set top) is slow on DVDs and has enough problems that I always think it's broken. I hope the Pioneers have fixed that. At about 1/3 the price of the Denon, that would be cool.

Eddie O

My Pioneer/Elite BDP-05FD was delivered today.
Serial #378.
See attachment.
I will post my review later after I connect it and perform the setup.

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Eddie_O

I love package tracking!!!

I'm going to assume that the picture will be at least as good as previous Pioneer Elite products, and that the sound decoding to 5.1 or 7.1 analog is quite good as well, and that the formats listed, especially that higher resolution dolby and DTS formats are all processed correctly.

My big question will be: how fast does it get a BluRay (and DVD for that matter) disc up and ready to view? My Shuttle XPS with LG Bluray (HD-DVD, too) is pretty quick, as is my PS-3; I've heard that the Denon 3800 is glacially S L O W as are other dedicated set top BluRay players.

So, has Pioneer managed to fix that little problem? Waiting a minute or more just to get started is just too long - one begins to think something is wrong. My LG DVD player/burner (set top) is slow on DVDs and has enough problems that I always think it's broken. I hope the Pioneers have fixed that. At about 1/3 the price of the Denon, that would be cool.

Eddie O

The BDP-05FD is much faster. The disc tray opens and closes immediately. This was the biggest issue I had with the previous generation player. "Across the Universe" required (72) seconds to display the first image. Load time from the main menu was (5) seconds.

This player has a feature called "High-Speed HDMI Transmission" for TV's that support Deep Color signals. This feature requires a high-speed HDMI cable to realize its full potential. I don't know if my HDMI cable is high-speed, but it is working fine and the PQ as well as the AQ is definitely iimproved.

I LOVE MY NEW PLAYER!!

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by rragland

The BDP-05FD is much faster. The disc tray opens and closes immediately. This was the biggest issue I had with the previous generation player. "Across the Universe" required (72) seconds to display the first image. Load time from the main menu was (5) seconds.

This player has a feature called "High-Speed HDMI Transmission" for TV's that support Deep Color signals. This feature requires a high-speed HDMI cable to realize its full potential. I don't know if my HDMI cable is high-speed, but it is working fine and the PQ as well as the AQ is definitely iimproved.

I LOVE MY NEW PLAYER!!

Does it stream DTSMA-HD? I read that it will be able to internally decode DTSMA-HD with a firmware update but I was wondering about streaming.

[rragland]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

Does it stream DTSMA-HD? I read that it will be able to internally decode DTSMA-HD with a firmware update but I was wondering about streaming.

The BDP‑05FD provides bitstream audio via HDMI for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master formats.

[Eddie_O]

Originally Posted by rragland

The BDP‑05FD provides bitstream audio via HDMI for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master formats.

...which begs the other question: does it properly decode all of the high resolution formats to the analog 7.1 outputs for those of us who don't have HDMI receivers?

Eddie O

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Eddie_O

...which begs the other question: does it properly decode all of the high resolution formats to the analog 7.1 outputs for those of us who don't have HDMI receivers?

Eddie O

For DTS HD MA and DTS HD High Resolution Audio, the DTS Digital Surround signals are converted to LPCM.

[bluewatergrigsby]

In your opinion ( guy with new 05) is your new BDP 05 better than the sony's,equal from what you know about the Denon's or the best you have had in your system.

[rragland]

Originally Posted by bluewatergrigsby

In your opinion ( guy with new 05) is your new BDP 05 better than the sony's,equal from what you know about the Denon's or the best you have had in your system.

I am unfamiliar with the Sony, but based on my experience with the BDP-94HD, ny new BDP-05FD is a vast improvement in PQ, AQ, and overall operation.

I just watched "Mummy Returns" and it handled the additional features (Bonus View, Picture-in-Picture) with ease.

I mistakenly reported earlier that the disc tray opened immediately.
From power-off to tray open requires about 23 seconds.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by rragland

For DTS HD MA and DTS HD High Resolution Audio, the DTS Digital Surround signals are converted to LPCM.

!!!!!

With shipping firmware?

Edit: Am I reading this wrong and it's means DTS core?

[rragland]

Originally Posted by CAB

!!!!!

With shipping firmware?

Edit: Am I reading this wrong and it's means DTS core?

For those who don't have HDMI receivers, the DTS Digital Surround signals are converted to LPCM via the analog 7.1 outputs for DTS HD MA and DTS HD High Resolution Audio.

[Carve]

Anybody know how the 05FD receives firmware updates?

[petmic10]

Originally Posted by Carve

Anybody know how the 05FD receives firmware updates?

You can call Pioneer and they will send you a disc or eventually
they will start to make firmwares available on their website for
download to a disc.

[petmic10]

Originally Posted by rragland

For those who don't have HDMI receivers, the DTS Digital Surround signals are converted to LPCM via the analog 7.1 outputs for DTS HD MA and DTS HD High Resolution Audio.

As of today, this is innacurate.

Eventually, Pioneer will provide a firmware update enabling this
feature for HDMI(PCM) and multichannel.

The only way to get DTS HD MA currently is via bitstream.

Edit: My apologies, I see you meant the DTS core.

[Eddie_O]

Originally Posted by rragland

My Pioneer/Elite BDP-05FD was delivered today.
Serial #378.
See attachment.
I will post my review later after I connect it and perform the setup.

Thanks for the mini-review. I received my '05 today as well from an actual brick and mortar store: Magnolia Hi-Fi in Palo Alto. I called on Saturday and was told that their first shipment was already pre-ordered, so I put myself on their list for a future shipment. Well, they called Sunday and said, "you get one. Someone decided not to take delivery." Price was MSRP + tax with a price guarantee.

Anyway, installation went without a hitch. I don't have an HDMI receiver, and my Meridian 861V3 cannot take 7.1 analog inputs, so I'm still using 5.1 SPDIF output.

My projector is a Meridian MF1 with the Faroudja 1080p scaler, with a Meridian HD421 HDMI switcher, and the Gefen DVI-Cat5 extender (60' cable run to the ceiling): it all works just fine with the '05.

Some notes: the '05 internal scaler to 1080p from DVD material (480i) is not quite as good as the Faroudja 1080MF1 scaler, but the difference is minor. The benefit of the external scaler is that I can scale ANYTHING (as long as it's 60ip) to 1080p60 which the projector requires, so my Directv HD is upscaled nicely as well as regular tv signals.

You can restrict the analog video output round-robin to just one of them (component in my case), and set its resolution to 480i to let the external scaler to its magic and also allow it to pick the aspect ratio manually. You can also set the HDMI output for non-anamorphic DVDs to be pillar boxed if desired. So there is sufficient flexibility to deal with DVDs in which the aspect ratio flag is NOT set which is the case for many home made DVD-Rs.

Note also that while switching resolutions, unless I pick "AUTO" for HDMI, I get the warning that my TV can't handle it. Since that's not true, I have to press the left arrow and press "select" on the remote. My scaler won't handle 1080p24, so using "direct" is not an option. Pioneer should implement a set up option to avoid the warning if you want. And "Auto" apparently thinks my TV is 1080i60, so that's a no go as well. My Faroudja scaler will "passthru" 1080p60 which is what I want.

The BR picture is gorgeous and the sound is...well, Dolby Digital or DTS since I'm using SPDIF and there is not sufficient bandwith to do anything better even if Pioneer wanted to.

Eddie O

[CAB]

Originally Posted by rragland

For those who don't have HDMI receivers, the DTS Digital Surround signals are converted to LPCM via the analog 7.1 outputs for DTS HD MA and DTS HD High Resolution Audio.

Man, you have totally lost me. LPCM over the the analog outs?

[rragland]

Originally Posted by CAB

Man, you have totally lost me. LPCM over the the analog outs?

Verbatim from the owner's manual.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by rragland

Verbatim from the owner's manual.

I've yet to be able to decode The Matrix with my eyes. Now they expect me to do it with my ears?


10101010110101001010101010101010101001010101010101 010001010111
01010101011010100101010101010101010100101010101010 101000101011
00101010101101010010101010101010101010010101010101 010100010101
10110101010110101001010101010101010101001010101010 101010001010

[Harvester]

I got to see this in action... boy the rumor mill was wrong on this one. The load times rocked (power up was like 2 seconds).

I had them load an SD-DVD to see the boot time to menu... not bad at all. It is about on par with my Pioneer Elite 46AV DVD player (between 15 - 30 seconds). The BR disk load times were about the same.

They had it hooked up to the 50 inch new KURO and OMG was it sweet. You could not tell the difference between the back bars and the SD-DVD picture.

This unit is amazing. The professional installers actually recommended that I have thier installers set up the player to use the analog outs instead of the HDMI. The upscaling looks very good for SD-DVD as well.

Man I cannot wait to watch some BR disks on this puppy.

BTW: The techs said DTS-MA was ready for this unit but not yet for the 51.

They said mine is on the truck ont he way to the store and that they had 15 pre-orders. I pre-ordered mine in May so i hope I am in the first shipment.

[bluewatergrigsby]

Any more opinions on the 05.Feed us all you can. Wishful minds need to know.