Pioneer ULTIMATE player: BDP-LX91/Elite BDP-09FD

[Blackraven]

Pioneer creates the BEST Blu-ray device to date:

BDP-LX91





BDP-09FD (ELITE)




100% MADE IN JAPAN!!!

The *new* technical and technological benchmark for Blu-ray devices?!?!?!?

Can this new item from Pioneer knock its rivals (esp. Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, etc.) out of the water???

We'll know soon enough

[rragland]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

Pioneer creates the best Blu-ray device to date:

BDP-LX91





BDP-09FD (ELITE)




100% MADE IN JAPAN!!!

The *new* technical and technological benchmark for Blu-ray devices?!?!?!?

Can this new item from Pioneer knock its rivals (esp. Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, etc.) out of the water???

We'll know soon enough

Looks like they put buttons back on the face. I like the capacitance touch controls on the BDP-05FD.

[btf1980]

What are the specs for these players? Profile 2.0?

[HD Man]

Here is some information I saw recently on-line at gizmodo.com about the $2200 09FD that is to released this fall.


Last May Pioneer told us that autumn would bring a "super duper" Blu-ray player—the most powerful Blu-ray player ever built. It makes up for the current crop, which are lower in price but are missing key features like BD-Live for internet-based content. Well, not a leaf has fallen off a tree, yet here it is already, the $2,200 Elite BDP-09FD. Feature-wise, the best Blu-ray player on the market has been the PS3—turns out, an extra $1,700 will buy you something that kills Sony's game console as far as Blu-ray and other media are concerned.
As you probably guessed, Pioneer finally accepts the need for 2.0. This will come with Ethernet and be fully capable of BD-Live playback, no firmware updates needed at the get-go. Unlike other BD-Live players, which require SD cards, this one comes with 4GB of internal memory for downloads.
The thing is a Mack truck, 45 or 50 lbs. of steel and aluminum with everything mounted carefully to eliminate vibration. The bottom layer of the aluminum-housed chassis is a quarter-inch plate of solid steel, and it's even got feet from a Japanese company called TAOC, supposedly the most vibration-free platform you can get. There are no wires inside either; all connections are physically mounted from the circuit board to the walls to reduce noise.
Pioneer says all of the engineering is so that this can be a single box that replaces some home theater snob's high-end CD player, DVD player and previous-gen Blu-ray player, blowing each in turn out of the water.
In the audio department, Pioneer recommends using this for decoding all music and movie soundtrack, and going analog out with those gold-plated 7.1 RCA jacks. It's decodes all known codecs from DTS and Dolby using a separate digital-to-analog converter for each channel. This is a little like having a separate motor for each wheel of your car. Combining this with some crazy audio engineering, they created a way for "completely perfect noise-free signal" to come through RCA jacks instead of the costlier old-school XLR jacks. "It's far better than what you find in most receivers," says Pioneer's Chris Walker. In fact, everything, including speaker preferences and other receiver-like tweaks, are adjustable from inside the player.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by btf1980

What are the specs for these players? Profile 2.0?

Well basically all the high-end goodies.

Profile 2.0, DTS HD-MA, Dolby TrueHD, LPCM, 4 GB internal memory, Qdeo image processor (the one that they use in the latest Meridian projector), support for 16-bit color data (this goes beyond current HDMI 1.3a specs), support for up to 2.8 quadrillion colors!!! (though our human eyes can't even distinguish even 1000 colors), and so on..........

Bah just refer to these sites:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...054544&page=16
http://gizmodo.com/5040707/pioneer-s...rushes-the-ps3

[gekke henkie]

The official press release:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...nd+Performance

[JadedRaverLA]

If only it played SACD and DVD-A it would be the PERFECT Blu-ray player.

That aside, its good to see Pioneer continuing to improve the high-end. Throughout LDs lifespan, and for the early part of DVDs life Pioneer Elite made some of the best built and designed players out there. It's great to see that return with their Blu-ray line-up. Everything about it -- the build quality, the 7.1 channel DACs (notice their placement... obviously kept separate from the rest of the internal circuitry to minimize interference), the video processing, dual HDMI outputs, pro BNC connectors on the component video outputs, etc, screams serious high end gear, and its got ethernet and BD-Live so people can stop whining about that.

Hopefully, this will get Denon to speed up work on their upcoming "super player." With everyone fighting it out with $300-500 players, it's good to have at least a couple of companies innovating, and trying to outdo each other in the high end market.

[bigpapy]

Qdeo image processor? is this the same chip inside the LG BH200?

[gekke henkie]

Originally Posted by bigpapy

Qdeo image processor? is this the same chip inside the LG BH200?

Yes, it is: http://www.clearlyqdeo.com/products-with-qdeo.aspx
, which is also used in the $170,000 Meridian 810-Projector... (so, can't be that bad).

(the Pioneer uses it along with a video decoder by Renesas Technology).

[CAB]

I like Pioneer players. I've owned the HD1, 95, and now the 05. I'll be skipping this one and looking hard at the Denon which rumor says will be SACD and DVD-A.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by gekke henkie

Yes, it is: http://www.clearlyqdeo.com/products-with-qdeo.aspx
, which is also used in the $170,000 Meridian 810-Projector... (so, can't be that bad).

(the Pioneer uses it along with a video decoder by Renesas Technology).

Unless I'm mistaken, the Meridian 810 uses a custom chip (though also by Msrvell), not the off-the-shelf Qdeo for scaling to 4k.

[gekke henkie]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Unless I'm mistaken, the Meridian 810 uses a custom chip (though also by Msrvell), not the off-the-shelf Qdeo for scaling to 4k.

I presume they've tweaked it, but their press release states, quote:
"To meet this requirement, Meridian has developed the 810 Reference Video Scaler. A brand new design, featuring Marvell’s powerful, award-winning, Qdeo video processing technology"

Link:
http://www.tomosmith.com/Meridian/Mer_810CEDIAPR.pdf

[Blu-RayLover]

Ok. . .All I can say is that I’m going to be 100 % behind this player! I already suffered the pains and woes of having been forced to return two Pioneer players I recently purchased, back to back. . .They were the Elite model 05 and the supposed lesser (but it really isn’t) model 51. Both players were a dismal failure, and I must add that the 05 simply doesn’t live up to the real high standards of Pioneer’s Elite line! While, some members might argue in defense of the Elite 05, the plain and simple truth is that the new BDP-09FD totally, I mean totally, lives up to the whole aura and idea behind what an Elite product should and must represent. Let’s not kid ourselves about the Elite 05, that is nothing more than a terrible, obnoxious, deceitful, bamboozled rehash of the model 51, pretending to be an Elite, while all along becoming something of a consolation to those Pioneer Elite devotees who want to think they have purchased a traditional high end player of the Elite line.

There are probably a few new Pioneer players out there that are working fine or have fulfilled the needs and aspirations of those who love the Elite line or even with the standard Pioneer model 51. I truly wish I had been one of them! However, truth be told, that while the 09 will be out of the reach of most audio/videophilies, at least Pioneer will make amends for me in a very strong symbolic way with the release of this new model 09, that promises to be a marvel of HD technology and simply live up to the whole idea of having a high-end piece of equipment. I strongly believe, even before I’ve laid my hands on this player, that it won’t suffer from output channels not working properly, failure to switch between analog and HDMI, a terrible set-up navigator that is not user friendly, an instruction booklet that is too vague and not clear in its procedure, a failure of the calibration in the speaker mode, light weight construction that isn’t worthy of Elite and finally, if it’s true, the 09 will be made at the famous and distinguished Elite factory, in Japan, that constructed such famous Elite items as the LDS1, LDS2, LDP-97, LDS9 (which I happened to still own!), DVL-90, DVL-09, DVL-91 and the DVL-79.

I’ve been with Pioneer products for over 20 years and I don’t want to totally abandon them, so for the next several months, I might just have to save my money, get a part-time job, sell a few securities and hope and pray somebody out there might cut me a good deal on an 09 to save me from this despair and the enormous disappointment I have suffered at the hands of both a model 05 and 51. Let’s face it, junk is junk, no matter what we try to tell ourselves. This reminds of the person who buys an automobile, pays a lot of money, and then the car ends up giving the owner all sorts of trouble, despite all the fancy hype and look of the vehicle! Isn’t this what has happened to the American automobile business? Anyway, it was all amazing how both new Pioneer players failed in various different departments, signifying to me that perhaps things aren’t so good or technically solid at these 3rd world factories that are now licensed by various big name electronic companies in order to save money. Forget about that new phrase of “I’m willing to spend a little more money, if it means I’m contributing to newer technology.” Well, all I’ve got to say is no matter what one might feel, don’t try to be fooled by this new emerging business of what is said to be high-technology, until you’ve sample or had your taste of it and able to decide once and for all, what is best for you to consider. I look at this mess as a ball-game, three strikes and you’re out. Only in my case, I’ve only had two strikes thus far and the third for me, might be the new S5000ES Sony player that could possibly make me reconsider and abandon Pioneer, because realistically speaking, the 09 will be out of my reach. But then, miracles can happen?

[CAB]

^^^

Wow - post drunk like me. It makes them shorter.

[Blu-RayLover]

Originally Posted by CAB

^^^

Wow - post drunk like me. It makes them shorter.

I've already had one too many. . .Or should I say one too many lousy players? Anyway, I hoping for a brighter Blu-ray future, while I remain drunk with sorrow and pray for a miracle. . .

[Harvester]

Can someone please tell me why it even bothers to have an S-Video connection? I mean really, any TV capable of presenting 1080i has to at least have component in, right? Why would anyone use a S-Video on a Bluray player.


It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by Harvester

Can someone please tell me why it even bothers to have an S-Video connection? I mean really, any TV capable of presenting 1080i has to at least have component in, right? Why would anyone use a S-Video on a Bluray player.


It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

Because you notice that it does. one-thousand, thousand people would be *****ing if it didn't. There's no pleasing people.

[Blackraven]

Originally Posted by Harvester

Can someone please tell me why it even bothers to have an S-Video connection? I mean really, any TV capable of presenting 1080i has to at least have component in, right? Why would anyone use a S-Video on a Bluray player.


It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

Or at least.........

You can still play it on your grandma's archaic 1980 CRT TV haha :lol:

)

---------

Though on a serious note, if it didn't have it, then a thousand people could probably complain.

Heck, I think a minority of people have noticed a flaw in it (aside from lack of DVD-A/SACD):

Lack of I-Link

For people who always buy the latest and most up to date AV goods, this is no problem.

Yet, for people who have receivers that don't have HDMI, this is a necessity for them (esp. when they need something that can allow them to pass bitstream).

Other than that, I don't see a flaw in it.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Harvester

Can someone please tell me why it even bothers to have an S-Video connection? I mean really, any TV capable of presenting 1080i has to at least have component in, right? Why would anyone use a S-Video on a Bluray player.

It vexes me. I'm terribly vexed.

It's also got composite video output. And will almost certainly ship with a composite video cable, so that stores can try to sell you $200 HDMI or component video cables. What's better is that both the S-Video and composite terminals are gold-plated, so you can get the best quality SD signal from your HD source. Fantastic news.

Seriously, though, there are uses. Some of the high-end control systems take a composite or s-video signal from each source and use it for an on-screen (on the remote control or remote panel screen) preview, etc. Also, SD-only whole house distribution systems would need these ports to send the video signal around the home (still useful for DVD even if for BD that meant downscaling). When you're positioning a product for the high end, you need to cater to every subset of the high-end market.

[eChopper]

Composite out?

Im in