The Official Pioneer BDP-51FD Owners Thread  

Audiophreak,
Thanks for starting the new thread. I was getting tired of the
conversation on the 05/51 thread, but didn't have anywhere
else to go until now.
It is my hope this thread will focus on the Pioneer 51, and not
the babble of speculation.
Jack

I am rather surprised by the 1 minute load time you're experiencing with Blu-ray disc...speed was supposed to be a prominent feature in this new Pio. I hope Ruined will take note of this during the shootout and explore this a little further.

Yep. I plan to bring several sample movies and a stopwatch

It would be quite a bit disappointing if Pioneer focused on load times with this player as was stated in the past and could not match a BD30 in speed.

On the other hand, the first report looks like this player murders the Panasonics in upscaling (and hence probably deinterlacing 1080i BD discs too).

Let's just hope the final firmware version makes loading times faster... I am still hoping this is the player to beat (at least for in my set up )...

I wonder is it perhaps the 05 thats meant to be the faster player ?

anyways hopefully they get the 1m disc load time to under 30 sec to atleast match the pana players.

Not sure what is up with those load times, I thought I read where Walkamo had already tested a few disks and it was much faster than that.

If audiophreak's player lacks final firmware and is slow at loading, which firmware was Walkamo using months ago when he got speedy load times?

I need some help understanding this "load time" thing (I will be getting my first high def player when the 51 arrives from Robert) .
Are we talking about the time from pressing the tray button to close until Main Menu pops up, or pressing the Play button
from the Main Menu to the start of the movie? (probably the latter).
What's on the screen during this minute of load time. Just a blank screen or the players logo?
And is this a problem because of the Java software or on all discs? And how does this load time compare to the first gen players?
Thanks for any insight?
Jack

Jack,

Well, on my PS3 that I'm currently using for blu-ray, I get a stylized "progress bar" for movies when they are loading. They are usually designed in the style of the movie and quite nice graphically...but the thing only blips up on the screen for about 3-5 seconds, and then the movie starts. Ratatouille did take the longest I've seen so far, but I sure dont think the progress bar was up there for 10 seconds. I wonder why the PS3 is able to load things so fast, but stand alone players cant. I only bought the PS3 to tide me over until this Pioneer arrived, but now I'm thinking I may want to just keep the PS3 and cancel my order for the Pioneer given the bass management issues and load time issues. Hard to decide what to do but the player looks nice at any rate.

Simple, the PS3 has the CELL processor while stand alone don't.

I went back and looked at Walkamo's post, he said nothing about load times. He gave times for power on, tray open and power off.

As much as I hate long load times, I am more sensitive to responsiveness after the disk is loaded, because you do that more often. I found the time it took the Samsung POS to load the disc menu intolerable. I am also interested in the time it takes to display the player's menus.

You have a good point, mrjktcvs. No one should jump the gun, especially when there are many other features to consider.

Audiophreak,

Thanks for taking the time to share all this new information. It will make the VE shootout more interesting now that we have an idea what to look for.

Hi Everyone,

The BDP-51FD that some of you have gotten your hands on were not intended to be sold yet. They were meant for demonstration only. The final firmware is not yet completed..

It should be done around the 29th of July...

Please wait until the final firmware is complete before making any conclusions about picture quality or load times... Everything is not complete yet on those models.. The hardware is 100% complete.. Just not the firmware...

Thanks,

Chris Walker

WOW! Thanks, Chris!

Chris --

Does that mean you don't expect to ship any more units out before July 29th?

The suspense is killing me here

So maybe all of the bitching and moaning about the BM here might have been heard, and the FW updated accordingly......?

Robert,

Please don't cancel the shootout. I want to see the Pio in action. Just hold off remarks about load times.

Nothing could stop us from demonstrating this player. I can tell you when the 36 Bit sign lit up on the Pure Dot-To-Dot mode everyone got very excited.

-Robert

Is the player profile 2.0 or 1.1?

1.1

Robert. Will your first shipment then include the final firmware as indicated by Chris? Will it include DTS HD and MA internal decoding or are we still going to need a future update?

Thanks!
Do you know if it is 2.0 ready like the Sony S350?

To my knowledge, it is not 2.0 ready, but limited to 1.1 (not sure if it's a hardware issue). Actually, that is why I am interested in it (no internet capability)...

No! For a product launching in Aug. 2008 this is utterly ridiculous. If I were running Pioneer someone would be out of a job. The 1.1 player should have launched last Nov.

You're a little late to the party. Many of us here like the 51FD because it's NOT 2.0 - among other reasons, of course.

hmmm.... shown for the first time in January at CES 2008, press released in May 2008.. Product release date late July/early August.... yeah, "utterly ridiculous"...