Originally Posted by
chucklee 
I will chime in as someone who has had a love\\hate relationship when it comes to this player:
I have an older (but expensive and not-ready-to-be-rid-of) HT Processor that does not support HDMI (same story with my Mits RPTV), and was looking to get into Blu-Ray a year and a half ago. The 05FD fit the parameters I was looking for - 7.1 analog-outs, better DACs and component-outs, and internal decoding of all of the HD audio codecs (except for DTS-MA - more on that later).
This player was being touted late 2007\\early 2008, but seemed to take forever to be released; then I got stuck with a failed power-buy debacle, and finally ended up buying it from another on-line dealer in the fall of last year.
It has played everything I have put in it, and offered up a significant picture and sound quality to standard DVD, with my three biggest complaints being:
1. It seemed to be slow in booting up and loading, and was downright sluggish and a little flaky with the OOB firmware. This has improved with subsequent FW updates, but still seems a little on the slow side.
2. My complaint from day one has been that, with the better analog audio capabilities via hardware, the software implementation has been way too simplistic, specifically the lack of speaker delay settings and bass management. It was ridiculous to load this machine for a supposedly higher-end analog implementation, and deny the tools necessary to use it properly.
3. There are a
lot of DTS-MA titles coming out - 6 of the last 7 that I have bought have had this as their only HD audio codec (whatever happened to PCM?) - and the release of the 09 and newer 320 models with this, along with new FW updates for them (and nothing for the 05 for four months) is insulting and intolerable to those of us who bought these very early. This shows what appears to me to be contempt (I don't feel that is too strong a word) for their consumers, and their future lack of viability in this market will be their just reward.
I don't feel like I'm being a childish, impatient "I want it NOW" consumer -my patience just waiting for this unit to be released and finally get to my doorstep indicates otherwise - but it just seems a slap in the face to all of us owners that the newer, less expensive models are receiving this attention, and we're getting NOTHING.
It is only because we are banging away at them via this forum and emails and calls to customer service that we have the frustratingly vague "next month" or "later this month" information that we have. This is the antithesis of customer service, and I am in the group of people who have stated unequivacolly that this is my last purchase of a Pioneer product.
In the meantime, yes, I enjoy Blu-Rays on my BDP-05FD, but am more often lately choosing to watch an SD DVD, and am leaving my DTS-MA titles on the shelf after one viewing, waiting for that day when I can enjoy the lossless audio that was one of the biggest reasons I switched to this format and purchased this particular player.
...and I hate to say it, but theBland is right when he says to never purchase a player that does not do everthing it promises
out of the box... do not trust a company to follow through on their promise in a reasonable period of time once they have your money. Pragmatism is our best defense in a caveat emptor market...
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