Part 1 - Intro.
It must be that crazy time again. I lock myself in the man-cave and only exit for food and the occasional need to see sunlight. For preparation I set up 3 clipboards at 3 different locations in the theater. A section is dedicated for each player where I write notes and grade them. In part 1 I am mainly going to discuss the 09FD. Part 2 tomorrow will consist of the comparison study. Your enthusiasm here at AVS drives me and makes me want to do the absolute best review I can. Thank you.
First off... The 09FD is HEAVY. That is actually an understatement. It is a tank (I think I can get away with using that word here). I was expecting it to be BIG but once you see it and pick it up in person then you know! I am pretty sure you could drop one down a flight of stairs and it wouldn't even phase it. So does size truly matter? In this case the answer is a definite YES! Let's begin with the 2 HDMI outs. Being able to send one for audio and one for video does indeed make a difference. The amount of difference may depend on your set up. I sent the MAIN HDMI to my 886 PRO while sending the SUB HDMI straight to my Sony VW200 PJ. I am still going back and forth between my VP and PJ but more on that later...
Audio... I am getting exceptional sound. I will say the absolute best I have heard in my theater to date. And that goes for using both Analog and HDMI. Bitstreaming and or decoding. I first began with King Kong (Blu ray) and I did some direct comparisons to the HD DVD using the HD805/XA2. I know the soundtracks are different but the 09FD blew the HD DVD player's out of the water. In percentage terms I would say 15% to 20% better. I know the DTS-HD Blu ray soundtrack may have played a large part but by putting in other movies it proved the 09FD is a considerable reason why the sound is this good! Without sounding (no pun intended) like I am reviewing a receiver or per/pro the soundtracks are more intense with very accurate levels. Voices have better clarity. Details in all the speakers is more evident. The soundtracks are more enveloping. I could easily tell which player is on from the sound alone! Speaking of King Kong lets segway into pic Q...
Without being to creative in trying to describe the picture I will just say the 09FD is worth every penny. I am seeing more depth to the image. I have Highspeed set to ON, YCbCr 4:4:4 enabling deep color upconversion, and of course going at 1080p/24. The higher end Blu ray players are starting to have more picture adjustments then you shake a remote at! They really do give the edge over the more cost effective players on the market. Having sharpness adjusting for High (high frequency elements) and Mid (mid frequency elements) does truly help sharpen the picture without hindering it. Same goes for the Detail (probably my favorite). It adjusts contours of the image. On a larger screen it will make a difference. For those of you keeping score there is also YNR, CNR, BNR, MNR, white & black, black level set up, Gamma correction, Hue, Chroma level and finally Prog Motion and Pure Cinema options. Not to mention you have your memory settings with Pioneers others for LCD, PJs, Kuro, Professional and etc... No matter what display you have you should be able to dial it in. The 09FD can put out a terrific image that is both vibrant and sharp as well as within the construct of the "laws" of video. It is natural yet makes very pleasing eye candy. It beat the HD805/XA2 in overall pic Q. I was pleasantly surprised that it was more than by a slight margin. I know I said comparisons would come in part 2 but I since this is a HD DVD player (the best one at that) I figured why not now.
Other things about the 09FD...The remote is just like the 05/51 series. It has a nice gloss black finish with a comfortable directional pad which is silver. I don't fuss about remotes anymore since most (like myslef) will use a universal type. The 09's remote will get the job done if you are not part of the universal remote crowd yet. It is very responsive. Yes the 09FD will need an update for BDLive to become active. That could be a factor for some who are spoiled with those Disney titles (like my family). This is definitely not a dealbreaker for my theater since Pic Q & Audio Q are my number one priorities. Though it is helpful and makes a nice shortcut when firmware updating.
Resolution Changing... This is one of (if not the) my favorite Pioneer features. Changing your resolution on the fly really can make your life easier. No stopping and going into the set up menu. This is helpful especially when you are testing! Kudos again to Pioneer for continuing this great feature.
What else... SD dvds. They look exceptional. This may be the main reason I decide to bypass my VP and go straight into my PJ. I have seen many SD dvd players and to my eyes the 09FD is the best I have witnessed. I have a SP1000 in my set up (which I will keep for slideshows before the feature presentation) and besides the dreaded layer change the 09FD is superior in every way.
Any complaints? I still don't like the fact that if you hit Stop on the remote (by accident) you have to completely reload the entire movie again and start from scratch. I wish Blu ray player remotes would lose the Stop button. These are not VCRs! Speaking of load times the 09FD is not bad. It is not as fast as a couple other players but more on that later...
Part 1 conclusions... I am enjoying the 09FD. It is very flexible especially with having two HDMIs to play with. I keep finding myself grabbing Blu ray movies to see what a difference it makes. Forgetting Sarah Marshall which to me is not one of the better looking titles (though it is funny) looked better than ever. If this player can consistently make average titles look good and good titles look great then it is a winner... TheBland may have been on to something when he saw this player at the show last year and said this may be the player to beat!
I would like to thank Robert from VE for helping expedite my 09FD so I can get this review/comparison done on AVS. I would also like to thank Chris Walker for consistently being here and not running for cover when the waters get rough. His courage to keep coming back here has won my respect! I also think the engineers at Pioneer need a thank you or at least a hard pat on the back for squeezing out every last drop of pic Q and audio Q!
Tomorrow part 2 with comparisons and some Dark Knight screen shots...
It must be that crazy time again. I lock myself in the man-cave and only exit for food and the occasional need to see sunlight. For preparation I set up 3 clipboards at 3 different locations in the theater. A section is dedicated for each player where I write notes and grade them. In part 1 I am mainly going to discuss the 09FD. Part 2 tomorrow will consist of the comparison study. Your enthusiasm here at AVS drives me and makes me want to do the absolute best review I can. Thank you.
First off... The 09FD is HEAVY. That is actually an understatement. It is a tank (I think I can get away with using that word here). I was expecting it to be BIG but once you see it and pick it up in person then you know! I am pretty sure you could drop one down a flight of stairs and it wouldn't even phase it. So does size truly matter? In this case the answer is a definite YES! Let's begin with the 2 HDMI outs. Being able to send one for audio and one for video does indeed make a difference. The amount of difference may depend on your set up. I sent the MAIN HDMI to my 886 PRO while sending the SUB HDMI straight to my Sony VW200 PJ. I am still going back and forth between my VP and PJ but more on that later...
Audio... I am getting exceptional sound. I will say the absolute best I have heard in my theater to date. And that goes for using both Analog and HDMI. Bitstreaming and or decoding. I first began with King Kong (Blu ray) and I did some direct comparisons to the HD DVD using the HD805/XA2. I know the soundtracks are different but the 09FD blew the HD DVD player's out of the water. In percentage terms I would say 15% to 20% better. I know the DTS-HD Blu ray soundtrack may have played a large part but by putting in other movies it proved the 09FD is a considerable reason why the sound is this good! Without sounding (no pun intended) like I am reviewing a receiver or per/pro the soundtracks are more intense with very accurate levels. Voices have better clarity. Details in all the speakers is more evident. The soundtracks are more enveloping. I could easily tell which player is on from the sound alone! Speaking of King Kong lets segway into pic Q...
Without being to creative in trying to describe the picture I will just say the 09FD is worth every penny. I am seeing more depth to the image. I have Highspeed set to ON, YCbCr 4:4:4 enabling deep color upconversion, and of course going at 1080p/24. The higher end Blu ray players are starting to have more picture adjustments then you shake a remote at! They really do give the edge over the more cost effective players on the market. Having sharpness adjusting for High (high frequency elements) and Mid (mid frequency elements) does truly help sharpen the picture without hindering it. Same goes for the Detail (probably my favorite). It adjusts contours of the image. On a larger screen it will make a difference. For those of you keeping score there is also YNR, CNR, BNR, MNR, white & black, black level set up, Gamma correction, Hue, Chroma level and finally Prog Motion and Pure Cinema options. Not to mention you have your memory settings with Pioneers others for LCD, PJs, Kuro, Professional and etc... No matter what display you have you should be able to dial it in. The 09FD can put out a terrific image that is both vibrant and sharp as well as within the construct of the "laws" of video. It is natural yet makes very pleasing eye candy. It beat the HD805/XA2 in overall pic Q. I was pleasantly surprised that it was more than by a slight margin. I know I said comparisons would come in part 2 but I since this is a HD DVD player (the best one at that) I figured why not now.
Other things about the 09FD...The remote is just like the 05/51 series. It has a nice gloss black finish with a comfortable directional pad which is silver. I don't fuss about remotes anymore since most (like myslef) will use a universal type. The 09's remote will get the job done if you are not part of the universal remote crowd yet. It is very responsive. Yes the 09FD will need an update for BDLive to become active. That could be a factor for some who are spoiled with those Disney titles (like my family). This is definitely not a dealbreaker for my theater since Pic Q & Audio Q are my number one priorities. Though it is helpful and makes a nice shortcut when firmware updating.
Resolution Changing... This is one of (if not the) my favorite Pioneer features. Changing your resolution on the fly really can make your life easier. No stopping and going into the set up menu. This is helpful especially when you are testing! Kudos again to Pioneer for continuing this great feature.
What else... SD dvds. They look exceptional. This may be the main reason I decide to bypass my VP and go straight into my PJ. I have seen many SD dvd players and to my eyes the 09FD is the best I have witnessed. I have a SP1000 in my set up (which I will keep for slideshows before the feature presentation) and besides the dreaded layer change the 09FD is superior in every way.
Any complaints? I still don't like the fact that if you hit Stop on the remote (by accident) you have to completely reload the entire movie again and start from scratch. I wish Blu ray player remotes would lose the Stop button. These are not VCRs! Speaking of load times the 09FD is not bad. It is not as fast as a couple other players but more on that later...
Part 1 conclusions... I am enjoying the 09FD. It is very flexible especially with having two HDMIs to play with. I keep finding myself grabbing Blu ray movies to see what a difference it makes. Forgetting Sarah Marshall which to me is not one of the better looking titles (though it is funny) looked better than ever. If this player can consistently make average titles look good and good titles look great then it is a winner... TheBland may have been on to something when he saw this player at the show last year and said this may be the player to beat!
I would like to thank Robert from VE for helping expedite my 09FD so I can get this review/comparison done on AVS. I would also like to thank Chris Walker for consistently being here and not running for cover when the waters get rough. His courage to keep coming back here has won my respect! I also think the engineers at Pioneer need a thank you or at least a hard pat on the back for squeezing out every last drop of pic Q and audio Q!
Tomorrow part 2 with comparisons and some Dark Knight screen shots...
