Pioneer Blu-ray players 2011 - BDP-140/BDP-440/BDP-LX55/BDP-53FD - Page 6

Nice, this is probably asking too much but, is this the only Elite model? I would love to see a photo of the back panel.

Sorry, only got permission to post a photo at this time...

There will be a full press release and product info sheets available on September 7th..

Thanks,

Chris Walker
Pioneer Electronics

Thanks for the info Chris! The BDP-52 shall be MINE

Thank God I found a 5020 Kuro about a year and half ago. Their Kuro line is the best and will be the best for a very long time. There is no LCD or even plasma TV out there that will best the Kuros. These new LCD Elites are WAY over priced and will not even probably be at least in the same league as the Kuros.

Thanks a bunch Chris! Nice to have you back here on the Pioneer BD forums! You are such a great asset to Pioneer and to us enthusiasts. Can't wait for this player to come out. I might actually have to replace my "old" HD1!

I kind of agree. The only issue I would have is that they make almost identical Elite models that only really offer 1 or 2 small differences. I think that if they were to make 2 Elite models they should have the 52FD and then maybe a 09FD replacement. But the only thing with that is that an 09FD replacement might be kind of overkill at this point since there wouldn't really be a need for such a player, unless it was priced WAY below the $2200 that the 09FD was.

If he only had permission to post one picture, then it would make me think that only one elite is being released.

Although everything at this point is purely conjecture.

True that. Having owned nine BD players from Oppo to PS3 to Pioneer to name a few, there is no need to pay more than $200 to get top notch playback quality of BD discs as almost all BD players these days offer the same PQ when playing back BD discs. I suppose some will pay more for some niche features and aesthetics.

Keep in mind that in the early days of blu-ray, the ps3 was one of the cheaper blu-ray players worth buying. The bdp-05 had an msrp of 700-800 dollars, but, today, just about everything's price has halved. The ps3 is down to 300, and most predictions for the bdp-52 are about 500. If an 09 successor were to be announced, I'd expect it to cost a little over a grand. Even so, that still be too much for most people, even enthusiasts.

Well, and the universal market needs more competition. Yamaha comes in cheap, and the pioneer would hopefully be $400-500. Anyone pricing over the oppo is not as good an idea IMO, because it's the benchmark.

I'd not fault anyone for owning an oppo, even though BR pq is comparable, because it's a wonderful machine and it's well built. Also, BR pq may be close, but a lot of the lower end players offer terrible picture controls. Something some of us care about.

I hope redemption is near for Pioneer, but I miss the gloss black Urushi finish. It was certainly differentiating - even if it was only an aesthetic.

Chris Walkamo,
I have to ask and I know it is a long shot. It would be nice to have the new Elite that can do 3D checkerboard. I am not a fan of Panasonic and they are the only ones doing 3D checkerboard. All my gear is Pioneer Elite and would like to keep it that way. I do have two Mitsubishi 3D TVs.
Friends of mine own a highend A/V store and they have many customers that are like me. They do not want Panasonic in the rack. They want some thing better for 3D checkerboard.
This could be something you can pass along to R&D. It could also help with sales of your new players.
I have been holding out for a highend 3D player that can do checkerboard.
Thanks,
Daniel

Chris,

Should we be concerned about the pioneer purity of this player with no Video Adjust or Tools button on the remote?

Is there a trade in policy or discount for the Pioneer customers that suffered the BDP-05/51?

No Kidding!

I have two BDP-05 and I would be up for that

Going on memory of my 51fd winston ; maybe the pop up menu button midpoint on the remote is it - its in the same position as the tools button was iirc.

I gotta reiterate what the others have said, having a company employee take time to make comments on a public forum reflects positively on the company and is a real treat for us.

One would hope that the BDP-52 comes to market as a complete, ready to go machine out of the box. That is, it won’t be sold as the BDP-05/09/51 was:

• Half baked, incomplete firmware.
  
• You won’t have to wait nearly a year and 6 or more firmware updates for things like DTS-HD and other features to work as advertised.
  
• It actually has performance something close to the hype as stated by Pioneer company employees.
  
• Future firmware updates that “Enhance stability of BD-ROM/DVD-Video playback” come in a timely manor and are accessible on the North American Pioneer Support site without having to wait for weeks after they have been posted on European or Asian Pioneer sites for firmware to play the new title you bought last week.
  
• Reliable hardware; drives that can read Blu-ray/DVD disc's.
  
• Reliable hardware; drives that don’t fail and need to be replaced inside of 12-18 months.

One only has to visit the BDP-05/09/51 threads here to see the cluster fluck of un-readable titles, firmware problems, and failed drives.

Yes, it's always nice to see a company with an on line presence. Oh, but wait, the machines I have that actually work do so without the above problems and they don’t have a company representative participating on forums.

Here's to wishing Pioneer a successful product launch.

Caveat Emptor.

+1

I know I was very critical of my BDP-05FD.

1. It was advertised as the fastest player on the market when in actuality it was easily the slowest available at the time.

2. The BD-J capabilities left a lot to be desired and on certain titles still do. It shouldn't take 15 seconds to scroll from one scene to the next.

3. Load times leave alot to be desired and are far from the 22 seconds advertised and eject from off times of 15 seconds which with current FW are 20 seconds longer than that at 35 seconds.

3. The advertised dual layer chassis is nowhere to be found.

4. The player wasn't even stable till FW 1.17 (frame skipping, audio dropouts, player freezes, player taking 2 seconds to respond to commands from the remote control)

5. The 51FD scored an F+ or 52.2% with component out on the http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blu-r...k.html?start=3 website review post FW 1.17

6. DTS-HD took almost a year since release!

7. Excellent audio!

8. Excellent video!

Overall middle of the road player that excelled in some areas and failed horribly in others. Pioneer Elite should excel in every area without question! Here's hoping the new BDP-52FD and BDP-5?FD bluray players are as good as my DV-59AVi was as a dvd player!

I took notice of the fact that the 05, 09, 23, 51, and 320 all use the same style user interface as Pioneer's A/V receivers. Did the DV-59AVI and DV-79AVI have a red or silver Pioneer logo? I know that all the Pioneer MediaTek SD players used the red logo. As I'm currently thinking about my preference, I'm starting to think that it would avoid confusion if the player and the receiver had different user interfaces. For example, the speaker installation screens of the Pioneer A/V receivers are very similar in appearance to that found on the 05/09/23/51/320. What if you forget which device you're programming! I kinda like the player interface found on the DV-48AV/58AV/400V so I'll know whether I'm programming my receiver or my player. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that I'm a horror movie fan, but I prefer the seriousness of the slightly dark red Pioneer logo compared to the silver one.

While I can certainly empathize with the frustration of the Early Adopters of the 05/51, I can easily argue that bashing the 05/51 is neither productive nor on topic.

This is all said from a guy who was one of the first to lambast the 330/31/33 for being re-badged Sharp junk. I am far from a Pioneer fan boy, but we do have the rare case where a CE rep is actively posting info and even trying to sort out product issues. This is a rarity.

I would strongly encourage us to focus on the allegedly promising news that Pioneer is really back in the blu ray business. If it's more Sharp junk, I will be the first to throw a harpoon. If it's not, let's discuss it on its own merits and not re-hash old 51/05 gripes that can be found in tomes in the owners' thread.

+1

I do find it interesting that blu-ray models BDP-140 bdp-440 & BDP-52FD are listed as passing UL testing for a company called TCL

http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/t...370&sequence=1

+1 BDP-05/51 are ancient history. Let's move on. I am a Pioneer fanboy but I'm also the first to kick Pioneer in the shin when they produce something bad.

Any one confirm if the 140/440/52 will have source direct?

The lack of, or rather functionally disabled DVD-Audio playback is unfortunate and illogical for the following reasons.

1. Pioneer supported both SACD and DVD-A in previous DVD universal players.
2. The BDP already has (most BDPs in fact have) the hardware and software capable of playing DVD-A, whether it's a Mediatek platform or not. The only added cost would be licence.
3. Including both SACD and DVD-A means it will be a serious competitor to other BD universal players for HR audio. In fact, with PLQS capability, the Pioneer should be better than the Oppo and Denon for MCH audio via HDMI.

The model numbering scheme for US models is less intuitive than Euro/Asian/Aussie models. My first initial reaction to 52FD was it was the immediate successor to the non-Elite 51FD and maybe there is some bearing on the build quality or other less memorable things. On further analysis, 52FD follows the previous Elite players, the last one being 43FD. It turns out all the recent Elite BDPs have FD designation except the 51FD. I'm still trying to work out the cryptic logic in this sequence for US Elites: 05, 23, 24, 43, 52.

Does the new BDP-52FD resemble any previous SD DVD or BD player from Pioneer, Onkyo, Sharp, Marantz, Denon, or Oppo? If so, what brand and model number?

Given a choice, I would have perferred to have seen a photo of the backside, where we could gleen a lot more information.

That being said, from the appearance of the front, it's not too hard to surmise that the player supports multi-channel analog audio out, has stellar DACs, etc. Those were big issues to me way back when in the days of beta 51FD firmware and such, but I don't prefer to pay for that now. It's been for 3 years now that people have had the opportunity to obtain comparable quality in their pre-pro or AVR. The component video sunset has already turned into darkness. Why should we continue to shell out big bucks on a player for the benefit of somebody that hasn't kept up?

It ties into the receiver line up. The Elite BDP-23FD was loosely aligned with the VSX-23 and the BDP-33 was with the VSX-33. The 43 arrived mid-receiver lineup.

Not to rain on the parade but the same thing happened when their original Blu-ray players were about to be introduced. It was quickly followed by silence. It's called marketing and I was more influenced by them disappearing than showing up and pushing a new product.