Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD and BDP-53FD Owners' Thread - Page 13

Doh! No I didn't. I got a little frustrated from being in a hurry and what I was trying was not working. Thanks for the tip! I'll give that another try and hopefully I'll be -1 on the problems.

Edit: Chapter back for the win!

Sweet

So... Anyone found out if it supports Netflix HD content? I picked up a 52fd tonight, $300, plays bd fine, don't have any fancy SACD or DVD-A discs, it'd be audio cds, bds, or dvd video discs.

The Netflix just looks like crap! I have a $70 Roku XR HD I was wanting to move into the bedroom, and use the 52fd in the main living room.

fyi, setup is the 52fd, feeding into a '11 VSX-53. TV is a 2010 Samsung PN50B650 PDP. HDMI cables are all MediaBridge 1.4 cables.

Short of that, anyone know any decent bd/streaming players supporting Netflix in HD and 5.1 ?

Cheers, and thanks!

I upgraded to the BDP-53FD from the BDP-23FD for the QDEO VP, the faster BD load times, the SACD support, and the streaming features.

The load times are better. One of the Star Wars BD discs loaded in 1:18 on the 53, 1:51 on the 23. But, I must admit, as much as I love the picture and sound quality of BDs, I hate the java overhead! I will only ever be truly happy when I can get to a menu on a BD in less than 30 seconds. I guess I'm just going to have to learn more patience.

I must say I was very pleased with the picture and sound quality of the 53.

When I got the unit to work.

The first unit I bought refused to load SACDs at all (and I tried 10 different discs). It would grind for a like 30 seconds and then display "unknown disc". I took it back and tried a second unit. The second one played SACDs without a problem, but that one frequently locked up loading BDs.

Other major annoyances: front display only shows elapsed time, no track or chapter info or pause/play indicator. When listening to music this is especially annoying. No pause or skip buttons on the front of the unit. Disc tray is too thin and seating discs is clumsy. Remote control sensor not very responsive. Even pointing directly at the unit many times having to press buttons again to get the unit to respond.

Could not get PQLS to work with SACDs with my SC-27 receiver. The SC-27 does DSD > PCM so seems like this should work with the player set to bitstream mode over HDMI. But, PQLS only works on SACDs when the player is set to PCM over HDMI. To my ears the player's DSD to PCM conversion doesn't sound as good as the DAC on the SC-27.

When I set the SC-27 to "pure direct" mode I notice when displaying "status" on the receiver that the sampling rate shows 176 vs. 88 in just "direct" mode when receiving a bitstream from the 53. I'm guessing the 53's internal DSD > PCM converter does it at 88 or lower.

From what I can hear, the sound quality is distinctly better with the player set to Bitstream over HDMI and the receiver set to "pure direct" mode than with any other settings I tried. With the player set to PCM the PQLS does not offset the apparent reduction in processing.

However, with CDs in "pure direct" mode the PQLS feature does work and to my ears anyway brings a subtle but noticeable refinement in clarity and sound stage depth which I really enjoyed.

From some other reading online I'm gathering that there are different levels of compatibility and functionality with PQLS and HDMI control depending on the generation of receiver and player you have. I have no way of confirming this, but PQLS may work for SACDs with bitstream output from the player to the newer generation of Elite receivers (i.e. SC-5x).

In any case, the BDP-53FD didn't seem to always play nice with HDMI control with the SC-27. It would frequently change the source on the receiver from BD to TV/SAT. This may be due to the dual HDMI connections on the 53 (i.e. HDMI1 video only direct to the display, HDMI2 audio only direct to the receiver). As the manual suggests, this configuration does seem to yield more optimal picture and sound quality, but this seems to come at the price of HDMI control problems, at least with my receiver anyway. If I turn off HDMI control the source select problem goes away, but then I lose PQLS. Exasperating!

I didn't notice any of the networking or SACD playback issues other owners have been complaining about, but I honestly didn't spend too much time with that.

The disc reading and lockup issues were problems enough for me to be a deal breaker for this unit in spite of the picture and sound improvements and the faster loading. That combined with some of the HDMI control issues and the annoying loss of front panel display and controls prompted me to return the 53 for a refund.

I'm still OK with my 23FD for now, but definitely feeling the need to regroup on upgrade options.

Like many other Pioneer fans I must add my lament to the decline in the brand, especially inexcusable in the Elite line given the price points.

It's clear from reading the forum that many AV enthusiasts have written them off.

With so many years of enjoyment with great Pioneer Elite products in the past, I hate to give up on them.

But unless Pioneer gets a lot more serious in the next year about their comeback strategy and put some real effort into re-establishing the design and manufacturing quality customers have come to expect from them in the past, their prospects are grim.

Oppo 93 & 95 stream Netflix & do everything the 52 & 53 are supposed to do
(except PQLS of course)

Purchased this unit about one month ago. So far it has worked great, fast loads, ect. and thought it was a great unit unit last night when Purchased The Kings Speech and it will not load, it locks the whole player down and i have to unplug the unit to even get the disc out. Not happy about this. Any thoughs or suggestions. Also brings up screen shot -The avaiable BD live update cannot be downloaded due to local storage not being avaiable. I dont have this unit connected to the internet.

you do realize that it could be the disc thats the issue? Thats pretty common with blu rays no matter what player you use. Some just dont work. Also, if youre not hooked up to the internet it would seem to me that its pretty clear that the error message is correct, the Live update the disc is trying to activate cant access the local storage to activate, because youre not internet enabled. And once again thats probably due to the disc not the player.

More than likely correct, done a search, a lot of BD players are having a issue with this movie, some people have mentioned the live update screen and the units that are not freezing are having issues with the sound. Some brands of players have reverted back to older firmware as a fix while other people have tried everything with no postive results. Maybe Blu-ray over HD was a bad choice as it is one problem after another along with constant firmware updates. It is time for a new format, the hell with blu-ray.

Trying to help out a friend who bought a BDP53. His player seems to REVERT back to the factory settings everytime it is turned off. He is feeding the player to a Marantz SR6005 AVR and from the 6005 to a Panasonic 65" VT30.
I am guessing this could be a setting like CEC being "ON" on a particular devise.
Has anyone experienced this or something similar?

Thanks

Paul

Two separate times now I have attempted to power on the player using my remote (MX-980) and the television and AV receiver power on, input on receiver switches to BD but the player does not power on. It will not power up using the button on the front panel either. I have had to disconnect the player's power cord and reconnect it again to get things back to normal.

This does not make any sense at all and normally the player works just fine. I’m wondering if this could in any way be related to utility power fluctuations and causing some kind of a fault. Everything is plugged into a Panamax surge protector but I'm seriously considering acquiring one of their surge protectors with power conditioning and voltage regulation capabilities.

Anyone experienced an issue like this with the 52FD or 53FD?

Thanks

UPDATE: Okay it did again tonight and just out of the blue I decided to hit the open/close button on my remote and BAM, the blue light came on and the tray opened. I guess I discovered the secret wake up sequence. Go figure...

Got my 53 in the mail from the States (half local retail on the LX55). Everything I want it to do it does, sounds great, plays much more of whats on my FAT32 USB HDD than my PS3 ever did. And personally I LOVE the old school look. Wish it was heavier and wish the drive door and tray was a little more sturdy seeming though. Then again they will never make em again quite like they did in bubble era Japan.

HELP PLEASE!!! I am experiencing something when watching Universal Blu ray disc. During the movie there are two icons on the top right of the screen. the PP image and another. It wont go away and I have tried everything to get it to leave. Only on Universal Movies. IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS!!! Might have something to do with U control IDK

Try going into the player menu and disanling secondary audio

Disabling

Still no firmware update, eh?

^^^ im impatiently waiting

Loving this machine more and more, have been playing a lot of discs and it has been perfectly reproducing dodgy bootleg DVDs I thought had faulty audio or damage. The video upconversion is also impressive, I think it beats PS3 there.

I'm also coming across the awkward control problems others have mentioned more. Had a certain DIVX file lock up the whole machine the other day and weird how you can't change the SACD layers without having the tray open.

Overall I'll trade a little less inuitivity for the best overall reproduction of a range of media by any machine I've ever owned. Plus it looks cooler than an Oppo!

What I don't understand is this IS a Pioneer Player correct? Then it should have discrete codes for power on and off. This unit does not. You can't control the power state with this player. If you have a MSC400 with your mx980 , you can use the video sense feature and know what state it's in BUT It doesn't respond to POWER commands well I noticed in the 2 I tried to program into a few Mx remotes.
Honestly I hate this player , we had 2 broken and returned due to poor control . I'm strongly losing faith in Pioneer to release another crappy Blu Ray player. They should have the best of the best players on the market like years ago with DVD. They have not been the same since the LOSS of KURO.
I suggest returning it and getting something else like a Oppo or Cambridge. The Cambridge does not have discrete power but it responds to power commands. It also has rs232c control if you have a MSC400.

I still cant even get pandora to work on mine

Little update on multichannel sacd playback... this is a very tricky issue. Set to bitstream, I had no sound out of the right rear speaker. Set to PCM, I wasn't getting anything either. I have a pioneer SC-07 receiver and the other day I set it to pure direct mode and lo and behold I get sound out of the rear right speaker. So currently set to PCM on the player, and pure direct mode on the reciever, I am getting great sounding multi-channel sacd playback. Set to bitstream, I still lose the right rear channel though. This makes no sense but I am getting the impression that the 53 and the 07 don't play nicely together. I have had several cases of handshaking issues now and even some out of sync playback requiring reboot.

This is a very frustrating situation, love the pq and aq, but the lack of a patch and weird issues creeping up, make me think things are going to get worse instead of better. Hope I'm wrong.

New firmware in Europe:
http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/support/sof...l#download_271

I only have the MRF-350 with my MX-980. The "power on" issue is very sporadic and not predictable. I don't know if RS-232 would be any better for this player or not since the front panel stand by button also seems to be dead when this issue occurs.

Edit: The sales guy who sold me my player told me he has the same player and was also having similar wierd issues and one of the techs just forced a software update on the current version from a thumb drive and many of his issues went away. The sales guy is now working for another dealer so take that with whatever skepticism you wish. I asked where he even got the current software version because I cannot find it anywhere. Was told the tech just downloaded it from Pioneer's web site. The only reason I even mention this to you is that you sound like you may be somewhat of a professional or least very knowledgeable in these areas. More than me for sure!

I have to say one thing I like about mine is the Pandora interface. It beats the pants off the Pandora interface on my VSX-52 but sadly, I think the sound is better when listening to Pandora directly from the VSX-52.

What happens when you try to start Pandora?

i goto web contentents and select pandora and it kicks me back to the home menu. you tube works fine for me, i just cant even get the pandora to work long enough for me to put my account info in. this may or may not have anything to do with it, but i am able to access pandora by way of my sc-57 receiver, its just a little clunky and was hoping the sc-52 interface was better

just tried installing it on my bdp-52. i know in the past i have been able to install european firmware on my US player (used to work for my bdp-51 all of the time) but i wasnt as lucky this time.

By sc-52 interface did you mean to say BDP-52? If so then I can at least tell you that the Pandora interface on the BDP-53 is pretty nice. I am at the office currently but if I remember correctly, it has your stations listed to the left on the playback screen which makes changing stations easier, it has the thumbs up/down buttons, and list a song history on the right with repeat/replay capability (EDIT: I was wrong, no replay/repeat, just song history). The interface is very GUI like versus the white on black text interface on my VSX-52. Seems very evident that these are two totally different implementations of the interface.

As far as your issue I'm afraid I have nothing to offer at the moment until I can get back in front of my player tonight. It seems there was a way to enter your credentials somewhere else without trying to start Pandora but I may be confusing this feature with options on my VSX-52 (EDIT: I was confused, on the player you have to select Pandora and enter your login info the first time).

I've been Programming MX Universal remotes since 2000. I am a professional but this is also my hobby which makes what I do for a living that much better.
I got to get a call into Pioneer and find out whats going on with this player. I own a Cambridge Audio 650BD Azur and it's incredible. Superfast , sounds amazing and plays all disc with no issues. I've never had a Blu ray movie it wouldn't play. I've also owned just about al of Pioneer Elite's players since the first DVD and they all where top notch players until Blu ray came out. This was the first one I thought was going to be " THE ONE'" to get back into owning an Elite player. It really doesn't feel like an "ELITE" player to me , the last few models have not.
I'm having all kinds of issues with these players , it's not just yours. I'll get back to you if I find a solution or at least some info from Pioneer.
Sorry your having control issues.

Nice looking player especially if you don't care about all the streaming capability. I don't use Netflix, don't rip movies to hard drives for streaming and my receiver has all the music streaming capability I would ever need. I bought the 53 because it was a new bright and shiny Elite model to match my Elite receiver, played my DVD-A discs and I got a decent deal on it. Live and learn! I still have a second chance to do better with my upstairs room though.


I don't know if it is a real Elite player since earlier somewhere in this thread I saw a post that suggests it is really made by TCL Corp and not Pioneer.

I look forward to seeing if you can get any information from Pioneer.

Thanks!

Is the Cambridge quiet? I have a Panasonic BDT210 and it makes a fairly good winding sound the entire time it's spinning --annoying me to point of looking for another player again.

Anyone got the new firmware installed on their player yet? results? I'll have a go at it this weekend and report in.