Pioneer Elite BDP-52FD and BDP-53FD Owners' Thread - Page 17

Originally Posted by Rich86

OK - I haven't experienced that with my Sony players. They have always played anything and everything I have thrown at them including brand new releases. I have applied occasional firmware updates, but never because a problem needed to be addressed. The firmware update releases are few and far between (which is a-ok with me). With the introduction of cinavia infected firmware in some players, I will be especially careful with anything I apply to my players from now on as I want my players doing a top notch job providing lossless audio - not scanning for imbedded distortions for drm purposes.

Originally Posted by Dave Vaughn

Rich, many of the firmware updates that roll out are to fix playback issues of discs before they are released to the general public. I sometimes get discs up to 30 days before the street date and they won't play in a particular player until I inform the manufacturer of the issue and they'll email me an upcoming firmware update before the general public gets it.

Originally Posted by wwtech


Well, apparently no one told Pioneer about the newly released movie "Haywire". Won't do anything in my 52 except display "00:00:00". I have to unplug to get the disc out. It plays fine in my friends Oppo.

And the new Joe Satriani 3D froze at 3:52 and stutters from time to time. My player used to freeze often at around the 2 to 3 minute mark but seemed to grow out of it.

No firmware update for the 52. Maybe I should just get an Oppo....

Originally Posted by Jano18

IMO the Oppo is the equivalent of an Apple product as far as quality, fit & finish, support, customer service, product packaging & presentation. I was really hoping to replace my Oppo BDP-93 with a BDP-53FD, but at this point I'm glad I didn't. Pioneer I hope your listening.

Originally Posted by wwtech


IMHO, Oppo is better than Apple. If you have a disc that won't play, they want to know and they will fix it. Apple customer support is only OK, but is is pretty good when you buy their extended warranty (Apple Care). And the Oppo comes in a completely recyclable package - complete with the player wrapped in a reusable shopping bag.

Originally Posted by Yo Joe Cola

Yeah it actually states input voltage as 120-240v in the specs in the manual. Going to upgrade to 400v rated capacitors though, as that's apparantly what an appliance built for the Australian/Euro market would have to guard against power surges/spikes.

I was thinking of using a transformer anyway but the rating of the caps seems to be my problem as they were running at near capacity at all times before, so even if there wasn't a surge one of them might have just died early.

Originally Posted by rathmell70

I have the Pioneer Elite BDP 52FD Blue Ray and it seems to be creating issues with my Pioneer Elite VSX 32 AV receiver. When my Blue Ray is on, my VSX 32 does random power offs and starts back up. Any ideas why?

Originally Posted by wwtech

Just an FYI.
This are the settings I had to disable to get Haywire to play on my BDP52. I did try turning on and off different features by themselves, but it became inconclusive. AND if the player needed a master reset (i.e., pull the plug) to get the disc out you HAVE to go through and SET these settings again. Just because the menu said the setting was still what I wanted, it would not work.
Adding a USB stick for BUDA storage did not fix the problem either.
You have been warned.

Some settings require a password. Mine is 0000. Not sure if I set that or it is the default.

Start with no disc in the tray.
Remove the ethernet cable. Do not hook it back up.
Pull the AC plug and then plug it back in.
Turn on the player.
Press the Home Menu button.
Enter the Initial Setup menu.
Go to the Network tab and set:
Internet Connection to Disabled
BD Live to Prohibited
DLNA to Disabled
Go to the Playback tab and set:
Internet Setting to Prohibited
Disc Auto Playback to Off
Go to the Options tab and set:
Disc Auto Update to Off
Exit the menu.
Press Power Off button.
Pull the AC plug.
Plug it back in and make sure the menu settings are correct.
Put in Haywire and wait.
Press enter to acknowledge that it could not get to the internet and spy on you. (Don't even think about doing what it says!)
Wait some more... and a little loading graphic (whatever it is) will pop up.
It will play, eventually.

Good luck. And wait for the next disc that won't play.

/rant on
PS: Hollywood, you suck at making BluRays. Simple is better. I don't know why you have to screw up the simple things like insert disc, press play, watch movie. I'm sure all this crap the player has to load is just to make me watch your movie commercials at the beginning of the disc instead of just going to the movie.
/rant off (sorry)

Originally Posted by Martynluke

Can I ask... Are you using 2 HDMI leads from your player by any chance? One to the TV and one to your amp. I have this set up and this has caused no end of problems for me. Following your method for Haywire did work for Chronicle. Randomly after this I decided to run just one HDMI cable through the amp only and after re-enabling all the settings the disc played perfectly.
All very very odd.

Originally Posted by luelf21

I received the 53fd and hooked it up today. It is replacing my 23fd and I can tell you that this unit is WAY FASTER than the 23fd is at loading blu rays!! That's a huge plus and one of the reasons I bought this unit.

I've had zero issues with the disc tray or with the unit freezing. With that said, i did a lot of swapping out of movies and a lot of stopping and playing and adjusting settings in the movie (about 2 hours worth of fiddling around). So as far as reliability and speed I'm very pleased.

The only issue I've had so far, and it may not end up being an issue, is that it doesn't seem that the Full RGB setting is the same as the 0-255 RGB setting of the 23fd unit. I found this by using the spears and munsil calibration disc. On my 23fd, in order to see the contrast correctly and not have clipping, I had to use 0-255 RGB setting. However, with Full RGB selected on this unit, it clips the contrast almost entirely. It's very frustrating. It may be a simple setting that I'm missing. I've managed to get it to where I'm ok with it, and the picture quality is great. (please note that this issue may be a compatibility issue with my projector, so others may not have this issue)

I'm very happy with the unit so far and I hope to find the correct setting to get the contrast in check with the calibration disc.

"Dear Mr. xxxxx

Thank you for your email yesterday.
In fact we have just signed yesterday an update for the BDP-LX55 and get this tested. In our device can also be played SACD correctly.
Presumably, the software will appear in the next few days on the homepage.

Ver.3.18 released on May 17, 2012
Rectifies the following issues.
- Audio noise when playing CD Certain titles.
- C-ch-ch of SL and SACD multi-channel are switched during bitstream (DSD) output from HDMI.
- 3D video for left and right eyes are not synchronized when playing BD Certain titles.
- Will not play hybrid SACD with message "UNK DISC" displayed on the front panel display.
- Poor chroma seperation when playing DVD.
- Will not Play Certain BD-R/RE.
- Audio setting becomes default (main + sub) after fast-forwarding bilingual broadcast on BD-R/RE or DVD-R/RW.
- Firmware update fails if the OPEN / CLOSE button is pressed Repeatedly during the update.
Change of the following specifications
- Front panel display shows track / chapter number when playing CD / SACD.

We hope this will be resolved by this update to the BDP-LX55 with your problems.

Yours sincerely,
Technical Support "

Originally Posted by mywhitenoise


Well that will solve A LOT of our problems! Hope it's released soon.

Originally Posted by Big C

If DSD-to-PCM at 176.4 KHz and gamma control are added, I just might sell my Yamaha BD-A1010 used, and get one of these Elite players once again!

Originally Posted by realzven

i'll confirm you for the DSD-to-PCM at 176.4 KHz in the euro models but i don't think gamma control will be added...

Originally Posted by wwtech

Just an FYI.
This are the settings I had to disable to get Haywire to play on my BDP52. I did try turning on and off different features by themselves, but it became inconclusive. AND if the player needed a master reset (i.e., pull the plug) to get the disc out you HAVE to go through and SET these settings again. Just because the menu said the setting was still what I wanted, it would not work.
Adding a USB stick for BUDA storage did not fix the problem either.
You have been warned.

Some settings require a password. Mine is 0000. Not sure if I set that or it is the default.

Start with no disc in the tray.
Remove the ethernet cable. Do not hook it back up.
Pull the AC plug and then plug it back in.
Turn on the player.
Press the Home Menu button.
Enter the Initial Setup menu.
Go to the Network tab and set:
Internet Connection to Disabled
BD Live to Prohibited
DLNA to Disabled
Go to the Playback tab and set:
Internet Setting to Prohibited
Disc Auto Playback to Off
Go to the Options tab and set:
Disc Auto Update to Off
Exit the menu.
Press Power Off button.
Pull the AC plug.
Plug it back in and make sure the menu settings are correct.
Put in Haywire and wait.
Press enter to acknowledge that it could not get to the internet and spy on you. (Don't even think about doing what it says!)
Wait some more... and a little loading graphic (whatever it is) will pop up.
It will play, eventually.

Good luck. And wait for the next disc that won't play.

/rant on
PS: Hollywood, you suck at making BluRays. Simple is better. I don't know why you have to screw up the simple things like insert disc, press play, watch movie. I'm sure all this crap the player has to load is just to make me watch your movie commercials at the beginning of the disc instead of just going to the movie.
/rant off (sorry)

Originally Posted by mywhitenoise

Any thoughts after upgrading to the latest firmware update? I'm, surprised no one has mentioned anything.

Well to start off, I believe most of my problems have been solved. The SACDs I tested no longer read "unknown disc", and they're properly assigned to each speaker for multi-channel mixes in bit-stream.

Originally Posted by mywhitenoise 

Any thoughts after upgrading to the latest firmware update? I'm, surprised no one has mentioned anything.


Well to start off, I believe most of my problems have been solved. The SACDs I tested no longer read "unknown disc", and they're properly assigned to each speaker for multi-channel mixes in bit-stream.

Originally Posted by noklew 


If you are referring to the 3.11 update, this did not correct the issues you mentioned for me. I checked Pioneers site and do not see a new update.