Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1
High-end Blu-ray Disc player boasts a great warranty and excellent audio and video quality; plus, it can share video over a home network.
Until you've watched a well-transferred Blu-ray Disc movie on a player such as the Pioneer BDP-HD1 ($1500 as of 2/2007), you don't know how good your home theater's video can look. On a 50-inch Pioneer Elite PRO-FHD1 plasma TV, every detail was pleasingly sharp, and colors were spot-on.
Pioneer's Elite BDP-HD1 tied with Sony's BDP-S1 for first place in overall image quality: Each scored in the top two for image detail, color quality, and brightness and contrast in high-definition and standard-definition tests. The edge held by these players was particularly evident in the movie
Other standout examples: In
The BDP-HD1's sound quality also amazed us, at least with
You won't find such pleasure listening to the Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio track offered on some Blu-ray discs, however. The BDP-HD1 doesn't support these formats; instead it downsamples the audio to their core streams. To be fair, so do the Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, and Sony Blu-ray players we reviewed in the "High-Def Video Superguide"; but on a premium player like the Pioneer, this omission is surprising nonetheless.
You'll need some patience to enjoy the BDP-HD1: The unit responds to commands the way a five-year-old PC running Windows Vista would. Hit the eject button while the power is off, and you'll have to wait more than a minute before the player is sufficiently awake to open the tray. Hit pause while watching a movie, and you'll experience a noticeable lag before the Pioneer responds. During one annoying incident, I wasn't sure if I'd ever get the tray open so that I could remove a disc.
This is the only Blu-ray player we tested (other than the multifunctional PlayStation 3 game console) that has an ethernet port. The player also has a built-in digital media adapter, so you can share media over a home network (we did not test this feature). If you were to add a media adapter separately--say, D-Link's DSM-510 High-Definition Media Player--it could cost about $225. To use the player over a home network, you'll need the right equipment: a Windows XP or Vista computer with Windows Media Connect, and a DLNA-compatible digital media server.
Pioneer's remote felt comfortable in my hand, thanks to well-placed grooves along its back, and most of the buttons are easy to reach. Furthermore, the unit has a plethora of controls on its front panel--convenient in the event that you misplace the remote.
Pioneer, unfortunately, does not allow the unit to communicate over the Internet for firmware updates; you'll have to request a disc from the company or create your own installation disc by downloading the update via the company's Web site. The player does come with clearly written documentation--including a decent trouble-shooting section. Plus, it offers one benefit that none of the other players has--a two-year warranty (for parts as well). That's double the typical warranty period, and some players only offer 90 days on parts.
Because the Pioneer's video quality was on a par with that of the cheaper Sony BDP-S1, if you buy this unit, you're choosing it for its extras: its pleasing industrial design, long warranty, and integrated digital media adapter.
Lincoln Spector
