Pioneer BDP-51FD - Manual

© Copyright 2009 Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
www.hometheaterhifi.com
IntroductIon
Many people have been waiting for Blu-ray
players to hit the magic price point of $200,
where people think mass adoption will start to
take place and it will slowly overtake DVD as
the dominant home video format. However,
there’s also another range of players that are
starting to come out now, those of reference
quality designs with virtually no expense
spared. The BDP-09FD from Pioneer is their
entry into that arena. Featuring a top of the
line analog section, full compatibility with all
areas of Profile 2.0, and high quality internal
and external parts, how would it compare to
a standard Blu-ray player?
desIgn
If I hadn’t known how well built the Pioneer
was going to be, my first clue would have
been when the UPS driver had to use the
hand truck and elevator to deliver it to my
condo instead of just carrying it up the stairs
as they will do with most deliveries I get.
Opening the box, the Pioneer was packed
decently in a couple of
Styrofoam cutouts and
it was in perfect shape,
though I had expected
that they might pack it
in something a bit more
secure and reusable, as
that type of packing
tends to break down or
break into pieces after a
few uses.
Also contained in the box was a remote
(identical in layout to the other Pioneer
BluRay players, but with metal construction
instead of plastic and glow-in-the-dark
buttons), manual, Ethernet cable, BNC
to RCA adapters for the component video
jacks, and standard RCA audio and video
cables. Unfortunately, Pioneer still doesn’t
see fit to include an HDMI cable inside the
box of their Blu-ray players, but includes a
standard composite video cable that will
almost certainly never be used by someone
purchasing this player. The remote, which
has a design that I am not a fan of, was
designed so if you have other Pioneer
components (Plasma display or Receiver),
the remote layout will be familiar and you
can use it easily, but if you don’t have these
other components, then the layout is just not
that well designed. Anyone that is buying this
player will almost certainly have a universal
remote solution I would imagine though.
The Pioneer BDP-09FD is constructed
unlike any other BluRay player, or other AV
review
“... they did a fantastic job with Blu-ray playback once
again.”
“The BDP-09FD delivers
in spades and should
probably be on the very
top of your short list.”
Pioneer BdP-09Fd elite Blu-ray Player (Benchmark) - May 2009
by chris heinonen
&
AdriAn Wittenberg
Home Theater High Fidelity
of and