Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-Ray Player

I’ve often mused on the reasons why the DVD format became such a worldwide success. Was it simply a matter of the discs’ video quality being so much better than preceding VHS tapes? We’ll it couldn’t be just that otherwise “Laser Disc” would have assumed the crown years before. No, when you get right down to it, I think the DVD won out because of a combination of quality and for me, most importantly, familiarity. To the average consumer the DVD disc not only worked but also looked just like another hugely popular item, the audio CD. A CD that puts out great pictures. Hey Presto! An instant market success!

Of course nothing happens that easily in the world of mass market consumer electronics. Much work went on behind the scenes in order to make the format operate so successfully and we can thank the DVD Forum for their efforts in creating a disc that would be easy to use and offer a range of standardized features that would work in all environments from the mega-dollar home theatre to the humble hand-held portable. Play any DVD in any player and most if not all of the features will be simple to access and enjoy.

It probably didn’t hurt DVD’s meteoric rise to fame that the format appeared around the same time as widescreen high definition televisions hit the market. Now you could watch movies at home and with the added benefit of theatre like surround sound. It’s a no-brainer really.

Of course the industry’s always looking for a new angle and with the public’s acceptance of the format reaching saturation point it was clear they needed a new product to sell. The one thing DVD can’t do is play movies in real high definition. True the best up-scaling players can come temptingly close but they still can’t display that last scintilla of resolution that is true HD.

So what was needed was another update on the five inch disc format, one that this time could deliver pictures to your screen in the true 720p and 1080i/p resolutions that epitomize real HD viewing.

Unlike DVD with its singularity of purpose and consensus of design, high def discs arrived in two competing formats: HD DVD and Blu Ray backed by mega-corps Toshiba and Sony respectively. We all know who won.

I’m always eager to adopt the latest technology but the quality of performance I was getting from my previous movie spinner a fine Denon DVD 2910 DVD upscaler was such that I didn’t feel the need to rush out and buy one of the first edition players. I figured if I waited a while that a settled device at a reasonable price would eventually come to market.

The Pioneer BDP-51FD seemed to be the answer to my prayers.

I first read about the unit in the British Hi-Fi press. They raved about it explaining that performance compared most favorably to even Pioneer’s own upmarket players the BDP-LX71 and the even more costly BDP-LX91 (which I think are called “Elite” models over here in the US).

I found mine online at the great price of $299.00 some $300.00 under list and at that price I couldn’t resist.

On arrival my first impression of the unit was that it seemed to be very well put together. Although quite large, the design is attractive and the layout of both panels front and back is uncluttered and reminiscent of a high end DVD player.

The rear panel sports HDMI and Component video out for connection to an HD capable display. Display output options are 480i, 480p, 1080i and 1080p. The omission of 720p is a mistake in my opinion as many older (and newer small) HD sets are optimized for this resolution and will have to rescale the picture to fit their screens This is something which some will do better than others. A lot of cheaper TVs will introduce nasty picture artifacts when scaling down to this resolution. Many won’t accept a 1080 progressive signal either which means sending them a 1080 interlaced signal and relying on the TVs ability to de-interlace it which can result in the infamous “jagged lines” syndrome.

There’s also S-Video and Composite video outputs though as this player's reason for being is HD playback I don’t see why they are there. I can’t imagine anyone buying one of these to output standard definition to an old style telly but you never know I guess?

Audio is very well catered with stereo analog outputs, high resolution from the aforementioned HDMI and for those of us with expensive legacy receivers which don’t have HDMI audio processing capability its great to see a set of fully specd 7.1 outputs which allow the unit to pre-decode the various new HD-Audio digital formats and output them to the receiver in analog form. That last facility was a must for me and players without that feature weren’t even considered.

There is no HDMI cable in the box (for shame) though there are some quite useless composite video plus stereo audio cables included. In this case they are as redundant as the outputs that are designed to accommodate them.

The supplied remote is attractive, slim and well styled but has no backlighting. This isn't a problem for me as I have already programmed its functions into my universal remote.

I'm basing this review on the Pioneer's ability to play movies. Blu Ray offers many additional features which I shall likely never use. Please refer to other reviews for details of the Bonus View facilities etc.

So I hooked it up, switched it on and waited…..and waited…..and waited. Wow! This thing takes a long time to boot up. Unlike a DVD player which you switch on, load a disc, wait a few seconds and then play, loading up the BDP51-FD is more like switching on a PC, waiting for it to boot up and then loading up a new piece of software.

Initial configuration requires going through a relatively simple set up wizard and this is where I encountered my first hurdle. I use a set of Listen-To-Believe 5.1 surround sound headphones for late night viewing (which I do a lot) and they require a Dolby Digital signal in order to work. No problem thought I, “I’ll just hook up the digital output to one input on my receiver and the 7.1 analog outputs to another so I can enjoy High-Rez audio through my speakers when the situation allows. All I’ll need to do is switch between the two inputs on the receiver when I want to listen through my "cans" ”. Not so fast. The Pioneer will only output either digital or analog it won’t do both simultaneously (as would any DVD player I've ever owned). Also not all Blu Ray discs have a Dolby Digital soundtrack option. All DVDs do, it’s a requirement of the format regardless of whatever other fancy audio options they offer. With Blu Ray it’s “Run what you brung” there’s no core standardization. What a pain and worse still it’s not possible to hit a single menu option and toggle between the digital and analog outputs, you need to go all the way back to the set up wizard to make the change. I should point out that accessing the wizard and changing the settings requires not only that you pause but actually stop the disc before making any changes. This is something you won’t want to be doing unless you are a wealthy person of leisure or a retiree with plenty of time on your hands because, depending on the disc you have loaded, you’ll probably have to go through the entire disc load process all over after you’ve made the setting change before you can get back to watching the movie. Interminable! Before you ask, yes I have loaded the latest firmware upgrade 1.25 and it’s still painfully slow. Making changes on my DVD player took seconds and it was easy to resume back to the same point in the movie afterwards. Some Blu Ray discs will allow you to resume playback where you left off, many popular titles won’t.

OK so I’ve loaded a disc made some settings changes (grown a beard) and now (after dimming the panel lights to off; that blue power LED is way bright!) I’m ready to watch a movie. Prepare to be amazed by the leap in video quality that is the Hi-Def promise of Blu Ray.

I’m still waiting. It is better, it is clearer, colors are richer, blacks deeper etc. but it’s not the massive leap in performance that DVD enjoyed over VHS. No that was like comparing a modern Jaguar to a Model T Ford. This is more like comparing a Rolls Royce Phantom to an S Class Mercedes. Both are extremely good cars it just depends on whether you have the means and desire to stump up the extra 150k to enjoy the last degree of class that the Roller offers. Now imagine that each time you pull up at a stoplight you have to re-boot the engine and wait for it to run a complete systems check before you can pull away and you’ll begin to get an inkling about how I feel about Blu Ray in its current state of play.

It could be that most of the material I’ve been watching has been film based and perhaps there’s a limit in that medium that is harder to differentiate from DVD to Blu Ray. Maybe purpose-shot High Def video such as concert footage or TV documentaries will show up the difference in quality to a more acute degree? Also if you have a 50” plus TV or projector set up you could perhaps better enjoy the extra benefits?

Same can be said of the new sound formats: Dolby Tru-HD,  DTS Master Audio et al. They are good but outside the rarified atmosphere of Hi-Fi magazines’ testing rooms, you’ll need high spec. surround sound equipment to really hear the difference. Again Dolby Digital and standard DTS are still more than enough to wow huge segments of the population. They remain the standard in most movie theaters and are beyond what a lot of people have at home now anyways. Many users will want to connect their Blu Ray players to a TV with no extra sound machinery just as they did with DVD players.

Now don’t get me wrong, at this price point the Pioneer BDP-51FD is probably the way to go if you must go Blu! Other similarly priced players seem to suffer the same problems to an even worse degree. The Pioneer looks like it’s built to last, the audio quality is excellent and maybe future firmware upgrades will iron out some of the kinks I’ve mentioned. I’m just trying to put this into some kind of historical context and from that extrapolate where I think the future lies for this format.

In some ways I’m reminded of the SACD and DVD high resolution audio formats. I don’t think Blu Ray will bomb to that degree but any new format needs to hit the ground running if it’s going to succeed, particularly in these times of economic turmoil. A format that is clunky to operate and requires consistent user upgrades isn’t going to find its way into your nanna’s lounge or your kid’s bedroom like its predecessor did. Add to that the wealth of content and programming coming from other sources: Digital cable and FIOS (who both offer great live programming and a range of free on demand stuff too), Internet downloads and good old DVD itself which remains a formidable competitor and maybe you’ll agree? However attractive Blu Ray might be to A/V aficionados it has an uphill battle to fight in order to gain mass acceptance and the peak of that hill just keeps getting higher and higher.


Report card C minus: Must try harder.