Marantz BD5004

All of the mainstream electronics manufacturers are competing to deliver the best HDTV displays for consumers’ home theaters. Not too recently, the battle has shifted to Blu-ray players, from affordable entry-level players under $500 as well as feature-rich high-end models priced above $1000. However, Marantz enters the fray with the affordable Marantz BD5004 blu-ray player that tries to compete with the midrange models.

Marantz BD5004 | Player Details

Design

The aluminum contoured front panel that is synonymous with the Marantz line gives a smooth and distinguished appearance. The button layout is rather strange, lined up vertically instead of horizontally. To the left of the info display is the open and seek buttons while on the right is the play, stop, and pause buttons. There is an SD card slot just below the pause button and the power button is located on the left. The disc tray is positioned prominently in the center to provide additional shielding from external vibrations. Aside from the simple vertical layout, the Marantz BD5004 pretty much looks like the other brushed metal players in the lineup, but impresses with its aluminum built even for an entry level player.

Features

Features are the BD5004’s greatest strengths with complete Profile 2.0 support which is necessary for the BD-Live content to be used with Bonus View support. More than just a disc player, the BD5004 is a full-tilt media player. Specifically, the BD5004 accepts Blu-ray discs (both commercial releases and recordable), DVDs (movies and DVD-R/RWs), as well as standard and recordable CDs. And don’t forget the SD and SDHC cards as well as their mini-and microSD cousins. As does the more costly BD7004, this player also handles disc-based DivX files in addition to AVCHD (high definition video format for Camcorder) contained on discs or solid-state memory devices. The BD5004 also plays WMA, MP3, and JPEG files from either discs or SD cards.

There is an Ethernet port found on the back so the player can connect and download the BD-Live content that is featured on the disc as well as update the firmware if a newer version is available. Although there is no USB port found on the back, content can conveniently be saved on an SD memory card.

There is also support for Dolby format heavyweights including both the DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD. Sound clarity is achieved by its 192 kHz audio converter that swiftly feeds HD signals to its advanced audio circuits. The player can pass these formats in bitstream form over HDMI. This preserves the lossless integrity of the audio signal resulting in better sound fidelity during movie playback.

Performance

The BD5004 packs quite a punch for an entry level player with Full HD 1080p/24 fps outputs. Blu-ray playback is spotless with rich colors, deep blacks and natural skin tones.

In terms of loading times the player is not quite as responsive as the outstandingly fast Oppo BDP-83. Power off eject times are roughly 13-15 seconds and non-java discs load in about 20 to 40 seconds. Discs with heavy java content takes around 50 to 60 seconds to load.

Marantz has placed strong emphasis on audio performance and this player matches the range topping performance of the Oppo BDP-83 in the audio department.

Bottom Line

The Marantz BD5004 is a great player with excellent build quality. Although it may not load movies as fast as those newer players from Oppo, Sony and Samsung, it packs enough quality in video and audio performance to satisfy even the most ardent home theater enthusiast. It also sounds good as a CD player too, something that we cannot vouch for most other blu-ray players out there.

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