Pioneer BDP-51FD

DVD players dominate the home entertainment market because of their affordability, though now there are newer devices like the Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray player that aim to push  Blu-ray technology forward. They are also around to complement those that have the latest HDTV sets although they are not necessarily a requirement.

Pioneer BDP-51FD | Player Details

Design

The entire front panel of the Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray player is fully black and reflective which should easily match most home theater setups. The bottom design is well-balanced with the power button on the left side and the play button on the right side. It is quite a unique style since the play button is isolated from the rest of the player controls which is found on the top-right portion of the player. Once the power is turned on, the LCD info display comes to life, providing a “cool” factor. Overall, the design is pretty good and the legs at the base make it ideal for stacking a classic stereo system that should match the other pioneer products.

Features

The BDP-51FD is one of the earlier Pioneer Blu-ray players still on sale. The Blu-ray Profile 1.1 served as one of the highlight features at that time and although it doesn’t offer the Profile 2.0 or BD-Live support, it still manages to play any Blu-ray title as the 2.0 specification is solely for the Internet-enabled content. It also includes Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding thanks to a firmware update which should be present in most of the present models already. It is able to output these two codecs in bit stream format to sure the audio quality is preserved when playing through AV receivers.

The BDP-51FD delivers three noise reduction circuits along with a 7.1 analog output as well as an internal audio output. The audio quality is further improved with the inclusion of Wolfson digital audio converters that deliver the purest music quality and excellent soundtrack quality available featuring an 117db signal-to-noise ratio. Jitter is effectively reduced no matter what type of content is being played back.

Actual user review:
“This player has everything that I was looking for in a player. I wanted a player that could not only deliver a great picture but great sound as well. It has all the latest high definition sound formats including Dolby HD and DTS. Since my sound system is a dedicated, non intergrated arrangement, it has all the necessary pre-amp style dedicated outputs. I simply plug them into the dedicated power amplifiers themselves and allow the player to all decoding. It delivers better than movie theater surround sound.” – D.Casey (USA)

Performance

The visuals are just about as decent as the other player models offering full 1080p picture quality and an HDMI 1.3a digital connection so the audio and video signals can be outputted to the AV receiver or flat panel. It even has 12-bit deep color support which is a technology that Blu-ray titles will soon embrace. There are plenty of picture control options as well to ensure that the experience can be further refined to your individual preference.

Bottom Line

There isn’t anything special about the Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-ray player, though its audio quality retains its superiority compared to other brands. It was originally priced at $800, but it is now much cheaper with the introduction of newer Pioneer models. This is therefore an excellent deal for people that look to simply enjoy the blu-ray content without the BD-live functions.

Average User Rating:

• “I finally settled on this unit after all of the reviews. Love it! Best picture I’ve seen ever! I will eventually upgrade it in 4 or 5 years when other Blu-Ray features come along that this one doesn’t handle, but for now I’m happy. So far it’s played every movie I’ve put into it, both DVD and Blu-ray. And upgrading the firmware was a piece of cake.” – A.T.(OK,USA)
• “I’m very pleased with this player. The build quality is excellent. The video performance is stunning and the audio performance is also outstanding. My system has electrostatic speakers and very high resolution. I compared the sound of this player to an excellent CD/SACD player that I use and found the Pioneer to produce a very natural soundstage that was deep, wide and transparent without being bright.” – T.Vette (TX,USA)

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