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The Short Form
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| $799 / PIONEERELECTRONICS.COM / 800-421-1404 |
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Snapshot
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| Though pricey and lacking some of the latest whiz-bang features, Pioneer’s flagship Blu-ray player delivers solid audio and video performance |
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Plus
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| • Extensive, high-quality picture adjustments • Crisp, near-flawless DVD upconversion • Superior component-video picture quality |
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Minus
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| • No built-in DTS-HD Master Audio decoding • Audio setup can be confusing |
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Key Features
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• BD Profile 1.1 (Bonus View) compliant • 1080p/24 fps video output • HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color support • Onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding • Optional color-upsampling modes • Outputs: HDMI, component-, composite-, and S-video; optical/coaxial digital audio, 7.1-channel analog audio, stereo analog audio |
The BDP-05FD is a Profile 1.1 (Bonus View) model with dual audio-video decoders to enable onscreen video commentaries from discs offering that feature. Its HDMI 1.3 connection delivers 1080p/24 video to compatible TVs and also supports Deep Color. If you have a recent-vintage receiver with built-in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, the same connection can also be used to deliver those soundtracks in bitstream format directly to the receiver. Alternately, the player can decode high-rez soundtracks internally and send them out as a multichannel PCM signal. (At present, the player’s decoder is only compatible with Dolby TrueHD, although Pioneer says a forthcoming firmware upgrade will also let it decode DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks).
Other video features include extensive picture and noise-reduction settings (as well as multiple memories to store adjustments) and a slick onscreen menu that mirrors the graphical user interface found in the company’s Elite receivers and Kuro plasma TVs. On the audio front, the player provides a 7.1-channel analog output along with high-end Wolfson digital-to-analog converters for all channels. When connected to one of Pioneer’s SC-05 or SC-07 receivers, the player’s PQLS feature enables jitter-free signal transfer by bypassing the HDMI interface’s digital clock in favor of a high-speed reference clock located in the receiver. According to Pioneer, this feature can significantly enhance the sound quality when playing CDs.
For a new Blu-ray player showing up at the tail end of ’08, the BDP-05FD is surprisingly large — you’d need to stack up three of another manufacturer’s latest players to equal its height. The glossy black front panel mirrors the design of the company’s other Elite-series components. One cool front-panel feature is a set of “capacitance touch” controls. These take the place of ordinary buttons, letting you operate the player and switch video-output resolution by simply touching specific zones on the player’s face.
Pioneer’s slender remote control has a glow-in-the-dark keypad and a number of buttons that provide instant access to functions you normally would need to activate through the onscreen menu. For example, you can switch between video formats by pressing Output Resolution. The options range from 480i to 1080p, while selecting either Auto or Source Direct sets Blu-ray video output to 1080p/24 for compatible TVs connected using HDMI. Video Adjust, meanwhile, lets you switch between the picture-adjustment settings, which include Memory 1–3 along with modes for specific display types (plasma, LCD, and more). Also, pressing the Secondary Audio and Video buttons will call up any Bonus View tracks present on discs.
The remote’s Tool button is another feature the player shares with Pioneer’s new plasma TVs. Pressing it calls up an onscreen menu for accessing several key adjustment options on the fly when watching discs, including video-output resolution, picture-quality adjustments, secondary audio/video playback, and audio dynamic-range control.
SETUP
As with many other Blu-ray players, configuring the BDP-05FD’s audio output can be tricky, and the situation isn’t helped much by Pioneer’s manual. (Trying to figure out the Audio Output Settings chart with its numerous footnotes was like deciphering hieroglyphics.) My first setup step was to switch HDMI High Speed Transmission to On in the HDMI submenu, a setting that ensures that the player can pass a 1080p signal on to the TV when the Auto video-output-resolution mode is also selected. My next step was to select the Auto color-space mode in the same menu. Two other options (YCbCr 2:2:2 and YCbCr 4:4:4) allow the player to “upsample” the color information encoded on Blu-ray Discs and DVDs. But after comparing the various modes, I can’t say I detected an improvement in color detail with either upsampling option selected.
If you simply want to send a bitstream output to an external receiver for decoding, you need to select Auto in the HDMI Audio Out menu. But if you want the player to first decode soundtracks internally and then send them to the receiver as multichannel PCM over HDMI, you need to select PCM. With the PCM output active, the player can decode the primary high-rez Dolby TrueHD soundtrack when a movie’s secondary audio track (director and cast commentary, for example) is also enabled. The Pioneer’s ability to do this sets it apart from many other players we’ve tested recently, some of which down-rez the main soundtrack to basic Dolby Digital or DTS when secondary audio is active.
Along with testing the player’s bitstream and PCM-over-HDMI output capabilities, I also hooked its multichannel analog output up to my A/V processor’s 6-channel analog input. The BDP-05FD offers only a limited amount of setup options here. You can set the speaker output as either Small or Large (with Small, the electronic crossover point is 100 Hz). But that setting applies to all of the speakers in your system, and there are no center- and surround-channel delay adjustments. (Once again, this audio shortcoming might be addressed in a future firmware update.)
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PERFORMANCE
Although the Pioneer’s basic operation proved speedier than earlier Blu-ray models, its performance was somewhat sluggish compared with other new machines I’ve tested. It took 28 seconds to power up and open the disc tray, and the same amount of time was required for DVDs and many Blu-ray Discs to load and start playing. (Discs with advanced menus and interactive features usually took longer.)
The player has four scan and reverse search speeds, with the 2x mode providing generally smooth quality. On some Blu-rays — Men in Black, for example — the player tended to freeze up, and was also slow to react to remote commands, in search mode. Pioneer’s latest firmware update (Version 1.7, which is soon to be available as a download from the company’s Web site) is designed to fix playback and menu navigation issues like these.
Video performance was first-rate with Blu-ray Discs. When I watched V for Vendetta, the impeccably crisp picture allowed details like the sequins and textured tights of showgirls to come across clear and solid in the scene where V enters the BTN facility strapped with explosives. I was also impressed by the player’s picture quality when using its component-video output: When I switched between the player’s component-video and HDMI outputs to compare movie scenes, any differences in sharpness, clarity, or color saturation proved to be minimal.
The player’s handling of Bonus View features worked without a glitch. Calling up V for Vendetta’s onscreen video commentary, I was able to watch the film’s director, James McTeigue, and star Natalie Portman chattering on from an inset box on one portion of the screen. As with BD-Live features (something that the Pioneer, as a Profile 1.1 player lacking an Ethernet connection, can’t deliver), I’ve yet to be impressed by a Bonus View PIP video commentary; I instead usually find them intrusive. But the Blu-ray format is fairly new, so there’s still hope.
The Pioneer’s upconversion of regular DVDs was also exceptionally good. It passed nearly all of the video workouts contained on the Silicon Optix HQV test DVD, and also made the discs I watched — even some marginal-quality transfers — look crisp and presentable. The wide range of picture adjustments available in the player’s setup menu helped quite a bit in this respect. Options here include brightness, contrast, color, hue, detail, and gamma adjustment, along with four noise-reduction settings; most of these proved effective in enhancing DVD picture quality. I also appreciated being able to store my adjustments in one of three memory presets and call them up via the remote’s Video Adjust button.
BOTTOM LINE
Pioneer’s flagship BDP-05FD is a big, shiny beast of a Blu-ray player — one that’s loaded with features designed to squeeze the best possible performance out of your Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs. But for a machine that costs nearly eight hundred bucks, there are things I would have liked to see included out-of-the-box, such as DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and BD-Live compatibility. It might lag behind its competition in those respects, but the BDP-05FD still manages to do quite a number of things right.