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This player has played every Blue-ray title even the T2 skynet edition(without a internet connection)load time may take a little longer for this movie(read T2 review. and it has performed perfectly. I've had this player for almost a year; I purchased this player for $250 open box from B.B. This is the best player out right now.If you can find one get it and get ready for pure enjoyment. In the beginning there was a learning curve for the player, once I figured out how to operate the player; it has been a plaeasure to own ever since.I just upgraded my reciever to a Pioneer Elite 01 and this makes the player stands out even more. The size of this player isn't for the faint of heart(it is massive); you will be more than pleased of its performance. The only issue I had was when there wasn't a picture only sound; you must push the video button on the remote and the picture will appear. Again that takes learning the remote.
While the prices are low (in fact the cost of these things has dropped like a rock in the past year), performance and consistency seem to match. BluRay is still relatively new, but the manufacturer;s have been falling all over themselves offering new models with a baffling array of differentiating features. Very few lower end players offer this and you might need to spend many hundreds, if not thousands more for a BluRay transport that doesn't process the video, but passes it thru.Pioneer has had this player on the market for over a year, and the bugs are gone. Pioneer's BDP-51FD may be an older model, but it is still a great BluRay player.
This is just not true.For many years I owned a computer sales and service company and sold many "Factory Reconditioned" products alongside "Brand New" of the same model. Many newer players offer BD-live or the ability to directly download films from the likes of Amazon or Netflix. But how well do they do the job of playing BluRay discs.The many Amazon reviews suggest the offerings from mass market manufacturer's may be less than all the glitzy features suggest. It's hard to keep up on manufacturer's latest offerings. The best part for the consumer is that they get a top notch, more thoroughly tested product at considerable savings.BOTTOM LINE:For high-end video and audio performance with exceptional build quality at a bargain price, buy a reconditioned BDP-51FD. While the BDP-51FD does an excellent job with hi-def material and as good a job on standard def as many other good players, this pass-thru feature can allow you to experience superior std def upscaling if you have the video processing flexibility and power in other components.
With recent firmware upgrades, it now properly handles the high end audio codecs.I purchased a factory refurb model (B stock) making this an even more affordable buy. Many buyers steer clear of refurbs thinking they are buying someone els's problems.
You won't be sorry. But the latest isn't necessarily the greatest.
My experience was that we never had a customer return a refurb. Quirky to downright poor performance have been described for the products from many of Pioneer's competitor's.The BDP-51FD is larger, heavier and slower to load than newer models, but the picture quality and sound is great.
It's build quality is comparable to several much more expensive high end models, but it's price has dropped from it's original offering price, making it a bargain.This player provides valuable set-up flexibility, including the ability to pass an unaltered video signal to your AV receiver or processor. The same can't be said for brand new items.It seems the refurbs, once returned to the manufacturer's, receive a thorough reconditioning and testing prior to being re-sold as "B" stock.
(And, no, I'm not in the business and don't make money selling these things).
I called pioneer, they had me mail it in, spent 15 dollars on shipping to get it to them. So I said the the support person, so you expect me to purchase every movie in order to watch it and i can never get a net flix or blockbuster title again. I did a firm ware update and then the player wouldnt play anything at all. But still, when may came, the unit kept shutting off in the middle of a movie and that was horrible because it took so long to restart the movie. Starting having issues May of 09 after purchasing this unit in February of 09. but this is already after 5 months of frustation messing with the darn thing for them to realise it was defective. I called them for the 3rd time and they tried to feed me a stupid excuse like that i have to buy every bluray disc because their players dont play block buster and netflix titles very well. and they sent it back to me with the same problem saying that they fixed it.
thats when i said its time to speak to a manager. Well the second movie i put in the unit cause it to keep shutting off again. I didnt like the blu-ray player in the first place because it took 5 minutes sometimes 7 or 8 before the movie would even load up and all of the remote functions were terribly slow. and the lady said yes. They sent it back saying that they reset it and the unit is up to spec. they had me send it to them again, so i spent another 15 dollars on shipping because they refused to cover the cost. the manager said he will send me a new unit. i will not shop pioneer again
A CD which to be honest we'll only use once - and which unfortunately still will not guarantee that you will be able to play all your blu-ray discs. No direct method of upgrading the firmware. I love Pioneer products and I love this blu-ray player, but it does have one major flaw. Since upgrading my wonderful BPD-51 to update 1.25, it actually plays fewer discs from my collection than it did when I first bought it. Let's be frank, if you're going to release devices with operating systems that often need to be updated they should be required to have an ethernet port and the ability to download software directly from the Net. In this day and age - and certainly at the higher price points - there is no justifiable reason to ask your customer to "check in at our website periodically" to find out whether there's been an update recently; and then have the customer download the software and burn it onto their own CD. Even after installing update 1.32 it still won't play several mass market discs, something my cheap Samsung 1500 does with no problems. Well here's hoping that future updates will correct the problem because until this beautiful, wonderful player can actually play my blu-ray discs it's just an overpriced over-sampling DVD player (oh and I had one of those already).
The load times being a little slow is not an issue at all. It has all the internal decoding, so you don't have to worry about upgrading your receiver to receive the benefits of HD sound.
Go to Pioneer's website to find out more details. I have to say how impressed I am with this player.
First off when you get this player is to check the firmware updates. The menu is pretty straight forward.
I have it connected to my Pioneer Elite 81TXV receiver to my Kuro 111FD. Just a spectacular picture and I'm very impressed with it's playback of regular SD DVD's.
It has great build quality as it's not built in China like everything else is now. Just a great all around blu-ray player.
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