Pioneer BDP 320 or Panasonic BD 60 thoughts

[Rich86]

I generally agree with and support these sentiments about Pioneer. My very first dvd player was a Pioneer DV-505. It was easily modified to be region and macrovision free - and I still have it and it works just fine. Although my first laser disc player was a Panasonic, my best laser disc player was a combo laser/dvd player - a Pioneer DVL-909 - another easily modified player that still looks and functions like new.

[chris gerhard]

Originally Posted by iontyre

Checked out the new panny's yesterday at BB. I was shocked at the flimsy build quality. The flip down door for the sd and usb slots was horrible!!

I have the DMP-BD35 and it is pretty fragile feeling as well. It has been a great player with very light use for me and I think others have been happy with the player under a heavy workload. It is still too early to know if this Panasonic design will hold up over time and I would be more comfortable with Pioneer from that standpoint but it is all a guess at this time.

Chris

[dacoach]

Pioneer makes excellent bd players but there is a very long wait for firmware updates, worse than Samsung.So just be patient if you buy one, if not go with the panny as panny is very fast with any necessary updates.The Pioneer 51 owners can tell you how they are still waiting for the DTSMA update for 6 months or more already.

check out the avs forum for a recall on some of the 51fd and elite players also

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by dacoach

Pioneer makes excellent bd players but there is a very long wait for firmware updates, worse than Samsung.So just be patient if you buy one, if not go with the panny as panny is very fast with any necessary updates.The Pioneer 51 owners can tell you how they are still waiting for the DTSMA update for 6 months or more already.

check out the avs forum for a recall on some of the 51fd and elite players also

Yeah - that seems to be the problem with Pioneer blu-ray players at the moment - reliable, timely and consistent firmware and updates. It seems like Sony and Panasonic do the best job on the firmware side of the house pretty consistently. I can personally vouch for the Sony S350 and S550 being bullet-proof so far, as far as reliable playback of blu-ray titles goes.

[Blacklac]

I certainly wouldn't say Pioneer is bad with firmware. There has been about 6-7 updates since the 05/51's came out. Really, besides a few people on AVS having somewhat rare issues, we haven't had the need for updates besides the DTS-MA update we've been waiting on since release. Now a performance update has been the next long wait, for load times/layer change/crossover flexiblity and such.


My guess, any movies that currently need an update won't get them until the DTS-MA update comes out, which has been any day for like a month. I don't even know if it needs any updates to allow movies to play, besides the bad batch that won't play Fox's over-protected titles. For as long as we've waited, and continue to pass dates, there would be riots if an update came out before the DTS-MA update! lol

My 51 has played every disc I've thrown at it, since I've had it. It has been even more perfect than my buddies PS3... No loss of audio sync, no drop outs, no waiting for updates to play movies. Granted most of that had been corrected for him with updates, but I never had them. I still think the PS3 is excellent, I'm just saying...

Pioneer makes great products. If people have a problem with firmware, first of all, never purchase a player based of future firmware promises. Other than that, I don't think it's really fair to label them as bad with updates.

[dacoach]

have you checked to see if your 51 is one of the ones being recalled? Check with Pioneer.Those that registered their players were notified to send player in for free fix.

[robertc88]

Originally Posted by GibsonEX

@Robert

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not interested in that model, newer Pio models can decode DTS MA and HD internally, and who knows when will promised firmware for 51FD be here.

BD 60 has excellent Blu Ray PQ and SD upscaling is fairly good too, and the closest Pio model that has Bd 60 specs and price is 320. Don't get me wrong BD 60 is great freaking player, and i have dozens and dozens of DVD concerts i like to watch, so SD upscaling was my main concern. I have a Panny Viera display, that's why i went with BD 60 at this time, but if 320 was improvement over it, I'd be interested in it, not that I'm not happy with what i got

I don't know you will get many responses at this point as interested folks can only be cautiously optimistic of good quality from the 320. Time will tell I suppose but there isn't enough feedback now which makes any comparsion tough and I wouldn't just base it on a few.

If you like the BD60 and it is working out good for you, then I'd say stick with it. I don't know what timeframe you have to make a decision one versus the other.

[dacoach]

Has any one seen the 320 in a store? I understood it was not being released until May.

[GibsonEX]

I know they are not out yet, although some people got them off ebay this week, but officially i believe they should be out by May 11 or thereabouts... I know that people who had last generation Panny BD like 35-55 were not really happy with up converting, and BD 60 should be better in that regard. So how is up converting on Pio 51 FD, is it top notch, i don't think that upcoming models should be drastically better in that area though?

[jsmiddleton4]

"I know that people who had last generation Panny BD like 35-55 were not really happy with up converting"

Sorry but that is not the case.

SD-DVD playback on the 30/50's average. Mediocre is probably a fair descriptor as well.

Improved quite a bit on the 35/55's.

Even a bit better on the 60/80's. Have yet to see a 70 (vcr/blu-ray combo).

[dacoach]

Originally Posted by GibsonEX

So how is up converting on Pio 51 FD, is it top notch, i don't think that upcoming models should be drastically better in that area though?

I do not have one but you can read about it here.Opinion is up conversion is very good

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...oneer+bdp+51fd

[comixguru]

Pioneer is a quality manufacturer who support their product. I wouldn't think twice about buying a player from them... if you like the features and price. There's quite a few deals to be had on them.

Be careful of B-stock when buying off eBay, though. B-stock looks and acts just like the regular product, but may carry a shorter warranty. Sometimes it's only the length of the warranty that tells you something isn't a regular, full a-stock variety.

[BBE]

Originally Posted by jsmiddleton4

"I know that people who had last generation Panny BD like 35-55 were not really happy with up converting"

Sorry but that is not the case.

SD-DVD playback on the 30/50's average. Mediocre is probably a fair descriptor as well.

Improved quite a bit on the 35/55's.

Even a bit better on the 60/80's. Have yet to see a 70 (vcr/blu-ray combo).

ok dude, we get ur point. YOU are happy with the upconversion on ur panny player. and it most likely does look pretty good, no one is denying that. but the fact of the matter is that it WOULD look better on pio's players because they simply use higher quality upscaling chips that are on par and compete if not exceed reon and other quality chips. of course pannys will do a decent job, but i dont think u can make an argument that they are as good as pio's players at it.

[GardenVariety]

What is your reference screen that you use to compare the Pioneer to the Reon???

[Blacklac]

The upconversion of the 51/05 is excellent. I have owned a Reon unit, the Oppo 983 and a DVDO Edge video processor. It can hang right with them, IMO.

The newer Pioneer units should be the same, they use the exact same SoC's. Except for the 09...