At the end of last year, Pioneer introduced its very first Blu-ray 3D players. Now, they seem ready for an upgrade.
The company just announced three new Blu-ray 3D players. The Pioneer BDP-140 is the model that will be available at retail, with the BDP-52FD and BDP-53FD falling under the company's Elite brand. All three have support for 3D content, USB and DLNA sources, and boast 36-Bit Deep Color support, better load times and new web content.
Besides being able to handle 2D and 3D Blu-ray discs, all three players can also upconvert those standard-def DVDs to 1080p.
Like last year's models, these new players will include access to Netflix and Pandora. However, the company has been promising YouTube for a while (see our Pioneer BDP-430 Blu-ray 3D Player Review for more on that). These players will have that feature out of the box, and can even deliver that content over a wireless connection, via the add-on AS-WL300 adapter.
On the audio side, all three can handle the latest audio formats, such as DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD, as well as Super Audio CD. The Elite models also have the Precision Quartz Lock System (PQLS) Bit-Stream Multi-channel, which boasts a jitter-free reproduction of Blu-ray Disc, DVD-Video/Audio, Super Audio CD and CD content.
Other Elite exclusives include Pioneer's new Sound Retriever Link and Stream Smoother Link features. These two new features tap into the bit rate of what's being played, and if necessary, will send a command to a compatible Pioneer receiver to activate the Sound Retriever or Stream Smoother feature. The Sound Retriever can enhance compressed audio files, while Stream Smoother enhances compressed video files to reduce compression noise. The Stream Smoother technology is especially helpful with low bit-rate video sources originally intended for viewing on small screens such as smartphones.
"An excellent home theater experience starts with the source so it is extremely important that we implement the highest quality audio and video reproduction with the latest technologies and features," said Chris Walker, Pioneer's director AV marketing and product planning for the home entertainment division. "These new players let you access audio and video content from a variety of online and other personal sources so you're never restricted to just your disc-based movie library."
Out of the three new players, the BDP-53FD is the standout, adding in an extra HDMI output, Layered Chassis Construction and the Marvell Qdeo video processor.
All three players are also compatible with Pioneer's free iControlAV2 App, which is now available for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, as well as for select Android devices.
Pioneer has listed the BDP-140 with an MSRP $199. The Elite BDP-52FD, which has the addition of an RS-232 port, is priced at $399. Featuring an armored chassis, the Elite BDP-53FD is available for a suggested retail price of $499.
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