Got a cool grand set aside for a Blu-ray player? Even if not, it's hard to ignore Pioneer's svelte
BDP-94HD, and while it was found to lack
HDMI 1.3, the folks at
Home Theater Blog were able to give it some time and decide if it was worth the coin. Beyond "exhibiting some anomalies with certain tests on both the SD and HD HQV test discs," the player was said to "perform just fine in real-world applications," and while the
upconverting technology worked as advertised, it was the Blu-ray performance that truly shined. Among the praises were a "more natural color palette," a unique home media server, the ability to enable viewers to simply "get lost" in the film, and eventually, they couldn't help but state that it was "the best looking Blu-ray playback device" it has had the pleasure of witnessing thus far. Granted, it was a tad sluggish when dealing with
BD-J material, and as with most machines, a few small quirks were inevitably found, but if you've been holding out for something that undoubtedly puts the competition to shame, you owe it to yourself to hit the read link and give it a read.
posted Aug 5th 2007 11:01PM
Sounds like a high quality machine. But why no HDMI 1.3 when you are asking 1 Grand for it?
will this one play CDs or did they forget about those - again
Yeah, let's spend $1,000 on something that will become obsolete on October 31st. That's really smart!
"With mandatory Blu-ray profile 1.1 new window compliance still months away, we’ll certainly see a continual stream of new players being launched in the months after the October 31st deadline. If HDMI 1.3 (not required in profile 1.1 or 1.3 for that matter), secondary audio and video decoding, and full-fledged internet capabilities are must-haves, then must wait should become your mantra. On the other hand, if you’re interested in what Blu-ray has to offer today and aren’t all that interested in interactivity and advanced content delivery/handling, the BDP-9HD is well worth a look."
translated to: "If you don't want the features that HD DVD has had since launch and is the reason that you can't enjoy such films as Matrix on Blu-Ray, and don't want as many features from movies such as Blood Diamond and 300 have on HD DVD, then by all means spend $1,000 now, even though new players that support these features will be out in a couple of months."
Only an idiot would buy a BD player today (except possibly the PS3 -- can it support profile 1.1? I would assume so, but don't know for sure)
You are asking for a grand with no HDMI 1.3. I think not. My PS3 will do for now.
This player is just awesome.