Pioneer's pricey BDP-LX71 Blu-ray deck reviewed: great, mate

Don't freak out, Americans -- you haven't seen Pioneer's BDP-LX71 hanging around at your favorite A/V store for one simple reason: it caters to the European / Australian crowd. And with an MSRP of AU$1,299, it obviously caters to the affluent, too. The Aussies over at CNET's AU branch were able to get ahold of the spectacularly shiny deck, and while they admired the lovely picture and sound quality, styling and selection of ports, they couldn't easily overlook the elephantine price tag, lack of Profile 2.0 and omission of internal DTS-HD decoding. Additionally, the slow loading speed put more of a damper on things, but all of those knocks still didn't sway critics from recommending it for those with the cash. For everyone else, we'd probably definitely look elsewhere.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 27th 2008 7:37PM]

Or a Panasonic 2.0 BD35 for $399 Hmmmmmmmmm.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 3:53AM]

Pioneer gear is so classy, however the PS3 is hands-down no-brainer if your going to buy a Blu-ray player. Load times are amazingly fast.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 8:44AM]

Fast loading times means squat when the playback quality (of BD, DVD and audio CD) is compromised.

I don't get people's logic in "fast startup". A single movie tend to at least lasts for 90 minutes and people are complaining about 10 seconds difference in startup time. LOL!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 1:38PM]

Hell, Id still buy this and get rid of my ps3, just cause its a nice looking deck.

[LonnieDVD Posted Nov 28th 2008 5:52PM]

They are charging AU$1,299 for a profile 1.1 Blu-Ray player, when everyone has been releasing profile 2.0 players for months? Is Pioneer out of it's mind!? For crying out loud, at least make it profile 2.0 before you charge AU$1,299 for it!!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 8:14PM]

how about the $2000 Denon 3800 BD player then? It's not about what profile, it's about the playback quality.