Pioneer Elite BD player delayed until Spring '07 (1 Viewer)

[Bruce Morrison]

Rob, I feel for you - it's a very frustrating situation. Currently, the Blu-ray software seems to be way ahead of the Blu-ray hardware capabilities to exploit it.

I hope you get your wish with firmware upgrades to the Pioneer player. Meanwhile I'm going to try to be patient until the next Blu-ray players appear later in the year. I've adjusted my original timescale and I'm now promising myself that I'll be all equipped for Blu-ray (new player, receiver and TV) by the end of the year!

Hopefully by then, Universal will be supporting Blu-ray as well...

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Good post Bruce. I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy one of these expensive players until they could do the audio decoding. I caved, largely due to the fact that I have ordered a new projector that accepts a 1080p24 signal, so I wanted a BD player that could send that signal directly to the pj. Only the Pioneer and Sony players do this currently.

So, I am at Pioneer's mercy when it comes to providing a FW update for the audio codecs. Keeping fingers crossed.......

 

[MarekM]

that firmware update is not something I took from blue sky..... it's confirmed that if will be with european release, which is in 9 days... so I consider that info as NOW and not in TWO MONTHS or NEXT YEAR...

Marek

 

[MarekM]

 

[Bruce Morrison]

My understanding is that future Blu-ray players will be able to decode Dolby TrueHD (and DTS-HDMA) and output the decoded PCM bitstream through the HDMI connection, i.e. still in the digital domain. They may also be able to put the bitstream through a DAC to be output through the analogue connections. However, with HDMI connections becoming the new standard, people will probably prefer to use the DAC in the receiver, as this would usually be of higher quality. (And it would involve fewer cables!)

(P.S. The above quote was not attributed to MarekM - it was a quote within his post.)

 

[MarekM]

I was wondering if I wrote that
yes those qotes are from FAQ link I posted in my post..

Marek

 

[Rob Tomlin]

As far as using the receiver to decode DTS-HD etc: here is the issue- if the disc is authored in advanced mode (virtually all of them are), then the PLAYER must decode the audio format internally before sending it to the receiver!

So, buy a PLAYER that can decode the audio formats internally, since that may be the only way to get it done!

 

[Bruce Morrison]

Absolutely Rob. That's why I'm holding out for the Blu-ray players that are supposed to be coming later this year - I just hope at least one of them will have the full lossless audio decoding capability that we need.

The point I was making in my post was that the decoded audio can then be passed out as a digital PCM bitstream via HDMI to be converted to analogue by the receiver - it doesn't necessarily have to go through a digital-to-analogue conversion within the player. And of course, HDMI 1.1 is sufficient to carry a PCM bitstream - it's not necessary to have HDMI 1.3 for that purpose.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Our understanding is definitely the same then Bruce!

 

[Tim Glover]

Very, very cool HT room Rob!

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Thanks Tim!

 

[MarekM]

wow Rob super cool HT room
maybe sometime in the future I will try to build something similair !

Marek

 

[Dave Moritz]

I have to agree with MarkM thats a really nice HT room you have Rob. That is my plan for the future is to have a dedicated HT room with a 1080p projector and Stewert Firehawk 120" screen, and a Blu-ray player.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I have to say, I saw the Pioneer Elite BD player paired with the new Pioneer Elite 50" 1080p plasma TV the other day in a local showroom, and the effect was astounding. At least with the demo disc they were using, the picture was perfect. This being a Japanese disc, the parts I saw were (1) extreme close-ups of food, and (2) a swordsmanship demonstration. Both were amazing, a better image than, essentially, anything I've seen from video or film. The food closeups were better than life, because the macro lens used got inside the limit of distinct human vision without the slightest blurring (to get that depth of focus, they must have used extreme light levels and a stopped-closed iris). Even from very close up, the structure of the display was invisible.

If this kind of performance is reflected with actual commercial programmes, I'd say that the product is (for once) capable of living up to the hype.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

What that Pioneer demo does is show what the player (and display) are capable of. Remember, that was HD video, not film.

Don't expect movies on Blu-ray or HD-DVD to look like that demo. They won't.

 

[ppltd]

This is true. But then again, no US HD DVD uses it. And all HD DVD stand alone players can decode Dolby TrueHD as it was written into the specs as a requirement.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

You mean all HD DVD players sold by Toshiba?



If the PS3 was the only Blu-ray player, then all Blu-ray players would decode Dolby Digital True HD as well.

Yes it is written into the HD DVD player space. But given time (months) all current BD players (except the Samsung) will be upgradable to full Dolby Digital decoding. When new chipsets arrive, let's hope that both Blu-ray and HD DVD players incorporate full DTS-HD/MA decoding as a matter of course.