Pioneer receivers, Blu-ray

At the CES show, Pioneer showed off a number of new products for the home theater crowd. Made up of four new A/V receivers and three new Blu-ray players, the products bring new features at a lower price level than before. Among the new Blu-ray players is the flagship DBP-09FD with DVD upscaling to 1080p resolutions and 24fps. It is BD Live ready and support Bonus View. Apart from 48-bit deep color support, there are dual HDMI 1.3a outputs and a Pioneer 16-bit video processor.

The BDP-23FD joins the company’s Elite series with BD Live support and 48-bit color support for more realistic grayscale level reproduction. It also sports BD Live support and stores the downloaded content on 1GB of internal memory that is expandable via a USB port. Support for 7.1-channel analog audio and an Ethernet port for incorporating it into a PC-controlled home theater system round out its features. Rounding out the new Blu-ray players are the BDP-120 and BDP-320. The main difference is the 320’s 1GB of internal memory in addition to its support of external USB flash drives; a feature standard on the BDP-120.

As for the newly revealed A/V receivers, all four are Works with iPhone and iPod certified, displaying song and artist information on a connected screen. The multi-format USB port on the top three models enhances digital music from Apple’s connected digital audio players. All sport dual-zone audio output capabilities as well, and will pass through HDMI audio; impressive considering the entry-level unit’s low price.

The flagship BDP-09FD Blu-ray player is currently available, priced at about $2,200. The BDP-23FD is due for a June release, with pricing set at $599. The BDP-120 and BDP-320 should launch a little earlier in the spring, by May, priced at $299 and $399, respectively. The Pioneer VSX-519V-K receiver will be priced at $199, the VSX-819V-K at $299, VSX-919H-K at $399 and the VSX-1019AH-K at $499. All are due for a spring release.

by MacNN Staff