It seems like many home video enthusiasts agree the Sony PlayStation 3 is one of the best Blu-ray players available, but Pioneer hopes to change that with the release of a pricey Blu-ray player that packs a powerful punch.
Pioneer has unveiled its latest Blu-ray player, but the hefty price tag will not help move Blu-ray into the mainstream. The Pioneer BDP-09FD, which will be available for $2,200, was introduced during a Hollywood PR event, where the company did not officially show demonstrations of the new unit.
Supporting Profile 2.0 and BD-Live, the Blu-ray player also has two HDMI jacks, eight independent D/A converters, 16-bit color output, and 4GB of internal storage. Pioneer hopes the Blu-ray player will be able to replace a consumer's DVD player, Blu-ray player and CD player with a single high-end unit.
The two HDMI ports are interesting because owners now will be able to connect the BDP-09FD to a projector and the TV without the need of a splitter.
Pioneer hopes to have the BDF-09FD available to consumers with deep pockets later this year.
If the price tag is a bit too steep, Pioneer also has a DVD player with unconverting technology available for $99. Similar to other DVD players available on the market, the DV-410V is able to upconvert images from standard resolution up to 1080p.
"Pioneer hopes the Blu-ray player will be able to replace a consumer's DVD player, Blu-ray player and CD player with a single high-end unit."
Talk about over-hype. How many consumers actually own and use both a DVD player *AND* a CD player, let alone a Blu-Ray player?
Owning either a DVD player alone or a Blu-Ray player alone would obviate the need for at least one, probably both, of the others.
Actually- IF I were thinking of buying a player that could handle high Def - this is the unit I would buy. A MUCH better description of this amazing unit can be read at Gizmodo. The specs on this thing are outrageous and there is nothing out there in the same class- NOTHING- This is a pretty impressive piece of hardware, though nearly 5 times the price of a PS3- it should blow anything out there- INCLUDING the PS3 completely out of the water! It is deadly expensive, but I think it is worth it and infact, may be a bargain. Combine this with a Pioneer Kuro and you have one hell of a home theater.
http://gizmodo.com/5040707/pioneer-sneaks-out-2200-elite-bdp+09fd-first-blu+ray-player-that-crushes-the-ps3
@Crabbyappleton: Not complete yet, add 7.1 Receiver and Speakers and then you have one hell of a home theater. 
I used to be a huge Pioneer car audio fan, and am glad to see them going back and focusing more on home audio and video. Comes with a stiff price tag, but it seems to be worth it.
I used to be a huge Pioneer car audio fan, and am glad to see them going back and focusing more on home audio and video. Comes with a stiff price tag, but it seems to be worth it.
'Pioneer hopes to have the BDF-09FD available to consumers with deep pockets later this year'
LOL...There won't be any consumers with deep pockets by the end of this year :P
'This is a pretty impressive piece of hardware, though nearly 5 times the price of a PS3- it should blow anything out there- INCLUDING the PS3 completely out of the water!'
Holy crap you people are bringing the lulz....I would be willing to bet, and I not a gambler, that any PS3 or my NMT would give me the same picture quality to my 1080p LCD from BluRay than this over priced paper weight supposedly does....I seriuosly want what ever these BDA guys are smoking cause it must be some really good Sativas to be charging these prices 
"16-bit color output"
Wow, a whopping 65,536 colors to choose from!!!
At $2200 a pop, I will take two please!! I love Pioneer; but damn, my pockets aren't that deep. The player looks like a monster but it is FAR out of my price range. My wife would shoot me!! 
You really want BluRay to take off to the mass market? How about lowering the prices on these players to at least 200 or 300 per unit and I bet it would get a good take off. I admit that price is still steep but I would be willing to pay out for such a player although I already have a PS3 too. Movies are getting a lot cheaper to I see.
$2200 is just stuipid. anyone who buys this is just stupid, i dont care who you are. PERIOD. For $2200 you can build one heck of a pc that will blow away this piece of crap so easily, its just hard to comprehend. with crossfire configuration and a quad core and windows meduia centre with money to spare and you get all the acceleratation you would want and still have processing power left over. come on guys think before you buy this shit. SERIOUSLY
panasonic will ship on september 1 a blu-ray recorder with a 1tb hard drive for about the same price that will record high def what bullshit it would be o.k if it was recorder with a hard drive built in pioneer are you kidding me here is the item
Panasonic wil linntroduce three new DIGA Series Blu-ray disc recorders with built-in hard disk drives ( DMR-BW930/830/730), available September 1st.
The recorders support recording of TV programs in AVCHD (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) format at a maximum speed of 6x. Panasonic offers thr device with an either 1TB (DMR-BW930), 500GB (DMR-BW830), or 320GB(DMR-BW730) hard disk drives.
All come equipped with a dual digital TV tuner, HDMI output (60p/24p), USB port, SD/SDHC card slot, Panasonic\'s UniPhier System LSI, support DTS-HD Master/ Dolby NR TrueHD/Dolby Digital plus codecs, DLNA, and they are VIERA Link compatible.
Recording TV broadcasts can de srored to HDD and BD-R/RE, as well as in Panasonic\'s AVCREC format on that records DVD dics. Other supported formats for recording include DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM.
@chickenlittle
I spent that much building my PC over an year ago. Got a pretty nice setup but it had been over 5 years since I had upgraded so it was time. I wanted to make sure it could run the latest software for at least 5 years. Hopefully, it will (crosses fingers).
This unit is not meant for average people and I don't think it meant to crush PS3. Looking at the specs I strongly believe that this unit is meant to beat the high-end blu-ray players Denon 3800BD ($2,000) and Marantz BD8002 ($2,100). With the 7.1 multichannel output in gold plated and separate processors for SACD (and maybe DVD-A), this is for audiophile people who owns high-end audio system with a plus of having a blu-ray player.
4GB of internal storage it a joke, awake me when it 1 TB of internal storage
you want to save you HD movies on a 4gb low format...
We should all ask ourselves this question: Why didn't Sony simply leverage the Cell processor to do the upscaling in the PS3? Could it be that it did a bit TOO GOOD of a job? Because then, no one would want to buy Blu-ray if they saw little difference between DVD movies on the PS3 and the Blu-ray version! Were they afraid reviewers would go online making such comments? The difference between HD and DVD would have been even less! Is this what Toshiba is trying to prove? It is possible....
@shaloin007: "16-bit color output"
Wow, a whopping 65,536 colors to choose from!!!
That is not actually what it means. In easy term, this unit supports 16 bits color per channel (channel being Red, Green and Blue) or total of 48 bits Deep Color or equal to approximately 3000 trillion colors. 
(compare to the usual 8-bit per channel = 24-bits total = 16.7 million colors).
Not all players can do this and probably why the hig price tag )in addition to the 7.1 channel analog outputs etc etc).
Pioneer execs may be on what the Doctor is on...
Now Sir, before we commence this odyssey which I understand will carry us across this grand nation from sea to shining sea, uhem, there's a matter of my compensation. I've dermined that my services will require the payment of $2,000 dollars....
I was thinking more along the lines of $200 dollars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85PcMJ9D8X0
Top news
