Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I purchased this player some days ago, while I was upgrading my TV to HD. I chose the BDP-120 for a specific reason: region codes. The consumer-hostile atrocity that some studios force on their customers hits people outside of the US (US = region 1) especially hard. My DVD collectio (almost exclusively region 1) is large, and I live in Switzerland (= region 2). The BDP-120 comes with a code-free DVD player, but *does* enforce regions on the BD. That way, I am able to retain my investment in DVD. NOTE: Make sure your version of the player has the same code-free capability, as I hear that in some countries they do not!
Unpacking
I received my player inside a box that also contained a hefty manual, a remote, 2 AA batteries for the remote, a 1GB USB stick (for firmware updates), an audio-, power-, and video cable. Neither Network (ethernet) not HDMI cable were included in the box (the omission of an HDMI cable is disappointing).
Exterior & Design
The player's outside is made from black plastic which does have a rather cheap feel to it. Unfortunately (it took me two minutes to find out), the shiny plastic parts scratche easily, so handle it with extra care when you slot the player into it's place. Buttons (power, play, etc.) are realized as small horizontal slats inside a horizontal recess, and feel flimsy (for comparison, my Yamaha amp that is roughly in the same price category has all buttons made from metal). The DVD tray is not dampened and gives off a rather cheap grinding sound when extending or retracting. When spinning, the disc is nearly inaudible, which is a great accomplishment, somewhat marred by the sound of what appears to be a fan that starts running inside the player when it gets warm.
Slightly annoying is the fact that the player's width is 42 cm (16.53 inch) instead of the standard 43.5 cm (17 inch). If all your components are from Pioneer that may not be an issue. Since mine are not, the mis-fit is slightly noticeable on top of the Yamaha amp. The silliest, most painfully obvious and plain stupid design flaw, however, is the USB port. Instead of providing an easy access for USB on the front (perhaps behind a panel), the designers chose to put the connector on the back. Yes, on the back, where you'll have next to no access. Well, perhaps an extension cord could help? Maybe -- but the manual states clearly: "WARNING: DO NOT USE AN USB EXTENSION CORD". Now this is really, really bad design. Especially in light of the fact that any firmware update is facilitated by USB only (even if you have the player connected to the net). This design misstep is somewhat lessened by another seriously wrong design decision: even though the player provides a USB connector, you cannot play content from that port. Stone-age consumer appliance design. This forces you to burn any image (only JPEG supported) or video to disc, and then put the disc in the player (if you think network streaming via network port: well, not with this player).
The player is adorned with a tiny alphanumeric status LCD and a multitude of colorful LEDs. The LCD is backlit by a garish white light that is plain ugly. Pioneer could have done much better, as I have seen better-looking LCDs on *Thermometers*. Also, while some LED do carry a label (e.g. 'Power', others light up sometimes, even flash, and then, after a short while, turn off mysteriously. What exactly they are for will forever remain a mystery (although not one I'd be inclined to spend time on resolving). All in all I feel that very little thought has gone into this player's exterior design. In a nutshell, it's a black box with a number of randomly placed flashing LEDs. Not impressive at all.
The remote is rather large, deep black, and rests comfortable in the palm of even the largest of hands. The buttons feel a bit rubbery, and there is no audible or tactile feedback one a button engages. However, I would not have expected this from a remote for a device in this price range, and anyway, I'm using a universal remote (the Logitech Harmony 1000). Button labels are clear, but could have used a bit more contrast (on my remote they are colored in a yellowish off-white). Button lay-out is OK, centered around a mock-wheel (four directions and a central enter button). The remote also sports some buttons for controlling a TV, which I find somewhat silly, as they won't help you unless you have a pioneer TV, and if you do, that one comes with buttons for controlling your pioneer BD player). It uses standard AA batteries.
Handling
Not having used a BlueRay player before I was shocked by how long it takes a player to load a single BD. At first I though that the device was defective, but when I looked at other players I saw first hand that the BDP-120 is one of the quicker devices. Still, from turning on the unit over loading a BD and then gaining access to a menu this device averages at about 1.5 minutes (for comparison: my DVD player, a $19 no-label but admirably performing device takes all of 20 seconds from power-up to menu selection -- and that includes loading a disc). I'm not sure what the 'Quickstart' feature means in this regard - I'd hate to have a player that takes even longer to start up. Also somewhat disconcerting is the fact that the unit takes about 30 seconds to one minute to power down (and beware -- simply pulling the plug will encur an additional startup minute the next time you switch it on).
The buttons on the player itself border on being unusable (they are too flimsy, and provide only the basic pause/play/skip/open functionality). With the remote the player, once started up, responds nicely, but still a far cry from instantaneously (as you are used from a DVD). The on-screen displays and messages from the player are rough, ugly, and look like something straight from the debugger the engineeres used, interspersed with some artwork that appears to be lifted from Apple and WinAmp. Still, they work, and that's what they are there for. Switching from and to different modes is easy enough, and the organization of most menus is logical and intuitive.
Although the player supports code free DVD (even though the (german) manual clearly states otherwise, which is disconcerting at best), it crashes regularly when you try to switch from a region 1 (US) DVD to a region 2 (Europe) BD, requiring me to pull the plug, and then wait through a prolonged power-up cycle. This adds insult to the injury of region codes. But at least the player supports my region 1 DVDs (but not region 1 BD).
Features / Image Quality
To me, this is the most important aspect, and the one that saves this player. For the price, the player provides excellent image quality from both BR and DVD over the HDMI port to your HD TV. It will up-scale DVD content, which was to me an unexpected boon. Upscaling a DVD produces great results on my TV (1028p). Up-scaled content is only delivered via the HDMI connector, not via the additional composite video and video sources available at the back of the player. The provided composite video signal is OK, perhaps slightly on the weak side. As mentioned before, the analog connectors (composite video) do not provide upscaled content, but do allow the BR to be played to non-HD devices. However, BR's are nearly indistinguishable from their lesser DVD brethren on analog source (I have the BD and DVD versions of 'Planet Earth), while on HD the difference is plain to see (even though the DVD version gets significantly boosted by the up-scaling).
The player also sports a network port (Ethernet, 100 Base-T). Unfortunately, this network port cannot be used to remote-control the player (as I had hoped). It is primarily there to stream content to the player from the internet (but not your PC). 100 MBit is somewhat on the weak side for this purpose, and accordingly, streaming a HD source to the player can cause stutters (not to mention that you better had invested in a switch or smart hub, or the whole subnet will drop from Gigabit to 100 MBit). Also (at least at my player's firmware level) the network port cannot be used to automatically download firmware updates. For this you use the (included, nice touch!) USB memory stick, onto which you must download the firmware from your PC. Furthermore, many obvious advantages that a network-enabled player could have are not implemented. As I mentioned above, you can't control the player via network, nor can you stream content from your PC to it. You can't query it's status (disk/track playing or status), nor does it automatically load a CD's album and track names from CDDB. Pioneer has a lot to learn in this regard. I currently regard the network feature as severely lacking.
BD-Live... well, I guess it's just me, but for some reason this feature holds little interest for me. It just feels wrong -- like a "bolted-on afterthought". Perhaps I just havn't yet found the BD with real good BD-Live links. For now, all I found was wafer-thin content and a ton of advertising. Oh - and you must have the memory stick inserted when you use that feature. Nope, there simply is no real added value for me in this.
The player does support the most common disk formats (CD, CDRW, Photo-CD, etc.) but supports a surprisingly limited amount of file formats: Images are limited to JPEG (with a stupid naming scheme to boot), and video files limited to the standard BD set (i.e. no Ogg, QuickTime etc). It does support AVCH, though (but that is no surprise as it is part of the newer BD standard).
If you have a KURO (a Pioneer brand) TV, the player offers a 'KURO-Link'. Supposedly, this feature will allow the player and TV to talk to each other and allow both to select the best (or preferred) setting for each source. I do have a KURO TV (a plasma), but so far have not found any...Read more›
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Pioneer BDP-120 1080p Blu-ray Disc PlayerSpectacular 1080p Picture Quality: The BDP-120 provides up to 1920 x 1080p resolution for unrivaled picture quality. And with True 24fps, now see your movies as the director intended. x.v.Color: An advanced feature which greatly broadens the color space input to include 1.8 times as many natural colors than standard RGB signals. KURO LINK: By connecting the BDP-120 to a Pioneer KURO flat panel TV or monitor and a compatible Pioneer A/V receiver, KURO LINK lets you operate the entire system’s basic functions such as power on/off and playback through KURO’s remote control. The new KURO LINK Video Adjustment System automatically switches to video settings best suited for the connected KURO. BD-Live Compliant (Profile 2.0): Enjoy special disc contents in Picture-in-Picture form, and also download additional content from the internet, such as the director’s interview and languages not contained on the disc. Internal Audio Decoders: The BDP-120 features internal decoding of all advanced audio formats including Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio. Easy Operation and Setup: GUIs for easy navigation. Quick Start Skip Search (30 sec.)/Replay (10 sec.): Skip scenes or play back a dialog you missed, by the push of a button. Multi-Format Compatibility: You can play high definition DVD discs recorded by digital video cameras in AVCHD format. You can also play BD-R/RE, DVD-R/RW, etc. recorded using Blu-ray Disc recorders or DVD recorders as well as CD/CD-R. BD-Live only available on compatible discs and playable features depend on the disc contents.
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