CEDIA 2008 - Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD Blu-ray Disc Player

Bucking the trend towards more inexpensive Blu-ray Disc players, Pioneer displayed their new Flagship BDP-09FD Elite Blu-ray player. Coming in with a $2,200 price tage and weighing 40-plus pounds, the 09FD is both expensive and heavy. According to Pioneer, their goal was to create a player, from the ground up, that could deliver optimum no-compromise performance for Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs. To get their point across, Pioneer showed off the "guts" of their star player.

Some of the high-end features of this player include: Extensive audio processing for both analog and digital audio, full on-board decoding and bitstream output for all audio formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, and QDEO video processing with both 1080p/60 and 1080p/24 output capability. In addition, the player is fully Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compatible and also has two HDMI outputs, which means that it can drive two HDMI-equipped video displays at the time time. For custom installation needs, the BDP-09FD also has an RS232 connection.

However, one thing that took some of us in the Press aback, was the indication by the Pioneer representatives that the Blu-ray drive being used in the BDP-09FD is actually a drive that is used in their Blu-ray Disc recording products. Of course, the question was, if this is the case, why not include Blu-ray Disc recording capability in the BDP-09FD? The reason given for using this drive in the BDP-09FD is that it is more precise than a conventional Blu-ray Disc read-only drive, but that Pioneer had no current plans to bring standalone Blu-ray disc recording capability to the U.S. market.

For more specifics, check out the Official Pioneer BDP-09FD Product Page.