Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Monday, October 26th, 2009 at
8:21 am
- 1920 x 1080p, 24fps Resolution For Unrivaled Picture Quality
- Profile 2.0
- BD-Live Compliant (Profile 2.0)
- Features internal decoding of all advanced audio formats including Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, and DTS-HD Master Audio.
Product Description
Spectacular 1080p Picture Quality: The BDP-320 provides up to 1920 x 1080p resolution for unrivaled picture quality. And with True 24fps, Deep Color: The BDP-320 supports 48-bit* Deep Color, offering high definition images with superb color detail. x.v.Color: An advanced feature which greatly broadens the color space HDMI Precision Quartz Lock system (PQLS) Jitterless Transmission (2-ch): By HDMI connection with a compatible Pioneer A/V receiver, CD music is precise… More >>
Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
Tagged with: 1080p • BDP320 • Bluray • Disc • Pioneer • Player
Filed under: Blu Ray DVD Players
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This is an excellent Player, I have a PS3 and I did have the sony BDP-350 but the sound quality was terrible. The Pioneer BDP-320 is an excellent player picture quality is incredible and the sound is out of this world. I recommend it, there are people saying that it’s slow but I don’t see that. I think this is a worthwhile purchase.
Rating: 5 / 5
Hesitated to upgrade to this from my PS3 but glad I did. Excellent picture and sound, great player overall.
Rating: 5 / 5
This thing randomly shuts down, about once every other movie that I try to watch on it. Yes, the picture is lovely when it works, but this is no consolation when it abruptly shuts off in the middle of a movie and you then have to wait about three whole minutes for it to reboot, read the disc and set up the menus all over again. After this has happened three or four times, it is so annoying that you don’t even care about the quality of the picture or the other features that it has.
I went to Pioneer’s web site and downloaded the latest version of the firmware (3.25). I confirmed that it took the upgrade, which is easy to do, but there is no apparent change in the behavior.
Some people seem to think that it is reasonable or justifiable that an error encountered while reading a “faulty” or “incompatible” disc should cause a machine of this sort to shut down. This is most certainly not the case. Anytime that a machine of this sort shuts down, the fault is with badly written firmware in the player. Even if the disc inserted into the player is corrupt an unreadable, or no matter what features it may assume that the player does not support, it is not acceptable for the player to shut down or lock up. Anytime this happens, it is the manifestation of a flaw in the software within the player.
It also has lesser problems. A capability that I regard as essential on a DVD or Blu-ray player is the ability to compress the dynamic range of the audio. The reason is simply that a lot of movies are recorded with dynamic range much too great for in-home use. This player’s dynamic range compression capability applies only to Dolby formats, and not to the DTS formats. This is a very serious shortcoming of this player. Many discs have only DTS audio tracks, and many people will find a DTS-only disc with loud sound effects difficult to watch on this player.
While experimenting with the dynamic range compression capability, I encountered another frustration: the ambiguity in the way that the manual and the on-screen user interface are both written. There is a “High” setting, but does this mean high dynamic range, or the high effect of the circuit that compresses dynamic range? The user manual just describes how to use the up/down arrows to change the setting. I can usually figure out how to use the up/down buttons to change the setting. The user manual ought to explain the different effects of the various settings, and not bother with explaining how to use the up/down buttons. This user manual is poorly written.
I eventually became so fed up that I sent it to Pioneer’s repair facility to have it repaired under warranty. I turns out that they released another (“yet another”) update to the firmware shortly before I sent it to them. But I would have sent it to them anyway, because on principle, I refuse to play this game of installing an unending succession of firmware updates. The software they shipped in this thing originally was junk, and they assume that it is okay to ship junk to the consumer and to expect the consumer to tolerate a waiting period of six months to get a version that doesn’t shut down repeatedly. If this is their expectation, they should make this clear in their promotional materials and on their web site and so forth. They should say: “The software that will be pre-installed in your component has not been thoroughly tested and you should be aware that it may required six months or more before software will be supplied for you to install, that will allow your player to operate and behave the way that you normally anticipate.” As far as I am concerned Pioneer can go to hell. They shipped a product that they almost certainly knew had faulty software that had not been adequately tested.
So I sent it in, and they updated the firmware, which I could have done with less effort that what was needed for me to package it up and take it to FedEx. The very first time I tried to use it, while trying to use the playback controls for slow speed playback, it locked up. The picture froze, and it would not respond to the remote control or to the buttons on the front panel.
Do not buy this piece of junk. You’ve been warned. It is a piece of junk. Take note also of the fact that the most preferred favorable review of this product was written by a person (M. Carter) who sent it back immediately after he received it, and still wrote a favorable review, even though he had not kept it long enough to have any idea as to whether it is reliable. This is irresponsible. This player is junk. Even after the various firmware updates, six months after the original purchase, it still locks up. It is quite simply junk.
Rating: 1 / 5
I get the player the other day and look at my first BR dvd I was/am blown away am just in awe. I will be getting more Blue Ray DVD’s
Rating: 4 / 5
I purchased this player because it was said to have somewhat better BD picture and audio quality than others in the same price range. I must say I am very impressed. It also seems to have better build quality than the other similar players. It loads a bit slow, but does that really matter? Not to me. As long as it does load, I am happy! And the DVD upscaling is extremely good! I am also using the analog audio outputs to my older receiver, and being able to have the player decode the new lossless audio is great. Better than any theater I’ve been in lately, and my speakers are quite low end! This is a very nice product I heartily recommend!
Rating: 5 / 5