August 28, 2008 Pioneer is unleashing a Blu-ray player that will out-do the PS3 – and probably outweigh it too. The US$2,200 Elite BDP-09FD is hyped as the most powerful Blu-ray player ever built, and will feature Ethernet, BD-Live playback, and 4GB of internal memory for downloads.
While PS3s are faster, they can’t match the quality of Pioneer’s offering. A top-of-the-line image processor delivers 1080p/24 resolution, and converts color information from 8 bits to 16 bits – meaning each picture can have up to 2,800 trillion colors. This data level is actually higher than most televisions, but when they upgrade the BDP-09FD won’t have to.
The 50-pound steel and aluminium beast was designed to reduce vibration – the bottom layer is a quarter-inch plate of steel; the feet are from TAOC; and all connections are physically mounted from the circuit board to the walls, eliminating wires and noise.
The player decodes all known audio codecs from DTS and Dolby using separate digital-to-analog converters for each channel. This micromanagement of audio was designed to provide a “perfect noise-free signal”.
Two HDMI jacks on the back of the player give users more control and less hassle – the player can easily be hooked up to a projector and flat-panel display, or users can opt to send audio and video through two different routes.
Via Gizmodo.
Eds note: more details have now come to hand on the pricing and availability of the BDP-09FD which will begin shipping later this year for a suggested price of USD$2,199.
