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Pioneer BDP-LX70A Review |
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Reviewed: 03 March 2008
Design
None of the major blu-ray manufacturers have made a stylistic departure away from the square sided rectangular box and Pioneer is no exception.
What you do get is an exceptionally well built piece of kit which will gracefully complement your flat screen TV.
Features
As an upgrade to Pioneer's BDP-LX70, the BDP-LX70A features v1.3 HDMI output and the ability to bit-stream output for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. It is worth noting that support for DTS-HD includes both DTS-HD 'High Resolution Audio' as well as DTS-HD 'Master Audio' (unlike Sony's BDP-S500 which does not support DTS-HD 'Master Audio').
Video Upsacaling: yes Output Resolution: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p Playable Disc Formats: DVD-Video, DVD-R/-R DL, DVD-RW CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW. Sockets: 1 x HDMI out, 1 x digital audio out (coaxial / optical), 1 x component video out, 1 x s-video out, 1 x video out, 1 x 2 channel analogue audio out, 1 x 5.1 analogue audio out, 1 x LAN.
You will also find an Ethernet socket at the back of this unit, which as well as giving the BDP-LX70A the potential for firmware upgrades, it also allows Pioneer's top end blu-ray offering to work as a media player.
The BDP-LX70A is compatible with the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocol, which means that it can stream audio and video from your PC.
Those of you who are planning to maintain your existing DVD collection will be pleased to know that the BDP-LX70A will play and even upscale standard definition DVD's. It can also play audio CDs, MP3 and JPEG files burned on CDs and DVDs.
The current must have feature for High Definition (HD) kit is 1080p/24 frames per second (24p) support and the BDP-LX70A doesn't disappoint. Movies have traditionally been filmed at a frame rate of 24fps (frames per second) and the 1080p/24 feature allows films to be shown in their original format.
Disappointingly (on such an expensive piece of kit), the Blu-ray 1.1 profile has been slow to arrive and the BDP-LX70A reflects this with its 1.0 profile. It means that the latest offering from Pioneer is unable to play some of the interactive Java features found on some blu-ray discs.
Performance
The outstanding quality of blu-ray playback on the Pioneer BDP-LX70A marks it out as something quite special. Compared to other high end players, the picture sharpness and level of detail are not streets ahead, but enough of an improvement to justify the extra outlay.
Just as impressive is the way the BDP-LX70A handles standard DVD's, which is on a par with dedicated standalone DVD players. Add very good upscaling capabilities and we are beginning to view the BDP-LX70A as quite a special piece of kit.
Where the BDP-LX70A really stands out from the crowd is with the delivery of High Definition sound in its various formats. It is worth noting that this delivery is only available through HDMI rather than the 5.1 analogue outs (requiring your amp/receiver to have an HDMI).
If you have the correct set up to generate High Definition sound, the result is nothing short of spectacular. Again, we have to temper are enthusiasm a little because the features of the BDP-LX70A will be commonplace before too long - but for now, the BDP-LX70A gives you an unrivalled home cinema acoustic experience.
Conclusion
Not so far ahead into the future, the Pioneer BDP-LX70A's capabilities will be taken for granted, and the lack of Blu-ray 1.1 profile will be unthinkable, but for now it is the most accomplished blu-ray player out there.
