Pioneer’s first Profile 2.0 player adds more than just BD-Live.

Pioneer showcased its new flagship Blu-ray player, the Elite BDP-09FD. While other big-name companies are going slimmer and cheaper, Pioneer remains committed to its intent to deliver premium products for the premium market.

As a profile 2.0 player, the BDP-09FD supports BD-Live Web functionality and purportedly has 4GB of onboard memory. Naturally, it's capable of 1080p/24 over the HDMI output and offers both bitstream output and onboard decoding of high-resolution audio formats, with 7.1-channel analog outputs.

Pioneer proudly states that the new model shares no common circuitry with previous Pioneer Blu-ray players and is built to “audiophile spec.” It has a dedicated power supply for the analog audio board and uses a Wolfson WM8740 audio DAC for each of the eight analog channels.

On the video side, the BDP-09FD features the 16-bit Marvell QDEO video processor and sports dual HDMI outputs, active simultaneously, with individual A/V adjustments for each.

This well-built machine has a solid steel bottom plate and an aluminum chassis, and it weighs about 50 pounds. RS-232 is included, and December is the estimated release date.

PRICE:
Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD, $2,199

CONTACT:
(800) 421-1404, pioneerelectronics.com