Pioneer BDP-320 BD-Live Blu-ray Disc Player with PQLS and 48-bit Deep Colour (Black) (BDP-320)

PROS: Excellent AQ/PQ for BD. Very good upscaling for DVD. Ability to decode dts-hd MA. Bd-Live enabled. Source-Direct video output option. Sleek design. Sturdy disc-loading tray.

CONS: SLOW operation. DVD layer change delay. KURO Link doesn't work if connected to a KURO TV via non-pioneer receiver. No blue light on Standby/On button as pictured in stock photo.

This was my upgrade from the PS3 and as far as PQ/AQ is concerned, I am very satisfied. I've always put image quality over speed, but I've been spoiled by the speedy operation of the PS3. The 320 is slow all around, including: start-up, eject, disc-loading, fast forward/rewind command and BD menu navigation (in certain discs like 'Saawariya'). The worst part for me is having to wait for the disc tray to open during start up. It only takes 30 seconds, but when you are standing in front of the player to put a disc in, and not on your couch, it feels a lot longer.

The DVD Layer-change delay is very annoying. A 2009 BD player should not have this issue, period! Especially Pioneer since its previous generation of players (BDP-51) had been plagued with this issue and they had a long time to correct it for the newer units. Many older DVD players costing 1/10 its price don't even have this problem. Its very dissapointing.

HD picture quality is absolutely stunning. Its slightly better than the mighty PS3. In source-direct (my default setting), the picture is slightly more neutral and less-noisy, as if there is less video processing. You'd have to look hard to find the difference though. SD upscaling is also very good. It comparable to the Reon HQV thats in my AVR. Audio quality is about the same as the PS3 when decoded internally and transmitted via HDMI. However, I find my Onkyo 885 doing a better job at decoding. When bitstreamed, Dolby digital track sounds much more dynamic and robust and the bass is more actively present. I've compared it with the DRC turned off on the player. I haven't tried the analog outputs.

Overall this player is O.K. I would recommend the bdp-51 (its cheaper and has better build) if your AVR can docode the high-res audio and you don't care too much about BD-live. If I had a choice, I would get the Oppo bdp-83 over the 320/51 for about $200 more. Its faster, has an excellent Anchor Bay VRS scaler, ability to play SACD/DVD-Audio, and customer service and product support you can count on to fix bugs (if any). Since the 320 is fairly new and has the potential to accommodate major firmware updates with its larger ROM, it may be possible to improve its performace in the future, but as of now, the player gets 3/5 rating in my book. Pictures posted on customer image section.

Edit (12/28/09): With the latest FW update (ver. 3.41), pioneer has resolved the DVD layer change issue. Coupled with the recent price drop and performance improvements, this is the best blu-ray player in its price range.

When buying a blu-ray, or for that matter any dvd/blu-ray player, a great dividing line in quality is the player's ability to upconvert standard dvds. Most manufacturers market their players as "able to upconvert standard dvds to near 1080p levels." But what does this really mean? And are all upconverting players putting out satisfactory upconverted images? And are all upconverted images alike? And most importantly, can a really great upconverted image avoid having to replace all of one's standard dvd library? Well, in light of my experience with the Pioneer 320.....

But before answering the above questions, a word about the basis of this review. I own a Misubishi 54" 1080p rear DLP projector, purchased new about one year ago. Blu-rays are displayed by use of a very good Sony 350 player---a player itself worth buying for use in displaying blu ray dvds (if you can find it). I also have a 110" Grayhawk screen, displaying images from a Sharp 1080i DLP front projector. And, I own many legacy dvds and their blu ray counterparts. The 110" grayhawk is an outstanding real world laboratory for evaluating the ability of a player to "upconvert" standard dvds. A 110" screen, is, in short, unforgiving, as any player's shortcomings are very apparent. So too, however, a player's strengths. And since I can do A/B tests of the same movie in blu-ray v standard upconverted versions, using both the Sharp 1080i and Mitsuibishi 1080p displays, this review is offered for your consideration.

The Pioneer 320 is outstanding in its ability to upconvert standard dvds! The resulting image with most (not all) of my dvds has been astounding. The result is new life and appreciation for my large dvd library. The Pioneer's color and detail abilities are worthy of being marketed as "near 1080p levels". Previously I used a Denon dvd player for use with the 110" grayhawk screen. The Denon is a very good player, but its upconverted images displayed on the 110" screen do not come close to the upconverted dvd images produced by the Pioneer 320. With my Denon, most standard dvds had a grainy unappealing image, sometimes so bad I was forced to reduce the image size. Similiarly, my Sony 320 was less than satisying when upgrading older DVDs. Not so, however, when I use the Pioneer 320.

As with most blu ray players, the Pioneer displays blu rays very well.

Sound: Amazing! Surround sound was very improved with the Pioneer 320, and most importantly, VOCAL INTELLIBILTY is stellar.

And now, a word about criticism over the Pioneer's delay in turn on, chapter search, etc. The pioneer "delay" is often descibed as maddening, nearly 30-45 seconds slower than the faster Oppo 83 when turning on. This criticism may be well intended, but its must ado about nothing. By the way, my Pioneer turn on time etc is faster than that suggested in some reviews posted here. Perhaps the time delay critics' units are early models which have now been sped up by modifications .

In any event, by the time you turn on the player, put in the disc, get to your seat with your favorite beverage, dim the lights, you are ready to go. Movies are to be enjoyed, and the extra seconds (seconds) is an issue only for the very impatient, "I want it right now " crowd. Incidentally, front projectors have a "turn on delay" as well; expect a minute or so before quality imaging is possible. The projector must warm up too. So the best strategy for the very impatient: (1) Turn on the Pioneer blu ray, then (2) turn on the projector (or whatever ) then (3) select disc then (4) put in disc (in a now booted up and ready to load Pioneer blu ray player). Finally, Go to seat: push play! And you wont have missed a thing. Not a second.

Upconverted images produced by most players really turn out to be very disappointing, especially when comparing the standard dvd images to blu-ray images. The satisfaction gap grows wider with the width of the screen. Viewing upconverted images on most players well supports a conclusion that the old legacy dvds must be replaced, especially where the image is displayed on a large screen. Of course, Blu ray dvds, without question, do offer a "better picture" over their standard dvd versions (all things being equal in use of source material, etc). But can the PQ " satisfaction gap" between blu ray and standard dvd movies be narrowed such that most standard dvds look great, even on a large screen? Yes, at least with the Pioneer 320!

With my equipment, the difference between the images of blu-rays on my Sony 350/ 54" Mitsuibishi and images of upconverted standard dvds on the Grayhawk/ Pioneer 320 are usually very minor, despite viewing the Pioneer's upconverted images on a very large screen . Of course, poorly done dvds still look, well, poorly done. An example is the Dirty Harry DVD----that is one I must replace with a blu ray version in order to enjoy it on the big screen. Fortunately, poor quality dvds constitute but a small percentage of my dvds. The point here is that the Pioneer 320 player usually produces very satisfying upconverted images on a very large screen.

The Pioneer's audio/video performance is wonderful. Its solid build quality and A/V qualities easily reveal that Pioneer put its design attention and money largely into A/V values, that is, picture and sound. I think thats where our consumer money should be spent as well! Current pricing makes the Pioneer 320 the player to buy if the Oppo 83 ($500) is too much for your budget. With the Oppo, well, you will get 15-30 seconds or so of faster turn on time, and I would bet a slight improvement in AQ/PQ over the Pioneer 320. But for bang for the buck , I suggest you give the Pioneer 320 a home test; you wont be disappointed! Big Thumbs Up!!!

I have a BDP-320 hooked up to a Kuro PDP-5020FD. Set-up was very quick with most settings being automatic between the two Pioneer devices. The only manual setting change I had to make to the BDP-320 was to set the output to Source Direct.

The 320's deinterlacing was inferior to the Kuro. I used Hot Fuzz as a test DVD and the 320 produced noticeable jagged edges on the white Metropolitan Police logo on the character's black vest. Changing to Source Direct cleared up any artifacts and made for the best DVD picture on my Kuro yet. On some other DVD material (LOTR) I found the best image to be when the BDP-320 is upconverting and the PDP-5020FD is deinterlacing. Either way the BDP-320 gives you all the flexability you need to get the best possible picture from your setup.

The sound quality of BD using the optical digital out is noticeably improved over DVD. There is greater definition in the low frequency and it seems that sound placement is more well defined. These are subjective observations, but I was surprised to notice a difference. This makes me more likely to upgrade my receiver to a newer model that can handle the losseless audio formats over HDMI.

Although the BDP-320 is my first BDP, from what I can tell it is not a big improvement to Pioneers previous model the BDP-51FD. Owners of both claim the load times, picture quality, sound quality and DVD layer change response are nearly identical. The improvements of the BDP-320 are a reduced chassis height, increase ROM size (good for the firmware engineers at Pioneer so good for you to), out-of-the-box support for DTS HD MA, great BD compatibility, and built-in BD-Live with included 1GB memory and LAN. I hope that the BDP-320's larger ROM will allow future firmware updates to push its perfomance past the BDP-51FD.

Times using The Dark Night with BD-Live
Power off to tray opened - 27s
Press tray close to WB logo - 42s
Press tray close to start of movie - 1m.53s

I'm very happy with my purchase but was surprised that the load times were not improved over the Pioneer BDP-51. (Okay, I was very happy with the BDP-320 but the DVD layer change delay was not acceptable. The BDP-320 was retuned, and an Oppo BDP-83 is its replacement.)

The player's build quality is solid and heavy. The picture quality is the best I have seen on my PDP-5020. Anyone who claims BD is not much improved over DVD is not doing it right. Although DVD looks nice, BD is dramatically improved in both color depth, black level as well as simply having a higher pixel count.

The BDP-320 being of the same PQ/SQ of the BPD-51FD makes it one of the best players on the market. I suggest reading reviews of the BDP-51FD and keeping in mind the improvements of the BDP-320.