Refine search for Home Cinema

Pioneer BDP-LX71 Blu-ray Player Review

Author	Danny Phillips
Published	6th Nov 2008
Manufacturer	Pioneer
Price	£510.43 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£586.99 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price	Click here

Design
Features
Performance
Value
Overall

8 comments Email

TrustedReviews Newsletters

The meticulous attention to detail continues with the Video Adjust menu, which enables you to match the player's picture characteristics to those of your display. There are specific presets for Pioneer KURO plasma, a ‘regular' plasma, an LCD set and a projector, plus three memory settings that allow you to alter the parameters yourself - and the list of tweakable options will send videophiles into rapture.

The look and layout of the user interface is stunning and matches the menu system found on Pioneer's latest KURO plasma TVs, giving your system some very welcome uniformity if you're lucky enough to be pairing it with one of their sets. The cursor darts around the menus with pleasing speed and the use of white text on a moody black background makes it easy to read.

Click to enlarge

The attractive remote also plays its part in the LX71's effortless operation, sporting clearly labelled, well-spaced buttons and excellent silver menu controls. There are keys to control of all the crucial functions, including up/down buttons to change the resolution as you watch, plus buttons to turn the BonusView secondary video and audio on and off. If we're being honest, we'd like the buttons to have been a bit bigger but on the whole it's a very likeable zapper.

The LX71's disc loading times are a lot faster than its predecessor - with the Transformers disc, we clocked it at 49 seconds from the moment we pressed the Close button to the disc's language selection menu appearing on screen. With Spider-Man 3, it took 1min 22 seconds for the Sony logo to appear. It's a bit slow to skip chapters and move through the search speeds but we've yet to encounter a Blu-ray deck that does this as quickly as a DVD player.

To see LX71's pictures at their best they should be viewed on a Pioneer KURO plasma, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on the company's latest flagship set, the 60in KRP-600A. And from the moment Transformers cranked into life, we were simply staggered by what we saw.

Most players do a decent job of bringing this disc's abundant detail and lively colour palette to the screen, but few can do so with such intensity, depth and transparency. The richly textured robot CGI looks sharper than ever before, allowing every nut, bolt, scuff and scratch on Optimus Prime's bodywork to be clearly visible.

But it's not just stuff knocked up on an Apple Mac that looks great - the deck easily picks out the pockmarks and stubble on Shia LeBoeuf's face, and lends his skin a satisfyingly realistic hue. Reproduction of bolder colours is also fantastic, with Bumblebee's bright yellow paintwork jumping from the screen and Optimus Prime's red and blue body looking deep and radiant, without a hint of garishness or edge bleed.

Skipping to the end battle scenes, the LX71 tracks the frenetic, fast-moving action without any sign of judder. The dense colours and solid blacks give long shots of the city streets a real sense of depth and distance, while the forceful detail handling continues to make those robots and the surrounding buildings look crisp and focused at all times.

Latest 4 of 8 Comments

Have your say: Leave a comment below about this article.

Kyle Mitchell said on 7th November 2008

Danny,

You said "it can decode DTS HD MA and DTS HD into hi-res PCM when using the HDMI output". I don't believe this is true, it can bitstream DTS-HD... more

niftynigel said on 10th November 2008

According to the manual (Page 50) (I haven't got the player, but downloaded the excellent manual nonetheless), DTS-HD Master Audio and High Res are output as PCM through the a... more

Peter Allen said on 11th November 2008

niftynigel,

I agree with all you say, but your first statement is only half right! Page 50 of the manual says that when the source is DTS-HD HR or DTS-HD MA, then the analogue output is DTS Digital Surround (ie the DVD variety) converted to 5.1ch PCM. As well as being only core DTS quality, also missing are the two surround-rear channels that DTS-HD is capable of.

This is what the promised Jan/Feb firmware upgrade will presumably fix.

What surprises me in perusing the manual is that I have yet to find any reference to delay compensation adjustments for surround channels at different distances to the listener than the primary front speakers. Both the Panasonic and Sony counterparts to this machine have distance compensation. I have this problem with my 2002 SACD player, and it's most annoying (but was unavoidable at the time). I WANT the Pioneer to be right for me due to its sound, video and build quality (& don't care one whit about network connection), but this factor, if true, is a strike against it.

Also, I'm a legacy user on two counts. All the money I could afford was spent on TV and AV amp in 2002, and it's too early to replace them yet. So I need analogue video (1080i component) as well as 7.1ch analogue audio in a blu-ray player (+ HDMI 1.3 for the future, no problems there). Page 25 is therefore disappointing. On the 1080i output setting for component video, neither NTSC or PAL DVDs are upconverted, only de-interlaced. Compare the Sony, whose output is 1080i for DVDs and BDs, unless the contents are "protected".

Well, I've never heard of protected content on DVDs that would prevent upscaling; indeed upscaling is common on DVD players. As for blu-ray, from what I've read in forums (fora?) so far, only a handful of BDs have had the ICT flag enabled, which would force the BD component output to 480p. (As if pirates would "play" analogue video at reduced quality to make a copy rather than find a way to digitally rip the contents! - another stupid studio "shot in the foot" idea and annoyance for real users, like region coding, IMO. But I digress).

Anyway, I see that as two strikes against the Pioneer, unless someone can show me otherwise. I'm a complete newbie to blu-ray - have never had a player - and am trying to learn fast so as to not make an expensive mistake. I welcome any enlightenment on these issues!

niftynigel,

I agree with all you say, but your first statement is only half right! Page 50 of the manual says that when the source is DTS-HD HR or DTS-HD MA, then th... more

Ian said on 29th November 2008

Danny/ All, I am considering buying the BDP-LX71 or the panasonic dmp bd-55 which is a little less expensive. Ultimately I am looking for best video and audio quality. Any thoughts... more

See all 8 comments on this article.

Add your comment

You must be logged in to comment. Login or register here.