Bought/imported/Review Pioneer Blu Ray Player BDP-51FD

Vinod.R

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I have actually received the player since I started to search for this player in April 2012.

THIS MIGHT BE THE LONGEST WAIT FOR A BLU RAY PLAYER (ABOUT 1 YEAR) ALL INCLUSIVE.

I have to thank Manoj.P sincerely since it is by his efforts that I could at last get this player here in India. This actually started in 23rd April 2012 when Manoj volunteered to buy the player on my behalf through the Ebay auction. This is a player which is not easily available in India. This blu ray player was the only one which could fit in my system, as if you go through my wanted thread for a Blu ray player my AVR has no hdmi and I needed a player which could do the decoding on board and send analogue 7.1 out.

I was overwhelmed by this offer as he had just read my thread and said that he would bid on my behalf and buy it for me. Mind you no talk of money or anything at all was done at this stage. When I asked him, he very kindly said that we see the money part later, let us first get this player for you. Till this point of time, I did not know which part of USA he was from and he did not know anything about me except for the fact that I was from Bangalore and a fellow FM.

Then started the long bidding process wherein he got a player from someone in the US called Zorba Linda and this player turned out to be a dud and did not work properly. That seller kindly accepted a return and our search for a new player started all over again. Now imagine that he not only bid for this player, but also made further suggestions about other players and also the pros and cons of this player. All these discussions happened through PM and he also scoured locally for this player if he could buy it by seeing it personally. I would have really bugged him with details and my incessant PMs, however Manoj was really patient with me and answered all my questions/queries in a very patient manner. I can vouch for the fact because at least 150 PMs are there in my id of our conversations between him and me. I am very sorry that I have to delete them all without being able to save them as I am reaching the PM message limit on my account.

We fixed a rough budget of $100 and he and me started to keep a watch on all the auctions. So many unsuccessful bids and nothing went through. I was beginning to get impatient and he asked me to be patient and said that a sweet reward is well worth waiting. So I waited and waited and he did too.
Suddenly he found that on a bid the player was good and it was a unit without much problems. Mind you, Pioneer BDP-51FD is said to be a problematic model in the sense that some serial numbers have playability issues and the rest of the series are just fine. So you not only look at the player but also its serial number to make sure it has no playing issues.
Manoj was looking through Craiglists, Ebay, Amazon and other places for this player. We had looked at BDP-320 and it did not suit my purpose.

In the meanwhile Panasonic BDP-DMT500 had come into the market but was way too expensive for me. (I think it is still expensive) So we decided to drop the Panasonic and concentrate on the Pioneer.

At last the player was bought off by Manoj from a buyer and then came the shipping part.

My uncle was coming to Chennai and he agreed to bring this player for me from the USA. All I had to do was to get the player sent to him to his house. We missed the boat by one week. He left exactly a week before Manoj finalised the deal with the Ebay seller.:( (Just my luck!) and his next vacation to India was to be in about 2 years.

Then after a wait period of about 4 months, I managed to get the shipment arranged through a FM who helped me with a contact who agreed to ship this player for me.

At last the player has been received by me on the 16th March 2013 with a wait of almost 1 year and I must once again thank Manoj.P for his help and active inputs to buy this player for me. Without his help this would not have been possible at all.

I am posting pictures of this player and will review in this thread and will soon post both its pros and cons so that people with AVRs/Pre power combo who do not have hdmi built in their AVRs can seriously look at this player can look at decoding HD audio decoding on board and sending analogue to their AVRs. I will also test it as a standalone CD player with the existing contraints of my system and also post views.

Major pros: On board decoding up to DTS-HD master audio and the same can be output through 7.1 analogue outs with built in 4 wolfson DACs.

Major cons: No USB port and only profile 1.1.

Website link:

BDP-51FD - Pioneer BonusView Blu-ray Disc Player | Pioneer Electronics USA

Total cost is as follows to me:
Cost of the player : $68.80 + shipping to Manoj which is $16.50
Shipping from Southern California to NY: $30.00
NY to Mumbai: Rs 2500
Custom duties: Rs 3200
Mumbai to Bangalore: Rs 750
Total Cost: $115.30 + shipping and duties to India Rs 6450
(I know quite a lot of money (about Rs 12,500 in total), got jacked in custom duties but no other options available in India for a built in decoding player blu ray player :()

ONCE AGAIN I THANK MANOJ.P FOR HIS EXEMPLARY HELP IN PROCURING THIS PLAYER FOR ME. WITHOUT HIS HELP THIS WHOLE PURCHASE WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE. JUST GOES TO SHOW TO WHAT EXTENT ONE FORUM MEMBER IS WILLING TO HELP ANOTHER. HE HAS ALSO INCLUDED A TRON BLU RAY ON HIS OWN TO START OFF MY BLU RAY COLLECTION PLUS ALL THE FIRMWARE UPGRADES IN CD SO THAT IT IS EASY FOR ME TO FIRMWARE DOWNGRADE OR UPGRADE. THE BEST PART IS THAT HE DID NOT EVEN MENTION TO ME THAT HE HAD INCLUDED A TRON BLU RAY.

Guys who have region 1/region free blu ray discs that they want to sell can PM me also, so I can start my collection. :)

Here is some eye candy on its arrival :) :) :) after its long trip and I will soon post other details as soon as I start using this player. This would be my first blu ray player that I would use and test out.

It is a long post and if any errors do forgive me :)
 

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Heartiest congratulations. I know the agony of waiting. I was looking to buy since March, 2007 (when the BD of "Casino Royale" was released). But the cheapest players were around $500 at that time and the good ones like Sony were $1000. Plus the format war was still raging. I finally purchased my Sony BDP in August, 2009 for $227.50 at Fry's, San Jose, CA and brought it to India. So, in a sense my wait was bit longer though there were no twists and turns of the plot that you have experienced. :p

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks Baiju and Just4kix,

It has been a long long wait and the two of you can understand the wait. Also I had no CD player in the interim with the Pioneer 686 DVD player being sold off. So I was off music for some time and will now get on with it!
 
Vinod,

My mother was right, I am a "great" person. :p :lol:

On a serious note, thanks for all the kind words, it's quite flattering. All I did was offer help, same way I have received it on Internet forums. I am sure anyone on this forum would do the same. I am glad you have received the player after a long wait and now finally enjoy it.
 
Manoj,

I would not quite agree with that (All I did was offer help). Many people do not even offer help even if they are in the same street. You did something for me across continents and without even knowing me properly, that is indeed "great".

I have started offering help to people in this forum/outside in whatever small way I can. I hope that it goes a long way in making me a better person.
 
@manoj, you are being too modest. Enjoy accolades and very just praise when due. :)

Sent from my GT-I9100G using Tapatalk 2
 
Preliminary Review of blu ray player Pioneer BDP-51FD:

Pros

1) Clear play, simple menu outlay, uncomplicated menu setup.
2) Clean playing of blu ray, DVD, CD, MP3 and photo files.
3) No NTSC/PAL issues while playing Indian DVDs (also able to play recorded versions (software on latest version 1.73 as of now), movies checked Ayan, Tron, Jab tak hai jaan, devotional CDs and MP3s.
4) Video quality is pristine (This was checked on a Panasonic UT50 50 inches plasma).
5) Audio yet to be checked as I have not checked its audio through an AVR yet.
6) Individual speaker settings for 7.1 audio available.
7) Heavy gauge detachable power cord.
8) Is able to decode up to DTS-MA.
9) No cinavaria protection as it is able to read recorded media.
10) Player is very heavy 12 pounds 9 ounces. Very stable and very quiet mechanism. Has a very elite feel to it.

Cons

1) Button response is very slow, one can go for a cup of tea and come back. You have to wait after pressing one button and cannot press a couple of buttons at the same time.
2) Initial loading is very slow one has to wait for at least 30-40 seconds for the menu's to activate themselves.
3) No BD live support as the player is profile 1.1.
4) Remote buttons are very small and very easily wrong ones can be depressed.
5) Converter has to be purchased and attached for the 110 v.
6) Manual is quite complicated and certain nomenclature is confusing.
7)Firmware updates through the CDR route only, no internet updates possible.
8) No USB port, so attaching a usb device or hard drive is not possible.

updates

Dated 19/03/2013

1) Converter MX model 745A which is rated at 50W did not have enough juice to drive the player. Picked another MX converter rated at 1600W which was heating up. Returned both and I am now looking at a isolation transformer based converter.
2) HDMI 1.3a so no ARC on it.

I will update the list as time goes on. This I hope will be helpful for Non-HDMI AVR owners who want to buy a blu ray player.
 
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Got a Maxcon model number 1176, 200watts transformer type converter and the player is settled at last on the power front.

CD playback review

Tried a few CDs using the Pioneer blu ray player. Used monster analogue cables and connected to L/R out from the player to my AVR CD in.

Tried both Direct and stereo modes.

The first think I noted is that the music now sounds very quiet and dynamic. No unnecessary hiss or background noise. Very dynamic sounding. Crisp. Well rounded. In short it is a very good CD player on its own. I am comparing this playback to my old Pioneer DVD 686 which was a reasonably decent player for CD but this unit does truimph it.

The only thing holding it back may be my AVR Denon 3803 or the KEF Q7 that I tested it with. I am sure with a dedicated stereo amp and more capable speakers this player can really shine.

I am quite sure that it is very good as a standalone CD player and is worth for only that. The DVD and blu ray play is just a bonus. The heavy and quiet mechanism really contribute to very good quality play.

Display read out is BIG and good. It can be completely dimmed and switched off.

This unit is "Made in Japan" so no made in China/Thailand here.

It is able to play roughly handled CDs as well. Tried a few scratched CDs and it handled them as well.

Anyone looking for a dedicated CD player can add one more option to their buy list with this blu ray player.

This is my own opinion and I am sure there will be other standalone units which can definitely do a better job at playing CDs but they either cost an arm or leg or can play only CDs.

I must thank Manoj once again for choosing this amazing and unique player for me.
 
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congrats on your successful purchase. how is the customs duty calculated for blu-ray players? i'm planning to get a pre-modded blu-ray player (for multi region playback) from 220 electronics and have my friend bring it to India. so any idea how much duty it would attract?
 
Hello Vic6888,

Sorry I did not see your post in my thread. Been going to the hospital so missed a lot of threads.

There is a Panasonic BD500 for sale in our forum which can easily fulfill all your needs. Can be easily modded for multi region playback and is a top notch player to boot. Far better than my player due to various reasons and also in hif ads. Here are the links:

http://www.hifivision.com/sale-owner/51188-panasonic-dmp-bdt500-bluray-player.html

http://www.hifiads.com/ads/panasonic-dmp-bdt500-blu-ray-player/

If your friend is bringing it and he does not have other dutiable items, he might be able to slip it through. Other FMs can confirm it.

Vinod
 
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The Marantz PM7000N offers big, spacious and insightful sound, class-leading clarity and a solid streaming platform in a award winning package.
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