Vinod.R
Well-Known Member
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
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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