Pioneer BDP-150-K 3D Blu-ray Player Review

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Reviewed by Mark Hodgkinson, 30th December 2012. If you can pick the Pioneer BDP-150-K up for around £100, you really can’t go wrong. It’s nicely engineered, speedy and hushed in operation and fully capable of playing your Blu-rays, whether 2D or 3D, with precision. What’s more, it will give those old DVD’s a whole new lease of life thanks to its fantastic handling of standard definition content. Highly Recommended.
Read the full review...
 
Excellent review. This really looks like a quality piece of kit and the fact that it is virtually silent in operation is an added bonus- especially in this price range. I have a 4 yr old Pioneer BDP-51FD and it still works flawlessly.
2 questions for ya', does the BDP-150K have a 'Source Direct' mode, and what exactly is the difference between YCbCR444 and YCbCr422...:confused:
 
2 questions for ya', does the BDP-150K have a 'Source Direct' mode, and what exactly is the difference between YCbCR444 and YCbCr422...:confused:

It doesn't have a source direct mode that will automatically set output based on content. It does appear to support manual output selection that can support native SD i.e. 576i etc.

Perhaps the easiest way to think of YCbCr is as a form of lossy compression to save transmission bandwidth and storage space. Think of Y' (luma) as the black and white part of the image and the Cb/Cr as the colour (chroma) parts of the image. There are various stages of YCbCr compression that affect the resolution of chroma components but the Y' component is always at full resolution.

Blu-ray movies use YCbCr 4:2:0 which basically means for 1080 content Y' is 1920x1080 resolution but chroma is subsampled to 960x540. The missing chroma samples are then made up (upsampled) by the player to output a minimum of YCbCr 4:2:2. This basically means chroma is now full vertical resolution 960x1080. Optionally the player may upsample chroma to YCbCr 4:4:4 and then chroma is fully upsampled to1920x1080.

Sending YCbCR 4:4:4 from the player isn't necessarily better because it depends on a number of variables such as the native format other products in the video chain may use, HDMI version and what does the better job of chroma upsampling etc.
 
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It doesn't have a source direct mode that will automatically set output based on content. It does appear to support manual output selection that can support native SD i.e. 576i etc.

Perhaps the easiest way to think of YCbCr is as a form of lossy compression to save transmission bandwidth and storage space. Think of Y' as the black and white part of the image and the Cb/Cr as the colour (chroma) parts of the image. There are various stages of YCbCr compression that affect the resolution of chroma components but the Y' component is always at full resolution.

Blu-ray movies use YCbCr 4:2:0 which basically means for 1080 content Y' is 1920x1080 resolution but chroma is subsampled to 860x540. The missing chroma samples are then made up (upsampled) by the player to output a minimum of YCbCr 4:2:2. This basically means chroma is now full vertical resolution 960x1080. Optionally the player may upsample chroma to YCbCr 4:4:4 and then chroma is fully upsampled to1920x1080.

Sending YCbCR 4:4:4 from the player isn't necessarily better because it depends on a number of variables such as the native format other products in the video chain may use, HDMI version and what does the better job of chroma upsampling etc.

Thank you very much for the detailed info- interesting! :smashin:
 
I've always found AVI's explanations to be informative and useful - and (unusually for AV) B.S. free... :)
 
Actually, I think the pic on the site is of the BDP440 (notice the time on the player also says 4:40 !)
 
I picked one up from currys for £85. It's actually my first blu ray player - and if this is quiet, I dread to think what a noisy player is like. Probably been spoilt by my brick like sony dvd player over the years.
 
I picked one up from currys for £85. It's actually my first blu ray player - and if this is quiet, I dread to think what a noisy player is like. Probably been spoilt by my brick like sony dvd player over the years.

I also picked one up and apart from initial start up is pretty quiet and makes less noise than my Sony Blu player. I cant see Netflix in any menu though, found Youtube and Picassa, do you have to download it or something?
 
I picked one up from currys for £85. It's actually my first blu ray player - and if this is quiet, I dread to think what a noisy player is like. Probably been spoilt by my brick like sony dvd player over the years.

I bought one yesterday. I agree with MartinN: this player is not quiet. I had bought the player mainly based on the review saying that it is quiet.
When playing the first track of a movie, there is a high pitch noise. Second track, pitch noise goes down a bit, next track even more.
So I guess that in order to read at constant data speed, disk rotation speed is changed, with highest speed in the beginning.
I could not stand the initial high pitch noise and returned the player to the shop.
Now I wonder if avforums get "tweaked" samples for reviews.
 
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Hi,

The player is defiantly noisy, not the worst i have heard but, i have taken it apart and noticed that the Blu ray drive assembly is bolted straight to the chassis. Maybe if some rubber grommets would help? (if you get what i mean)
Also i have had problems with newer FOX discs (Prometheus and the star wars ones) Put the disk in it loads and goes to the copyright/disclaimer screen goes black then hangs...... need to pull the plug, turn on , play the disc again and it works. My ps3 plays the discs straight off no problems. Also have the latest firmware.
Any ideas?

Apart from these issues its not bad, especially as its really cheap!

Cheers
Steve
 
Thanks for the detailed review :smashin:

What's the stereo audio playback like for CD's? AVF has covered this in quite a few other DVD/Blu Ray reviews but no mention of it here for the Pio 150.

Also, is this player capable of being set for multi region via a remote hack?
 
I picked one up yesterday. I must say i would not called it a hushed operation. After initial flurry of clicks and whirrs, the bluray playback settles down to a low whizzing which can be heard from the sofa 3 metres away. Dvds for some reason are a little quieter, but still not silent. Very annoying when using $$ hifi gear with the intention of having high quality sound experience! Not sure what the manufacturers were thinking there. I will exchange it on the weekend for another unit, on the assumption that i have a bad one. Otherwise, refund.
 
I respect the reviews on AV Forums but I think this is off the mark.

It's clunky, noisy, has no optical out ( so forget older amps and 3D) my old Ps3 played 3d's superbly well , this does not have the strength to carry the signal to my PJ. If you pause it, it then locks up meaning you have to stop the disc and start again, constant skipping and the build quality is shocking!

Stay away from this unit, it's worse than my old HD DVD EP30 and the biggest waste of money I have spent on AV:nono::lesson::thumbsdow
 
Just picked this beaut up from Currys/PC World for £60. First impressions are good, been playing a few old classics and the upscaling is brilliant
 
I want to get one but has any one been able to make the DVD region free with the remote hack ?:lease:

got this off another forum but untested:

1.Make sure no Disc in tray
2.Press " HOME " on Remote
3.Press Number keys " 1389310 "
4.Power off then Back On

Now try a non-Region Disc
 
Very annoying when using $$ hifi gear with the intention of having high quality sound experience! Not sure what the manufacturers were thinking there.
They were probably thinking that people using $$ hifi gear won't be buying a low budget player. Which makes perfect sense if you ask me :)
 
I have this player now, paid £58, replaced a Panasonic BDT220, which was ok.
It makes A noise but its not noisy...


:thumbsup:
 
Just picked one of these up and so far so good. Picture excellent and easy to set up. The only problem I'm having is streaming movies from my D-Link Share Centre 320 NAS. Pictures and Music stream fine.

The player can access the folders on the NAS but when I try to stream anything the player just freezes. I've tried .mpg .avi. .mkv all formats that the player is supposed to be able to stream but nothing. I can't even go back to the main menu, I have to turn the player off and back on again.
 

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