Pioneer is out to address an important grievance that customers have against it. Customers are apparently peeved at the seemingly steep price of the Pioneer’s BDP-LX71, which prevented them from experiencing its amazing performance and taking advantage of its state-of the art features. Pioneer is determined to appease this section of customers and consequently has come out with the entry-level BDP-51FD Blu-ray Player. The amazing thing about this Pioneer player is that despite offering an almost similar array of features, it costs almost half of what its predecessor cost.

Yeah, you will find that the BDP-51FD features a few cosmetic tweaks, and that it is equipped with relatively inferior video DACs, but amidst the number of positives you rarely notice them.

The amazing cost difference in part can be attributed to the BDP-51FD doing away with the touch-sensitive buttons with normal ones, and the silver trim around the play button is also done away with. It means that the Pioneer BDP-51FD is focused more on performance rather than on titillating the customers with style. Despite making the sacrifices the player has a business like attitude, especially when coupled with company’s similarly styled AV receivers and plasma TVs, and its unconventional dimensions also makes for a refreshing break from the conventional players.

The player comes equipped a wide selection of sockets, while on the video side you you’ll find HDMI (v1.3), component, composite and S-video outputs. The audio socket options meanwhile is composed of optical and coaxial digital outs, 7.1-channel analogue outputs as well as a separate set of analogue stereo outs.

The player like its predecessor is Profile 1.1, meaning that you can’t get the complete Blu-ray experience, which is rather disheartening when you realize that there are cheaper decks that support BD Live features. Another genuine drawback that the player has inherited from its illustrious peer is that it is unable to decode DTS HD Master Audio soundtracks internally, which signifies that you have to take help of the multi-channel analogue outputs to get the DTS core.