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Your HDTV or projector is much like an athlete. Feed it rubbish and it won’t perform to its optimum level, but stick it on a diet of top-quality Blu-ray pictures and you’ll get stunning results. Sounds like a job for the Pioneer BDP-LX52. Read our full Pioneer BDP-LX52 review now to see just what we make of it.
Like most Pioneer players before it, the BDP-LX52 is packed with high-end AV electronics that serve up the most nutritious pictures a TV could ever hope for. The sort, in fact, that have made Pioneer the Blu-ray brand of choice for cinephiles everywhere.
As you’d hope from a player costing around twice as much as most budget decks, the BDP-LX52 looks stunning, boasts bullet-proof build quality and isn’t short on features. Its Profile 2.0 spec means you can grab BD Live content from the web, although the ugly Ethernet connection is as welcome as Kanye West at an awards ceremony – give us Wi-Fi any day of the week.
But on the plus side you don’t need a USB flash drive to store content as there’s 1GB of memory built right in (although you can add more using the USB port on the back).
Read our Sony BDP-S360 review now
Elsewhere the BDP-LX52 outputs Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio as PCM or bitstream from the HDMI port. The lack of multichannel outputs might upset a few old-school audiophiles, but they’re looking increasingly anachronistic in these digital-dominated days.
A greater disappointment is the lack of USB port for digital media playback, which means DivX, MP3, WMA, JPEG and AVCHD files can only be accessed from DVD or CD.
Rummage around in the setup menu and the BDP-LX52’s high-end credentials shine through. A comprehensive array of picture tweaks is backed up by advanced audio features like Precision Quartz Lock System, which ensures jitter-free music playback over the HDMI connection.
Although the Pioneer BDP-LX52 takes over a minute to load some discs, it’s worth the wait – pictures are hypnotically sharp and pulsate with bright, fulsome colours. The deck’s meticulous video processing strips the picture of noise and reproduces motion with satisfying fluidity. And whether you’re blasting out a hi-res movie track or enjoying music from CD, the Pioneer’s sound quality is second to none at this price.
Yes it’s pricey and the lack of Wi-Fi, multichannel outs and USB media playback is a shame, but one look at the BDP-LX52’s gobsmacking pictures and it all melts into insignificance. This is a deck by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, and will delight those who put performance above all else.
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