Introduction Back in May 2007, Pioneer introduced their first Blu-ray player to the market. The BDP-94FD offered desirable Blu-ray traits like 1080p/24 output and onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding, and it added one distinguishing feature: Pioneer’s Home Media Gallery, which lets you stream music, photos and HD video from a PC or DLNA-compliant server. At $999, the BDP-94FD was priced competitively with many of the other Blu-ray players hitting the market at the time. Just five months later, Pioneer released their second-generation player, the BDP-95FD, which adds one highly desirable feature: the ability to send the native bit stream of a Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD soundtrack over HDMI. While just about every other Blu-ray manufacturer has lowered prices to stay competitive, Pioneer opted to stick with $999 for the BDP-95FD. The company’s decision to remain positioned in the higher-end luxury market works ...

Introduction When Warner Brothers announced in early January that they are going to release future titles exclusively in the Blu-ray format, most people heralded the end of the high-def format war and all the confusion it has caused. Sure, there are bound to be a few more skirmishes, but realistically, the war is probably over. What does that mean for the consumer? Well, an end to the confusion, of course, and a guarantee that the Blu-ray player you buy now won’t go the route of Beta and become obsolete. Not so fast. Blu-ray may soon be the only high-def disc format, but early adopters are still taking some risk if they buy a Blu-ray player now. Why? Because most of the players currently on the market don’t exploit the format’s full potential. The average consumer probably isn’t even aware that the Blu-ray ...

Introduction Not since VHS vs. Beta has an AV format war been the source of so much turmoil for consumers. More so than SACD vs. DVD-Audio, HD DVD vs. Blu-ray has sparked numerous debates around the water cooler, caused much consumer confusion and even managed to shut down portions of one of the Internet’s largest consumer electronics forum because of – get this – death threats. That’s right, death threats. While consumers flock to stores in droves for HDTVs, it has only been in recent weeks, with radical price drops on players, that consumers are looking toward HD players to actually feed their new HDTVs with beaming, beautiful video content. Consider this review round three. I recently reviewed the Toshiba HD-A20 and raved about it, proclaiming it to be the best HD DVD player on the market at the time. The review ...

Introduction I’m sure you are all aware of the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. Both sides seem to be dug in for a hard-fought and lengthy battle. Some consumers, still bitter over the last format war between SACD and DVD-Audio, are choosing to sit this one out. Others, myself and other AVRev.com writers included, are taking a drastically different approach. I personally have purchased more than five players from each of the two HD formats since they have been released and have been enjoying both formats to their fullest. There is simply no substitute for the increased resolution these discs offer over even the best scaled standard-definition DVDs. Samsung was the first company to produce a player with true 1080p output, the BDP-1000, and is now shipping their second-generation Blu-ray player, the BD-P1200. Carrying a retail price of $599, the new BD-P1200 promises to significantly improve on load times and the generally clumsy ...

Introduction HD DVD vs. Blu-ray. It seems, once again, consumers are in the middle of yet another format war. While round one has seemingly come and gone with the introduction of both parties’ initial efforts a little over a year ago, like all good fights, nothing is ever won in the first round and consumers now find themselves entrenched in round two. You could argue that round one had to go to Blu-ray (despite missing the opening bell by months) with their true 1080p support trumping HD DVD’s 1080i-only resolution. However, the victory was a hollow one, for the first batch of 1080p discs were less than stellar and often looked worse then their HD DVD and sometimes even standard DVD counterparts. Now, both sides have full 1080p support and, with the introduction of the new Toshiba HD-A20 reviewed here, it seems HD DVD’s trump card is now price. At $499 retail, the HD-A20 ...