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PERFORMANCE

Although the Pioneer's basic operation proved speedier than earlier Blu-ray models, its performance was somewhat sluggish compared with other new machines I've tested. It took 28 seconds to power up and open the disc tray, and the same amount of time was required for DVDs and many Blu-ray Discs to load and start playing. (Discs with advanced menus and interactive features usually took longer.)

The player has four scan and reverse search speeds, with the 2x mode providing generally smooth quality. On some Blu-rays - Men in Black, for example - the player tended to freeze up, and was also slow to react to remote commands, in search mode. Pioneer's latest firmware update (Version 1.7, which is soon to be available as a download from the company's Web site) is designed to fix playback and menu navigation issues like these.

Video performance was first-rate with Blu-ray Discs. When I watched V for Vendetta, the impeccably crisp picture allowed details like the sequins and textured tights of showgirls to come across clear and solid in the scene where V enters the BTN facility strapped with explosives. I was also impressed by the player's picture quality when using its component-video output: When I switched between the player's component-video and HDMI outputs to compare movie scenes, any differences in sharpness, clarity, or color saturation proved to be minimal.

The player's handling of Bonus View features worked without a glitch. Calling up V for Vendetta's onscreen video commentary, I was able to watch the film's director, James McTeigue, and star Natalie Portman chattering on from an inset box on one portion of the screen. As with BD-Live features (something that the Pioneer, as a Profile 1.1 player lacking an Ethernet connection, can't deliver), I've yet to be impressed by a Bonus View PIP video commentary; I instead usually find them intrusive. But the Blu-ray format is fairly new, so there's still hope.

The Pioneer's upconversion of regular DVDs was also exceptionally good. It passed nearly all of the video workouts contained on the Silicon Optix HQV test DVD, and also made the discs I watched - even some marginal-quality transfers - look crisp and presentable. The wide range of picture adjustments available in the player's setup menu helped quite a bit in this respect. Options here include brightness, contrast, color, hue, detail, and gamma adjustment, along with four noise-reduction settings; most of these proved effective in enhancing DVD picture quality. I also appreciated being able to store my adjustments in one of three memory presets and call them up via the remote's Video Adjust button.

BOTTOM LINE

Pioneer's flagship BDP-05FD is a big, shiny beast of a Blu-ray player - one that's loaded with features designed to squeeze the best possible performance out of your Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs. But for a machine that costs nearly eight hundred bucks, there are things I would have liked to see included out-of-the-box, such as DTS-HD Master Audio decoding and BD-Live compatibility. It might lag behind its competition in those respects, but the BDP-05FD still manages to do quite a number of things right.