Harman Kardon BDP 1 Christmas Discounts!
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Harman Kardon BDP 1 Christmas Discounts!.
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I picked one up friday (7/10) from Frys. My first inpressions are the H/K offers a very classy form with medium design quality; it's not as heavy and sturdy as my Pioneer 320, similar to an LG 390. The disc tray is noisy and has an uneven hasten that worries me it might be problematic over time. It does not shut with the authority or quality of the onkyo dv bd606 or denon dvd 2500btci. The unit itself is medium sized and fits nicely in a rack - similar in footprint to the pioneer 320.
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The remote is bad (pictured) DSCN0925.jpg- it has a bulbous destroy and few of the most extinct buttons (pop-up menu/disc menu) are in a logical plot. I spent five minutes studying the layout to regain most buttons. From this perspective, I can say it's not very intuitive or ergonomic. It does have a discrete on/off button.
The player is profile 2.0 with a LAN connection on the rear of the unit. The player can decode the lossless codecs, but lacks analogue outputs for older receivers. This is very disappointing for its mark level - most $300 players have this ability.
Performance
Speed
The player is disappointing dreary. It takes roughly 20 seconds to power on. Pressing eject when powered off takes a painful 19 seconds for the tray to begin, venturing into Pioneer -slow territory. Menu response time is medium. I noticed in running it through synthetic tests it was on the slower side of players.
Disc load times were also on the slowish side. Casino Royale took 37 seconds, a second slack the Pioneer 320 and twice as tiresome as the JVC XV-BP1 or Oppo BDP83. Java discs like the Pirates of Carribbean were equally expressionless, reaching the disney splash hide in a puny flat (the $200 JVC can approach the same position in 27 seconds) .
BD Performance
BD at 1080P 24fps was suitable and on par with most other players.
SD DVD Performance
I had high hopes for the H/K in this segment and its results were a bit disappointing and very distinguished mid-pack. It did well on synthetic tests with the usual film cadences, but struggled on video-based material, with noticeable jaggies in the speedometer test S&M offers. The video-based samples in the S&M test disc demonstrated its awful performance.
In real-world material, I would rate the performance mediocre. I select the Oppo, Pioneer 320, Denon 2500, and JVC to its image, but would say its overall sd dvd upscaling quality is adequate. That said, it is disappointing when you believe its $500 notice mark.
Closing Thoughts
This player is priced about twice as distinguished as its featureset and PQ offer. I cannot recommend this player at its original effect point in an ever-completitive marketplace. The Pioneer 320 offers satisfactory performance, analogue outputs, and better tweaking menus at $200 less. The JVC XV BP1 offers quicker performance, better sd dvd upconversion and is $300 less.
As a fan of H/K products, I was very disappointed by the quality of this very expensive product. It is dull and sd upconverting that is about the same as my PS3. Without analog outputs, I am tremulous that H/K thinks they can charge $400 for this player!
Well, let me disagree with previous reviewers, as it looks they are some HK bashers. My experience with it is of different sort. I acquire another Blu-Ray player, highly rated LG BD300, and while it is expansive machine, with plethora of connections and offers Netflix on-board, HK definitely has an edge when it comes to narrate and sound quality.
If this thing is connected to Harman's receiver (I have 3490) and big TV (I have 60pg60) the sound and narrate will leave you breathless. The disagreement, as it is always with high quality equipment, is noticeable when all elements of signal chain is of decent quality. In this way all efforts are toward visual/audio experience. Blu-Ray of Celine's explain (which is profitable both visually and sonically) was played and sounded and looked like never before!
I also can't piece other reviewers complains about "slowness" of the procedure. Again, I have LG bd300 which is highly rated for its rapidly load, and so I expected (based on the reviews) some worthy slower timing from BDP-1. Well, if you would discontinue with stop-watch and time it, may be it is somewhat slower (I did not timed it), but for normal utilize, I can't detect any appreciable dissimilarity. As I sit down to sight movie, would it load in 20 sec or in 24 makes no dissimilarity to me.
In short, if you have a decent tv and sound system, net it. The record is worth a thousands words.
