Pioneer has announced the next two Blu-ray Disc players in their line-up, the Elite BDP-05FD and Pioneer® BDP-51FD, are coming to stores this summer.
Both players will come packaged fully compatible with BonusView support. Other necessities Blu-ray fans expect including HDMI 1.3a, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, and 1080p / True 24 frames-per-second (fps) video are present and accounted for.
The extra $200 for the Elite model will net you a 297Mhz 12-Bit encoder versus a 108Mhz 12-Bit encoder, gold plated connectors, an aluminum front panel, Capacitance touch key buttons, and a two-year warranty versus one.
Of course, both models will be fully compatible with Pioneer’s KURO displays and upcoming Elite A/V receivers (SC-05 or SC-07) for simple one-touch controls.
Now the kicker: the Elite BDP-05FD and Pioneer® BDP-51FD will cost $799 and $599, respectively, leaveing Sony’s Playstation 3 as the most affordable Blu-ray Disc player on the market.