As one of the most expensive Blu-ray players available, you'd expect the Pioneer BDP-HD1 to offer some extras and nice-to-haves, and this unit doesn't entirely disappoint in that regard. In addition to the usual stellar performance on Blu-ray content, the BDP-HD1 offers network media playback, along with the ability to match standard movie frame rates at 24 frames per second (fps). Only a small number of HDTV sets can handle this frame rate, but it is supposed to improve picture quality (a claim we have yet to be able to substantiate). The design of this unit is unremarkable but by no means objectionable, and it also offers the ability to dim or turn off front-panel lighting.

The Pioneer BDP-HD1 is pricey but also offers more features

Like the Philips BDP9000, the Pioneer BDP-HD1 falls down a bit on the audio side. It won't play back standard audio CDs (which suggests that a 705 nm infrared laser is missing from the pickup), nor does it handle high-resolution media such as DVD-Audio or SACD. This latter omission isn't terribly awful considering the relatively small number of high-resolution discs in circulation, but it is somewhat galling to realize that you'll need to have another player available to continue listening to conventional audio CDs. The BDP-HD1 also doesn't decode high-resolution audio formats such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-HD at their highest resolutions. It will handle uncompressed multichannel LPCM soundtracks, though, which do appear in some Blu-ray movies. This unit also lacks HDMI 1.3, which means it can't emit Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD in encoded bitstream format, which an emerging set of HDMI-equipped AV receivers should be able to decode.

In addition to its HDMI 1.2 output, you'll also find component video, plus both S-Video and composite video outputs. For audio, you'll find outputs for optical and coaxial digital audio, plus analogue 5.1 multi-channel sound and conventional stereo. Beyond these mostly typical connections, the BDP-HD1 includes an Ethernet port, and it can play music and movies and display photos on other network attached devices. That said, file format support is pretty spartan: WMV and MPEG for movies; MP3, WMA and WAV for music; and GIF, JPEG, and PNG for photos. All of these worked with Windows Media Connect software on a network-attached PC, though some difficulties with JPEG photo display have been reported. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has also certified this unit, which means that it should be able to display content from other devices similarly certified. Since we currently have no other such devices at our disposal, though, we were unable to dig more deeply into the possibilities that this offers.

Alas, there are also some issues with upconverting conventional 480p DVD content to higher resolutions. The unit has some resolution problems with 1080i, and there are reports of instability and flicker issues with 720p and 1080p upconversion as well. There are occasional 2:3 pull-down issues reported with this unit, too. Both the Panasonic DMP-BD10 and the Philips BDP9000 do better with conventional DVD playback than this unit. As with several other first-generation Blu-ray players, this unit also suffers from slow disc load and startup performance.

Given its high price, multichannel sound and audio CD limitations, and playback issues with conventional DVDs, the media server and DLNA support the Pioneer BDP-HD1 offers had better be extremely important to buyers, or this unit probably won't satisfy their needs.