Back to the home theatre arena today with a look at Pioneer’s VSX-1021-K 7.1 channel receiver. One of the top features on this receiver is its ability to talk nicely with Apple products using ‘AirPlay’ to stream music from an iTunes on another networked machine. The Pioneer VSX-1021-K also comes with a handy USB/video cable for the iPod, iPhone and iPad so any media on your Apple portable toys is easily available for the receiver. Of course the unit still stands up as a great receiver for those of us non-Apple fan-boys with HDMI 1.4a 3D ready connectivity, support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and DLNA 1.5 certification for full home netwrok integration. If all these things tickle your fancy then read on!

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Featured Tags home-theatre-receiver, pioneer


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Today we’re going to take a look a 7.1 channel home theatre system from Pioneer, the VSX-1020-K. According to Pioneer this little sucker will get you as close as possible to exactly what the artist created. A bold statement indeed, and whilst we’ve not heard the VSX-1020-K system in action the features and specs certainly add up to a top-notch home theatre experience. The unit sports six HDMI connections, all 3-D ready of course, “Works with iPhone” certification, network connectivity, on-screen GUI. Here’s a longer list of the features on the Pioneer VSX-1020-K

* Front USB connectivity provide iPod, touch, and iPhone users ultimate plug-and-play integration of their Apple products with their home theater
* Simple connectivity to high-performance HD video, HD audio, portable, internet, wireless, and analog components
* The latest version of HDMI inputs and outputs provide more HD connectivity options with “future-proof” 3-D capability
* 1080p video conversion and upscaling ensures the highest quality video from any source

Pioneer VSX-1020-K Technical Specifications

# Channels: 7.1 surround sound
# Power: 110×7 watts
# HDMI Specification: v. 1.4, 3D, Deep Color and X.V. Color
# HDMI Ports: 6 in (including 1 front in), 1 out
# Component Ports: 2 in, 1 out
# Audio Codecs Supported: DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Pro Logic IIz with pre-out
# Video Modes Supported: 1080p and below
# Audio Modes Supported: Multi-zone (7.1, 5.1 + 2)
# Digital Formats Supported: JPEG, MP3, WAV, WMA
# “Works with iPhone”-certified

Pioneer VSX-1020-K Receiver Reviews

Reviewer	Rating	Pro	Cons
Amazon	4/5	HDMI ports Analog video upscaling
CNet	4/5	7.1 channel AV receiver; excellent sound quality; six HDMI inputs; 3D compatible; graphical user interface	no audio return channel support; doesn’t support standby pass-through; no minijack input
Big Picture Big Sound	3.5/4	Six 3D-capable HDMI 1.4a inputs iControl AV iPhone app makes “remote” control easier Integrated internet radio is a nice touch	Limited Crossover Frequency options Remote’s buttons are too small, too many and Volume should be bigger

Featured Tags home-theatre-system, pioneer


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Just over a year ago, we told you all about Pioneer’s Elite Blu-Ray player range, well now they’ve added another unit, the BDP-23FD to be precise. There are a few extra bells and whistles on the BDP-23FD from last year’s model with 1 GB of memory and a USB port for HDDs plus Pioneer’s own Precision Quartz Locking System

This near jitter-free transmission operates between the Blu-ray Disc player and a multi-channel PQLS-equipped Pioneer receiver by synchronizing both components’ digital clocks for optimal audio playback.

Ooo, sounds funky doesn’t it, of course to appreciate it, you’ll have to have a Pioneer receiver! Anyway here are the rest of the bits and pieces on the BDP-23FD Blu-Ray player

* 1080p at 24fps
* Advanced Picture Control Suite
* 48-bit Deep Color
* Support for Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD® Master audio
* 1080p DVD upscaling
* 1GB of internal memory
* USB port with HDD support
* BD-Live™ Compliant (Profile 2.0)
* 7.1 Channel Analog Audio, Optical Digital Outputs
* Support for AVCHD video format
* HDMI, Composite, Component video output
* Ethernet connectivity
* 420 x 83 x 287 mm
* 3.7 kg

All this for only US$600 too, it sounds like a good deal to us. The unit certainly has all the features you’d expect from a great Blu-Ray player, so we think Pioneer may just have a winner on their hands here. Let us know what you think.

Source: Pioneer

Featured Tags blu-ray-player, pioneer


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Pioneer have just released the BDR-203BK Blu-Ray writer for the PC - this little sucker writes zeroes and ones to both single and dual layer BD-R format disks at a whopping 8x speed. Needless to say it handles other formats as well, but the 8x speed for BD-R is the outstanding feature of the BDR-203K. The bad news, for stateside readers at any rate, is that Pioneer have only released the BDR-203K in Europe as of yet. However we see no reason why it shouldn’t make it across the pond. Here are the full specs for the keen Europeans amongst us.

* Write support for BD-R (Single & Dual Layer), BD-RE (Single & Dual Layer), DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R, CD-RW
* Read support for BD-ROM (Single & Dual Layer), BD-R (Single & Dual Layer), BD-RE (Single & Dual Layer), DVD-ROM (Single & Dual Layer, Single & Dual Sided), DVD-Video (Single & Dual Layer), DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, CD-ROM,CD-R, CD-RW
* Speeds 8X writing speed for BD-R (Single & Dual Layer), 2X writing speed for BD-RE (Single & Dual Layer), 8X reading speed for BD-R/RE/ROM (Single Layer), 6X reading speed for BD-R/RE/ROM (Dual Layer), 16X writing speed for DVD-R/+R, 16X reading speed for DVD-R/+R/ROM (Single Layer), 8X writing speed for DVD-R DL/+R DL (Dual / Double Layer), 12X reading speed for DVD-R DL/+R DL/ROM (Dual / Double Layer), 6X writing speed for DVD-RW, 8X writing speed for DVD+RW, 12X reading speed for DVD-RW/+RW, 5X writing speed for DVD-RAM, 5X reading speed for DVD-RAM, 32X reading/writing speed for CD-R, 24X reading/writing speed for CD-RW, 40X reading speed for CD-ROM
* Serial ATA 2.6 interface
* 1.5 Gb/s data transfer
* 4 MB data buffer
* 148 x 42.3 x 180 mm
* 0.82 kg

Impressive figurework on those Blu-Ray write speeds and a neat little price tag of 250 Euros which equates to around 320 US$. The Pioneer BDR-203BK also incorporates the following features

* Ultra DRA: suppress vibration when reading and writing , a technology based on know-how that Pioneer has been cultivating in the development of DVD writers
* Limited Equalizer LSI : dramatically improves reading reliability
* Multi-Effect Liquid Crystal Tilt Compensator: this advances recording and playback characteristics by adding correction to the laser beam which compensates for disc impurities such as titled media and media of various thickness

All in all, the Pioneer BDR-203BK Blu-Ray drive is a neat little package at an attractive price, let’s hope those Europeans don’t keep it to themselves!

Source: Pioneer

Featured Tags blu-ray-drive, pioneer


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With the format war now well and truly over, you would think manufacturers would be rushing out new Blu-Ray players for the new and previously untapped undecided HD consumer. However we haven’t seen much evidence of this product onslaught, but Pioneer have leapt in with two new Blu-Ray players to complement their Kuro range of plasmas, the Elite BDP-05FD and BDP-51FD. Feast your eyes on these specs

* BonusView extra disc content support
* 1080p 24fps output
* HDMI 1.3a ports
* PureCinema Deinterlacer for upscaling standard definition DVDs
* 7.1 surround sound
* Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD and DTS HD Master support
* BDP-05FD has gold-plated connections and a faster 297 MHz video encoder as opposed to standard connections and 108 MHz on the BDP-51FD

These suckers talk ever so nicely with Pioneer’s Kuro HDTV range with both players featuring auto-setup when detecting a Kuro HDTV hanging off of it. The settings have been entered by Pioneer engineers to

ensure subtle details, vivid colors and deep shadows are accurately reproduced when shown on KURO displays

according to the marketing blurb. The price tags are US$600 for the BDP-51FD and US$800 for BDP-05FD, not cheap but then these units are not the run of the mill Blu-Ray players.

Pioneer are obviously aiming these at the home theatre enthusiast with a large-ish wallet believing that it was these consumers playing neutral during the war. If they are right then these puppies will sell like the proverbial hot cakes!

Featured Tags bdp-51fd, blu-ray-player, elite-bdp-05fd, pioneer


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For those of us whose wallets may not have seen the light of day in a while may well want to skip this article. Pioneer have just unleashed the Kuro KRF-9000FD projector - a snip at 8000 Euros (US$12,460). So what do you get for this princely sum?

* 1920 x 1080 res using Liqiuid Crystal on Silicon technology
* 60 to 200 inch picture size range
* supports movie aspect ratio of 2.35:1
* 30,000:1 contrast ratio
* 80% vertical and 34% horizontal lens shift
* 600 lumens brightness
* 2 1.3 HDMI ports, component/composite/S-Video inputs
* 24db noise level
* 280W power consumption
* 11.6 kg
* 455 x 172.5 x 418.5 mm

Well the bells and whistles certainly look good, so if you’re up for recreating a movie theatre in your own home, the Pioneer Kuro KRF-9000FD may just be what you’re looking for. Just in case you’re still not convinced here’s a bit of the marketing spiel from Pioneer

Developed specifically for cinephiles with a dedicated home cinema room, the KURO projector is configured for screen sizes starting from 60 inches. Aside from displaying signature KURO style cosmetics, it supports advanced calibration and is in line with the KURO benchmark of deep black levels and rich colours, resulting in the unmistakable look of film. It incorporates LCOS 1080p technology, producing the highest native contrast ratio. Based on 3 x 0.7 inch D-ILA, it boasts a wide lens shift capacity and dual HDMI 1.3 support.

As with all forms of display, its what works well with your given entertainment area that matters, but if you are looking for a great home cinema experience then the KRF-9000FD is certainly going to help you achieve that.

Source: i4u

Featured Tags KRF-9000FD, kuro, pioneer, projector


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