Despite the economic crisis, it seems that the rate of Blu-ray adoption among mainstream consumers is still pretty high, and for this reason, the most important names in this field are finally starting to push onto shelves some of the high-end players announced earlier this year. And one of the latest to do so is Pioneer, which has announced the official availability of its Elite BDP-23FD, BDP-120 and BDP-320 BD models.

According to the company's statement, each of these three new BD players delivers a host of video performance advancements and convenient user features, including here 48-bit Deep Color Support, advanced Video Noise Reduction Circuits and a Picture Control Suite offering various image adjustment capabilities that provide consumers a truly customizable viewing experience.

Moreover, in order to support the BD-Live features of the most recent Blu-ray discs, Pioneer incorporates one gigabyte of internal on-board memory with its top two models, while the entry-level BDP-120 model comes packaged with a Sandisk 1GB USB flash drive. All three players feature an integrated USB port for use with compatible flash drives and hard disk drives to provide further storage capacity for BD-Live entertainment.

“This new line of Blu-ray Disc players represents a core Pioneer philosophy to introduce robust home theater products and show our unwillingness to deliver anything less than the best in audio and video performances for consumers,” said Chris Walker, senior manger of Blu-ray Disc marketing and product planning for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “With these players we’re providing consumers with superior high definition solutions that offer the full power of the Blu-ray format, including BD-Live, by adding substantial memory options so they can easily experience this exciting entertainment right out of the box.”

And now, for the moment most of you have been waiting for, namely the pricing. So, the flagship Elite BDP-23FD model has a suggested retail price of $599 (which, after all, was to be expected), while the other two BD players retail for $399 (the BDP-320) and $299 (the BDP-120), respectively.


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .