Pioneer Electronics has announced that they will release their
BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player for the European market this summer to replace the existing
BDP-LX70. The BonusView (Profile v1.1) player will feature the latest technological advancements to improve both performance and stability over the existing model.
On the video front, the player will include support for 24p output, 12-bit deep color support, a 297MHz 12-bit video encoder, and an improved graphical interface. Audio has been upgraded to support both bitstreaming and decoding of all audio formats to include Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (to be added via firmware after launch). DACs will be supplied from Wolfson and there will 7.1 analog outs.
The player has been optimized to work flawlessly with the Pioneer Kuro line of plasma TVs, and have even matched interfaces. Of course, the player will also work great with any other video set-up.
No word on when Pioneer will be releasing a BD-Live player, but the inclusion of a Ethernet port on all their players should make even the LX71 an easy upgrade.