Philips BDP9000 review

Unlike some other Blu-ray players, the BDP9000 does not support either of the high-resolution audio formats, DVD-Audio and SACD. If you don't already have a collection of these discs you probably won't consider this a big loss.

Connectivity on the BDP9000 is standard compared to other Blu-ray players. The most important connection is the HDMI output, which is capable of carrying both 1,080p high-definition signals and multichannel audio. Philips also includes an HDMI cable with the BDP9000, which is a nice touch. The rest of the video connectivity is rounded out by a component-video output and an A/V output with S-Video. While the component video output on current Blu-ray and HD DVD players can output Blu-ray movies at high-definition resolutions such as 720p, 1,080i, and 1,080p, it is possible that in the future movie studios will restrict the component-video output resolution of certain movies. For audio connections, the BDP9000 can use the aforementioned HDMI output, as well as optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, 5.1 multichannel analog outputs, and standard stereo analog outputs. As we mentioned before, the front of the unit has two media card slots that the manual says can handle CompactFlash (type I), Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick Pro, Multimedia and Secure Digital memory cards, as well as Memory Stick Duo, Reduced Size Multimedia and Mini Secure Digital memory cards with appropriate adapters.

Performance
To test Blu-ray image performance, we put the Philips BDP9000 up against several other players we had on hand: the Panasonic DMP-BD10, the Samsung BD-P1000, and the Sony PlayStation 3. We spent several hours watching footage on these players and the verdict was clear: all the players we looked at offered extremely similar image quality. We looked at these players on the Pioneer Elite Pro-FHD1 and the Sony KDS-R60XBR2 at 1,080p over HDMI using our Gefen HDMI switch/distribution amplifier, and started off by watching Aeon Flux, one of the better Blu-ray releases in terms of picture quality. Despite there being tons of very detailed scenes, we found the players to be nearly equally sharp. Every time we thought we noticed a difference, we'd watch it on the other player and noticed that it was there too. Even when we thought we'd be able to notice some differences--such as the thin vertical lines on Chapter 9--we wound up feeling like none of the players had an edge.

We decided to move on to the Mission: Impossible III disc and found more of the same. In all our viewing, our gut instinct is that perhaps the Panasonic DMP-BD10 had a slight edge on the Philips BD9000 in terms of sharpness--but the difference is so slight that we wouldn't trust ourselves to be able to tell them apart in a blind test. We did notice some video artifacts in the movie, particularly where Philip Seymour Hoffman walks through the party there is some slight judder, and we could also see some jaggies in the background. However, these issues were present in all of the players, so either they are present in the source or none of the current Blu-ray players could handle them properly. We also took a quick look at the test patterns hidden on Sony Blu-ray releases--which can be accessed by pressing 7669 (S-O-N-Y) and then Enter from the main menu screen. Switching between the resolution pattern on the Philips BD9000 and the Panasonic DMP-BD10, they looked extremely similar--which wasn't surprising considering what we saw in actual program material.

The Philips, and indeed none of the Blu-ray players we've tested so far, cannot output 1,080p at 24 frames per second (1,080p/24); they all use the standard 1,080p/60 frame rate. Since few displays can handle 1,080p/24 this isn't a big issue. On the few displays that can, however, the 1,080p/24 capabilities of the other two Blu-ray players--Sony's BDP-S1 and Pioneer's BDP-HD1--might lead to a slight picture-quality improvement. We don't know yet because we haven't tested them.

As most people will have more DVDs than Blu-ray discs for quite some time, we consider the DVD upscaling performance of a player to be very important. We started off by looking at Silicon Optix's HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) test suite in 1,080p, 1,080i, 720p and 480p resolutions. For the most part the BDP9000 was very good--the first pattern demonstrated it successfully passed the full resolution of DVDs without a problem, and this was backed up by another test with marble stairs and a bridge that looked very detailed for DVD. It also didn't have any problem with scrolling titles--like those you'd see on CNN--or a 2:3 pulldown test with a racecar, where its processing kicked in after about a second.

We did notice some issues on other tests however, albeit nothing particularly egregious. For example, a test with a rotating line looked mostly good, although when an additional graphic popped up on the screen, it suffered from bad jaggies and made the line go haywire. We also noticed that the processing was a little slow to kick in on some tests--such as a test with three shifting lines--which is a little worse than the Panasonic DMP-BD10. On the other hand, we also looked at the Windows DVD test annex and the BD9000 had no issues with the chroma upsampling error--a problem we noticed on the DMP-BD10.

While looking at test patterns is a good way to spot problems, the real test is looking at actual program material. We started with our favorite 2:3 pulldown torture test, Star Trek: Insurrection, and the BDP9000 handled it admirably. The curved lines on the bridge and boat hulls were rendered smoothly, and although there was a little judder as the camera panned across the village, we see this on almost every DVD player. We also took a look at the opening of Seabiscuit, which often gives lesser DVDs problems. Despite some of the minor video processing issues we noticed in HQV, the BDP9000 handled the opening of black and white photos very well, with almost no jaggies. Overall, the BDP9000 is a very good upscaling DVD player and we imagine only the most ardent videophiles would find much to complain about.

A lot of the complaints about first generation high-definition disc players have been regarding their slow load times--the notoriously slow Toshiba HD-A1 could take over a minute to load a disc. The Philips BDP9000 is decidedly quicker, loading most discs in close to 22 seconds. We also felt the BDP9000 was just at tad faster than the Panasonic DMP-BD10 in skipping around chapters--although this doesn't matter much if you usually watch a movie straight through. Of course, none of the standard Blu-ray players can match the speed of the PS3; its chapter skips are nearly instantaneous, and it has the fastest load times we've tested yet.