Pioneer announced today that the new BDP-LX70, the company's first Blu-ray disc player will be available in Europe next June.

The BDP-LX70 promise to offer 'master quality'; audio and video, perfectly played back at 1080p and 24Hz. That is, at exactly the same speed and using the same 24 frames per second as the film was shot, stored, mastered and screened at the cinema.

The player supports Dolby TrueHD "lossless" audio, as well as the ability to receive compressed audio, movie and image files across a home IP network. The player is DLNA compatible (by Ethernet), which means that content such as MPEG2, WMV9, WMA9 Pro, MP3 and JPEG files can be streamed from a home computer or server to the player.



The black glossy player itself has a double-layered chassis, which delivers mechanical stability. The main circuit, power supply, Blu-ray drive and audio circuits are also sealed for mechanical strength. For enhanced high-definition output, the player is equipped with Gold-plated terminals.

The BDP-LX70 can also play DVDs, supporting both PAL and NTSC playback. It can play audio CDs, too.

The player also complies with Windows Media Player 11, offering a host of options for playback of multi-media files directly from a home PC. GUI languages include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian.

The BDP-LX70 uses HDMI control (HDMI-CEC = Consumer Electronics Control), which means that, once it is connected to a Pioneer flat screen TV, for example, a single remote control can be used to control both systems.

The BDP-LX70 will be commercially available in June. In the near future, Pioneer is planning to introduce a HD Audio Bitstream output player to replace this model.