Lexicon BD-30 Universal Blu-ray Player First Look

Lexicon is not really a manufacturer that is known for their high value products. While they often offer products on the cutting edge, you are certainly going to pay for it. Hot on the heels of the Oppo BDP-83 release (a scant $499 in comparison), the Lexicon BD-30 comes in at a scathing $3,500. Lest you think they are priced well out of contention with everyone else, the Denon DVD-A1UDCI universal player that just arrived, has had a price bump up to $4500. Marantz' pending UD9004 universal player is slated to show up at $5999, according to their website.

As you'd expect, the Lexicon has everything you might want in a Blu-ray player including Profile 2.0 and BD-Live support, 7.1 analogue outputs, and top of the line scaling. For your legacy DVDs, the BD-30 includes Anchor Bay’s (ABT) Video Reference Series (VRS) video processing chips. This is the top of the line offering from Anchor Bay and will provide as good upscaling as you can get on any device currently on the market. Dedicated stereo output and RS-232 support are included as are one each coaxial and optical digital audio outputs.

Upon closer inspection it looks as though Lexicon simply repackaged the Oppo BDP-83, and got it THX certified.  At roughly $3k more than the Oppo its a hard sale for all but those loyal to the brand.  Notice the virtually identical back panel of the Oppo BDP-83 (pictured below) and Lexicon BD-30 players.  This is no coincidence but in fact yet another example of cloned products (see Attack of the Clone Processors and Attack of the Clone Amplifiers). 

Oppo BDP-83 Back Panel

   Lexicon BP-30 Back Panel (rendering)

Like Oppo before them, Lexicon is really pushing the inclusion of a USB 2.0 port on the back of the unit with the BD-30. This allows users access to any content off a USB key or drive. This, according to Lexicon, is the reason that the BD-30 player is future-proof. While we agree that they have included just about everything they could, we're not convinced that USB connection alone will be enough to guarantee future-proof-ness (is that a word?) Surely, something will prevent a hurdle at the chipset level. One thing that is not clear from the Lexicon release is Bitstreaming versus native decoding. Under supported audio formats they list a "Source Direct" mode for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. This sounds like bitstreaming, but we'll have to wait for the full review to find out more and also to see what options exist for PCM output.

One thing that is clear is that Lexicon is not really marketing this player to the common man (or woman), especially those that frequent internet sites like these to get the full scoop. If you didn't get that from the price, then you will from the language of the release. There are constant references to custom installers specifically in relation to the RS-232 support but also in general. It it obvious that Lexicon expects this product to be marketed to those with the money to afford a home theater installation specialist. For the amount of money they are asking, we're not surprised.  Lexicon is not the first manufacturer to clone a source device.  McIntosh used to clone Pioneer LD players, Denon used to clone Panasonic DVD players, etc.  But kudos to Lexicon for offering the first cloned Blu-ray player at SEVEN (7) times the price of the original article.

Conclusion

While the BD-30 may be marketed as a top of the line universal Blu-ray player, it is obviously geared towards a particular clientèle. From an aesthetics standpoint, it is clearly a winner as it has the exact look you'd expect from a high end manufacturer like Lexicon. At least it looks like it will. The picture provided by the manufacturer is clearly a rendering and not a working model. We expect that the product will be similar if not exactly the same. The BD-30 will be released at this year's CEDIA and we expect it will be shipping soon after.

For those with deep pockets that are not content in buying a relatively generic Chinese name brand player (albeit an excellent one), you can rest assured that Lexicon's got you covered with their version of this player that includes a thicker faceplate, THX certification and a more glorious name brand.  Sometimes bragging rights are worth a little extra coin... but in this case its more akin to a small government bail out.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.