Pioneer's DV-420V upscaling DVD player somehow makes MP3s sound better

Pioneer already blew out its good stuff this morning, but it saved this gem for a little afternoon delight. The DV-420V 1080p upconverting DVD player not only makes your existing DVD collection look its best, but it's the first deck to feature "an exclusive MP3 encoding capability for supreme music portability." Oddly enough, those are pretty much the only details we're given on the subject, but the front-panel USB port enables playback of DivX files and JPEG shots if you find that of interest. We're thinking not, so you can feel free to save your $90 when it ships this summer.

[sam @ Jan 9th 2009 7:28AM]

wonder if it will playback Divx7, if so it will playback x264 .mkv files.

[sbrown @ Jan 9th 2009 7:47AM]

I doubt it about the x264 .mkv support but agree that would be great if it did.

[mirakutea @ Jan 9th 2009 7:57AM]

a cheap device like this that will playback HD x264 mkvs with subtitles, surely some mistake?

[Joey @ Jan 9th 2009 8:06AM]

If only - if only these gosh darned hardware manufacturers would step up their game and support these codecs. Seriously, it's really not that hard to do.

[mcatrage @ Jan 9th 2009 8:22AM]

I believe DIVX 7 is supposed to have h.264 support it has not been stated if the .mkv container will be supported.

[joey @ Jan 9th 2009 8:40AM]

actually right from the divx website regarding divx7:

Look for DivX Plus™ HD Certified devices later this year that will support playback of all DivX and DivX Plus files, as well as .mkv (H.264/AAC) videos from the Internet.

[Arkenklo @ Jan 9th 2009 7:33AM]

Low rank me.

[Lionbacker @ Jan 9th 2009 7:43AM]

No.

[Joey @ Jan 9th 2009 8:04AM]

Never.

[MW @ Jan 9th 2009 8:05AM]

It's always 4:20 somewhere!

[a420aDay @ Jan 9th 2009 11:30AM]

"Pioneer's DV-420V upscaling DVD player somehow makes MP3s sound better" well, I have an idea what makes 'em sound better!

At first the model number got me, then I noticed the clock in the picture is set to that time as well! Too Funny! Sounds like a great device to me, and I have to say that if it's at 4:20 it's gotta sound better, look better, taste better.

[ShastaCola @ Jan 9th 2009 8:55AM]

"Pioneer already blew out its good stuff this morning, but it saved this gem for a little afternoon delight."

Well done :)

[Ron @ Jan 9th 2009 9:21AM]

The title of the article does not make any sense!

The press info states that it "encodes" mp3's and does not mention anything about the quality of the decoding process.

This would mean it makes MP3 files, which I would assume would mean from CD's?

It would be great if it would make MP3's from DVD's!

[Chris Knight @ Jan 9th 2009 10:26AM]

As Engadget reported yesterday, this player will encode MP3 files to a flash drive from an audio CD. There's no mention of an EQ or other algorithm to make anything sound better.

[BCre8v @ Jan 9th 2009 10:27AM]

I was thinking the same thing...
It would be great to make JPG's from DVD's, but refrained from the comment because I saw that making my DVD's look better actually involves a bath, some moisturizer, and lipstick.

[yonan32 @ Jan 9th 2009 10:47AM]

how is this different from my DV-400V that i bought a little more than a year ago? the front panel looks EXACTLY the same save for the placement of the USB port (now under the LED display, 400V's on the left hand said where it said "PureCinema Progressive" here) and the four corner buttons around the pause/play keys (they're now squares instead of small circles).

and with the same entry price i'd expect this'd do the same as the 400v: decent upscaling, DivX/XviD playback but some resolutions won't play, and 320kbps and/or VBR is not supported (i forgot which, but i'm sure one of them is)

[Sam @ Jan 9th 2009 11:37AM]

I purcahsed a Pioneer DV-37 back in 2001 since it was their top of the line DVD player, but was also $700. I wonder if this one will have a better picture quality (regardless of upconverting) at only $90.

[Al Bundy @ Jan 10th 2009 2:03AM]

looks like bluray is really moving forward... /sarcasm

[r-gordon-7 @ Jan 13th 2009 5:30PM]

Further to the question of how the Pioneer DV-420V differs from the older DV-400V, how does the DV-420V differ from the DV-410V (which itself replaced the DV-400V this past spring/summer with almost no change from the DV-400V)?