CES 2009

Now that Blu-ray players have dramatically decreased in price, DVD is making a slow exit out of the consumer electronics industry. But Pioneer’s newest upconverting DVD player caters to those who are still holding on, and offers a few innovative features for the Blu-ray-converted group too.

The Pioneer DV-420V 1080p upconverting DVD player provides a digital analog converter (DAC), which claims to give you get better-than-average image quality. It also features MP3 encoding capability, which enables you to rip your discs and transfer the audio files directly to a USB drive, hard drive or portable music device. The USB port in the front allows users to play Internet video and display JPEG images on a connected TV screen as well.

Pioneer does stress that this one can (and should) be used in a “secondary” room, like a kitchen, bedroom, or office. And with the DV-420V’s compelling features and tempting price tag ($90), it might be okay to cheat on Blu-ray just this once.