How Many Formats Can Your DVD Player Play?

January 7, 2005

Pioneer Player Works With DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, WMA, .mp3, DVD-R, DVD-RW, .JPG, DivX

At times it seems like the movie studios and recording industry release a new type of format or disc every week. With so many acronyms on the market – DVD, SACD, DivX, etc. – it's tough to figure out which formats or discs work with which player. While no DVD player can guarantee its ability to playback every format available, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is working to simplify the situation with the introduction of a DVD player that plays many of these new formats and discs.

Pioneer’s new DV-588A-S is a full-featured, single-play DVD player that brings high-resolution music and movies into thousands of homes with playback of DVD-Video with PureCinema progressive scan, DVD-R and DVD-RW discs for home recordings, DVD-Audio and SACD for multi-channel music, DivX for viewing Internet video material, .mp3 and WMA for compressed music, and .jpg for photo viewing.

For the value-oriented consumer, Pioneer is also introducing the DV-285-S, an entry-level workhorse offering the best in performance with playback of DVD-Video with PureCinema progressive scan, at a price that can’t be overlooked. It also offers playback of .mp3 and WMA compressed music formats and has a PhotoViewer for digital images.

“These new DVD players offer performance features at a great value to consumers,” said Gary Bauhard, director of marketing for home entertainment of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “In today’s digital world, players need to be flexible enough to playback a majority of digital audio and video formats especially compressed audio content.”

Both DVD players offer outstanding image quality with Pioneer’s PureCinema progressive scan circuitry and 108 MHz/12 bit video signal processing. They also process both Dolby™ Digital and DTS™ for a complete surround sound experience from DVD. They offer component and S-video outputs.

The DV-588A-S and DV-285-S will be available in April at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199 and $99 respectively.