Pioneer DV-420 DVD Player

I was looking for a player with the ability to play Xvid files (on CD-R or DVD+R) and this player does it. I also wanted a player that was reliable - I can't verify that yet - We'll have to see how it holds up in a year or two. I've had two other players (Daewoo) that degraded over a period of time - So I hope that this one lasts!

So far my experience has been good. It has played all of the various CD-R discs that I've used in it, and all of the DVD+R discs too.

Video Filetypes and Formats:
The user manual says it plays .AVI .DIVX and .WMV  This is not the whole story since .AVI files can contain video encoded with different codecs. An AVI file could be Divx or Xvid or something else.

The user manual claims DivX compatability, and yes - it does play them.

The user manual says:
“Files not containing DivX video signals cannot be played, even if they have the extension .avi”
It makes no mention of Xvid, but it does play Xvid files too!
Xvid is the format that you will find commonly on the peer to peer file-sharing networks.  I like to make my own Xvid files from shows that I record from HDTV.

Important to note about Xvid/DivX playback: There is a limit on the resolution / frame rate / bits per second. I’m not sure exactly what the limit is, but you’ll know it when you hit it. The video and audio will not be in sync or become jittery. The manual claims 720x480 resolution for WMA files, but does not mention DivX resolution. I would assume that it’s similar. I created an Xvid file from a HDTV program. I set the resolution below 720x480, but I inadvertently had a high frame rate (59.9 fps) and the audio/video was terribly out of sync. So I assume that successful playback is a result of getting the right combination of settings. It does seem that most of my .AVI library does play back fine with a few exceptions:

Files that won’t play:
-  .AVI files encoded with the an old codec (has a CC code of MP43)
-  Any file that has a resolution that is too high
-  .MKV files are not recognized.

USB:
Files on the USB thumb drive play similarly to the DVD files. This is convenient if you want a quick way to play a video or audio file that you’ve transferred from your PC.

RIPPING:
The player allows you to RIP CD to MP3. You can select bitrate of 128, 192 or 320 kbps.
The process is slower than you can do on your PC, and of course your MP3s are named TRACK01.MP3 , TRACK02.MP3 but still, it is convenient to have the feature

MP3:
I was concerned when I read in the user manual that they only support MP3s sampled at 32kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48kHz.  I have some audio books sampled at a lower rate (22.050 kHz), but they played fine. The manual says nothing about MP3 Bitrates. I tried 320 kbps and it plays fine.

Filenames:
For some reason they chop off  filenames at 14 characters while there is plenty of room on the screen for more! What’s the point of that Pioneer?