The world of DVD players is a rather crowded world; both in the shelf and the portable sectors, and any new product offering in plain-vanilla DVD playback technology must have some exceptional features in order to differentiate itself from its close neighbors. Many of our readers may not have heard of the Avayon brand, but in the DVD playback world, there is very good reason to check out Avayon for both your fixed and portable DVD playback needs.

In addition to basic DVD playback (Region free, I might add), Avayon’s new products, including the "DXP-1000 DVD Player," and the "DXP-7P" and "DXP-10P" Portables, are “DIVX Certified.” A handful of pre-existing DVD playback products from other manufacturers have advertised DIVX compatibility, but Avayon’s products are most universally compatible with DIVX media that you might have sitting on your PC, including the latest DIVX 6 encoded files. Indeed, we tested a huge selection of DIVX media on each of the Avayon products, and found only a handful of files that were unable to play. Indeed, the files that would not play were likely of a DIVX format that was incompatible with most available PC-based CODEC’s anyway, certainly not of any mainstream format that users might typically use!

The DIVX capability of the Avayon players was clearly the most attractive feature for our testers, as previously the only way in which DIVX media could be played in our test facilities was through a PC connection to our Plasma television. That said, compressed video of any sort truly shows its limitations on a large screen, so the Avayon players cannot create miracles in eliminating compression artifacts that are also prevalent from PC-based playback.

The new DXP-1000 DVD Player also advertises “NERO” Certification, a new standard based on NERO’s “NERO Digital” format. Apparently the “NERO Digital” encoding offers high quality surround sound and crisp images, based on the MPEG-4 compression format. The scope of our review did not allow for us to test media encoded with “NERO Digital,” but we imagine this to be a useful capability should the “NERO Digital” standard achieve any level of acceptance in the marketplace.

While DVD players are a dime-a-dozen at mass-market retailers these days, there is the occasional product that manages to differentiate itself from the pack. With its DIVX certification, its universal DVD playback capabilities, and its excellent value for the money, Avayon has introduced a formidable new competitor in the sector. Whether fixed or portable, Avayon stacks up very nicely against the big names in consumer electronics, giving them a run for their money and introducing a new name in DVD playback devices.