It's a sad fact that all DVD players aren't created equal. You get ones that churn out a lovely picture, and ones that don't do such a good job. The same is true of Blu-ray players, but of course with 1080p video it's much harder to tell what problems there are -- because everything looks amazing, even on the lower-quality players.

Since Pioneer has positioned itself as a high-end manufacturer, its job is to provide the very best players, even if 95 per cent of people can't tell the difference. That's where the BDP-LX71 comes in -- it's more expensive than most Blu-ray players, but is engineered to produce the best possible picture and sound quality from the format. It's a strategy that works well with Pioneer's TVs, which cost more, but have pretty much the best picture quality your money can buy.

Having said all of that, the BDP-LX71 isn't an especially over-priced player: a Google search told us that you can expect to pay around £700 or less for it. While that's more costly than many players -- and more than twice as much as a PS3 -- it's not a million miles away from Sony's BDP-S500, a player that spits out a brilliant picture, but is as slow as an asthmatic old dog and a nightmare with interactive discs.

The Pioneer is a profile 1.1 player, which means you get the secondary video decoder that allows you to watch picture-in-picture content -- you know, the sort of thing you get on every DVD and HD DVD player ever made. There's no Ethernet port though, so a firmware update to profile 2.0 is out of the questio.

In terms of connectivity, you do get a wealth of sockets to plug stuff into. Obviously, there's HDMI 1.3, which allows all the delightful high-definition trimmings to pass unadulterated to the TV. You also get analogue 7.1 audio outputs, a must for the audiophile who has an older HDMI-free AV receiver. DTS-HD Master Audio will also be supported, but later, via a firmware upgrade.

Pioneer also reckons this player will kick arse at DVD upscaling too, because of its built-in PureCinema deinterlacer, which should cut down on the nasty artefacts commonly associated with interlaced material. As soon as we get our filthy mitts on one, we'll let you know what we think. –Ian Morris