New Kenwood Sexy Decks

Two brand new A/V decks are on offer from Kenwood. Already showing the filter-through of technologies from JVC, (they are all part of the one megacorp now) the first one, the Kenwood KDV-7241 is a DVD player with a small screen right there on the front drop of the one-DIN unit. This sort of product has even become known in the trade as ‘JVC Type’ and of course refers to the original set of machines with screens on their front drops (evolutionary series for the geeks, runs thus KD-AVX1 < KD-AVX2 < KD-AVX33 < KD-AVX44 although they added KD-AVX11 and KD-AVX22 either side last year) and which has sparked a whole genre of less well made copy products. The kdv7241 is a classically sexy Kenwood design and yet you can see the serious DNA shining through. No copy product, this is a pukka item with a real brand-o-phile's slice of Kenwood-ness yet still having that delicious 2.7inch 16:9 LCD display screen. It has lots of outputs and inputs - 3 sets of RCAs at 2.5V and an auxiliary input as well as an A/V in and output. There's 4x50w of internal oomph and there's a seven band graphic in the user interface. I'd love to have a try on one. Full spec below. Note, no iPod control, nor Bluetooth, so you won't be paying for them. A DVD fan's delight, then, especially if you have issues with mounting a ten inch screen in your cabin.

PRICE £399.99.
  The second machine is a classic dash babe, the single-DIN Kenwood KDV-5421U. This machine is more like your home player, with displays on the front to tell you what it’s doing by way of track and of course the iPod menu and data as this one CAN eat the Apple corps. It’ll also play those improbably filthy videos you didn’t even want to get caught at home with – yes that can only mean DiVx (or was that just my brain? I really must a get a DVD deck in the car soonwith DiVx) as indeed can both machines. It gets a five band graphic equaliser in the clever bits and has a USB 2.0 hole in the front as well, right next to a tip/ring/ring/sleeve microjack to carry an A/V input rather than simple stereo. With the right mini-USB to analogue adapter wire, you can play your digital camera’s output right into the system without worrying about USB issues with software reading abilities and compatibility. (Although a heavy duty review on this feature would be a keen one.) It features a removable faceplate which in the KDV7241 is motorised but is not on this machine.

PRICE £249.99.
Full specifications Kenwood KDV-7241 2.7 inch wide LCD display
PAL/NTSC
7 band graphic EQ 3 RCA Pre-outs @ 2.5V
Motorised front panel
Aux in (rear)
AV in/out (rear)
FM/MW/LW tuner
4 x 50 W MOSFET power
High pass filter
Sub level and Freq control
Source volume control
RDS tuner with radio text
25 Presets: 18 FM, 7 LW/MW
Auto Memory Entry (AME)
Stereo/Mono selector
CD-R/RW playback
MP3/WMA/WAV playback
CD-Text
Random/Repeat/Scan function
DiVx playback
Jpeg display
Motorised removable faceplate
4 digit code security
Remote control includedAuto dimmer 

Full specifications Kenwood KDV-5241U
Removable faceplate
Dot LCD display
Auto dimmer
Telephone mute
IR remote included
Eject lock
A/V mini cable supplied
4 x 50 Watt MOSFET internal amplifier
MP3/WMA/WAV playback
RDS radio text iPod USB direct (iP100 reqd.)
3 RCA Pre-out (@ 2.5V)
Front A/V & USB input
Blue key illumination
DiVx playback iPod USB video ( iP250)
5 Band graphic EQ
Source tone memory Loudness control
24 Bit DAC
Dual Zone (not AM or USB)
Video output
RDS tuner with radio text
24 Presets: 18 FM, 6 LW/MW
Auto Memory Entry (AME)
Stereo/Mono selector
CD-R/RW playback
MP3/WMA/AAC playback
CD-text
Random/Repeat/Scan function DVD Audio
DVD-R/DVD-RW
DVD+R/DVD+RW
Dolby Digital stereo
Last position memory
DiVx
MP3/WMA/WAV
USB Features: MP3/WMA/WAV
0.5 Amp Max
USB 2.0