Meet the Insignia Pilot- Best Buy's latest budget DAP which was covertly introduced late last year (seriously, not even a press release?). The Pilot is the successor to the Insignia NS-DV series of players, which gained somewhat of a cult following on the Internet, particularly in our own forums. The Pilot sports a 2.4” 262K color display and is available in both 4GB, and 8GB capacities. The Pilot also offers a few features which rival those of more expensive players such as Bluetooth support, an SDHC card slot, RDS support, video-out, and dual headphone jacks.

The Pilot is, however, still a budget DAP, and probably won't be making your Zune wielding friends jealous any time soon. But, if you're looking for a solid no-frills player for every-day use, the Pilot might just be for you.

If you were impressed by the Sport and Pilot, Insignia’s newest DAP may come as a bit of an anticlimax. Placing portability and price over features and design, the modest 1GB Kix has a 1-inch color OLED display, built-in USB connection, and can function for 30 hours on one charge.

Like the larger Insignia players, MSC and MTP are both supported. An FM Radio (with 20 preset stations) is included, as well as playing MP3, WMA (DRM), and WAV the Kix is a cheap option for playing audiobooks in the Audible format, as it retails for $60.

[Best Buy via DAPreview]

It is nice to see Insignia giving their latest players a name, since previous names have been NS-DV and NS-DA. There is quite a little underground following of this budget “Best Buy brand”, with users being pretty happy with their purchase. Have a look at the NS-DV review. So the Sport and the Pilot may be good news to the Insignia Fans.

First off the Pilot is more of the PMP of the two, sporting a 2.4” screen with playback of WMA and MPEG4 at 30 frames per second. On the audio side it will support MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV, and Audible. Additionally it will support JPEG Photos. But that’s not all. The player also features, RDS (radio titles), SD slot, Bluetooth, and PC and Mac compatibility. Which I am taking to mean it will be MSC/MTP user or OS selectable.

The smaller sibling will feature most of the same but with a smaller 1.4” screen, lower 15 FPS, MPEG4 only, and microSD expansion.

The Sport will come in 2GB and 4GB sizes and sell for $100 and $120 respectively and the Pilot will come in 4GB and 8GB capacities retailing at $140 and $190. Insignia MP3 players are sold exclusively at Best Buy so they should be appearing at their B&M stores soon.

[Best Buy via Forums]

When looking for a digital audio player, Best Buy's house brand, Insignia, is probably not the first name you’d think of. The Insignia Video Player (more commonly referred to as the NS-DV) is clearly a budget player, but sports a few features which are usually found on more expensive models. As the name implies, it’s geared slightly more toward the video and photo aspect of things. With a relatively large 2.2” LCD, you shouldn't need a magnifying glass to watch your favorite TV shows. What helps set the NS-DV apart from other players in this price range is the inclusion of dual headphone jacks, line-in recording, a microSD slot, user replaceable battery and a scroll wheel for navigation.

Sounds promising, but let's face it: Insignia isn't exactly known for quality products and surely they had to sacrifice some things to keep the price this low. So how does the Insignia NS-DV stack up? Let's find out...