KiSS DVD Player with Sigma EM8500 announced

[spectra]

http://www.kiss-technology.com/news/content.asp?id=44

[Emp3r0r]

too bad they lost my business

[Infophreak]

Well... I just lost a lot of respect for KiSS - and I own one of their DVD players (region free, of course). Even though the features of it sound very nice (except for WMA support - I want Vorbis and FLAC, not that piece of ****), they will not see more of my money if they continue doing business with the likes of Sigma.

[midiguy]

... that's too bad.. but wait a sec, is the gonna be the first MPEG-4 compliant hardware player? or am i just not up-to-date about this? thanks.

[spectra]

i think it's the first accounced by someone else than sigma itself

[midiguy]

is it possible that Sigma's MPEG-4 hardware decoder was somehow derived from one of the existing MPEG-4 software decoders? I mean, I know it is possible, but how would we know? Knowing Sigma, who's to say that their hardware decoder isn't a rip off of some existing software decoder...

just read over my post and realized that I repeated myself several times.. oh well..

[bumblebe]

well it looks like it's coming out, at least in France for Euro399.

Wonder if it would play Xvid encoded movies ?

[magnum]

OK Here's all I know. The KISS DP-450 doesn't have the Sigma Designs EM8500 chip but a modified version of it (better).
It can play DivX Videos encoded with DivX version 4.02 and above, without the QPEL and GMC options (the rest are OK: B-Frames, etc). Since it is complaint with MPEG4 SIMPLE AND ADVANCED SIMPLE PROFILES, it will probably be compatible with XviD too.
The firmware of the player is updateable so we could see full compatibility in the future.
But for now, no 3.11: But at least it's better than what we have now (nothing). One last thing, the Sigma/XviD issue has nothing to do with this chip.
It's also for sale in Spain at DivX-Deux.com (399 euros)

[bumblebe]

Excellent news, especially about Xvid !
Has it been sighted in the US ?
A bit expensive at $400 obvioulsy, you can build a computer that plays Divx movies for that price ;-)

[magnum]

Well, the tech-specs (divx complaint aside) are quite good for a DVD player: Progressive Scan, 96KHz Audio, Integrated DD Decoder, etc. Am I right about this??? How much are we paying for the DivX thing??
Full Specs are:

DVD-VIDEO/MPEG4/DivX-XviD/VCD/SVCD/HDCD/CD/MP3/WMA/CD-RW/DVD-Rw
Superbit (TM) DVD
JPEG Picture CD viewing
Kodak Picture CD
Progressive Scan Video Out
Screen menu
PAL & NTSC
Integrated Dolby Digital Decoder, DTS, MPEG AUDIO 5.1 & HDCD
24 BIT / 96 Khz PCM AUDIO
4:3 PanScan, 4:3 Letter Box, and 16:9 Widescreen
audio RCA
Optical / Coaxial S/PDIF
SCART Conector with RGB
S-Video OUT
Composite Video Output
Region Free

[bumblebe]

Well considering I just bought a multi-zone APEX for $50 it's a bit steep ;-)

[magnum]

:o S#@t!!! Arething cheap in the US!! Cheapest DVD PLayer in Europe is about 150-200EUR (more or less the same in USD) and they're a piece of...well, you catch my drift ;)

[smiller667]

Look a bit harder, and you will find low-cost players in Europe for under 70€ ... btw, Apex does not exactly sell high-end players either.

[DBaT]

KiSS and Sigma EM8500 chip http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020827/270396_1.html

Has anyone tried out KiSS DP-450?

[magnum]

Lots of people now.
Results?? GMC and QPEL don't work, thats for sure, but the rest is fine: MP3 VBR, VCD and SVCD, etc. But exactly waht do u want to know??

[DBaT]

I'm trying to find some user feedback on how well it actually works,
as the player is quite interesting with a 385€ price.

This is what I have found out this far:

-Supports MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile, wont support advanced-advanced because Sigma chip dosen't support.

-Player is region locked but it can be removed with a fixed firmware.
To be able to change firmware you have to remove dvd-drive and attach it to your PC.

-Reads CD-r-rw, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW but not DVD+R (has anyone got DVD+R to work?).

- Xvid with AC3 dosen't work, gives AC3 out as PCM stereo. Search dosen't work with AC3.

- Some glitches when xvid playback starts


Conclusion:
To many bugs in firmware and not so user friendly interface at this point. New firmwares comes out all the time so this player has a lot of potential.
DP-500 will also come out with a lot more options, so I'll propobly wate for some time before considering to buy it.

[Tristan92]

Check this (in French, sorry)

http://www.planete-numerique.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=12d5885f909085d7ec750e675d943dc2