Replacing my old Kiss-500, but with what?

meleth · 31st May 2005, 11:20

Any suggestions? What chips are the best atm etc. Has any been released yet that supports qpel and bframes? Haven't paid all that much attention to the development of hw players lately so quite abit out of the loop.

SeeMoreDigital · 31st May 2005, 11:45

If you can I would wait a couple of months before taking the "new player" plunge... But as with any player it depends what you want out of it (and where you live).

As a KISS DP-500 player owner you will be aware of the limitations of Sigma's EM8550 chip-set. However, Sigma's newer chip-sets offer much more!

MediaTek's MT1389xx range of chip-sets have offered multiple B-VOP, Qpel and 1WP GMC playback for around a year and a half now (way longer than Sigma) and as such are known to be very reliable... But you get what you pay for... Put any chip-set in a poorly constructed unit with crappy firmware/middle-ware and you'll get crap. Put the same chip-set in a well constructed player with good firmware/middle-ware and you'll be chuckling away to yourself every time you load a disc into the player

Cheers

meleth · 31st May 2005, 12:29

If i were to wait a couple of months, which chip is on it's way out that i should wait for?

SeeMoreDigital · 31st May 2005, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by meleth

If i were to wait a couple of months, which chip is on it's way out that i should wait for?

We should see some more players fitted with Sigma's EM862x chip-sets...

Hopefully we might start to see some NeroDigital firmware upgrades for various players fitted with MediaTek's MT1389xx range of chip-sets... meaning support for the .MP4 container

Cheers

meleth · 31st May 2005, 13:10

Cool tnx. Anyone know anything about the capabilities of the EM8476 chip? Worth getting a box with this? Can't find any specs except that it's supposed to support divx and xvid. I'm thinking about getting the dlink DSM-320, since i don't really need a dvd player in it.

SeeMoreDigital · 31st May 2005, 13:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by meleth

Cool tnx. Anyone know anything about the capabilities of the EM8476 chip? Worth getting a box with this? Can't find any specs except that it's supposed to support divx and xvid....

Sigma's EM847x range of chip-sets are over two and a half years old now... pretty old!

My Sigma Xcard is fitted with an EM8475 chip-set, which is essentially the same as the EM8476 but with MacroVision support. Neither offers Qpel and B-VOP support is not brilliant.

Cheers

meleth · 31st May 2005, 13:29

Ok tnx, guess i'll just have to wait abit then :/

meleth · 31st May 2005, 15:19

Anyone heard of any other boxes that might come with this chip? Only boxes of the ones listed on the sticky above that i can get in Sweden is Kiss and after having owned one i'm not all to keen to buy yet another one.

masken · 1st June 2005, 23:28

Just wanted to say thanks to SMD for keeping a keen eye on what's happening and not on the hardware chipset front, very appreciated!

SeeMoreDigital · 1st June 2005, 23:49

That's much appreciated masken

Over the last few months I've managed to accumulate some contacts with some player and even chip-set manufacturers...

Unfortunately, due to confidentiality reasons I'm unable to comment on many new developments until they become officially public but sufficed to say, in the next few months we should start seeing devices fitted with high-def Mpeg2/Mpeg4 AVC decoding chip-sets hit the market place

Cheers

nwpsys · 3rd June 2005, 08:26

SMD, it's been 6 months or so since I last researched this, but do any of the Mediatek chipsets now offer smooth playback of packed bitstream and file browsers with more than 14 character file names ?

I own a Kiss DP-1000 myself which handles both of the above, but I got my girlfriend a LX3900 which suffers with jerky playback of packed, although I have applied a non factory firmware which fixes the file browser.

When I got my KISS ( a long time ago ) I chose a player with the Sigma chipset for these reasons, and I am interested to see if things have moved on at all.

Thanks,

nwpsys

SeeMoreDigital · 3rd June 2005, 11:26

Smooth playback of Mpeg4 streams that contain "Advanced Simple Profile" features such as B-VOP... with or without packed bit-stream, is not solely down to the chip-set decoding capabilities... it also has much to do with how well the quality of the players firmware/middle-ware and even the players component parts!

I have an Pioneer DV-575A which is fitted with the same chip-set as your girlfriends' Philips LX3900 (MediaTek MT1389EE) and I can honestly say my player has no problems coping with packed or unpacked bit-stream. It also works fine with all of XviD's B-VOP settings, such as AQ and VHQ.

With regard to file browsers, I'll have to check my Pioneer. But again, this is down to how the player manufacturers write their own middle-ware!

Cheers

nwpsys · 3rd June 2005, 12:28

Ahhh, that has cleared up a misunderstanding for me which will be useful if I ever get around to upgrading my player. It is not just a chipset issue

Are you happy with your 575 as an all round player ? I would be interested to hear about the file browser.

nwpsys

SeeMoreDigital · 3rd June 2005, 13:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwpsys

Are you happy with your 575 as an all round player ? I would be interested to hear about the file browser.

I've been very happy with the player... It's proved to be very reliable offering a very stable GUI and excellent colour balance.

Just tried the "file browser" and it's limited to 14 characters per folder and per file. However, once a folder has been opened, it's name moves up to a different section of the GUI where around 25 characters can be viewed.

And once the file is playing, the GUI displayed on the TV shows around 25 characters plus the files extension.

Cheers

31st May 2005, 11:20	#1 \| Link
meleth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 133	Replacing my old Kiss-500, but with what? Any suggestions? What chips are the best atm etc. Has any been released yet that supports qpel and bframes? Haven't paid all that much attention to the development of hw players lately so quite abit out of the loop. Last edited by meleth; 31st May 2005 at 11:25.

31st May 2005, 11:45	#2 \| Link
SeeMoreDigital Life looks better in HDTV Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: UK Posts: 10,008	If you can I would wait a couple of months before taking the "new player" plunge... But as with any player it depends what you want out of it (and where you live). As a KISS DP-500 player owner you will be aware of the limitations of Sigma's EM8550 chip-set. However, Sigma's newer chip-sets offer much more! MediaTek's MT1389xx range of chip-sets have offered multiple B-VOP, Qpel and 1WP GMC playback for around a year and a half now (way longer than Sigma) and as such are known to be very reliable... But you get what you pay for... Put any chip-set in a poorly constructed unit with crappy firmware/middle-ware and you'll get crap. Put the same chip-set in a well constructed player with good firmware/middle-ware and you'll be chuckling away to yourself every time you load a disc into the player Cheers __________________ Still confused about anamorphic images? Then look here! \| Main Encoding Interests: Hardware device playback \| My Gear \|

1st June 2005, 23:49	#10 \| Link
SeeMoreDigital Life looks better in HDTV Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: UK Posts: 10,008	That's much appreciated masken Over the last few months I've managed to accumulate some contacts with some player and even chip-set manufacturers... Unfortunately, due to confidentiality reasons I'm unable to comment on many new developments until they become officially public but sufficed to say, in the next few months we should start seeing devices fitted with high-def Mpeg2/Mpeg4 AVC decoding chip-sets hit the market place Cheers __________________ Still confused about anamorphic images? Then look here! \| Main Encoding Interests: Hardware device playback \| My Gear \|

3rd June 2005, 11:26	#12 \| Link
SeeMoreDigital Life looks better in HDTV Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: UK Posts: 10,008	Smooth playback of Mpeg4 streams that contain "Advanced Simple Profile" features such as B-VOP... with or without packed bit-stream, is not solely down to the chip-set decoding capabilities... it also has much to do with how well the quality of the players firmware/middle-ware and even the players component parts! I have an Pioneer DV-575A which is fitted with the same chip-set as your girlfriends' Philips LX3900 (MediaTek MT1389EE) and I can honestly say my player has no problems coping with packed or unpacked bit-stream. It also works fine with all of XviD's B-VOP settings, such as AQ and VHQ. With regard to file browsers, I'll have to check my Pioneer. But again, this is down to how the player manufacturers write their own middle-ware! Cheers __________________ Still confused about anamorphic images? Then look here! \| Main Encoding Interests: Hardware device playback \| My Gear \|

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31st May 2005, 12:29	#3 \| Link
meleth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 133	If i were to wait a couple of months, which chip is on it's way out that i should wait for?

31st May 2005, 13:10	#5 \| Link
meleth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 133	Cool tnx. Anyone know anything about the capabilities of the EM8476 chip? Worth getting a box with this? Can't find any specs except that it's supposed to support divx and xvid. I'm thinking about getting the dlink DSM-320, since i don't really need a dvd player in it.

31st May 2005, 13:29	#7 \| Link
meleth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 133	Ok tnx, guess i'll just have to wait abit then :/

31st May 2005, 15:19	#8 \| Link
meleth Registered User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 133	Anyone heard of any other boxes that might come with this chip? Only boxes of the ones listed on the sticky above that i can get in Sweden is Kiss and after having owned one i'm not all to keen to buy yet another one.

1st June 2005, 23:28	#9 \| Link
masken uhm... ? Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Gothenburg, Sweden Posts: 276	Just wanted to say thanks to SMD for keeping a keen eye on what's happening and not on the hardware chipset front, very appreciated!

3rd June 2005, 08:26	#11 \| Link
nwpsys Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 18	SMD, it's been 6 months or so since I last researched this, but do any of the Mediatek chipsets now offer smooth playback of packed bitstream and file browsers with more than 14 character file names ? I own a Kiss DP-1000 myself which handles both of the above, but I got my girlfriend a LX3900 which suffers with jerky playback of packed, although I have applied a non factory firmware which fixes the file browser. When I got my KISS ( a long time ago ) I chose a player with the Sigma chipset for these reasons, and I am interested to see if things have moved on at all. Thanks, nwpsys

3rd June 2005, 12:28	#13 \| Link
nwpsys Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 18	Ahhh, that has cleared up a misunderstanding for me which will be useful if I ever get around to upgrading my player. It is not just a chipset issue Are you happy with your 575 as an all round player ? I would be interested to hear about the file browser. nwpsys