Kiss Dp-600

[niknik]

Having just bought my first big screen TV, I was getting ready to assemble a small (read cheap :) "media center PC". I already have a divx player that works reasonably well for Std Def content, but I'm now wanting to view High Def movies.
That's when I started looking for HD content, and found it has rather "high" CPU requirements (some h.264 samples play just barely well on my AMD 3500+). That scraped my idea of using the cheapest CPU I could find for my HTPC.

Alternatives: HD hardware players.
I've been looking to KISS DP-600...
What are the forseeable downsides?
Or would I be better off with a PC?
(If i stick with HD Divx, I think any 2.4Ghz+ CPU would do - it's the h.264 that messes it all, which - I think - won't be playable on the KISS as well)

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Thanks.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Firstly the KiSS DP-600 has been delayed.... And is now not expected to be launched until Feb or even Mar 2006.

Secondly, there are quite a few high-def capable devices that will be able to play high-def MPEG-4 files. All of the currently available devices (I know of) are fitted with Sigma's EM8620L chip-set, so in essence they play much the same streams. Although the players themselves may offer different connectivity options.

That said, most currently available devices run on Sigma's stock Syabas middle-ware which I personally do not like as I find it too restricting to navigate and is just plain ugly :eek:

And by-the-way.... Don't expect to play MPEG-4 AVC (ie: H.264) files on any of these currently available high-def devices because the chip-set does not support this feature.


Cheers

[niknik]

I've been looking at the players you talked about, the Snazio and Sensonic. I'll see if either one is available "here" (in Portugal).

Is there any "workaround" regarding their "syabas" look?
I imagine Kiss's DP-600 will be based on the same chipset, and use something similar, do you have any info on that?

Ooops, I assumed the .ts files were h.264, so... pretty much all HD .ts are just "plain" MPEG2/4?

(sorry for all the questions... :)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Is there any "workaround" regarding their "syabas" look?No....


I imagine Kiss's DP-600 will be based on the same chipset, and use something similar, do you have any info on that?As I mentioned above.... "All of the currently available devices (I know of) are fitted with Sigma's EM8620L chip-set"


Ooops, I assumed the .ts files were h.264, so... pretty much all HD .ts are just "plain" MPEG2/4?The "TS" abbreviation stands for "Transport Stream", which is a container.

All currently available high-def TV is encoded in MPEG-2 and is muxed within the .TS container


Cheers

[masken]

I've given up all hopes on KiSS. They brought us a new market, but haven't the strength and/or competence to lead it.

[CruNcher]

I think KiSS is more prepareing for a HD-DVD or and Blu-Ray player then to keep HD Mpeg-4 ASP in focus @ the moment
just look here how pretty they are *cough* not everyone unfortunately
http://www.blu-ray.com/players/
prepare for CES updates :)

[masken]

@CruNcher, I don't think that's the case at all. Noone wants projects running over their budget, and time is the main factor for running projects over budget.

In fact, I think the whole company's focus is more or less on bringing the DP-600 on the market asap, but they've got major problems.

[niknik]

In fact, I think the whole company's focus is more or less on bringing the DP-600 on the market asap, but they've got major problems.

What problems could that be? KISS should have the "know-how" being one of the first to launch a divx player. And as there are already a couple of players out there for so long, they should have launched this one a long time ago...

Well, we'll have to wait till they launch it, and then see if it brings something new (which is something I'm not counting on! :)

[masken]

Every time KiSS has launched something, it has been quite buggy. And it has always taken them extremely long time to fix the players issues, often 6 months+. There's still loads of issues with the current players on the market for example, and KiSS does seemingly nothing about it. The amount of negative exposure on sites and forums all around the world simply cannot be good for a company who has it's majority of customers in the same areas.