Finaly MPC "gives" KiSS what they deserve

[Lord_KiRon]

The MPC site, former uncoditional suporter of KiSS finaly had enough and published an article trully describing state of things with this "industry leader" and it's "flagship model" :
http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5666

Personally as an owner of two KiSS devices (DP-558 and DP-500) I think it's still "mild" the level of peoples frustration with KiSS huge.

Finaly someone had dared to say "The king is undressed" .

[SeeMoreDigital]

Thanks for the heads up...

Good to see somebody speaking out more aggressively about KiSS's lack of customer service/support.....

But in my opinion KiSS are not alone, Sigma appear to be very lack luster in this area too. Especially when it comes to looking after their own products :eek:

As a pair... they don't make for a very proactive combination?


Cheers

[Lord_KiRon]

It's really hard to judge Sigma since they only make chip , chip with best image quality ever I have to add none of the others (MTK,ESS,SunPlus,TI,Zoran...) comes even close.

Also it seems that even with old hardware chip if you put your mind into it you can make things that KiSS clamed imposible becouse of hardware , look at latest Tvix firmware changes they made for their old Sigma EM8500 based player :
http://www.tvix.co.kr/eng/download/download.aspx?ct=Firmware

1. Supports multiple bookmarks

- Improved to save up to five bookmarks on five individual files. (It cannot save five bookmarks on a single file.)



2. Supports .m2p video file formats.



3. Supports .mpa audio file formats.



4. Supports lyric files (.lrc)

- If the file name of a music file and .lrc file are the same, the lyrics will be displayed automatically.



5. Supports .SUB (bitmap) + .idx subtitle files



6. Supports SMIL type subtitle files.



7. Supports subtitle files when playing .vob, .dat format video files.


8. Supports slideshows for not only MP3s but also when playing MP2 and MPA files.


9. The FF/REW and LEFT/RIGHT buttons have been upgraded so users can select their preference.

- This function also with the time setup can be changed with the MISC2 menu item in setup.

- Instead of using setup, you can change the time setup by pressing the up/down arrow buttons which will then display an OSD, such as “+15”.



10. In the case of multi subtitles, it has been improved to display 2 subtitles simultaneously.

- You are able to see the “English + French” subtitles at the same time.



11. Supports ID3 TAG (ID3V1) when playing MP3 files

- Press the INFO button to view ID3 TAG (ID3V1).

- You can see additional information recorded on the MP3 files, such as the artist, album etc.

- OGG also displays basic Tag information.



12. After starting the music slideshow, the displayed list will automatically disappear after 5 seconds.

- If you wish to display the MP3 list again, press the “0” button on the remote control.



13. When playing the slideshow, JPEG images will be displayed if there are JPEG images in the MP3 folder.
- If there aren’t any JPEG images, the contents of the autojpg folder will be displayed.



14. The playback progress bar has been added.


15. Supports FF/REW, GOTO functions when playing WMA, WAV files.



16. When using the GOTO function, the present playing time will be displayed


Things "imposible to do becouse of hardware chip limitation" accordin to KiSS a marked red by me , others EVERY ONE OF them except MP3 Tags missing in KiSS players too btw.

[SeeMoreDigital]

It's really hard to judge Sigma since they only make chip , chip with best image quality ever I have to add none of the others (MTK,ESS,SunPlus,TI,Zoran...) comes even close.Indeed.... over the years they have designed and supplied quite a sizable range of chip-sets.

But thats not all they do.... They also design and supply various development kits (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/literature.htm) and have designed and supplied their own products (Hollywood Plus and Xcard).

Maybe they are stretching themselves a little too thin....


Cheers

[hdi20]

@ Lord_KiRon
Please check the link in your first post, I get The topic or post you requested does not exist message.

[sNNooPY]

Good to see somebody speaking out more aggressively about KiSS's lack of customer service/support.....
huh...really?
I've sent them a couple of "troubleshooting & here's my advice to the company" emails and they replied really fast.
and it WASN'T an automated response email or anything simmilar like that.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Looks as though it's been taken down... All I can find now is this thread (http://www.mpeg-playcenter.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5673).

And I don't have it in my Temporary Internet Files folder anymore!


Cheers

[SeeMoreDigital]

huh...really?
I've sent them a couple of "troubleshooting & here's my advice to the company" emails and they replied really fast.
and it WASN'T an automated response email or anything simmilar like that.Yes.... but are your issues the same as those reported by other DP-558 owners?

[Lord_KiRon]

Yes the article was taken down by "author" - KiSS gave him beta firmware to test and promised to providse "even more info on progress" so he decided to "take it back" for now ...


About KiSS hotline - I (or he) never stated that their answers were "automatic" the problem is thaty in 99% of cases they say "we know the issue and it will be fixed in next firmware" .
The problem is that the problems are basic , new firmware cames out once a year for old players and once in 1/2 year for new.
And usualy it does not solves your problem (I have 3 issues promised to be fixed "in next firmware" dated 3 years ago !).
Not to mention that it usualy adds a bunch on new bugs too , sometimes critical ...

Also one of the things I liked about KiSS first is that they provided "pick up on site" in case of RMA by sending UPS to you.
No they had a lot of quality problems with DP-558's - how they responded to it ? One may think by increasing the quality control measures ... but no !
They just :
1. Changed the RMA rules so customer have to ship device by himselfe (and pay for it) and not to KiSS but to store where he bouught it (sometimes becouse of internet on-line shops it's another country). Not to mention that this change was applyed not only to newly sold units but to others that sold before introducing thius rule !
2. They stoped COMPLETELY service RMA from outside EU.

Also beside other problems the software in players is very low level and crashes a lot.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Sorry to keep harping on about Sigma... but...

The KiSS DP-558 is the only device I know of that is fitted with Sigma's EM8560 chip-set (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/em8510.htm)...

I really do wonder how many of this players issues are chip-set related and are therefor out of KiSS's direct control. I mention this because I find it rather odd that no other manufacturer is using it.


Cheers

[sNNooPY]

Yes.... but are your issues the same as those reported by other DP-558 owners?
No, I don't own that device. I have DP-1000. It had problems with Croatian subtitle support and some playback nag with early versions of xvid.
It's all fixed in v2.9.3.

[Lord_KiRon]

Well I think the only reason that no one else uses EM8560 chipset is becouse it's old.
I mean it can't play QPel , DivX 3 played "in software" and it's basicly overclocked version of EM8550 with support of more RAM + audio processing moved from CPU to special DSP ofloading CPU.
So it's indeed runs a bit faster but have same problems as it's predcessor and can't compite with new players.

The only reason KiSS using it is that it took them 2 years to uild the device and they had to release "something" , while redesigning it for EM8620 would take anothe 1/2-1 year and DP-558 was already a joke a "ghost player" on all the forums.

About DP-1000 , I have DP-500 too that is basicly the same n bigger box and with network support.
I have to tell that it runs WAY better DP-558 - much less freezes , FF/REW works on much more movies and it actually have better subtitle support.
It's not ideal , it can't play QPel , can't play AVI files created by AVIMux with "rec lists" , have problems playing DivX 3.11 movies with bitrate higher then 800-900 but strangly it's playability (except for DivX 3.11) is way better then DP-558.
So "older" players were OK for 1st generation , but releasing such 2nd generation is unaceptable !


Two things I do see problematic on oll Sigma based players is that they did not fully resolved all the problems with all the DVD types (problems now rare but still hapens sometimes even on EM862x based players) and they still sometimes on some conditions have on some speciffic movies audio going out of sync with video on all players too.
So I gues it's Sigma to blame ..