KiSS DP-1500 Slimline DVD Player with Ethernet & Wireless Connection
KiSS DP-1500 Slimline DVD Player with Ethernet & Wireless Connection
Manufacturer: Kiss
Product Type: CE
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review
Wouldn't it be cool to integrate your broadband Internet service with your home theater? The DP-1500 from KiSS does just that. Sure, it spins DVD-Videos and music CDs, including MP3 CDs. But it takes media enjoyment a giant step further with its Ethernet cable jack and PC Card slot, which--together with the supplied wireless Local Area Network (LAN) card--let you integrate it with your wireless home network to stream music, digital photos, and even DivX and MPEG-4 movies right from your computer. The DP-1500 offers upgradeable firmware, too, so you can keep the player up-to-date through updates from the KiSS Web site.
Our evaluation (using software version 2.8.5) found the player operationally smooth and as versatile as it claims, which is saying a lot. Even better than its MP3 CD compatibility is the ability to remove the step of having to commit digital music files to disc altogether. The DP-1500 lets you queue up songs and play lists good for hours of uninterrupted listening in the comfort of your living room, conceptually (if not always geographically) far from the glare and the near-continual distractions of the computer.
MP3 features include full file name display using the onscreen menu and ID3 tag details for the currently playing track (when encoded). You can navigate through a disc's folders while a track is playing, though this sometimes occasions momentary interruptions in the music. Despite what the manual says, the unit does play Ogg Vorbis files, an open-source format that offers slightly higher quality than MP3 for a same-sized file.
JPEG photo CDs take a bit longer than other discs to load, and we were disappointed to see that the player automatically stretched vertically oriented shots to fill more of the screen than they ought to. This uses more of the TV for "picture," but distorts the images unpleasantly. Cycling through zoom options on a picture-by-picture basis corrects this, though, and we found we could rotate images 90 degrees at a time using the remote's menu arrows.
The DP-1500 will also play your homemade DVDs (DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW), in addition to handling full-screen, Internet-sourced DivX files (3.11, 4, and 5), which you can spin from discs and/or stream. These files have the potential to look and sound much like what you see and hear from your DVDs.
Media management between your PC and the DVD player occurs via the supplied KiSS PC-Link software (Windows 98 and up), which allows the DP-1500 to "see" your music, pictures, and motion-video files. It sees only the files you show it, and you can run the program on multiple PCs simultaneously. You can also listen to Internet radio through the player's WebRadio feature, though you can only access WebRadio when the player is connected to a broadband Internet client. For direct results, feed a Cat-5 cable from your modem right into the player.
The difficulty of the setup will depend on the complexity of your home network and your firewall protection. As a disc player, it couldn't be more straightforward. The potential for confusion lies in putting the player's networking ability to use.
If you're using DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), the player ought to be able to lock to your IP address automatically. We had to use the manual setting, however, which requires knowledge of fairly intimate PC operations: from (on the easy side) checking the PC's static IP address to (more difficult) making sure the PC's port number 8000 is (a) not in use and (b) accessible from behind your Windows and/or third-party firewall.
Beyond that, you'll need to make sure your wireless router is sufficiently well positioned in your home to receive and deliver uninterrupted streaming data from your PC and to your DP-1500. You can always use Cat-5 Ethernet cables, of course, between your PC and your router, between the router and the DVD player, or even directly between your computer and the DVD player.
The player uses the French-developed SCART connection for its high-res progressive-scan component-video signal, and a supplied cable provides an interface for use with the standard RCA-tipped jacks on associated equipment. The SCART output allows the player to channel video signals in a manner consonant with RGB computer monitors (RGB adapter cable not included).
Other outputs include standard composite- and S-video connections and one each coaxial and optical digital-audio jacks for passing Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround signals to a compatible audio/video receiver. --Michael Mikesell
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512MB Tough Drive USB 1.1/2.0 200X Water Resist
Manufacturer: ATP ELECTRONICS Product Group: CE Binding: Electronics ASIN: B000CZ3XYI |
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