Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: KISS_1600, AV-Streaming-Client, HDTV
Categories: Consumer Electronics, Hardware
Streaming Video and Audio over the Network
To test the A/V client functionality, we used the test files from our streaming client review. As our source (server), we used the Fujitsu Siemens Computer Activy Media Server as a hardware solution well as the Twonky Media Server as a representative of a software product.
| Supported Audio Formats | MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, Ogg Vorbis |
| Supported Video Formats | MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX 5, DivX 4, Xvid, DivX 3.x, WMV SD, WMV HD, H.264, VOB |
| Supported Image Formats | BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG |
Test Files:
Whenever we tried playing QuickTime files (*.mov), the player would freeze without fail and would only restart after a hard reset - i.e. pulling the power plug. HD movies encoded in WMV with more than 1280 pixels wide stuttered so badly that the material was basically unwatchable. MPEG-2 files, on the other hand, which are far less compressed, ran fine even at a resolution of 1920 and above, as did high-def xVID files. The KiSS player does not recognize Matroska container files and thus does not list them in the menu.
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I fail to see how this can offer good value at £200, it is not that much cheaper than a X-Box or PS3. Both those consoles offer everything that this unit has and much more for +- £100 more!
I had one of these.
Not reccomended. It does play back all the DVD's I have without problems but I have found that the remote is very weird.
Whenever the unit is next to anything that is even slighty noisey with RFI (e.g. your TV, DVD player, Amp etc) the remote will stutter and not work correctly. Move the it a good 20ft from the TV etc and it works fine so Kiss (or Linksys) failed to put shielding on the IR wires as they work their way through the box. This was the deal breaker with me as it took 15 mins sometimes to scroll through a list of 30 video's to playback due to the remote not being picked up.
Also, it does not support disc images so you cannot archive your DVD's to a HDD or network storage and play them back as if they were the original DVD (even if you copy the Video_TS folder it will still only play back the main movie and sometimes pauses between the VOB files as well).
On the plus points it supports most DivX / XviD encoding flavours and support for MP4 means that it can be used with Nero to playback DVD's you have archived using Nero's software (but it only supports standard h264 profiles so all the advanced tricks are out).
All in all for a box to sit under the TV and play back DVD Discs and some Hi-res clips for a novice its a good player. For the more advanced user I would look else where.
The unit I had is now resigned to its box (soon to be eBay'd) and I have replaced it with a slimline HTPC for not much more than I paid for the Kiss, this has given me lots more functionality than I could ever hope for from the Kiss player.