Conclusion
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Integrated DVD Player
- Supports HD Videos
- Plays back AVI container files with multiple language tracks
- Displays weather data
- Messaging Services
- Integrated Games Collection
- Media-Server included
- Good bundle
Cons: - No HD-DVD or Blu-Ray drive
- No resume feature for movie playback
- Freezes on unknown or unsupported file formats
Conclusion
We like the combination that Linksys has created in the KiSS 1600 player a lot,. Where other A/V streaming clients already fail at such simple tasks as reading a DVD file system correctly, the KiSS 1600 kills two birds with one stone. Thanks to its integrated DVD drive, it is not only an A/V client but also a fully-fledged DVD player that can play back conventional DVDs at standard resolutions with all of their features. However, the drive does not support the modern high-def disc formats Blu-ray and HD-DVD. It does however play back a large variety of audio and video file formats, including DivX, xVID, MP3 and WAV as well as H.264 HD videos.
Nowadays, most buyers understand "High Definition" to mean a resolution of 1920 x 1080. While the KiSS 1600 supports this format on paper, playback at this resolution stutters badly. At least content plays back smoothly at at 1280 x 720, which places the player more in the HD-Ready camp. On the downside, the KiSS does not support the Matroska (mkv) container format that is gaining popularity across the web. Multi-language AVI files (including xVID), on the other hand, pose no problem to the player.
Youc an either play your images, movies or audio files back from a burned DVD or an external storage device such as a USB-drive. If you have an A/V server on your home network, you can also stream content directly from it to your TV. The KiSS features all the appropriate connectors on the back, from the ageing Scart to the modern HDMI output.
As we stated above, you’re certainly not getting everything for £200 / €300 - but at this price, the KiSS 1600 offers very good value. Also, the player currently has very little competition.
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.