KISS DP-1500

Posted by T3 Online on Wed 16 Jun 2004

Turn your TV into a video jukebox with this slimline networking DVD player

Unless you dig the idea of your living room looking like Bob's second-hand audio-visual store, the prospect of extra boxes under your telly is probably anathema. What better, then, than a DVD player that doubles up as a device for sending movies, photos and music from your PC to your TV? This isn't KiSS's fi rst to do so, but it's the company's fi rst that doesn't look like it was designed by a myopic man whose notion of high design is an MFI shelving unit.

In fact, although the DP-1500's build quality isn't exactly top notch, this is a fairly smart-looking player that's also pleasingly compact and svelte. It's got a decent array of video and audio connections too, with component video the only real omission.

It'll spin DVDs like any other player - and does an able job of it - but it only really shines when connected to your PC via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network. Unlike similar video-streaming devices imminent from Hauppauge and Linksys, it doesn't have Wi-Fi built in - you have to add it by purchasing either a Wi-Fi PC Card or Wi-Fi Ethernet bridge and sticking it in the back.

Set-up is pretty easy - you just need to run the bundled software on your computer and confi gure settings on the player (see our How To on page 138, issue 99). Once up and running for wireless use, however, this model reveals itself to be something of a mixed performer.

The main problem is the infl exible PC software, which is very poor at cataloguing your songs, pictures and videos - and in turn makes picking media on the DP-1500 rather laborious. Things aren't helped by the interface you have to navigate on your telly, either. You can only see photos by fi le name, not thumbnail, and MP3s can only be played by navigating folders instead of - more naturally - picking albums, artists and genres.

Fortunately, the big sell - watching your PC's DivX movies on a TV - works extremely well. The only oddity here was that we needed a fast (802.11g) Wi-Fi bridge from Netgear instead of a slower (802.11b) bridge to stream videos without stuttering pictures. There's also a good Web radio feature which gives you access to nearly 5,000 stations if you've got broadband.

If you're short on space, and want to play DVDs and watch PC movies on the big screen, this is great value. If you're also planning on playing music and pictures, however, you should really be looking elsewhere.

FEATURES:
Streams from PC to TV via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Supports DivX (3.11-5), XviD, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis. Plays DVDs (including +R/-R) and MP3/JPEG/Ogg Vorbis CD-R/-RWs. Two digital audio outputs. RGB Scart, S-Video and composite video.