KiSS DP-500 Progressive-Scan DVD Player with Ethernet Connection

Other products by KiSS

Product Details

Product Manual [16.11mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00009YFXT
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #161,584 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 29, 2007

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The DP-500 from Denmark-based KiSS (Keep it Simple Solutions) is the first DivX-certified networking DVD player, capable of playing back DivX video, MP3 files, and JPEG digital-photo slideshows in a room of your choosing. All you need for full networking ability is a Windows PC, a wired network connection with the player, and a television.

You can connect the DP-500 directly to the Internet via a broadband connection or through a network (LAN) with a PC whose media contents can be read using the supplied KiSS PC-Link software. Powered by the Sigma Designs EM8500 decoder chip, the player reads DVD-Video (PAL and NTSC) as well as DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs.

The DP-500's support for DivX (including all 3, 4, and 5 versions), ISO MPEG-4, and XviD video-compression formats gives you the ability to download full-screen, full-motion videos from the Internet that look and sound close in quality to what you get from your television or DVD player. Audio compatibility extends to the open-source Ogg Vorbis format for music compression (slightly higher quality than MP3 for a same-size file).

When you plug the player in for the first time, a user-friendly interface prompts you to select language, video connection type, screen size, audio connection, and IP address--an easy five-step setup. To enjoy the player's networking abilities, you'll need to install and run the KiSS PC-Link software (PC only, Windows 98 or higher). With PC-Link, all you have to do is select the files you want to view and they'll be routed to your DP-500 and on to your television for viewing in any connected location.

The player's networking ability means it can also deliver Internet radio. Just select this feature from the player's WebRadio menu and you'll have access to a few thousand streaming radio stations you can enjoy right in the comfort of your living room. Once you've registered, WebRadio will let you choose, customize, and add as many radio stations as you wish.

Whether or not your living room is currently home to an HDTV, the DP-500 stands ready to deliver the full potential of your uncompressed, commercial DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

The player uses the French-developed SCART connection for its component-video (progressive) signal, and a supplied cable provides an interface for use with the standard RCA-tipped jacks on associated equipment. This output allows the player to channel video signals in a manner consonant with not only PAL (European) and NTSC (North American) video systems, but with RGB computer monitors as well (RGB adapter cable not included).

Other outputs include standard composite- and S-video connections, a coaxial digital-audio jack (for passing Dolby Digital and DTS surround signals to a compatible audio/video receiver), and a set of stereo analog RCA jacks.

KiSS will continue to update the player's firmware with improvements based on the latest research and development; the updates will be available from the support section of the kiss-technology.com Web site.

What's in the Box
DVD player, remote control, remote batteries, CD-ROM with KiSS PC-Link software, user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, SCART-to-RCA component-video cable, and an AC power cord.

Product Description

The DP-500 is based on the ground breaking DP-450 with its DivX 3.11, 4 and 5, XviD, Mpeg 4, MP3, Ogg Vorbis reading capabilities. An Ethernet 10/100 port has been added to the player along with a Sigma Designs EM8550 progressive DVD decoder chip which enable any user with a 1MB xDSL connection to stream DVD quality movies directly from the Internet and enhance visual experience. It also features a unique MP3 playback and user interface and a photo album feature for digital photo collections.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nice idea, but not a good consumer product, October 4, 2003

By	Jeff Mock (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

It's a nice idea, but unless you've really got to play divx videos today, you're better off waiting.

The current software (2.7.1) has many many bugs. It's easy to crash the box, and the user interface has enough terrible qualities that it's really not usable as a consumer device.

The display continuously proclaims "state of the art dvd and ethernet player", and evidently it will continue to advertise this long after it is "state of the art". It's a really annoying ad to continuously scroll across my livingroom, so I leave the device powered-off most of the time.

There are a couple of chat boards on the internet about this device. One maintains a list of current bugs that is quite long and inexcusable for a consumer device. Read the latest before purchasing.

On the bright side, the firmware is reasonably easy to upgrade and they seem to do new releases fairly often. With good software, this could be a nice device.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product, April 16, 2004

By	"ustal" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This player plays almost any movie file and must have for anyone who is into Divx movies. Extremely flexible device with tremendous potential. Requires some effort to operate and maintain if you want to get more out of this box, i.e. keep the firmware up to date. With Ethernet connection you can play your movies right off the computer hard drive - no more CD burning.