KISS players/recorders

[The JoJo]

Hi,

has someone used these? Any info on the latest version of KISS players or recorders? Thinking about changing my Samsung DVD-player for one made by KISS.
The networking side would probably be useful, then I could watch the movies I have on my fileserver in the living room.

www.kiss-technology.com

So pressed for time I won't be building a VDR box.

J

 

[Stereodude]

Here's another similar product.

 

[Stereodude]

Here's another similar product.

And here's the link I meant to paste in the last post.

http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/products.php?cat=HNP&sc=AVEL&ts=2&tsc=&sc=AVEL&pId=AVLP2/DVDLA

 

[Mercutio]

Why not just put in a video card with a decent video out (something by ATI that'll do component out, maybe?) in your living room file server? You could do Myth and have a pretty nice setup, especially since the computer is there already.

The nicer KISS players cost almost as much as a PC. That just bothers me, when you've got all the same functionality just sitting there.

 

[The JoJo]

I've got my computers in my study, keeping the noise away from the livingroom.

If I'm to build a computer and put that in the living room, it would have to be silent, as in no sound I can hear in the middle of the night. It would also need to be small and good looking, to keep me and my wife happy. And cramming lots of stuff into a small container might get a bit warm, which then needs some cooling, which leads to...you get the point

Unfortunately you are correct about the price of those players/recorders, I could easily build a relatively cheap computer and toss in a dvb-c card in it. Can't just put a card in my current computer, and it's too far away from the living room, the cabling would not be nice.
And the recording one doesn't have a DVD burner in it, but considering the files could MAYBE (don't know about the KISS pc-link software, can I upload with it too?) be transfered to the PC and burnt there.

A recorder would then again benefit from having the digital-tv system in it, so I could eliminate that box....

I don't now...

 

[Mercutio]

As I read your last post, I thought you had a PC in your living room.
Whoops.

OK, well, cheap and little HTPC. Let's see...

What you'll be wanting is a Via C3. One of the newer ones that does hardware MPEG decoding (I think those are the 1GHz+ models). Board + CPU will run you about $80 in the USA.
You don't get AGP on those, so you'll have to live with on-board video. Fortunately you can do VGA to component video pretty easily, with a $25 cable.

$85 should get you at LEAST 120GB of disk space. Maybe 160GB.
$30 for a DVD-ROM.
PC133 RAM is annoyingly expensive. $75 to get 512MB. Hopefully you've got 256MB (at least) that you can scrounge.

I'm not sure what TV standard you're using (if it's EUland HD I'm lost, basically), but something like a Hauppauge 150MCE would work in Windows or Linux and is a low-profile card. Those cards run $75 or so in the USA.


For a case, I'd probably take a dremel to an old VCR or some similar piece of junk electronics.

Looks like $345 + a monitor cable (maybe) + some kind of power supply... $400 might not be unreasonable. That's pretty much the MSRP of the biggest KISS box. They do all the work for you (yay), but you get a much more functional Myth setup for your time (boo time, I know) and money.

 

[The JoJo]

Getting a VIA CPU and MB is about 200+euros here, so a bit more expensive. This and a silent power supply, 160GB Samsung, memory and one or two cards from here:
http://shop.technotrend.de/shop.php?mode=show_group&sid=a843ae43f76ddeebae2f7286ff3f5bf0&group=2

All this would add up quite a bit

 

[Mercutio]

What about a used A7N266 + some kind of lesser Tbred chip?

 

[The JoJo]

I think I might be more comfortable building something on those lines, more like a normal PC, than building an epia thingy.

This darn digital-tv thing sucks big time. Finland will phase out analog broadcasts in 2 years time, meaning you won't see anything from your nice TV unless you have a digital-tv receiver. Of course those things resemble more and more computers, needing updates/reboots all the time. And just making everything more slow and not so reliable as before. Duh....

And then we have these nice DVD regions, what a pain sometimes....

And then...I better stop now, sufficient to say I don't like items in my living room behaving badly (=like a computer, slow, needs updates, needs reboots, is old in 6 months, works in some certain way Hollywood or someone else has dictated).

Right now I'm thinking about getting a plain new dvd-player that can also play Xvid/divx/mpg movies. Then when the prices fall and the set-top boxes for digital tv come down in price, and they include a decent HD for recording, with maybe a burning dvd station, I'll go for that.

Or I'll just say screw them all and build that VDR box with linux...

Duh, no more on-call duty for me, no hectic project anymore (that was active for the last 4-5 months). A bit of free time for me again, even time to post here!

Cheers everyone, now I'll go and grab a beer!

 

[Mercutio]

I imagine that, even with the shipping to Finland, an EU$75 EPIA board + CPU from the USA would be cheapest and quietest option...

And of course, I know you'll be doing Myth, which means Linux, which means no Soundstorm coolness. So there's no reason to specify an nvidia board, which is my immediate inclination for an HTPC.

I'm horribly displeased my digital cable right now as well. Comcast only allows one digital set top box to an apartment, which means TV in only one room, and the damned thing actually crashes! And the CPU in the damned thing isn't fast enough to record and play back NTSC (I shudder to think what it will do the first time I want to record something in HD) at the same time...

 

[The JoJo]

I'm sure you're right about the epia solution, if the power supply is silent then that would be one of the most silent solutions.

So convenient with these set top boxes, my parents have 3 tv's. That would mean 3 set top boxes for digital receiving. And for channels like animal planet and discovery (present for my parents) you'd need 3 cards and need to PAY 3 subscriptins! Common sense, hellloouu? Not good.

First we had set top boxes with one receiver. Now they are starting to have 2 receivers, so you can actually watch what you want and record something else at the same time (wow, not). Now they are starting to make them with bigger hard drives, USB 1.1 and 2, networking...The old TV's and VHS stuff lasted for 20 years, this last a few years before being obsolete.

My 30" Viewsonic TV was about 1300 euros when I bought it about 6 months ago, now the 32" is about 1200 euros. Amazing the rate they bring new models with larger screens and better resolutions. Just like Nvidia bringing a new GPU every 6 months...

 

[timwhit]

My solution is no cable TV at all. No cable bills, no set-top boxes.

 

[The JoJo]

We're stuck with them, at least in the year 2007 when you can't watch anything with only a tv.

They can't even get the subs right 100% of the time.

 

[timwhit]

I can't watch anything either. Not even with a good antenna and I am only a couple of miles away from the broadcast antennas.

 

[i]

I wish I had a good enough Internet connection to stream outbound video.

 

[Mercutio]

Well, cable is my only choice for broadband, or I wouldn't have it, either. My cable picture sucks. HD pixellates a lot, which means my data stream is being corrupted somehow, and only maybe the 1st 20 NTSC channels on my box are clear enough that I would want to record anything off of them. The rest just look bad (if I had an antenna, I'd be adjusting it).
The main thing for me is that I want HBO, and more than that HD-HBO. I had HD-direcTivo, and that was fantastic. Comcast can't hold a candle to that. I want Playboy channel (I'm a shareholder. Shut up. Plus, some of the original content is actualy pretty cool), but that's pay-per view only
DirecTV let me take channels out of display - I didn't have to flip through all 24 Home shopping channels, I could just pull them out of the lineup on my set top box.

Of course, the only way I have to record anything right now is through my cable box. I can't record HD at all (the firewire out on my box is disabled and apparently only exports an encrypted signal anyway), and I HAVE to use the box for a tuner, making anything but a basic VIVO card useless for PVR purposes.

That another thing: The recording guide for my Motorola STB is so shitty that I have to manually scroll through the listings to find the show I want to record. Tivo has a "season pass", Snapstream has a "season pass". Myth has a "season pass". The box I have now, I have to find the show (means I have to know when it's on and what channel, at least for the first showing) then I can choose to record it. Did I mention my cable box crashes?

I'm paying like $160 a month for TV + broadband. Damned if I know why, given how utterly crappy it is. For $2000 a year I ought to at least get something I *want*.

 

[The JoJo]

Ordered this for testing:
http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=dp1500&v=users

 

[Santilli]

Jojo:

What exactly is the motivation for buying this thing over a regular DVD player connected to your TV?

gs

 

[Mercutio]

It's kinda nice to watch the crap you've downloaded from the internet on your substantially larger TV screen.

 

[Santilli]

I guess I'm really behind on this one. WHAT kind of crap?

Porn I know, but, what else is out there?

GS

 

[The JoJo]

Hi Greg,

for instance you might want to watch some TV series(Stargate Atlantis, star trek, monk etc...) downloaded from the net, or some old movies...

J

 

[Santilli]

JOJO:

I guess I'm way behind. I pay 2 bucks, and rent full seasons of a show at our local BlockBuster.

Greg