Tom's Hardware Reviews First Player for DivX Video

Idimmu Xul writes "Tom's Hardware has a review of the DP-450: the first player for DivX video in Hi-Fi format! Until now, movies in space-saving DivX (MPEG-4) format could only be viewed on a PC. The KiSS DVD player is the first standalone device for TVs and projectors." Very cool, although it will render my stacks of VCDs obsolete.

you know it's gonna happen

[deadsaijinx*]

something tells me that the bighead in the entertainment industry are not gonna like this. They alredy claim that divx piracy is killing them as it is, and now there is an option for those not into computers. I also have to wonder what they are gonna do about it. If they can make it illegal to post information that would allow one to crack ceratin securities, could they ban a set-top divx player?

Doh.. no xvid?

[rehabdoll]

Didnt find any information about xvid support in this review. I still down own a stationary dvd-player and i think ill wait until theres a product that will include support for xvid.

Already have this.

[Anonymous Coward]

But its called QCAST [broadq.com]
And it does much more than Divx

well, this may be cool

[ptrangerv8]

If it acttually works... Most people I know (that know WHAT divx is) Don't care if they can play the movies on their PS2, Xbox, or DVD player... They play them on their computers... I have a buddy who /koff backs ups /koff his DVD collection - he rips, compresses with Divx, then puts them onto a VCD, or back onto a DVD - what use does this do him? For that matter, if I can buy a DVD burner for ~$400 USD (from Circuit City, no less) that will brn all formats.... Why do I care if I can play DivX discs - I can 'backup' a DVD just like I would a CD... I think it's too little too late... The only great thing I see this being used for is to fit longer movies on a standard 4.7GB disk, and keep the reselution fairly clean... ;beer;

Re:what is the point of this?

[SnAzBaZ]

That requires having an ugly, noisy, difficult to use computer next to your TV. Yes ok, it doesn't HAVE to be ugly or noisy or difficult to use. But then again most people don't have the time to build an attractive, silent PC and get the interface working as well as a DVD Player... and then there's the cost of such a project..

Re:Too little - too late.

[zsazsa]

The Xbox has two things working against it: the cooling fan and the hard drive. I can hardly stand to use any of the modern game consoles due to the racket that they make. This device is totally fanless and hard driveless. The only moving parts are in the DVD/CD transport.

This is actually bad.

[tempfile]

Products like this continue to discourage the creation of and adherance to standards. If it is possible to just slap a .avi file on the disc and have it (hopefully) (somehow) played on the standalone, and other manufacturers stard implementing this (and they will), everything will lead to a horrendous chaos of incompatibilites.

It will be the same as with mp3 discs: Does player X support mp3s in subdirectories? Yes, but only without id3 tags, while player Y understands Joliet but no subdirectories and no filename may be longer than 12 characters, etc.

The implementation of "playing .avi files somehow slapped on a disc" is a BAD THING. They didn't even bother to create some sort of standard. This could have been implemented with glorified SVCDs.

Re:XVid has one MAJOR weakness

[Mitchell Mebane]

And you know, that is actually very few people on Windows...

Well, some [dnsalias.com] of the [goe.net] people [hopto.org] who can do so are sharing their work.

Linux Media Center.

[jfisherwa]

As has been pointed out, this thing does run Linux.. It also has a REALmagic EM8500 onboard.

And that the DVD-ROM is connected via the IDE port?

I would put my money that the set of pins on the side of the board are for a standard PC/104 riser card (i.e. ethernet) -- not to mention the serial port that is internal to the box.

*THIS* is a perfect starting point for the "Linux Media Center." Why not add ethernet.. and another HD?

Unless it does this already (I didn't read the review, I hate Tom. I just look at pretty pictures.) - This thing is just waiting for transcode and some other software to be scripted together--stick a normal DVD in the drive, press a button on your remote control--bingo. DVD -> DIVX, stored on the internal HD, accessible via the network.

I would love a box like this with a HD added, connected to a P2P network. Search, download, right to the box. Oh, and replace DVD-ROM with DVD-RW; all of my friends will want copies of the movies I've stolen--or purchased if the MPAA gets their shit together. :P [colonpee.com]

After much thought, I dropped it

[KlausBreuer]

Well, in November 2002 I wanted to buy one of these things for my parents. Thus I spent a lot of time finding data on this KISS player.

After a lot of back and forth, I decided not to buy it for the following reasons:

* Price. In Germany, this thing costs about $400. That's harsh, especially compared to the bone-standard DVD player I bought in the end for $88.

* It doesn't play Advanced DivX (Quarter Pixel, GMC). While I can do without GMC (it looks weird in places), I use QP all the time.

* The FAQ clearly stated that you will never, ever, be able to disable the region code and the Macrovision 'protection'. I can live with the region code limitation (while grinding my teeth), but my parents TV cannot handle this Macrovision nonsense (and no, we won't buy a new TV just for DVDs).
While I can buy a hardware scrubber for the Macrovision, it would have put be back another $60.

* The button design on the box itself is simply lousy. All buttons are in a neat row and look quite identical. Good luck using it in the half-dark.

I'm now fiddling with putting together a Linux PC in a tiny case, which will play whatever I put into the DVD drive. I'm still looking for a *quiet* case, though...

Ciao,
Klaus