First Certified DivX/DVD Player Released 272
An anonymous reader writes "According to this article, a company named KiSS Technology announced at CeBit that they are releasing the first certified DivX DVD players, the DP-450 and DP-500! They are supposed to be able to playback ALL versions of DivX content and digital rights management. I'm completely stoked on this, I would buy one of these in a snap. This could make the purchase of dvd burners slow down in my opinion." (And Yes, it plays Ogg Vorbis, too.) Ebay imports, anyone?
Old News (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hi (Score:5, Informative)
(Just a little clarification/correction)
Re:Hi (Score:2)
Though, you can still find the illegal original codec out there on various sites
Re:Hi (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hi (Score:2)
Actually, although version 4 and higher of DivX are not rips, they are not actually compliant MPEG-4 implementations either. If you want the benefits of compliance like proper synch, responsive seeks and all that, then check out 3ivx [3ivx.com] or XviD [xvid.org]. The latter is open source and fragmented and thus there are often compatibility problems, while the former is very unified but not open source.
Re:Hi (Score:2)
Re:Old News (Score:2)
Not enough people bothered to buy the expensive Divix players, that only played Divix disks, to find out. It was available at Circuit City in the states only, as far as I knew. I don't know anyone that bought one. I know lots of people who laughed their asses off at the idea tho. They started giving away movies if you would buy them. They gave up. I believe
Yeah. Wicked. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yeah. Wicked. (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to speak about boot time, shutdown time, fsck time, etc.
It's the same as the difference between using your computer as a dvd player/cd player vs using a dedicated dvd player to watch your dvd's and play your music cd's in your livingroom.
I haven't read the article, but I'll wager that it doesn't have a ethernetport though...
That would be the major problem with this player. That you have to burn all your movies to cd before watching it.
I'd love to have one of these that was also capable of playing movies and mp3's over the network from my fileserver...
Think about it.
Sit in your sofa, turn it on using your remote, 4 seconds later your browsing through your movie collection, 10 seconds after turning it on you start viewing your recently downloaded Hikaru no Go episode. =)
You probably could do something like that using a "Linux in BIOS-eeprom" installation (to get fast boot times) and autoload some kind of special software that let you use a remote to browse the local harddrive or mounted nfs or smb shares.
But I'll bet that doing this would take more than a few hours *and* probably cost more than the Kiss player.
There are only a few select mainboards that work with the eeprom loaded linux, so you'd probably have to buy some new hardware to build a machine like that.
And it would probably not be fan-less or harddrive free either. (Thus not being quiet enough to run while listening to music)
Or you could get a X-box, chiping it and then install that mediaplayer thingie...
But that's also expensive and loud. (The X-box makes a terrible racket compared to, say, a dvd-player)
A Compromise perhaps? (Score:2)
Re:Yeah. Wicked. (Score:2)
I've always felt that TVs look terrible. Blurry and icky, shadowing...bleh. DVDs on the computer monitor, that's the way to go. Then I have my big leather computer chair with maybe some snacks...mmm....
Re:Yeah. Wicked. (Score:2)
Right in my face. =)
So now I only have to wait for it to appear in a shop near me. Or maybe I'll take the train to Kopenhagen (30 minutes travel) and buy one there.
I saw that they where selling a cheaper OEM version of it in some stores in Denmark...
This version seem to have been on the market for quite some time, but with the old firmware the ethernetport hasn't been enabled and it couldn't play divx 3.11.
Those are recent additions to the capabi
Re:But can you do that? (Score:2)
(It's availible as a pdf on their homepage)
What the computer software (windows only, yes) is intended for is to make a list, or library, of movies, pictures and music that you want to be able to play from your DP500.
Then you start your DP, choose "Movies", you'll see you list, choose a movie, press play.
You can't browse your network though... You have to add your files to the list before you can play them.
Re:Yeah. Wicked. (Score:2)
Oh yes, and it has a nice vacuum florescent display on the front to show me stuff as it's performing different media tasks, DIVX, DVD, MP3, etc. With a logitech cordless desktop for a remote control, it's great!
Aside from portability (which doesn't really matter for me), I can't think of any other advantages of the KISS unit. A che
Ok, I'll bite. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
Um... there are other video files other than DVDs... Considering I'm converting recorded video from the TV to Xvid right now, I have a fair idea as to what a legit usage for this device would be.
Let's face it... VCD is not great for storing video... I'd love to have one of these devices.
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
And I've been taking MPEG files recorded off TV, converting them to DivX5 and storing them on CD-R. I can fit two hours broadcast quality on 1 CD-R, which takes up a lot less space than a VHS tape. I'm also starting to do the same with home videos of the kids.
Yes, I could use a DVD burner. But the cost of the burner is too high right now($200 for a cheap bran
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm also curious as to how many types of subtitles it supports. If it's just a linux box running mplayer, that'll be fine. Especially if I can ssh into it and muck with the config files.
Bonus points if I can play divx/xvid fr
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
I'm not sure what the player speaks over Ethernet.
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
I did see that the player is xvid capable, and that 3.11 support was added recently. I also noticed that the shipped version of the 450 (according to the FAQ) will not include any subtitle support. I also noticed that there is no mention of plans to s
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
maybe so you can watch those divx rips on a tv instead of your computer.
and why buy something you can build?
for the simple reason of NOT having to build it.
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
However, I think a HD is less hassle than a bunch of DVDs, and almost as cheap.
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
And if your DVD goes bad, a DivX/Xvid copy will not be of much consolation. I know it wouldn't for me.
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:5, Insightful)
Second idea: cd companies could burn a divx video on along with the sound on a multisession cd. Should play just fine in any cd player and owners of PCs/Macs/Whatever or this cool device get a little extra.
There's plenty of legal uses for this device. I want one even though I don't own a video camera
RE: DivX *in* a camcorder, perhaps? (Score:2)
Right now, DV camcorders are great - but it seems like most people spend a lot of time doing format conversions on their PC before they get to their final product.
DivX would be a pretty good default for a relatively space-saving format - assuming the compatibility on the set-top player end of things. Right now, it really sucks to download
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
VCDs suck. About 74 minutes of VHS quality MPEG-1. SVCDs, Super Video CDs, are much better. These are MPEG2 encoded CDs (same codec as DVDs) that are playable by most all dvd playsers. SVCDs have laserdisc quality, with a full 480 lines of resolution. Very, very good quality.
However, they can only store 74 minutes per disc, so y
Re:Ok, I'll bite. (Score:2)
Nope. 74 minutes. I should know. I burn tons of SVCDs. SVCDs are mpeg-2 encoded, unlike VCDs, which are mpeg. Better compression, better quality. You might be thinking of mini dvds, which are short snippets of DVD video on a CD.
Re:VCD - MPEG1 (Score:2)
I wonder if they could build something in to multiple disc changers that most players currently come with. As one disc ends, it as quickly as possible changes to the next disc. It could even buffer the last few seconds of one disc to cover the time it takes to change, so it's seamless.
convenience copying (Score:2, Insightful)
If I had an infinite hard drive and a large television, I might want a bit-for-bit copy; since I'm more likely to use a PC monitor to watch movies, and since even my largest hard drive would only hold a handful of movies at DVD-size, I compress. I've never downloaded warezed movies, nor do I put mine of a big anon. ftp site
But when I fe
Re:convenience copying (Score:2)
Ok, I'll bite. (Score:3, Insightful)
Even right there in your own question, the answer is obvious. Say I've ripped my DVDs and traded them with somebody. I'd like to play the ones I got in return, wouldn't I?
I'll give you another scenario. I rip recordings off my TiVo, encode them to DivX, and store them in a much smaller form on my file server. It would be great to have a device to play these back again on the TV, instea
VHS (Score:3, Insightful)
Ben
We aren't _all_ pirates! (Score:2)
I haven't had my SVHS deck plugged in for ages, because I use one of my computers for recording. 45 minutes of much-better-than-SVHS video per CDR, with no jamming, tearing, dropouts, tape stretch, head alignment problems, dirty heads, etc.
None of my 800 (or thereabouts) CDs of DiVX were downloaded from the net. They're all just capped and archived from regular broadcasts, my old VHS tapes, and satellite.
I suppose you could use it to mail copies of movies to friends who are too far away to borrow the
Sale of DVD Burners (Score:2, Insightful)
Why? You need a burner to make the DivX DVD, don't you?
Re:Sale of DVD Burners (Score:5, Informative)
Ah, I see (Score:2)
Re:Sale of DVD Burners (Score:2)
To shove 4.7GB of DivXed crap on one disc.
4.7GB / 700MB = ~7 average DivXed videos
That's a signifigant physical space savings.
cebit == european (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:cebit == european (Score:2)
Re:cebit == european (Score:2)
You must be thinking of that other Target brand, KOSS.
Why not Xbox (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why not Xbox (Score:2)
Compared to a cd-player or dvd-player it's *really* loud!
I have a ps2 and even though it's more quiet than the X-box, I constantly get irritated by the noise of the fan while playing.
Home electronics should be fanless. Or at least have *really* quiet fans.
But if you allready *own* a modded x-box, or are going to buy one, then it's probably insane to buy one of these players. =)
The main downside
Re:Why not Xbox (Score:2, Interesting)
OH YEAH (Score:3, Funny)
OGM support? (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh great. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh great. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Oh great. (Score:2)
Re:Oh great. (Score:2, Insightful)
The shortcoming of this is that while I can record stuff with DivX on a CD-R most people won't have a similar machine, because of this sharing is less possible.
Personally, I wouldn't use it for pirated movies, if I like it I either buy it or rent it through NetFlix.
Re:Oh great. (Score:3, Funny)
Wanna know why I owned a dual-deck tape player in high school?
Fair use (Score:4, Interesting)
Just because its digital and easier to share doesn't mean its illegal or should be made illegal.
Ideally, I'd like to converge my Tivo/PC/DVD player into something simple and usable and this device is a step in the right direction.
I'm sure the device will be used for copyright infringment somehow, but it does have legitimate uses. Not to mention just about ANY video device can be used for CI.
Homepage and a little info (Score:5, Informative)
One of my collegaues have actually ordered one. It is based on an arm processor running uLinux & IIRC you can actually flash the firmware youself, and it is running some sort of mplayer. (AFAIK, the software is somewhere to be found on their homepage.
The FAQ is
here [kissnordic.dk].
And, a homepage for kissdvd (the player?) - you need flash [kissdvd.com]. So, that will probably survive a looong time...
Mads Bondo Dydensborg
Want a review? (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot article refering to this review [slashdot.org]
Yes, this article minus the "We're releasing it now" was posted on /. a while ago.
*Drool* (Score:2)
The question is, with dvd burners, can this bad boy play a DVD burned full of ogg/mp3s? Can it play DVD full of DivX movies? I can fit between 5-6 movies or more on a DVD.
Could someone... (Score:2)
Approach with caution (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know too much about this specific player, but I bought my first DVD player from KiSS about three years ago - a cheap player, around $200, which also played mp3s, vcd and svcd. And it is probably the worst DVD player I have ever used.
The DVD image and audio quality was very, very bad (jerky playback, unclear image, lots of jitter etc), and it wouldn't even play half of the VCDs I tried. It also had a very "plastic" feel to it, and I suspect it used a standard IDE DVD ROM with some very cheap chips for playback.
This new player may be good, but after my experiences with their earlier products I would approach this one with caution.
Re:Approach with caution (Score:2)
DivX SVCD? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? Why need support to play DivX format in a DVD player?
Is the DivX format any better quality than SVCD? Using standard CD-Rs, you are going to use close to the same amount of discs to get the same amount of video at the same quality.
DivX may have better audio than SVCD...but nothing will ever provide the DD 5.1, DTS, and 6.1(7.1???) sound quality of real DVDs.
Re:DivX SVCD? (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm.. 1 cd for almost any decent DivX rip. 2, 3, and even 4 cds for even the shortest movie encoded using SVCD. Not only do you save on cds (and the associated storage space), but you don't have to change discs midway into a movie (several times in some cases). Sucks if you don't have a changer, I'd imagine.
Oh, and as for every DVD player playing VCD/SVCD.. those claims are way overstated. AFAIK no Toshiba
Re:DivX SVCD? (Score:2)
Your insight is astounding. Those "low end" brands were the pioneers of (S)VCD, offering support way before the namebrand vendors were even aware of the market. Even today most of the high-end gear that's older than a few months doesn't support it.
Re:DivX SVCD? (Score:2)
That's what I said. And there's no demand because there's no awareness. Most people that I make aware of SVCD burning and how easy it is to make CDs of your home movies, TV shows etc, that can be played back in many (most?) DVD players get very excited about it.
Re:VCD is a free feature. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:DivX SVCD? (Score:2, Insightful)
KiSS sounds familiar.. (Score:2)
I can't quite remember if they were KiSS players per se or Scan ones, manufactured by KiSS.
Either way, I bet that these new players will be available there soon...
Theora (Score:2)
US availlability (Score:2)
DP-500 has 10/100 Ethernet (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about divx.. the thing that is very interesting to me is the network port. So, I can theoretically access my Linux file server, which has my MiniDV movies, exported to DVD VOB format. Also, as part of my creation process, I can watch them over the network, rather than burning DVD's as tests. And, once I'm done, I can have an easily accessed home movie archive via the network server.
It could also access my MP3 library on that Linux file server.. Could be a nice, small, quiet media server to replace most of my HTPC (Home Theater PC) functionality (everything except the HDTV receiver/recorder).
Buy one (Score:2)
So, not cheap, but if the guy's gotta have it...
Definitely NOT the first. I've had one for months (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Definitely NOT the first. I've had one for mont (Score:2)
Pardon my stupidity, but I don't understand what you mean by 'code out of the box'? That they only implement region coding in software?
Links, please (Score:3, Informative)
Trying to buy one (Score:2)
I've had one on order for almost two weeks and the delivery date is slipping a day per day. Has anyone here actually got one?
Re:Got mine on Friday (Score:2)
Got mine on Monday, woohoo! I made some test DiVX CDs using mencoder, it seems happy with bitrates around 800k, but moans about wrong 4CC codec with higher bitrates, as does a Windows player - although I don't remember using a different codec in the lavcopts. I'm mentioning this just to see if anyone else has encountered a bitrate limitation, so don't anyone jump to premature conclusions bout what the KiSS can and can't do please. It's nice and quiet in operation and the internal build quality looks fine to
hmm? slow down burner sales? (Score:3, Informative)
Really? I can't say that I've seen too many people wanting a DVD burner to pirate DVD's. The things are so cheap (the DVD's, not the burners) that when you take into account the time it takes to rip the thing, well it's like that wise old saying, 'Linux is cheap if your time is worth nothing'.
DRM features (Score:2)
Any opinions? - thanks!
I have one (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, the DP-450 it is a VCR-sized box with a 150Mhz StrongARM running Linux 2.4.x + busybox + custom software + custom hardware helping MPEG2 and MPEG4 decoding + a (Toshiba?) DVD drive + remote control. No ethernet on the DP-450 (but it is there on the DP-500). No fans :-)
Just insert a CD/DVD and it starts playing what's on it (but press the load button: just pushing the loading bay is not enough):
Briefly said: this is an MPEG2 and MPEG4 player (hence DivX 4 and 5; old DivX 3 is out of question), and as of now just MPEG4 Simple Profile features are supported (thus it won't play everything out there, as of now: be warned).
Image quality is nice, but not excellent (blacks aren't so... black). Firmware upgrades on the DP-450 are performed by downlowading an iso image (of a couple of megabytes) from the manifacturer website, and then booting the player with it.
All in all, a nice piece of hardware, easy to use, somewhat expensive (I purchased mine for 400 Euros). But it sits there beside your TV set and it just works.
Re:I have one (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, it will never be able to playback advanced profile mpeg4 (a lot of divx 5.02/03 and possibly newer versions of xvid), that's a limitation of the decoder chip.
Thirdly, given the variety in the divx world, there are several more or less esoteric variant formats like ms-vki-mpeg4v2/3, avi files with subtitles in s
Re:I have one (Score:2, Informative)
It plays DivX 5 / Xvid with GMC (Global Motion Compensation) and DivX subtitles since software release 2.6.3
The picture quality is far better than any Nvidia or ATI video card with tv-out (tested on my Sony 32" 16/9 TV).
No problems with all my DivX 4/5 MPEG4 Xvid with CBR or VBR MP3. The cool thing is the ability to keep the original DD 5.1 sound (448 kbits/s) in the DivX.
We should get DivX 3.11 decoding for the end of April.
4 month ago there was a lot of bugs in the firmware but today with the
Re:I have one (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH, computers usually are noisy and don't fit too well in the living room. Plus, I'm too lazy to
I was getting tired to plug/unplug my laptop into the TV set, so I just bought that player, which is less versatile than my laptop, but it is quiet and it does the job.
Maybe.. (Score:2)
Infinite flexibilty is nice on computers, but its also a pain in the ass. Just because you have a hundred dials to spin doesn't mean you should.
n00b stuff (Score:2, Interesting)
than having to make VCDs [vcdhelp.com]. (Even newbie guides [dvdrhelp.com] can be a little cumbersome)
This brings up an interesti
To all the whiners... (Score:2)
If you go by that twisted logic, Ferraris should be outlawed because they make it much easier to bre
Place to buy or reviews of DP-500? (Score:2)
I'd like to know what protocol(s) it uses, etc.. Also, the comments from users over the last several months (mostly about the 450 or prerelease 500s) talk about a lot of deficiencies. Since the firmware to supp
My experience with the DP-500 (Score:4, Informative)
First thing I did was to make it regionless - Region free Kiss DVD [rpc1.org]
Next, due to lack of the software CD, I had a hard time working out how to get the ethernet port to work - luckily, a nice person on Kiss DVD forum [esaee.com] pointed out to me that the software was also on the same
Once software was installed, and the IP of my windows machine entered into the Kiss DVD setup, I was able to play all of my files that were Divx4,5, Xvid, mp3 etc.
It requires a windows machine to stream the data through, but if you can share a drive to it eg, samba, then you can share from non-windows platforms.
In fact, it plays them better than on my PC (Athlon 1600, 1G DDR, GF4-Ti4200).
So far, the promised Divx3.11 support is not yet with us, but indications are it will be with us in a few weeks. Once it has, it will make the noisy computer beside my TV redundant!
While I do recommend this to the people who need to be on the leading edge, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who doesn't have a CDburner - though who would buy a Divx player who didn't?? -due to the need for frequent firmware updates.
Re:My experience with the DP-500 (Score:2)
Your Windows/Samba comment means that it uses SMB for filesharing. Easy enough.
And thanks for the link to the forums... I had only found the Dutch ones before (these are in English.) Ah... I see 2.6.5 is the version that drives the Ethernet. Gets it's own IP via DHCP...
Very helpful. I gather you're in the UK. How much did yours cost?
Not new and already in trouble (Score:3, Informative)
Mod parent up! (Score:2)
Re:Who "certifies" this? (Score:2)
I hope this clarifies the situation for you a little bit.
Re:Who "certifies" this? (Score:2)
Like, ummm, you're wrong. The Gamecube, for one, uses DivX video. DivXNetworks is the company that makes the format. It did start out as a hacked MS DLL, but is now a legal, respectable company with contracts and licensing deals with several big names. See their website at [divxnetworks.com].
To quote from said website:
DivXNetworks is a consumer-focused video
Re:What about Xvid? (Score:2)
Re:What about Xvid? (Score:2)
Right. I did that once. I won't do that again. The woman about the house here saw the mess of cables and powerstrips across the living room and had an aneurism.
I'd rather buy one of these, thanks.
Re:What about Xvid? (Score:2)
Has anyone here ever run across a TV out card that doesn't have this annoying flaw? I would like to know if there is one out there that will present video correctly. Also, there is a strange scanline artifact issue with most of these I've seen out there that doesn't
Re:What about Xvid? (Score:2)
Tim
Re:Just use your PC ? (Score:2)
Haha. Good idea. It's surprising that most people always go for the most expensive/least practical idea. Just run an s-video cable from your computer to your tv. (Use an adapter if necessary) S-video cables are sold in lengths of over 30 feet, so that wouldn't be a problem for most people.
Re:30-foot S-video? (Score:2)
Beats me. I've never tried it myself. Probably not too much though, if at all. What you really have to worry about is signal noise, and s-video cables are pretty good at avoiding that. (Unlike composite, svideo seperates RGB components of the signal)
(2) Anyone know offhand of an S-video out card that's an add-on, not a replacement for one's main video card?
Most tv out cards have svideo. You can pick one up for not t