KiSS 1600: The DVD player that likes to stream media
With all the hype, you could be forgiven for thinking Apple TV was the only credible media streamer on the block. KiSS will now thoroughly disabuse you of this preposterous notion
It's not often we get so excited about a DVD player these days that we jump up and down when it arrives in the office. That wasn't always the case though -- we remember when DVD was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen, and KiSS is keen to evoke such emotions in us once again with its funky new media-streaming DVD player, the KiSS 1600. We first saw it at CeBIT in March and were desperate to get our hands on it.
What the KiSS offers over other DVD players is the ability to stream media either over a wired Ethernet connection, or via the built-in Wi-Fi adaptor. You just need to install a ridiculously simple sharing application on all the PCs you want to stream from. There's also a USB socket at the back that allows you to plug in removable drives, a handy addition.
The other bonus is that the KiSS 1600 can upscale all of your DVDs and output the resulting image via HDMI or component. Which is a pretty nice feature, albeit one we would expect on a player that costs around £200. If hi-def isn't your bag, don't worry. Unlike Apple TV, the KiSS has a Scart output too, something we think is incredibly handy, especially if you want to move the player up to the bedroom for some late-night streamage.
The KiSS 1600, like all good media streamers, offers support for a wide range of files, including MPEG-4, XviD, DivX and even Windows Media. Obviously it plays DVDs, including those written on to pretty much every kind of recordable media. Audio support is varied and plentiful too, even including OGG, which always gets a product a little cheer in the Crave office. -Ian Morris