Kiss DP-1504 Review

Overall Rating

Great features - ability to play MPEG/AVI files across the network, web radio, hard disk storage

Reliability is extremely poor

It promises so much and delivers so little.

Hard disk storage: I thought I would convert all my CDs to MP3 and use it like a jukebox. Seems straightforward enough and the sound quality with the optical link to my Sony amp is great. But it doesn't offer any play list or search functionality or even random play (other than in a single directory) so use involves a lot of navigation (I'll come back to the remote control later)

Network Connectivity: This is really good, play MP3 or video files across the network from my PC. The PC Link software is a bit quirky in use but it is reliable.

Web Radio: Actually quite good and I've found myself listening to some very niche stations. Again the sound quality is great through my amp. However, whilst the machine offers the ability to browse down through a sort of tree structure it is still difficult to find the station you want and can involve having to scroll through around a 100 screens for some genres. Some sort of bookmaking and search functionality is much needed here.

MPEG/AVI/DivX Playback: This was supposed to be the main purpose of the machine. When it works it is generally great although it often takes quite a bit of thinking time following any use of fast forward (up to 30 seconds of thinking time). The worst thing is that it has difficulty with around two thirds of the files I have tried to play on it (these files play elsewhere without problem). Sometimes it is helpful and tells you it doesn't have the required codes. This is rare; mostly it will just freeze up. Sometimes it will return you to a menu after a few minutes. If you are this lucky chances are the menu will have problems (background and no icons, icons but none selectable etc) but most commonly it just completely freezes up. The only solution is to remove the power cord and restart it. Things are so bad I have fitted an inline switch to the power cord. I now very rarely even attempt video playback on the machine.

Remote Control: The remote control layout is a bit idiosyncratic but you get used to that. Whilst my TiVo remote works if you point it anywhere the Kiss remote needs to be pointed directly at the machine. Sometimes it doesn't work and you need to keep pressing repeatedly. Other times it does the wrong thing (imagine skip whilst pressing pause in the middle of a movie) or returning to the previous menu when you are scrolling down through a list) If you choose to enter numbers (perhaps skipping to s specified time point) they often come out wrong.

The DP-1504 seemed to offer excellent features that were just what I needed and I knew, as an early adopter, I was taking a risk but the performance and reliability of the machine is a joke. Perhaps the technology is just not ready for the market and I would be better waiting until Sony release something similar.