The convenience of seeing it all on your TV
Stop crowding around your PC monitor. Sit back and relax as you enjoy a state-of-the-art multimedia experience directly on your TV screen. The KiSS 1600 can stream your digital multimedia files from your computer or other digital devices disc directly to your TV and/or entertainment center.

HDMI
The KiSS 1600 will upscale standard definition DVDs to 720p or 1080i resolution to provide a high definition entertainment experience using the HDMI connection.

Linksys Online
Moreover, the KiSS 1600 DVD and media player is designed to harness the power of the Internet. Users can access the unique Internet connectivity capabilities of the Linksys online service (for example, applications and services such as Internet radio stations, online gaming, etc.).

The hub for all your multimedia components
Play everything in your digital library. The KiSS 1600 is compatible with many media formats (so you can, for example, access your favourite movies, music, picture slideshows, games directly from your TV). Watch Windows Media 9, and Nero Digital files in standard definition or high definition, and enjoy your collection of movies, music and pictures from DVDs, CDs, USB and the network. We have even included an extra software pack so that you can encode, play and burn Nero Digital.

Seamless connections for your home entertainment network
Use wireless or Ethernet connections with the KiSS 1600 player to instantly send data to your TV. Of course, the USB 2 port also allows you to connect a hard disk, MP3 player, digital camera, etc.

Free upgrades
The KiSS 1600 is fully upgradeable (so that you can immediately install all of the new features and enhancements). You can upgrade to latest version of the KiSS 1600 firmware directly from the Internet or download the firmware and manually install the upgrade from the CD-R.

The KiSS 1600 is in a similar design to the KiSS DP-450 I reviewed over 4 years ago.
I got to love my DP-450 after firmware updates improved the functionality and removed the initial glitches.
The KiSS design is unique by its neat, clean cut and uncluttered front panel which is completely flat with the center having a metallic plastic finish with all else being a black gloss transparent plastic. The unit is about 1/2 the width of a standard DVD player (230mm) The front controls are just two large rectangular buttons which glow blue when the unit is powered on. The DVD tray blends in with the front and is half black & half silver to match the rest of the unit. Under the DVD tray is a large LED display that indicates the operation & functions of the remote control which is a similar but smaller design to previous KiSS remotes. The remote is an essential part of this unit with there being only 2 buttons on the player the functions without the remote are very limited.

The features on this player are great and playback of HD & standard definition content is excellent but functionality is marred by several glitches which should be able to be overcome by firmware upgrades.

The convenience of seeing it all on your TV
This player works well as a DVD Player upscaling the DVD movies to 1080i or 720p giving great picture quality on my Sony Bravia 40" TV. It plays a variety of HD media formats MPG, TS, AVI, WMV,
Streams Video & Audio via both wired & wireless network, USB as well a from it's own DVD-ROM drive (Which will read DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM & CD-R/RW)
Output connections for most TV Video/Audio connections

HDMI
Upscale to 720p or 1080i with integrated audio

Linksys Online
Connects to the internet & accesses Radio Stations & gaming etc. Radio choice is extensive and quality is excellent

Seamless connections for your home entertainment network
Connects to wireless or wired network to shared folders on the network. Additional software required on the PC for sharing
USB 2 port to connect to a single USB2 hard disk, MP3 player, digital camera, etc.

Free upgrades
Setup menu allows connecting to the Linksys upgrade service which can download & upgrade the player's firmware

Product Description
A new generation of portable media playback devices
With the new Network MediaPlayer-WLAN, Freecom adds another dimension to the world of portable media playback devices. The player connects to your wireless access point, thereby opening a world of multimedia entertainment. You can now play back any multimedia content stored on any computer in your network, and watch it on your TV. Or you can store movies and/or music on the built-in harddrive and enjoy them directly from the player on the TV, without your PC having to be switched on. The choice is yours !

The player is also available as a 'Drive in Kit', without hard drive built-in. You can either assemble a hard drive yourself, or use the device without hard drive as a AV Wireless streaming device.

The new MediaPlayer WLAN is powered by the latest generation Sigma Design chipset, and supports playback of HD files. It is firmware upgradeable, to ensure you always will have the latest updates and newest features. Experience a new level of computer and home entertainment, provided by Freecom. Free your mind !

The Freecom 350 looks like a mini PC in appearance with three circular buttons a circular navigation set of 5 buttons there are 3 LEDS indicating Power, Network traffic & HD activity. The navigation buttons provide most of the control necessary to use the player making the remote only necessary for initial setup purposes, they are backlit when the unit is powered up and this panel flashes during boot up or when the unit is being used as a USB drive other than the backlight and the LEDS there is no LED display to indicate the operation of the unit.

This player works well as a DVD Player using a USB DVD-ROM drive upscaling DVD movies to 1080p, 1080i or 720p giving better picture quality on my Sony Bravia 40" TV ( I am unable to test the 1080p resolution because my Sony TV does not support it). It plays a variety of HD media formats MPG, TS, AVI, WMV
Streams Video & Audio via both wired & wireless network as well as from USB Harddrive DVD-ROM
Output connections for most TV Video/Audio connections

The Player is available with various capacity 3 1/2" hard drives up to 500g installed or as a bare unit without a hard drive, I have the factory installed 500g Hitachi hard drive and looking at it it should be easy ebn0ugh to install my own harddrive.
The output of 1080p is higher resolution to the Kiss (but I have no TV to check out the quality) The DVI output does not include audio when fed to my TV via a DVI to HDMI cable.
Quality of Video Playback @ 720p & 1080i is great although the AC3 5.1 audio is fussy on how the audio & video are muxed, I had to Remux half my MPEG 2 videos with
"Elecard XMuxer Pro" to get audio playback

PC has to have 3rd party sharing software for it to work either Windows Media Player 11 or Kiss PC Link.
Kiss PC Link software easy to install, but adding a drive letter as a live folder does not identify it by name and there is no provision in the software to change this

Supports Only ONE Device at a time so use of USB hub for multiple devices is not possible

Prone to locking up when removing USB connection
Absence of front power switch makes resetting difficult by having to disconnect it from the supply or the inaccessible reset button on the rear.

Does not support multiple HD Partitions -- only selects the first partition on the connected Hard Drive
On a Seagate 400g hard drive which came with a Dynamic Drive Overlay it selected the overlay section instead of the primary NTFS partition, I had to remove the DDO & reformat the drive to be able to use it

File sort order is sorted alpha/numerical

Supports Multiple USB Devices connected via a USB Hub, including DVD-ROM
Hot plugging of multiple USB devices confuses the system and sometimes a reboot is necessary to get the correct USB device identified

Supports DVD-ROM Drives & browses as file system and will play media or DVD from VIDEO_TS.IFO
No provision to eject the disc and the eject button is disabled. Eject can only be initiated by disconnecting from the USB

Supports Multiple HD Partitions
File sort order appears to be random & I suspect it is probably the same order as the files on the disc which makes it difficult to find a particular file

Internal PSU via fig8 connector polarised fixed plug but the supplied lead is not polarised and continental 2 pin mains lead is supplied from Holland (I expect the UK version to have a 13a UK plug

Separate PSU with standard PC type mains connector continental & UK mains leads were supplied. The plug to the Player is a mini din type with 4 large pins, I find this type of PSU confusing as there does not seem to be any standard with these type of connectors which are commonly used and the output connections although appear to be similar seem to all have different pin configurations and it is possible to plug in the wring PSU & cause untold damage. I have labeled all my PSUs to indicate the appropriate device they mate up to.

KiSS 1600
HDMI if the output is disconnected (in my case via an HDMI switch box) auto-sense reverts to an alternative output, it can revert to component S Video Scart Component or Composite, Then if the player locks up asking for user response there is no display when the HDMI is reconnected. Connecting to the alternative display (in my case S Video) the video can be viewed and the appropriate user response taken.
If the KiSS is switched on without the HDMI being connected, upon connecting to HDMI the Auto sense reverts to Component Video resulting in a green display which cannot be resolved without a power reset.
Update Firmware 1.1.4 This issue appears to have been fixed & Auto detect HDMI should now function correctly
Ejecting a DVD disc using the button on the front of the player whilst playing media files from the USB hard drive or network instigates the stop command & playback stops. The stop/eject command is a combined function of the same button.
Connecting a USB device whilst playing a DVD movie stops playback and the menu reverts to USB device
Playback of high definition high bitrate movies is OK at normal speed but any attempt to fast forward or picture search causes the player to freeze and a system reset is inevitable
Sometimes it will not come out of standby without a reset
Having a USB hard drive connected at when rebooting can stop the system booting up
The player is prone to locking up whilst accessing corrupt media and the only way to unlock is by resetting, this can be done by either pressing the reset button on the rear of the player or disconnecting the power. The absence of a power or reset button on the front of the unit makes this simple task difficult when it is installed in a confined space where the power connection or the rear of the unit are both inaccessible

FREECOM 350
Setting up the software NDAS is quite straightforward but on my unit the wired network write is key missing and I was only able to use the wireless to write to the hard drive.
Phone support was friendly & suggested I sent an email with my details to request the write key, it took a week to get a key from Freecom even though Danny from SVP technical support made several requests on my behalf, apparently the key had to come from the manufacturers in China and the UK Freecom help desk were very apologetic about this and are taking steps to ensure similar delays do not occur.
Networking uses the Windows 98 compatibility and if network share names are larger than 8 the share is either not found or corrupt, using Windows XP I had to shorten the file names of my shared drives to make all my shared drives visible

Using the internal HD as a USB drive for my PC is simple, but when connected to my PC (with the PC powered up or not) it disables the unit and I find I have to physically remove the USB to be able to use the player, this is very inconvenient when the Player & PC are both built in and have to be physically moved for this purpose, a workaround although not ideal is to break the plus-cc wire in the USB cable and fit a switch in it. The switch isolates the plu-vcc from the player which was preventing it from booting up.

Both these players play back HD Video & up-scaled DVD content very well and apart from the anomalies mentioned I can recommend both of them. neither has any real edge over the other so go for whichever takes your fancy