Is KiSS dead? What are the alternatives?

[janroald]

My 558 doesn't load dvd's anymore. A 5 year romance seems to get closer to an end, and I can't find any stores here that sell KiSS players any more. When searching for KiSS on Linksys' webpages it seems its getting located further and further down in their backyard.

Can anyone recommend alternatives?
My appreachiated features, ranked :
- Streaming media from pc. Good format coverage.
- Recordings, hard drive
- Subtitle support of any kind when streaming.
- Clients in Linux&Windows
- Affordable
- And ofc. the rest of the good stuff from the 558

Or is an attempt to replace the dvd-rom and squeeze some extra time from my 558 worth the hassle?

[Hay]

just replace some capacitors on the power supply unit, and it will probably work again. See elsewhere in this forum.

[jupilerman]

If the only thing that doesn't work is the dvdrom, yes you can replace it and enjoy your 558 again.

[Matr1x]

I have been very happy with my KiSS DP-558 players for a couple of years. I have accepted the hardware problems (PSU), the bugs and EPG issues and I still love the (web) EPG solution if it works. However, in the Netherlands EPG is no longer working as in the past for several channels. Information is either missing or only available for one day. And with this problem, the KiSS player loses its power and in most cases becomes almost useless as PVR. I have always been hoping for better times, but I am about the give up :roll:

So time for something new and I think I have found a good alternative. I have bought a Dreambox DM800 HD which is initially not a PVR but digital decorder. I had a dBox2 until a couple of weeks ago and replaced it with this new gadget and believe me, it works super. It supports HD, although cable only has a few HD channels. And it also supports PVR. You can connect an internal or external harddisk or mount your NAS (like I did). The dreambox has several powerful plugins, like AutoTimer and EpgUpdate. With all this, my KiSS DP-558 PVR can be replaced. Although I cannot program my recorder using Internet, it has almost the same functionaly and works much, much better. A Dreambox has a web interface as well, and you can access this remotely if you forward the ports in your router. And then, you can also schedule recording if you are not at home.

Anyway, I can write a whole page of all the features that I like so much, but unfortunately this forum is about KiSS players and not about the Dreambox. But the message I want to share is, YES, there is an alternative that has at least the same features and more. It works a bit different but at least it works :lol:

[MikeHunter]

As a PVR i'm still hooked on the KISS DP-558.
But (matr1x) you're still right with the epg-problem.

Do anybody know about a way getting epg-information from some other services. (not tinystock)

Maybe there is a chance to parse html epg-stuff (mean rss or something) to kml ?!