Product Reviews

Traditionally, home PCs reside in the spare bedroom or study, partly so that those with serious work to do can get some peace and quiet, and partly because a system box, mouse and keyboard don't really feel at home in a living room. But your PC's hard disk is now likely to be filled with video, audio and photo files that would be better enjoyed with friends and family. Media streaming devices like the Linksys KiSS 1600 make this possible by using your home network to access the files remotely. This way you can listen to your MP3s, browse last year's holiday photos, and watch downloaded video files, all from the comfort of your armchair using the supplied remote.

Home networks are now commonplace, since most broadband users will have a router. The KiSS 1600 supports both wired and wireless networking. WiFi is obviously an easier and neater solution, but if you're prepared to run Ethernet cabling around your home, a wired network will more reliably deliver the speeds you need for streaming video. Either way, it's fairly easy to get the KiSS working with your network, and setup is practically automatic with most routers, only requiring the password for your wireless network. (You have protected it with a password, haven't you?)

You'll need to install server software on your PC to stream media files to the Kiss 1600. Linksys supplies its own basic program, which is quick to install and easy to use. Just point it in the direction of your media files and it adds them to a list of available files. These can then be played back by the KiSS 1600 over the network. Because the KiSS hardware uses the AV UPnP standard, it's compatible with a wide range of other server software if you prefer, including Microsoft's Windows Media Connect. It's worth noting that there's no storage on the player itself: unlike hard disk-based devices such as Apple TV, the idea here is that files are streamed

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to the player while you watch, so it only works if your PC is switched on, and anyone using the PC for other tasks at the same time may see a slowdown.

You'll need to connect the box's video and audio outputs to your TV, and possibly your hi-fi or AV amplifier. The Kiss 1600 is excellent in this regard, with every video and audio output you're likely to need. If you have a traditional CRT television, the best choice is RGB SCART, which works with most decent sets and gives good quality video and stereo audio. There are also S-video and composite outputs to cater for more awkward TVs, plus separate phono stereo outputs if you want to direct the audio elsewhere.

Those with more advanced home cinema setups are fully catered for as well. The HDMI and component outputs are ideal for connecting to an HDTV, and provide high definition video in either 720p or 1080i formats, although you'll definitely need a wired network to stream such massive files. The HDMI output, along with the optical and coaxial S/PDIFs, can carry digital surround sound to a compatible TV or surround sound amplifier.

The KiSS onscreen interface is rather bland, but clear, and the text is easy to read even on CRT TVs. It reacts quickly to your inputs on the remote, which feels well made but can be confusing at first due to a lack of colour coding and a large number of similar buttons.

All the common video codecs are supported, so you should be able to playback any video files you have. Quality is largely dependent on the file itself, but we found the KiSS 1600 did a fine job of playing a wide range of formats. You can rewind and fast forward your files, but the remote doesn't have separate buttons for this and file skip, making it too easy to skip to the next file by mistake rather than fast forward through the current one. Fast forward and rewind are limited to a maximum of 32x normal speed, so it can take a while to get back to where you were after an accidental skip.

Audio files sound fine, but the interface is fairly limited, so if you want to listen to tracks by album or set up playlists you should hunt down more advanced server software, such as TwonkyMedia (30 Euros from www.twonkyvision.de). Photos are well scaled and look detailed even on standard CRT TVs. However there are no thumbnails of images to browse, just a list of file names, and the slideshow isn't as good as the one included with Windows Media Center.