Compressed air pistol ?! Ave you ever seen a flying laser head ?:-)
You should really avoid that ! When I say "carefully...", I mean it. The head on the CD arm seems to be very fragile. I just used a small brush to remove dust on the lens (by gently touching the lens with a small part of the brush) until it seems clean.
The CD cleaning kits are complete bullshit and totally useless.
I partially disassemble the top of the CD drive and I CAREFULLY clean the lens using a lens cleaning brush (the kind of brush you use to clean camera lenses).
The Toshiba drive in the DP-450 stay very cold, like the entire case of this DVD player. I had a Tokai 715S before the DP-450 and it was a lot more hot.
For the internal drive problems, all the problems in CD and DVD players I have seen were caused by dust on the laser lens. It's relatively easy to clean but not a well known trick to repair players.
Swapping the DVD, I don't know. Some people in DP-450 forums say it works...
The integrated Toshiba DVD Player is quite excellent at reading any media : DVD-/+R(W), CD-R(W) and scratched CDs. I don't understand why you would want to replace it (exect for failure).
To make the DP-450 region free, you have to flash the firmware of the integrated Toshiba IDE drive to make it region Free. To do that, you have to connect it to a PC and flash it with modified firmware easy to find.
The DP-450 software detects it and gives you acces to an additional menu where you can choose the zone or no zone.
Some people tested it With DVD+R and DVD+RW discs and it works.
But these days, almost all DVD media and DVD writers I see in the stores are DVD-R(W), not DVD+
The 150 MHz ARM Risc CPU is embedded in the EM8500 chip along with everything else except Flash and Ram. (i.e. memory controler, IDE controler, video, decoders, I/O...)
The Kiss have Composite, S-Video, RGB and YPrPb video out (via the SCART connector for RGB an Component video). You can configure it for progressive scan or RGB output.
The soon to be released Kiss DP-500 (already available in Denmark) have an Ethernet port.
binaries in the rom are not in ELF format but in bFTL, Binary Flat Format
http://www.beyondlogic.org/uClinux/bflt.htm
Another proof that the player runs ucLinux.
The Kiss DP-500 (not yet released outside Denmark) is a DP-450 with an Ethernet 10/100 interface. It will be capable of reading files shared on a network (protocols supported not known yet).
A future Kiss player will have hard disk+Ethernet.
First of all, this DVD/DivX player runs Linux kernel 2.4.17.
If you did not believe me, download the ISO containing the firmware upgrade on the Kiss site:
Unzip it, mount the ISO, retrieve the romfs.bin file, mount it and check it's content:
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 jan 1 1970 bin drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 jan 1 1970 cdrom drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 jan 1 1970 dev -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 279064 jan 1 1970 fileplayer.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7063 jan 1 1970 fipmodule.o drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 jan 1 1970 img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 308894 jan 1 1970 khwl.o -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 310850 jan 1 1970 linux.bin.gz -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 114392 jan 1 1970 mpegplayer.bin drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32 jan 1 1970 proc
zcat linux.bin.gz | strings | grep Linux
Linux version 2.4.17-uc0 (kiss@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #1 Wed Jan 22 15:30:35 CET 2003
This player works perfectly with any MPEG-4 file. Mencoder (part of MPlayer) with libavcodec creates files compatible with the DP-450.
The image quality when playing a DivX (on a Sony 32" 16/9 TV) is FAR superior to the quality of the same file played on a PC hooked to the TV. (I made some comparisons with my Linux PC + NVidia GF4200, S-Video + MPlayer and a friends PC running Windoz + WMP + ATI Radeon card + S-Video link)
I know there is the 3.11 issue but it's really simple to convert films to MPEG4 to make them compatible with the Kiss player.
MPlayer reads all formats, including Quicktime Sorenson 1 and 3, RealVideo, all Windows Media Player formats (WMV 1, 2 and 3) and does not cost anything !
Bzzzt, wrong :
The values are keys/s/MHz , not keys/s !!! (and there is slightly more MHz in an Itanium 2:-)
The processors in the SGI Altix are not Itanium but Itanium 2 which are way faster. (mmm... maybe not for executing x86 32 bit code though...)
Distributed.net is absolutely not a good benchmark !
Itaniums are definitely not optimised x86 processors:-)
Here are the failure rates from a big French hardware reseller (LDLC) :
IDE 7200 rpm 20 Gb :
Seagate : 1.3% (448)
Western Digital : 8.8% (1506)
IDE 7200 rpm 40 Gb :
Seagate : 1.6% (7643)
Maxtor : 1.9% (8052)
IBM 120GXP : 3.1% (4790)
Western Digital : 7.2% (1726)
IBM 60 GXP : 22.9% (1068) !!!!!!
IDE 7200 rpm 60 Gb :
Seagate : 0.7% (284)
IBM 120 GXP : 2.5% (722)
Maxtor : 2.5% (1791)
Western Digital : 8.6% (490)
IBM 60 GXP : 16.1% (932) !!!!!!
IDE 7200 rpm 80 Gb :
Seagate : 2.4% (1248)
IBM 120 GXP : 2.8% (2131)
Western Digital : 3.1% (1676)
Maxtor : 3.3% (2060)
IDE 7200 rpm 120 Gb :
Western Digital Special Edition : 3.0% (132)
IBM 120 GXP : 3.1% (708)
Western Digital 100 Go : 4.3% (470)
Western Digital : 5% (120)
Slashdot Mirror
In 1778 France and the United States entered into an alliance against Great Britain, which thereupon declared war against France.
It was done to hurt England of course. But Lafayette for example really served the American cause.
Did you remember the name of the Country who helped America during it's independance war ? :-)
You should try wget (on *nix or windoz), it can do everything you say with http or ftp.
I own a Kiss DP-450 (see my others posts) and it is really and excellent drive.
:-)
Macrovision is set in software. With Firmware 2.5.1 and and internal region free IDE DVD, Macrovision is automatically set to off.
Unfortunately, this is not true anymore with the latest 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 firmwares.
I don't really care with Macrovision. Why would I need to copy a DVD or Divx to a VCR, all the people I know have their PC hooked to the TV
Compressed air pistol ?! Ave you ever seen a flying laser head ? :-)
You should really avoid that ! When I say "carefully...", I mean it. The head on the CD arm seems to be very fragile. I just used a small brush to remove dust on the lens (by gently touching the lens with a small part of the brush) until it seems clean.
The CD cleaning kits are complete bullshit and totally useless.
I partially disassemble the top of the CD drive and I CAREFULLY clean the lens using a lens cleaning brush (the kind of brush you use to clean camera lenses).
The Toshiba drive in the DP-450 stay very cold, like the entire case of this DVD player. I had a Tokai 715S before the DP-450 and it was a lot more hot. For the internal drive problems, all the problems in CD and DVD players I have seen were caused by dust on the laser lens. It's relatively easy to clean but not a well known trick to repair players.
Swapping the DVD, I don't know. Some people in DP-450 forums say it works... The integrated Toshiba DVD Player is quite excellent at reading any media : DVD-/+R(W), CD-R(W) and scratched CDs. I don't understand why you would want to replace it (exect for failure). To make the DP-450 region free, you have to flash the firmware of the integrated Toshiba IDE drive to make it region Free. To do that, you have to connect it to a PC and flash it with modified firmware easy to find. The DP-450 software detects it and gives you acces to an additional menu where you can choose the zone or no zone.
Some people tested it With DVD+R and DVD+RW discs and it works. But these days, almost all DVD media and DVD writers I see in the stores are DVD-R(W), not DVD+
The 150 MHz ARM Risc CPU is embedded in the EM8500 chip along with everything else except Flash and Ram. (i.e. memory controler, IDE controler, video, decoders, I/O...)
My Kiss DP-450 is Region Free and I dont care about Macrovision.
With the DP-450, you can store your DivX on CD-R, 4200 GB usable (not 4.7), this is 6*700 MB CD.
No, 480p, 480i, 576p and 576i are possible. Output upto 1600x1200 75 Hz VGA is also available.
Look at the pictures of the latest Kiss DP-500, similar to DP-450 but with 10/100 Ethernet
http://dtouton.free.fr/DP500/DP500arriere1.jpg
h
The Kiss have Composite, S-Video, RGB and YPrPb video out (via the SCART connector for RGB an Component video). You can configure it for progressive scan or RGB output. The soon to be released Kiss DP-500 (already available in Denmark) have an Ethernet port.
The Kiss player runs Linux (see my other posts) and is easily upgradable.
binaries in the rom are not in ELF format but in bFTL, Binary Flat Format http://www.beyondlogic.org/uClinux/bflt.htm Another proof that the player runs ucLinux.
The embedded CPU in the EM8500 chip is a 150 MHz ARM V4 CPU without MMU. The kernel is name linux-2.4.17-uc0. uc is probably for ucLinux.
:
:
uclinux is a modified Linux Kernel for CPU without MMU
http://www.uclinux.org/
You can also find busybox in the bin directory, a light implementation of a lot of shell utilities
http://www.busybox.net/
bin/init, mpegplayer and fileplayer seems to be entirely specific to kiss (and probably closed source).
Yes : RVB and YPrPb, interlaced, progressive scan or VGA.
The Kiss DP-500 (not yet released outside Denmark) is a DP-450 with an Ethernet 10/100 interface. It will be capable of reading files shared on a network (protocols supported not known yet).
A future Kiss player will have hard disk+Ethernet.
First of all, this DVD/DivX player runs Linux kernel 2.4.17.
If you did not believe me, download the ISO containing the firmware upgrade on the Kiss site
http://www.kiss-technology.com/support/DRIVERS/45
Unzip it, mount the ISO, retrieve the romfs.bin file, mount it and check it's content
zcat linux.bin.gz | strings | grep Linux
Linux version 2.4.17-uc0 (kiss@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #1 Wed Jan 22 15:30:35 CET 2003
This player works perfectly with any MPEG-4 file. Mencoder (part of MPlayer) with libavcodec creates files compatible with the DP-450.
The image quality when playing a DivX (on a Sony 32" 16/9 TV) is FAR superior to the quality of the same file played on a PC hooked to the TV. (I made some comparisons with my Linux PC + NVidia GF4200, S-Video + MPlayer and a friends PC running Windoz + WMP + ATI Radeon card + S-Video link)
I know there is the 3.11 issue but it's really simple to convert films to MPEG4 to make them compatible with the Kiss player.
MPlayer reads all formats, including Quicktime Sorenson 1 and 3, RealVideo, all Windows Media Player formats (WMV 1, 2 and 3) and does not cost anything !
Bzzzt, wrong : The values are keys/s/MHz , not keys/s !!! (and there is slightly more MHz in an Itanium 2 :-)
The processors in the SGI Altix are not Itanium but Itanium 2 which are way faster. (mmm... maybe not for executing x86 32 bit code though...)
Distributed.net is absolutely not a good benchmark !
Itaniums are definitely not optimised x86 processors :-)
Here are the failure rates from a big French hardware reseller (LDLC) :
:
:
:
:
IDE 7200 rpm 20 Gb
Seagate : 1.3% (448)
Western Digital : 8.8% (1506)
IDE 7200 rpm 40 Gb
Seagate : 1.6% (7643)
Maxtor : 1.9% (8052)
IBM 120GXP : 3.1% (4790)
Western Digital : 7.2% (1726)
IBM 60 GXP : 22.9% (1068) !!!!!!
IDE 7200 rpm 60 Gb
Seagate : 0.7% (284)
IBM 120 GXP : 2.5% (722)
Maxtor : 2.5% (1791)
Western Digital : 8.6% (490)
IBM 60 GXP : 16.1% (932) !!!!!!
IDE 7200 rpm 80 Gb : Seagate : 2.4% (1248)
IBM 120 GXP : 2.8% (2131)
Western Digital : 3.1% (1676)
Maxtor : 3.3% (2060)
IDE 7200 rpm 120 Gb
Western Digital Special Edition : 3.0% (132)
IBM 120 GXP : 3.1% (708)
Western Digital 100 Go : 4.3% (470)
Western Digital : 5% (120)
Here are the failure rates from a big French hardware reseller (LDLC) : IDE 7200 rpm 20 Gb : Seagate : 1.3% (448) Western Digital : 8.8% (1506) IDE 7200 rpm 40 Gb : Seagate : 1.6% (7643) Maxtor : 1.9% (8052) IBM 120GXP : 3.1% (4790) Western Digital : 7.2% (1726) IBM 60 GXP : 22.9% (1068) !!!!!! IDE 7200 rpm 60 Gb : Seagate : 0.7% (284) IBM 120 GXP : 2.5% (722) Maxtor : 2.5% (1791) Western Digital : 8.6% (490) IBM 60 GXP : 16.1% (932) !!!!!! IDE 7200 rpm 80 Gb : Seagate : 2.4% (1248) IBM 120 GXP : 2.8% (2131) Western Digital : 3.1% (1676) Maxtor : 3.3% (2060) IDE 7200 rpm 120 Gb : Western Digital Special Edition : 3.0% (132) IBM 120 GXP : 3.1% (708) Western Digital 100 Go : 4.3% (470) Western Digital : 5% (120)