Jul 24

Kaleidescape revamps Cinema One movie player with easier setup in mind

Posted in: Today's Chili

Kaleidescape intros revamped Cinema One movie player

Kaleidescape’s Cinema One player has been many things to movie buffs, but “accessible” isn’t one of them — limited distribution and an emphasis on custom installs has kept it out of reach. The company is widening that scope with a redesigned Cinema One that’s almost as easy to install as an off-the-shelf Blu-ray player. It’s a tad more advanced than that, of course. The Cinema One integrates with most home automation systems, and it stores up to 100 Blu-ray quality movies (including Kaleidescape Store downloads). Viewers who need more storage can attach a second player or the older DV700 Disc Vault. The revamped Cinema One is still expensive at $3,995, but it’s at least easier to buy than its predecessor — Kaleidescape is selling the new media server as a walk-in purchase at Magnolia and other retail stores.

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Source: Kaleidescape

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May 02

Kaleidescape’s online video store officially opens, promises Blu-ray quality downloads

Posted in: Today's Chili

Kaleidescape's online video store officially opens, promises 'Bluray quality' downloads

Kaleidescape launched its online offering in beta late last year, and now it’s officially open, becoming what it claims is the first store to provide “internet delivery of Blu-ray quality movies.” The Kaleidescape Store goes beyond other 1080p services (Vudu, iTunes, Xbox and PSN come to mind) by promising the disc-equaling higher bitrates, extras and lossless audio options they don’t have. There’s no streaming to be had here, only downloads, with file sizes we saw ranging from 23GB (Austin Powers) to as much as 55.4GB (Inception) and everywhere in between.

While the store is only built to work with Kaleidescape’s high-end disc-playback systems — these usually start in the thousands of dollars, and you’ll need M-Class hardware for HD — it currently offers movies from Warner Bros. with an Ultraviolet copy attached, so buyers can play them back on mobile devices through apps such as Flixster and Vudu. Ultraviolet support also means $6.99 upgrades of DVD purchases to Blu-ray-quality HD, and potentially disc-to-digital type features later. Naturally, anyone interested will need an internet connection with a generous / non-existent bandwidth cap, but we imagine that’s not out of the price range for these niche owners. Still, it does provide an idea of the difficulty others like Sony and Netflix will face when trying to digitally distribute feature films in 4K to a wider audience. Check out a few screens of the store in the gallery, and the Random Thoughts blog link below for firsthand impressions from a beta tester.

Gallery: Kaleidescape Store

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Source: Kaleidescape, Kaleidescape Store

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