I am likely to purchase a new 3U system. I am still not quite clear on what Kaleidescape is doing to integrate blu-ray into the system. Or even if they are not. I understand that the silver disc may be going away soon meaning that bluray may become obsolete, but if your monitor is 1080p and you want to take advantage of HD movies, is Kalediescape still a viable option? Are they planning on coming out with a player that will read and play bluray discs?
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Kaleidescape and BluRay
- Thread starter ppdoc
- Start date
Hi, welcome to the forums.
Kaleidescape has announced support for BluRay, but the governing body has still not finalized the specifications for "Managed Copy", which K needs to implement if it wants to stay legal. Managed Copy is what will permit the storing of the movie on a hard drive. (possible it will require an extra fee.)
While waiting for this to occur, K announced that their next version of the player will be able to play Blu-Ray discs directly from the disc, just like a normal BR player. This means you can have a single device in your stack that can play DVDs, import DVDs to the server, play CDs, import CDs to the server, and play Blu-Ray. Presumably there will be a software update after that time for the importing of Blu-Ray.
That's mostly what is publicly known at this point.
However, you should get a good demo of TODAY's Kaleidescape system running through a properly set up system to get an appreciation of what the 1080p players can do, even with regular DVD content. It's quite impressive.
I'm also aware that Kaleidescpe is continuing to exame digital delivery of files, something that has always been anticipated by them.
Basically, if you can afford it and you watch/own a lot of movies and want all the convenience of multi-room, instant acces to movies, than I'd say an investment in a K system is very worth while. As Blu-Ray and downloads become doable, there's a lot of precedent to say that Kaleidescape will support its existing customers with continuous improvements and updates that preserve the value of the systems.
Hope that helps,
--josh
Kaleidescape has announced support for BluRay, but the governing body has still not finalized the specifications for "Managed Copy", which K needs to implement if it wants to stay legal. Managed Copy is what will permit the storing of the movie on a hard drive. (possible it will require an extra fee.)
While waiting for this to occur, K announced that their next version of the player will be able to play Blu-Ray discs directly from the disc, just like a normal BR player. This means you can have a single device in your stack that can play DVDs, import DVDs to the server, play CDs, import CDs to the server, and play Blu-Ray. Presumably there will be a software update after that time for the importing of Blu-Ray.
That's mostly what is publicly known at this point.
However, you should get a good demo of TODAY's Kaleidescape system running through a properly set up system to get an appreciation of what the 1080p players can do, even with regular DVD content. It's quite impressive.
I'm also aware that Kaleidescpe is continuing to exame digital delivery of files, something that has always been anticipated by them.
Basically, if you can afford it and you watch/own a lot of movies and want all the convenience of multi-room, instant acces to movies, than I'd say an investment in a K system is very worth while. As Blu-Ray and downloads become doable, there's a lot of precedent to say that Kaleidescape will support its existing customers with continuous improvements and updates that preserve the value of the systems.
Hope that helps,
--josh
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At present, K Systems will only import standard DVD's (and CD's).
The Server's are already capable of storing HD content (in fact K provides a couple of HD programs pre-loaded on the Server when it ships), but the proper licensing to allow for BR importing (and other HD content) is not yet in place. K continues to work with HD content providers, including the BR folks, to acquire the appropriate licenses to allow for HD content storage and in regards to BR, is hopeful this will occur this year.
In preparation for the eventual (hopeful) license to allow BR imports, K is developing/has developed a BR Player (they call it a Blu Laser Player) and plan to release this new BLP later this year. The secondary goal of this BLP is to provide K owners with the ability to at least play BR disks while awaiting the licensing to allow imports. This will be accomplished through a software upgrade at the appropriate time.
Regarding the notion that BR may not even survive, while I cannot disagree (all technology advances at some point), it will likely be the HD disk standard for at least the near future and there are now many, many popular titles in BR format and the list is growing. For BR owners (myself included, with over 500 titles), we still want to eventually bring the same superb, industry leading (IMO) storage and user interface functionality to these BR titles that we currently enjoy with our standard DVD collections. So the market is still there, and K is responding to this market.
I suspect that at some point we will be able to download HD content to our K systems, but until then I'll continue to acquire BR disks (those movies that take advantage of BR).
Important to also note that K's new 1080p Players are excellent at upscaling standard DVD's to 1080p. I've owned, or directly worked with, just about every high-end, and not so high-end, upscaling DVD player that has come to market and I can honestly say that although one or two may be K's equal, none can beat it's image quality (IMO).
(I just saw Josh's post, sorry for the duplication of info!)
Jim
The Server's are already capable of storing HD content (in fact K provides a couple of HD programs pre-loaded on the Server when it ships), but the proper licensing to allow for BR importing (and other HD content) is not yet in place. K continues to work with HD content providers, including the BR folks, to acquire the appropriate licenses to allow for HD content storage and in regards to BR, is hopeful this will occur this year.
In preparation for the eventual (hopeful) license to allow BR imports, K is developing/has developed a BR Player (they call it a Blu Laser Player) and plan to release this new BLP later this year. The secondary goal of this BLP is to provide K owners with the ability to at least play BR disks while awaiting the licensing to allow imports. This will be accomplished through a software upgrade at the appropriate time.
Regarding the notion that BR may not even survive, while I cannot disagree (all technology advances at some point), it will likely be the HD disk standard for at least the near future and there are now many, many popular titles in BR format and the list is growing. For BR owners (myself included, with over 500 titles), we still want to eventually bring the same superb, industry leading (IMO) storage and user interface functionality to these BR titles that we currently enjoy with our standard DVD collections. So the market is still there, and K is responding to this market.
I suspect that at some point we will be able to download HD content to our K systems, but until then I'll continue to acquire BR disks (those movies that take advantage of BR).
Important to also note that K's new 1080p Players are excellent at upscaling standard DVD's to 1080p. I've owned, or directly worked with, just about every high-end, and not so high-end, upscaling DVD player that has come to market and I can honestly say that although one or two may be K's equal, none can beat it's image quality (IMO).
(I just saw Josh's post, sorry for the duplication of info!)
Jim
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Right. So bottom line is any server you buy today is capable of holding the Blue Ray data, just remember that a BR disc has something like 6x the amount of data a DVD contains so your storage capacity will be reduced when (if) we get to BR imports. It will be the players that you will have to update and I believe K has announced if you buy one if their newer players they will have a special upgrade plan so you can move to their BR player. Once you have that BR player, it would be just a software update to allow it to import BR discs vs just playing them locally in that player. And software updates on K are automatic. Could not be easier to install and use. The BR player is promised at this point but K has been true to their word with any promise I've ever seen them make. Another thing you should know is they do a great job of taking care of their customers- as they should.
My opinion on BR vs DVD is BR brings a lot of benefits but I think there are many examples where those benefits are not so important- older movies or even certain genres (romantic, comedy, romantic comedy
), if you don't have a massive screen. In those instances I end up just buying the DVD version because it imports to my K system already and I don't really require the extra resolution that a HD system like BR delivers. But I am a strong believer in the benefits HD delivers for newer fare or the more epic type movies- HD gives you not just greater resolution but much better color depth, fidelity and better contrast ratio (which together can surpass resolution in terms of what people respond to).
Just some rambling thoughts from someone who couldn't fall asleep. Bottom line is I have zero regrets in my investment in the Kaleidescape system. Btw- it is fantastic for distributed music as well.
My opinion on BR vs DVD is BR brings a lot of benefits but I think there are many examples where those benefits are not so important- older movies or even certain genres (romantic, comedy, romantic comedy
), if you don't have a massive screen. In those instances I end up just buying the DVD version because it imports to my K system already and I don't really require the extra resolution that a HD system like BR delivers. But I am a strong believer in the benefits HD delivers for newer fare or the more epic type movies- HD gives you not just greater resolution but much better color depth, fidelity and better contrast ratio (which together can surpass resolution in terms of what people respond to). Just some rambling thoughts from someone who couldn't fall asleep. Bottom line is I have zero regrets in my investment in the Kaleidescape system. Btw- it is fantastic for distributed music as well.
thanks
great information. i really appreciate the help. I have been drooling over the system ever since I read about it. One of my major concerns was buying a 20K system only to find out that I'd need to re-buy when it became available with blu-ray. it sounds like kaleidescape takes good care of their customers (as well they should given the price of the system) and upgrades your system as they upgrade the product. that is very reassuring.
great information. i really appreciate the help. I have been drooling over the system ever since I read about it. One of my major concerns was buying a 20K system only to find out that I'd need to re-buy when it became available with blu-ray. it sounds like kaleidescape takes good care of their customers (as well they should given the price of the system) and upgrades your system as they upgrade the product. that is very reassuring.
Right. You won't have to rebuy most of the system just the players. Its a big investment but I can tell you from someone who bought 5 players and a 5U server that I have zero buyers remorse and I even added a 3U for more capacity. Its really been not just so easy to use but liberating for many movies I dont often watch because I never actually looked far down on my shelf of dvds. (I have like 1100 movies and I would watch the same 30 over and over- I still watch certain ones more often, but now something different is just a click away). One thing the system does which you may not know about is allow you to sort on various criteria. Not just movie title, but you can sort by actor- say you feel like watching a Tom Cruise movie- or director- maybe you'd like to see Steven Speilberg movie- or by category (comedy, etc) or (my favorite) by time. So say you have friends over for dinner and a movie, but everyone wants a short movie because they are tired, you can sort on running time. And when you hit play movie, you skip all the commercials and nonsense- it goes right into the movie. A great system.