NEWS: Kaleidescape M700 Disc Vault announced

[josh]

Official Kaleidescape Press release:

New Kaleidescape Vault Automatically Imports your CDs, DVDs and
Blu-ray Discs and Stores them for Easy Retrieval

World?s Best-Engineered Robotic Disc Loader Now Available
​

SUNNYVALE, CA, July 19, 2011 ‐ Kaleidescape, Inc., the market leader in movie servers, today announced availability of the M700 Disc Vault, designed from the ground up to simplify and accelerate the process of adding movies and music to a Kaleidescape System. Up to 320 discs can be loaded into the M700 Disc Vault?s precision carousel, where their contents are quickly copied onto the Kaleidescape System. This process is fully automated and requires no additional work on the part of the user. Once copied, a Blu‐ray Disc must remain in the disc vault to enable playback of the digital copy from the server. DVDs and CDs may either be ejected or left in the M700 Disc Vault for safe storage and easy accessibility. The M700 DiscVault makes it easier than ever to build and enjoy a personal movie collection.

?I?ve always loved my Kaleidescape System, but the recent addition of the M700 Disc Vault has taken the experience to a new level,? said Jeff, a Kaleidescape owner from Seattle. ʺI love that I can import any type of disc very quickly and easily. Later, I use the front panel buttons to eject the CDs and DVDs from the vault in seconds, freeing up slots for more Blu‐ray Discs.?

The M700 Disc Vault also simplifies system installation. ?With the M700 Disc Vault we are able to streamline the installation and loading of our customers? Kaleidescape Systems like never before. We can now quickly load the customers? Blu‐ray Discs and DVDs onsite, or preload a Kaleidescape Movie Collection in our facility and ship the finished rack ready to roll,? said Craig Abplanalp of Definitive Audio in Bellevue, Washington. ?All that?s left to do is power up the system when it arrives.?

?Delivering instant access to Hollywood?s best movies at the highest quality ? anywhere in your home ? has always been our passion at Kaleidescape,? said Michael Malcolm, Founder, Chairman, and CEO. ?We have spent the past ten years designing and building a family of products that solve real usability problems while providing the highest levels of performanceand reliability. The M700 Disc Vault is an elegant addition to our product family that makes it easy to import your content, provides a safe place to store your discs, and makes it quick and easy to retrieve any disc when you need it.?

Key Features

• Unattended, Automatic Import ? Copies large numbers of Blu‐ray Discs, DVDs and CDs onto a Kaleidescape System. You simply insert the discs and walk away.

• Easy Expandability ? Multiple M700 Disc Vaults can be added to a Kaleidescape System to house thousands of Blu‐ray Discs, DVDs and CDs.

• Front Panel Display ? Indicates import progress, number of discs stored, and number of available slots. Buttons provide ability to eject all Blu‐ray Discs, all DVDs, all CDs or all discs.

• Efficient Organization ? Clutter‐free storage of up to 320 discs in just five rack units of space. The M700 Disc Vault also makes it easy to find a disc when you need it: simply locate the title in the onscreen display and select Eject Disc.

• Integrated Kaleidescape M‐Class Player ? Provides pristine playback of movies stored on a Kaleidescape movie server.

• Kaleidescape Design ? Designed from the ground up for years of trouble‐free operation. Kaleidescape engineers specified precision stepper motors, a high‐strength belt, and an internal disc‐retention shell.

• Warranty ? Includes a two‐year limited warranty, extendable to five years.The M700 Disc Vault is available immediately at a manufacturer?s suggested retail price of $5,995 in the United States and Canada. Paired with a 1U Server, the M700 Disc Vault comprises a complete Blu‐ray movie server at $15,990.

About Kaleidescape

Kaleidescape designs and manufactures the world?s leading DVD and Blu‐ray movie servers, bringing lifestyle convenience to movie‐loving families. The Kaleidescape System, renowned for its intuitive user interface, presents your entire collection of movies on any TV in your home, and provides a rich, cinematic experience for the entire family. Kaleidescape?s innovativeproducts and services are protected by 67 patents issued and pending. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Kaleidescape sells its movie servers through custom installation dealers and distributors throughout the world.

For more information, please visit www.kaleidescape.com.

Contact:

Linus Wong
linus.wong@kaleidescape.com
+1 650‐625‐6319​

​

 

[josh]

Here are a couple of other images, supplied courtesy of Kaleidescape:

 

[josh]

... and here's a nice promotional video from Kaleidescape showing off the new M700.

​

 

[cinelife]

Beta unit was excellent!!

Thanks Josh, very helpful posts!!

The posts above give you just about all you need to know about the IDV.

I've had the new IDV for a few weeks as part of the Beta program and I'll start by saying WOW!! From the moment I opened the box and slipped a disk or two getting the IVD to my rack I knew this component was going to be a welcome addition to my system, and it did not disappoint.

FORM: As you can see in the photos above, it was built to blend in to an existing K system, and from a construction standpoint it has nothing in common with the MDV (not knocking the MDV, I own a few and they are excellent). This is a K engineered component and the attention to detail and overall quality construction is what I've come to expect from K.

FUNCTION: The most obvious functional difference in this new IDV versus the MDV is the ability to import DVD's and CD's, as well as BR. You will of course want to remove your CD's and DVD's after importing to make room for the "storage required" BR discs in your collection and this is easily accomplished by pressing the "Options" button on the front of the IDV and selecting "Eject all DVD's" or selecting "Eject all CD's." The other two options available are "Eject all BR" and "Eject all discs." All of these options worked flawlessly. Of course you can also eject from the OSD and from the browser interface (web utility).

All of these activities are displayed in the front panel display window, which also gives you an overview of discs present in the vault, empty spaces remaining and the IDV's Serial number. It also shows the title of any disc that is importing and indicates remaining time to import.

Importing works much like the MDV, first load, then identify, then begin importing, all of which is displayed in the display window and of course in the web utility. Import times appear to be the same, frankly as expected. As usual, depends on the individual disc. All of the BR I imported were correctly identified and imported without any issues. NOTE: This is not a Speed Reader, it imports one disc at a time.

Setting up the internal player is essentially the same as setting up any M-series K Player, and of course is very easy. There is no video/audio quality difference between the internal player and any other M-series Player, they all perform at the same level.

I'll be posting more later as we move forward with this thread, but suffice to say, I'm VERY, VERY pleased with this component. A "must have" for anyone with a moderate to large BR collection, or planning to grow their collection in the future. As a dealer I'd say you probably need 2 or 3 of these.


Jim

 

[jmdls]

Kaleidescape M700 Disc Vault!

Kaleidescape just announced the release of the Integrated Disc Vault! Officially called the M700 it is available for order now!

I got an exclusive hands on with this new player. Click this link for my review!

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/bl...sive-hands-on-review-kaleidescape-s-m700-disc

John Sciacca

 

[cinelife]

Superb write-up John! If I only had that gift..........

(If you are reading this thread, you MUST go to John's link (above post), it is VERY informative and as usual with John a fun read!)


Jim

 

[jmdls]

Thanks, Jim. I've no doubt you have plenty of other *rich* gifts....

Appreciate the comments and hope the owners here will find the post worthwhile. I agree with you....the M700 is a killer component! Sadly, I've already been told that mine will have to be returned....

Best,
John

 

[DigitalStudioWerks]

M700 Disc Vault Review - Initial Review

I have had the M700 since the beginning of June and had the pleasure of testing the M700. Below is my initial review of the unit.

First Impression
Overall I am very pleased with what I have seen from the IDV so far. The quality of construction is outstanding and reflects what users have come to expect from Kaleidescape.

The Mechanical Operation
The mechanical operation is very smooth and quieter than the MDV. The IDV disc mechanism sounds solid and reliable. Operation is very smooth.

Looks
Just as with other Kaleidescape products (not counting the MDV) it looks VERY elegant. The display is bright, clear and easy to read.

Construction
No complaints, criticism or suggestions here. Construction is solid steel throughout which is nice. I was even impressed with how solid the front panel is and surprised at how heavy it is when removed. There is no flex or give of the front panel when removed. Although the font panel is plastic it feels as if it is reinforced steel.

I was also impressed that there was enough space between the front panel and rack ears to allow for trim strips. This is something that is not usually taken into account during the design phase and may not have been considered when designing the IDV but it’s nice to have the little bit of space. Using trim strips on a rack install is the difference between just a finished rack and a professional finish.

Rack Mounting
Although the rack ears do the job, due to the size and weight I would have opted for a rack rail system not only to make installation easier but servicing, etc. It’s nice to have a piece of equipment that’s this heavy and bulky be able to slide in and out. Maybe this can be offered as an option.

Size and Weight
This thing is a beast but with the steel construction and sold components making up the IDV one would expect that. I feel confident that engineering took size and weight into consideration and designed the IDV small as possible.

Conclusion
I am extremely happy not only to own an IDV but to have the opportunity to beta test the IDV.

When the MDV came out I was put off, as a dealer and an end user, on upgrading not only because the MDV looked awful but seemed to be of a quality not consistent with the caliber of Kaleidescape. I waited until March of 2011 to upgrade hoping the IDV would come out soon. Now that I have tested and used the IDV I can say I am impressed.

The IDV has functioned flawlessly. I am very impressed with the IDV and can tell you it was definitely worth the wait.

 

[cinelife]

Thanks James! Nice to hear we all have the same impression of this new component.

Jim

 

[iansilv]

Cue the theme from Rocky!

 

[JerryL]

I think its terrific all around! Thanks for the write ups fellas. Im going to read them now. I have no doubt they are great as well

John I like the new blog look- its cleaner- though on my browser the fonts are large. I also appreciate the "power user" designation. It was borne purely out of necessity. I will tell you that Ive had zero issues with my setup and I like it so much and because there was one person in the world who I found that could mod the receiver for me in this way, I had him do a second one as a backup and I have that in storage. For a few hundred dollars it seemed like cheap insurance when you consider the total cost of my setup.

 

[shuffleboard]

M700 and Meridian

I have not read anywhere that it will decode Dolby True HD internally and pass them though as LPCM. Am I correct to assume it does'nt?

 

[jmdls]

From my review....
"While some had initially hoped that the M700 would allow internal decoding of high-res audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master, it does not. It will pass these formats along in bitstream for decoding by a capable processor/receiver."
So, no go....
John

 

[brodricj]

I have not read anywhere that it will decode Dolby True HD internally and pass them though as LPCM. Am I correct to assume it does'nt?

...as expected..sigh...

 

[Transepoch]

I dunno about the M700 becoming the new importer darling. While on one hand it does simplify the process, collections more than twice the capacity are probably still better off using a speed reader (dual-drives and faster drives for CD/DVD) for the non-BD parts, if available.

One question I have now, after reading John's review, is whether we can still choose to let some other component handle the scaling/de-interlacing process? At least on my MP2 I can simply stay mum on what resolution to output, and it will just use whatever the disc has (as long as all options are marked available.) It looks to default to reading the EDID for highest available option, and I would expect all the forced options are in there too, but can we tell it not to worry? Chances are this puppy is running on a damn fine chip, but I hope we have the option to choose if practical experience doesn't pan out (or for future outboard developments.)

 

[brodricj]

...is whether we can still choose to let some other component handle the scaling/de-interlacing process?

The installer web > components > settings > video > "select video mode for each media format" gives you lots of choices here, including passthrough. My M300 just spits out the content at its native resolution and I let the Radiance video processor do the rest. For the MP2 however I do force that to output 480p/576p...

 

[cinelife]

Yup, still the same video options, including "passthrough" if you prefer.


Jim

 

[Transepoch]

Good. This will be my first M-class, so I wanted to make sure the screen-cap was just demonstrating a PnP feature and not a new world order.

... and here's a nice promotional video from Kaleidescape showing off the new M700.

The measurements and John's photos didn't drive home the size of this monster anywhere near as much as that video.

 

[JohnJ]

Will the M700 work with the Cinema One? I was hoping to hold off on adding a 1U server until higher capacity drives come out.

Thanks everyone for all the information and reviews in this. It's impressive.

John

 

[cinelife]

Will the M700 work with the Cinema One? I was hoping to hold off on adding a 1U server until higher capacity drives come out.

Thanks everyone for all the information and reviews in this. It's impressive.

John

Hi John, while it could "technically" work with a C1 (because M-Class Players work with the C1), what would be the point? The IDV will automatically attempt to import whatever you put in it, it is not a "disc changer," and this presents an obvious storage limitation issue for C1 owners (unfortunately). Because the IDV is new, and I did not test the unit using a C1, and received no info related to C1 use with the IDV, I'll run this by Support and post any additional comments later today.


Jim