cinelife
Administrator
Staff member
Forum Administrator
Moderator
⭐️⭐️PATRON⭐️⭐️
Authorized Kaleidescape Dealer
As mentioned in another thread, I received the first of two MDV's today. I'll post a few notes, and hopefully a couple of pictures, but I lack Josh's skill at taking and transferring photo's.
The first very noticable fact is this device is VERY LIGHTWEIGHT, perhaps 6 or 7 pounds. The case is constructed of a hard Black plastic which I'm sure contributes to it being lightweight. This is not a complaint, actually far from it, it was very easy to move around and finally assume a temporary position at the bottom of a TV stand. I attempted to place it in an empty 4U rack space, but it came up short by 1/2 an inch. So 5U of empty rack space is required and you will need to place the unit on a rack "shelf" as there is no way to "ear" rack mount the unit.
The measurements are 17" in depth, 14" wide and 7-1/4" in height (give or take 1/8"). When I first viewed the early release photo's I wondered why the unit had that four corner indented look. It was embarrassingly obvious once the unit arrived that these indentations allow for additional stacked vaults to sit snuggly on top of each other. No ventilation is required.
CONNECTIONS:
Connecting to a system is as easy as it gets.
1. Place the unit within a few feet of an M-Class Player (M300/M500) (or extend the supplied USB cable).
2. Connect the USB cable to the MDV and M-Player.
3. Connect the supplied power cable (transformer) to a power outlet (recommend grounded/surge protected).
4. Load discs per the instructions (see LOADING below)
Once the MDV powers up (automatic after power is supplied to MDV) it will go through a series of tests that take a couple of minutes. While this is happening, "000" will be displayed and flashing. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LOAD DISCS WHILE THE FLASHING "000" IS BEING DISPLAYED. Once the flashing stops you should see a number (from 1-100) (probably a 1) and this signals you can now begin loading discs. Also note that if you are watching a movie on the Player connected to the MDV, it will be stopped when the MDV powers up and connects to the Player. The Player actually cycles Off and then back On and this interrupts Movie playback. You will also see a message on screen indicating the vault is connected. You do not need to set anything in order to integrate the vault. It uses the Player's settings to link with the Server (so no LAN settings/grouping, etc. is required), and as I said, it is VERY VERY EASY. You'll be up and running in less than 5 minutes!!
LOADING:
Disc loading is similar to the old bulk loader, just insert the discs one at a time (WITH THE DISC LABEL FACING TO THE RIGHT, as you face the MDV) (The word "Label" sits to the right of the opening to remind you). The MDV will actually "pull" the disc into the vault so do not "force" the disc (slight pressure is all that's required for the MDV to take in the disc).
The MDV initially loads the discs by spreading them out at different intervals around the carousel in order to spread the weight evenly throughout the carousel (smart!!). A number is displayed showing you the slot the disc will enter. I elected to start with 16 BR discs and the number sequence was 1,9, 26, 40, etc (or something close).
The MDV will keep accepting discs until it is full or until you stop inserting discs. If you stop, but still have open slots, the MDV will wait a few minutes to be sure you are done loading and then will go through the process of "Identifying" each disc. Only after it identifies all loaded discs will it begin to import. You can see the identification progress on the Disc Vault page. The 16 discs I loaded were all identified, and importing began within approximately 5 or so minutes. The first disc (Toy Story) took 1 hr 26 minutes to import. I intentionally added Avatar to the load to see how the MDV would handle a disc previously imported. It clearly recognized the disc was already on the server and the title "color" changed on the disc vault page to reflect it was imported. The Import page also displays importing progress and provides the import time once importing is complete. Below is a pic of the vault and one pic from the Disc Vaults page.
The M-Player (even the M300) Blue lights will also flash while discs are importing.
I will add additional discs to fill up the MDV after these initial 16 discs have been imported. I'll report back the total time needed to import.
Also, Avatar and both Toy Story's had movie start times of 5 seconds after selecting "Play Movie." That's only a second or two off the DVD version start times! This is a function of the new KEAOS 4.1, currently in beta. (See Tom's comment below).
Considering all of the controversy surrounding the BR implementation to this point, I'm happy to see this solution. It may be a compromise, but so far this MDV has exceeded my expectations and I could certainly be happy with several of these units in my system.
Jim
The first very noticable fact is this device is VERY LIGHTWEIGHT, perhaps 6 or 7 pounds. The case is constructed of a hard Black plastic which I'm sure contributes to it being lightweight. This is not a complaint, actually far from it, it was very easy to move around and finally assume a temporary position at the bottom of a TV stand. I attempted to place it in an empty 4U rack space, but it came up short by 1/2 an inch. So 5U of empty rack space is required and you will need to place the unit on a rack "shelf" as there is no way to "ear" rack mount the unit.
The measurements are 17" in depth, 14" wide and 7-1/4" in height (give or take 1/8"). When I first viewed the early release photo's I wondered why the unit had that four corner indented look. It was embarrassingly obvious once the unit arrived that these indentations allow for additional stacked vaults to sit snuggly on top of each other. No ventilation is required.
CONNECTIONS:
Connecting to a system is as easy as it gets.
1. Place the unit within a few feet of an M-Class Player (M300/M500) (or extend the supplied USB cable).
2. Connect the USB cable to the MDV and M-Player.
3. Connect the supplied power cable (transformer) to a power outlet (recommend grounded/surge protected).
4. Load discs per the instructions (see LOADING below)
Once the MDV powers up (automatic after power is supplied to MDV) it will go through a series of tests that take a couple of minutes. While this is happening, "000" will be displayed and flashing. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LOAD DISCS WHILE THE FLASHING "000" IS BEING DISPLAYED. Once the flashing stops you should see a number (from 1-100) (probably a 1) and this signals you can now begin loading discs. Also note that if you are watching a movie on the Player connected to the MDV, it will be stopped when the MDV powers up and connects to the Player. The Player actually cycles Off and then back On and this interrupts Movie playback. You will also see a message on screen indicating the vault is connected. You do not need to set anything in order to integrate the vault. It uses the Player's settings to link with the Server (so no LAN settings/grouping, etc. is required), and as I said, it is VERY VERY EASY. You'll be up and running in less than 5 minutes!!
LOADING:
Disc loading is similar to the old bulk loader, just insert the discs one at a time (WITH THE DISC LABEL FACING TO THE RIGHT, as you face the MDV) (The word "Label" sits to the right of the opening to remind you). The MDV will actually "pull" the disc into the vault so do not "force" the disc (slight pressure is all that's required for the MDV to take in the disc).
The MDV initially loads the discs by spreading them out at different intervals around the carousel in order to spread the weight evenly throughout the carousel (smart!!). A number is displayed showing you the slot the disc will enter. I elected to start with 16 BR discs and the number sequence was 1,9, 26, 40, etc (or something close).
The MDV will keep accepting discs until it is full or until you stop inserting discs. If you stop, but still have open slots, the MDV will wait a few minutes to be sure you are done loading and then will go through the process of "Identifying" each disc. Only after it identifies all loaded discs will it begin to import. You can see the identification progress on the Disc Vault page. The 16 discs I loaded were all identified, and importing began within approximately 5 or so minutes. The first disc (Toy Story) took 1 hr 26 minutes to import. I intentionally added Avatar to the load to see how the MDV would handle a disc previously imported. It clearly recognized the disc was already on the server and the title "color" changed on the disc vault page to reflect it was imported. The Import page also displays importing progress and provides the import time once importing is complete. Below is a pic of the vault and one pic from the Disc Vaults page.
The M-Player (even the M300) Blue lights will also flash while discs are importing.
I will add additional discs to fill up the MDV after these initial 16 discs have been imported. I'll report back the total time needed to import.
Also, Avatar and both Toy Story's had movie start times of 5 seconds after selecting "Play Movie." That's only a second or two off the DVD version start times! This is a function of the new KEAOS 4.1, currently in beta. (See Tom's comment below).
Considering all of the controversy surrounding the BR implementation to this point, I'm happy to see this solution. It may be a compromise, but so far this MDV has exceeded my expectations and I could certainly be happy with several of these units in my system.
Jim
Last edited:
