Skip to Content

Make smart financial decisions with DailyFinance
AOL Tech

Kaleidescape posts

Kaleidescape joins the iPhone as a remote party

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Sep 10th 2009 at 10:53AM


It is only a matter of time before every single company in the world makes some kind of iPhone/iPod Touch app and if you make home theater gear that mean it is a remote. Remotescape for the Kaleidescape is the latest addition and from the looks of the Youtube video embedded after the break, it is a pretty slick mix of gestures and cover art goodness. The bad news of course is that the graphics in the interface are on par with the rest of Kaleidescape's products and the price tag is $69 -- but if you dropped the $50k on the Kaleidescape media server, then you probably think that is cheap for a iPhone app.

Continue reading Kaleidescape joins the iPhone as a remote party

CEPro breaks down Real and Kaleidescape cases, uncovers more questions

by Steven Kim posted Aug 20th 2009 at 11:27PM

DVD legal rulingIt's been a rough week for DVD copying services from Real and Kaleidescape, and public understanding of the whole DVD copying mess hasn't been spared. People like to watch DVDs and lawyers like to get paid, however, so we're willing to bet there's more to come. CEPro has put together a breakdown of the issues at hand, which not only makes for some good reading but also shows just how far from any real clarity we are. Whether it's legal to make bit-for-bit copies, but illegal to view them; legal to use copying tools, but illegal to produce them; or just plain mean to do something Hollywood doesn't want you to, consumers are going to push for media convenience. We're still hoping Blu-ray's Managed Copy gives us enough wiggle room on our HD digital handcuffs, but sadly, it seems like DVD fans can pick between taking up residence in legal limbo while the courts struggle to catch up with tech or just strip the CSS from discs and get on with their lives.

Kaleidescape gets in line behind RealDVD for rough treatment

by Steven Kim posted Aug 13th 2009 at 6:44PM

DVD lawsuitWhen it rains it pours -- right on the heels of the punishing blow dealt to RealDVD, the money-laden Kaleidescape crowd suffered its own setback at the hands of the law. You just know that the DVD CCA (Copy Control Association) appealed the 2007 ruling that allowed Kaleidescape owners to rip DVDs to their media servers, and yesterday a California Appeals Court overturned that ruling. Next stop -- the Santa Clara Superior Court, which could place an injunction on Kaleidescape if the appeal is upheld. It's not over yet, but we're prepping the soundboard with ominous music, boos and noisy hand-wringing. Whatever (and whenever) the outcome, we can only hope that Blu-ray's Managed Copy comes to the scene sooner rather than later and settles this issue for our beloved HD content

Kaleidescape intros "whole-home" Mini System, cuts prices on other systems

by Darren Murph posted Mar 3rd 2009 at 5:29PM


Our hearts were aflutter at the sight of a new Kaleidescape product today, but alas, it wasn't the fabled Blu-ray player we were hoping for. Instead, we're getting the cutely named Mini System, which bills itself as a complete multi-zone entertainment server for those with oodles of cash and a thing for ease-of-use. The device is the company's first to combine the player and server functionality into one unit, and it's also the firm's first product to ship with a remote control. With installation "as ease as an ordinary DVD player," the system contains space for DVD and CD storage as well as a main "Player" zone and two music zones; those wishing to expand things can tack on more Mini Systems or additional Players / Servers. Said system is available as we speak for a somewhat reasonable (by Kaleidescape standards) $7,995, and the 1080p Player, 1080p Mini Player and Disk Cartridges for the 1U, 3U and 5U Servers will all fall to $2,995, $1,995 and $995 (respectively) on March 16th in the United States.

Kaleidescape still on track to deliver a pricey Blu-ray player this year

by Steven Kim posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 11:53AM

Kaleidescape setup
Apparently unfazed by the fact that its target demographic openly disses the Blu-ray format, Kaleidescape is moving ahead with plans to deliver a Blu-ray player by the end of 2009, says the company CEO. We always suspected claims that the Mini Player's DVD upscaling "rivals Blu-ray" was a bit of a reach, even given the $3,000 price. Sadly, when the "doesn't have to rival Blu-ray, because it is Blu-ray" deck comes out, though, the ripped-for-whole-home-use joy you might expect from Kaleidescape will have to wait -- on deck for initial delivery is CD and DVD importing, but Blu-ray discs will be playback only for now (with Kaleidescape remaining "optimistic" that Blu-ray import gets support somewhere down the road). Then again, it's probably safe to assume that if you can afford to get into a Kaleidescape setup, you can afford a few extra copies of every title to sprinkle around the compound.

[Via Format War Central]

Kaleidescape reports three-year sales growth of 747%

by Darren Murph posted Oct 19th 2008 at 7:22PM


For as ludicrous as we think the prices are on Kaleidescape's latest upscaling DVD players, the company is clearly doing something right. A recent release from the California-based outfit asserts that it achieved a three-year sales growth of 747% from 2004 to 2007 and ranks 415th on the 2008 Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies. And we're not surprised. The company's kiosk was buzzing with prospective buyers at this year's CEDIA, and while only the affluent can afford to even sniff the wares this company is slinging, there's no denying the quality. Kudos, Kaleidescape -- but get some Blu-ray kit in the works, pronto!

RealDVD rips DVDs just like you do, only legally (maybe)

by Thomas Ricker posted Sep 8th 2008 at 5:18AM


RealNetworks, the company you love to hate, is back with a new product sure to capture the attention of Hollywood and its MPAA thugs. For $30, RealDVD plans to do what DVD Jon enabled years ago -- namely, making digital copies of your DVDs. Unlike Jon's illegal DRM stripping software, RealNetworks' approach lays on additional DRM allowing you to make a single copy, only, playable on the machine doing the rip -- up to five additional Windows PCs can be authorized at a cost of $20 per.

Real thinks that the use of the additional DRM coupled with Kaleidescape's legal victory -- a ruling that seemingly authorizes users to copy DVDs for their own personal use -- will help it escape the wrath of the MPAA. Not that RealNetworks has ever been afraid of a fight as demonstrated by its 2004 scuffle with Apple when it began offering software that allowed iPods to play Real's DRM'd content. Good thing too because we're pretty sure that shutting down the planned start of RealDVD's sales at the end of this month is the number one topic around the bunny-juice dispensers at the MPAA offices this morning.

[Via cnet]

Kaleidescape's 1080p Player / Mini Player hands-on

by Darren Murph posted Sep 5th 2008 at 4:07PM Featured Story


Kaleidescape's booth was jammed packed with prospective buyers this year, evidently unaffected by a flagging economy and absurd prices flung from the mouths of on-hand representatives. All angst aside, we did stop by the outfit's CEDIA booth to see just what was crackin' and to snap a few photographs all the while. We'll admit, the 1080p Player / 1080p Mini Player are both beautiful pieces of equipment, and they certainly worked well when demonstrated. We'll refrain from commenting (again) on the value proposition here, but instead, we'll direct you to the gallery below with a forced grin.

Gallery: Kaleidescape's 1080p Player / Mini Player hands-on

Kaleidescape's overpriced upscaling DVD players get reviewed

by Darren Murph posted Jun 18th 2008 at 6:01PM


Let's get real honest with one another here: if folks are legitimately arguing that a $700 Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player is overpriced, there's absolutely no way a DVD player is worth over four times as much. That being said, the folks over at Sound & Vision put the pricey pair through the paces, and they were actually quite pleased with the results. In a nutshell, it seems that reviewers found the best upscaling DVD players this planet has to offer, and while all the fawning over their pristine reproduction of colors was fine and dandy, it's the value proposition here that's absurdly out of whack. In fairness, it's good to hear that the bundled Sigma Designs' Gennum VXP video processor chip lived up to the hype, but all the upconverting in the world won't make us believe these things are worthy of the stratospheric prices.

Kaleidescape claims new 1080p upscaling DVD players "rival Blu-ray"

by Darren Murph posted Jun 18th 2008 at 9:00AM


And you thought Toshiba's super-resolution DVD player taking on Blu-ray was comical. Kaleidescape -- the company famous for selling grossly overpriced (albeit fanciful) DVD / BD archiving systems for wealthy home theater junkies -- has just announced two new standalone DVD players that "provide a viewing experience that rivals Blu-ray." The argument goes something like this: there are 170,000 titles on DVD, and "just 6,000" (wait, for real?) on BD -- why support the next-gen format when these two upscaling DVD players display content that is utterly indiscernible from Blu-ray. For starters, the outfit is launching the 1080p Player (pictured), which earns the "ultimate DVD player" label by featuring a Sigma Designs Gennum VXP chip, 10-bit processing and full support for Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG and PCM audio formats. The 1080p Mini Player offers the same, but in a tinier package meant for inconspicuous installations. Granted, both units do have exclusive access to Kaleidescape's Movie Guide database, but that hardly justifies the $4,295 / $2,995 price tags (in addition to the required $10,000 Kaleidescape System). Full release after the jump.

Continue reading Kaleidescape claims new 1080p upscaling DVD players "rival Blu-ray"

DVD jukebox sales down because of Blu-ray?

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Apr 9th 2008 at 2:07PM

Nieveus Movie Library
The high-end world of multi-terabyte media servers is usually well beyond our interests as some of them cost more than we make in a year, but we do like to dream. The upgrade costs for HD fans that're making the transition from DVD to Blu-ray might be a hard $400 pill to swallow for some, but if you want to store all your movies on a disk so they're available on demand, you'll have to be willing to spend much, much more. On a post on Automated Home, a masked installer confesses that "Right now I'm selling next to no servers at all....and the reason is that everyone wants a "High Definition" server." We can't say we blame 'em, seriously, once you take a look at Blu-ray on a nice display, it's hard to go back to DVD -- even if it means you'll have instant access to your entire library. If nothing else, this should help motivate the studios to get the managed copy part of AACS worked out, because as we've seen in the past, people will find a way to enjoy content the way they want it.

Kaleidescape to gain Blu-ray support

by Darren Murph posted Feb 5th 2008 at 3:34PM Breaking News


When we spoke with Kaleidescape representatives at CEDIA last year, they had absolutely no idea when HD DVD or Blu-ray would be supported in their systems. Fast forward a few months, and we may have an answer. An anonymous tipster from Kscapeowners has informed us that Kaleidescape will be announcing to dealers in the not-too-distant future that Blu-ray support will be added. Of course, it's also noted that some studios may charge more for the right to copy Blu-ray Discs to a Kaleidescape system, but it's not like that was unexpected. Who knows, maybe this is what managed copy is all about, after all.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Update: Sure looks official from this.

Update 2: Head on past the break to see the official note sent out to dealers. Thanks, Michael!

Continue reading Kaleidescape to gain Blu-ray support

Kaleidescape ruling could further delay managed copy on HD flicks

by Darren Murph posted Apr 8th 2007 at 10:26PM


As if you weren't scootin' around the AACS protection on your high definition films already, the finalized spec for the Advanced Access Content System could be delayed even further thanks to the somewhat surprising ruling given in Kaleidescape's recent ruling. According to Michael Ayers, a senior attorney with Toshiba America Information Systems who also manages the group that licenses AACS, there will "absolutely be increased scrutiny of the AACS documents after this court decision," meaning that managed copy decisions could continue on the perpertual delay path its already on. Still, we highly doubt the savvy ones are waiting around for someone to tell them how to "make copies of movies on a controlled basis," but it could be quite awhile longer for those that are.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

Kaleidescape escapes DVD CCA's wrath in court

by Darren Murph posted Mar 30th 2007 at 1:01AM

We all know that bit about a "speedy trial" doesn't exactly come to fruition in most cases, and after three excruciating years of battling innovation stranglers the DVD Copy Control Association, Kaleidescape has escaped unscathed. The firm's DVD ripping / streaming jukebox was under fire for obvious reasons, as it not only encouraged the ripping of "protected content," but it helped users rip and transmit the data around their network. The DVD CCA whined that the machine "breached a contract" when it crafted a product that enabled users to copy its locked-down material onto hard-drive based servers -- the judge, however, felt otherwise. In fact, it was ruled that "nothing in the DVD CCA licensing agreement prohibits the development of products that allow users to copy their DVDs," thus, no contract was breached at all. One down, too many to go.




    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

    Joystiq
    Download Squad
    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
    BloggingStocks
    Joystiq Xbox
    Autoblog
    Big Download
    Fanhouse NFL Blog