Kaleidescape Readies Video Download Service for Q1 Launch
Kaleidescape is readying a video download service for launch in Q1 and preparing for a second trial in an ongoing court battle with the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA), Product Marketing Director Linus Wong told us. The company hasn’t released details of the service, including pricing and the number of titles that will be available. But Kaleidescape previewed for dealers at CEDIA earlier this month a video downloaded from the Kaleidescape website. Wong declined comment on whether Kaleidescape had any distribution pacts with movie studios and whether the company developed its video download platform or licensed one from a third party like Rovi.
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"We were just letting our dealers know that we have the capability and are making it available to them so they can help us shake out our infrastructure,” Wong said. “We're not talking about some low-resolution streaming quality, but rather a full bit-for-bit copy of a Blu-ray disc."
Presumably the service will be limited to those customers with Kaleidescape servers and players, but Wong declined to comment. Kaleidescape customers typically have a dealer or partner ReadyToPlay, which works with the company, load their Blu-ray titles onto a central server in a home. The service will require a broadband connection using an Ethernet port, Kaleidescape officials said. “Clearly customers will have to identify themselves because we will have to know who we are sending the title to,” Wong said. “But those kind of details are still being ironed out."
Meanwhile, there’s a second trial in a lawsuit brought by the DVD CCA that’s scheduled to start Nov. 14 in California Superior Court in Santa Clara. DVD CCA claimed that Kaleidescape breached the terms of its CSS License agreement and didn’t comply with a document called the “General Specifications."
Kaleidescape won the first round following a 2007 trial when a judge agreed that the General Specifications were not part of the original contract. But the judge didn’t clearly rule whether Kaleidescape complied with them. A California Court of Appeals ruled in 2009 that the General Specifications were part of the contract, but didn’t decide whether Kaleidescape complied. The second trial, initially scheduled for last December, is expected to focus on that issue. In the case of Blu-ray players, Kaleidescape’s models have complied with an agreement between the company and the Blu-ray Disc Association requiring that a disc be present for playback.
Kaleidescape separately will issue a Keaos software update in Q4 that adds a new Cinemascape feature for home servers that’s designed to allow for optimal playback of 2.35:1 aspect ratio content. The software eliminates the need to switch between aspect ratios that was previously required, including moving an anamorphic lens into place to achieve 2.35:1, company officials said. In developing Cinemascape, Kaleidescape created a user interface that takes advantage of an entire screen, squeezing in 12 more movie covers and listing title, actors, director, genre, year of release, MPAA rating and movie length. “One of our goals is that seamless experience,” Wong said.
In addition to the 2.35:1 feature, the company also created Kaleidescape Scenes that allows users to search a database of 7,000 scenes from 700 movies, Wong said. Kaleidescape also will release in Q4 a free iPad application that will allow movie and music browsing without interrupting playback and filter content by actor, director or genre. The app also can be used to monitor what is being played in another room.
"We want to make sure the experience is as cinematic and theatrical as possible and that we give our customers more and better ways to play with their collection,” Wong said. “We are trying to come at it from all angles."
Kaleidescape also has doubled to two terabytes the storage capacity of its Cinema One movie server, giving it room for 450 DVDs, Wong said. The entry-level Cinema One ($4,995), which shipped in December as a replacement for the Mini System, also can be configured to have space for more than 2,500 CDs.