Kaleidescape unveils M300 and M500 Blu-ray players

Kaleidescape is a name that is associated with movie servers, and today they take a slightly different route with the M300 and M500 Blu-ray players hitting the market. Of course, reading on further will reveal that they are not just Blu-ray players per se, but are media players of a higher level. Both models will be based on the company’s proprietary M-Class architecture, where this next generation of players are more than capable of delivering a new and improved onscreen user interface alongside Blu-ray support. To up the ante, the M500 Player is capable of copying Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs onto a server, while both models enable imported content to be played back instantly, making this more or less the first multi-zone movie server for Blu-ray in the world.


Copying Blu-ray Discs would definitely be a concern to movie studios who are wondering whether Kaleidescape is on their side, or on the side of pirates. Well, they definitely are with the former, since it requires the original disc to be present when playing Blu-ray content from the server. Basically, you would still need to make sure the Blu-ray Disc is in the tray of an M500 Player, which doesn’t really make much sense logically though (assuming this is an Utopian world and everyone who owns a server copy has the original stashed away somewhere), as you might as well watch the movie straight from the disc itself, eh? To make sure one experiences the full Kaleidescape experience for Blu-ray, the company is working on a disc loader that will keep a large number of discs present within the Kaleidescape system. It will also offer bulk import that makes life a whole lot easier when it comes to finding and retrieving a disc.

Kaleidescape has also enhanced its onscreen user interface, where the Kaleidescape Movie Guide is touted to be the largest and most comprehensive of its type with over 135,000 titles, including more than 3,300 Blu-ray Disc titles. Patent pending video bookmarks as well as control triggers that automatically adjust screen masking, lighting and curtains during playback are also thrown in for good measure. The Kaleidescape M500 and M300 Players will ship from next Tuesday onwards for $3,995 and $2,495, respectively.

Press Release