They say luck favors the prepared. It also doesn't hurt to be in the right place at the right time. Whatever. The planets aligned in my favor, resulting in my being one of the few reviewers handpicked by Kaleiedescape co-founder and COO, Cheena Srinivasan, to audition and preview their latest addition.
For the uninformed, Kaleidescape is a movie and music server. More accurately: Kaleidescape is the movie and music server, since they invented the category. On its mega-sized hard drives, all your movies and music are stored then streamed to clients, or players, around the home. Since Kaleidescape's introduction, other companies have come along with their own movie servers — many of which are built on modded versions of computers running Media Center. However none have produced an interface that approaches the elegance and simplicity of Kaleidescape.
Like any technology company, Kaleidescape has steadily released updates and improvements to their line. Some, like the addition of HDMI video outputs and larger hard disc cartridges (from 300 Gigabytes to the current 1 Terabyte), were necessitated by market demand. Others, like adding iTunes integration and an interface that eases classical music-browsing, are just further enhancements to the experience.
Cheena promises that the new players will deliver next-level video performance, so I was definitely excited to get my hands on one. From experience, I know that Kaleidescape's current-gen movie players are no performance slouches. In fact, during my last review, I noted, "The Movie Player 2 flawlessly passed the video scaling tests on the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark disc, offering the best performance of any device I've tested." How much better could the new player be?
Within days, two boxes arrived on my front porch. The larger box held the server, which houses the hard disc cartridges and actually stores all the movies and music, while the second box held the new player. Cosmetically, there's little to distinguish the new player from the old, save for a single new button to the right of the Kaleidescape logo on the front panel (more on this in a bit). While a label on the back identifies it as the KPlayer-6000, it's officially called the Kaleidescape 1080p Player. If the title didn't give it away, the big news here is that this player upscales content to 1080p (though it doesn't play actual 1080p — more on that later).
To squeeze out the next performance level plus support 1080p output, Kaleidescape turned to Sigma Designs for their Gennum VXP video processor chip. This highly regarded chipset uses 10-bit, 4:4:4 color processing to deliver accurate colors and natural skin tones and provide better transitions from light to dark images.
The first thing I noticed when powering up the system was how much sharper and clearer the movie cover art appeared in the onscreen display (OSD). While Kaleidescape has always used high-res images for album and movie cover art, these covers just had more pop, and were noticeably sharper, making the OSD come alive. The lightsabers on the cover of Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones looked much crisper and were free of the stair-stepping that was visible on the previous generation, the Movie Player 2. It's as if the screen displaying the old OSD was out of focus, as titles appeared blurred and softened.
Beyond the higher performing Gennum chip, I was experiencing an enhancement Kaleidescape calls "content-aware" video processing. Through the Kaleidescape Movie Guide database, the player knows about the material being played, and can adapt processing accordingly. For instance, the cover art display is processed to have sharper edges and higher contrast than movies. The 1080p Player can also mine information from the Movie Guide to zoom letterboxed movies to fill a 16x9 display and relocate subtitles for optimal viewing. While Kaleidescape isn't alone in using Gennum's scaling, they have a unique ability to tailor the processing in this manner which would be impossible for an external scaler.
I began my evaluation by pulling out the trusty HQV Benchmark DVD and throwing a battery of tests at the player. One test is of a waving US flag that's torturous because of the rippling red and white stripes against a brick background. I've seen this clip many times, but it's never looked as crisp, detailed, and jaggie-free as it did via the 1080p Player. Another test determines the speed at which the processor locks onto the 3:2 cadence of a film. Most players usually lock onto the signal and clean up the image in a second; the current Movie Player takes about half a second. However this player was so quick, there was never even the slightest glimmer of moiré.
Bottom line: Kaleidescape — not surprisingly — met all challenges with flying colors (literally, in the case of that flag).
Test patterns don't always tell the whole story, though, so I moved on to some movie clips to test real-world performance. Again, the images coming from the player were sharp and detailed. The opening Baku village scene of Star Trek: Insurrection has long been used by reviewers to test video performance. Where other players can turn the stacks of hay into amorphous lumps, the 1080p Player revealed tons of detail, clearly displaying that the pile was comprised of thousands of individual strands. Close-ups of faces revealed the minutest of details often lost: fine wrinkles, stubble or dirt smudges that deliver the nth degree of viewing experience. The 1080p Player's upscaling magic was limited with old or poor transfers, but when working with pristine source material, the results approached true HD quality. Direct digital transfers of recent Pixar films or Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, had a depth and dimensionality that exceeded my expectations of what a DVD could look like.
Beyond the improved video performance are some changes involving that new button I mentioned earlier. Previously, playing a disc from the drive without importing it to the server resulted in a very blah experience. Also, it wasn't possible to play music CDs at all without importing them first. Now, when a disc is dropped into the tray, the system looks up all the information and displays it with the same slick OSD as imported movies. Also, selecting "Play Movie" starts the movie instantly, jumping past all trailers and warnings. Even cooler, pause a movie on one player, eject it, and carry the disc to another player, and you can restart exactly where you left off! This means owners will receive the same consistent experience whether they're watching a movie they own or rent. To import a disc, simply open the drive and press the new button.
Kaleidescape also unveiled another player in a brand new form factor and lower price point, the 1080p Mini Player. Measuring a svelte 8.4" wide x 10.6" deep x 1.7" high, this player is perfect for discreet in-room installations where it can be mounted on a wall, inside cabinetry, and behind furniture or a flat panel display. Designed as a client only, the Mini Player doesn't have it's own drive, but relies on streaming content from the server. The MiniPlayer uses a bearing-less, MagLev fan design for near silent operation, making it perfect for in-room installation. Despite its size, the player includes the same excellent video processing of the larger 1080p Player. For large systems, an optional rack-mount kit will hold two Mini Players in a single 1U rack space.
Sadly, the new player won't handle Blu-ray. For fun, I dropped a BD into the drive thinking maybe, just maybe . . . but the player spit out the disc after a few seconds. Until Kaleidescape offers a Blu-ray solution — which they've promised to do sometime in 2009 — these new movie players offer performance that will make the wait less painful.
The new 1080p Player is available now at a suggested price of $4,295, and will replace the Movie Player 2 as the de facto Kaleidescape player. The 1080p Mini Player will be available at the end of July for $2,995.