Kaleidescape Mini System

Kaleidescape’s Mini system incorporates a multi-zone system into a single unit. Although the mini system is still being targeted to installers for remodels and retrofit jobs, the mini player is designed to be used as a free-standing set top box in your home theater setup. It is about 17 inches wide and weighs just over 20 pounds. The base capacity for the mini system is 75 DVDs or 825 CDs. The mini system can upscale DVDs to 1080p and they don’t need to be stored on the mini system in order to be played.

If you want to watch a DVD, the mini system will bring up the cover art / movie data and the disc will play immediately. It can skip past all the trailers and advertisements automatically to start the movie right away. While a DVD is being viewed, the Mini can play music in two other sections of the house, presuming the home is wired for multi-zone playback. All Kaleidescape hardware receive new software releases concurrently to ensure system compatibility. The user interface allows the user to surf through their media by actor, director, genre, artist, etc. The Mini System is priced at $7,995.

It seems that the United Kingdom is the target of most electronic companies these days. After Sony had announced launching their W5500 LCD TVs, another company is now catering towards the media server end.

Kaleidescape has announced their Mini System in the UK, a multizone media server that occupies roughly the same space as a DVD player but promises storage of up to 225 DVD or 2500 CDs. Capable of outputting 1080p upscaled video via HDMI, the Kaleidescape Mini can also be linked to up to fifteen more players for multi-room entertainment.

Even with a single Kaleidescape Mini you can be playing 1080p video in the main zone and independent audio in two further zones. A Blu-ray player is promised for later in the year; until then, DVDs take 20 minutes to rip to the mediaplayer’s disk cartridges, while CDs take around five minutes; both are stored with RAID backup to prevent data loss.

While the Kaleidescape Mini is priced from $7,995 in the US, in the UK it will tip the scales at around £7,000 ($10,336). The company will also sell pre-recorded movie packs, such as a group of all the Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees.

(Source) Pocket-lint