check this out http://www.kaleidescape.com/flash.php its a whole new way to store ur dvds. a whole new way to pick what u want to watch. and how u watch it .

its a little expenceive thought

thorn

wow, that's pretty sweet. I didn't see a price anywhere, but then again I wasn't looking very hard either. Just how much is "a little expensive" ?

that is soooooooooo stupid!

I don't really see what that will do for me that DVD Profiler cant, just with a bit more effort.

i found it in an article in feb sound and vision mag ... the system is $27,000.00 thats for one server with 3.6 terabyte storage and one reader and one player.... additional players are $3,000.00... the system can out put a signal upto 1080i

if i win the lottery ...ill get one .


thorn

it would be like dvdprofiler playing the movie you click on instantly. instead of u having to search though ur stacks or shelves of dvds and finding theactual disc u want ..... it actually stores the movie on the server. not just the profile like dvdprofiler.

It really would cut back on all that time wasted pulling a DVD off the shelf, removing the disc from its case, and inserting it in the player. I could write the next great American novel with all the free time I'd have.

It's interesting looking, and slick, sure, but unnecessary unless you have the thousands of movies like the example says.

I already built my own at home, it runs on my LAN. The main server also servers up my mp3 collection.

you are, of course, quite correct. it is a very unnecessary, but kool way to sort,store and play your moives. but like i said .... after i win the lottery. just thought it was kind of kool , and worth sharring

thorn

details please?


I've got a Sony 300-DVD changer. I don't have to change out DVDs every time I want to watch a title, but am still bogged down with loading times (mechanical and then software).

Would like to put additional titles on my server's harddrives and utilize my LAN.


zeek

I hope you have it backed up somehow . . . if it ever crashed, that would bring the suck something fierce . . .

If you do, I'm curious about the details of that, too.

...without discussing methods of ripping DVDs to disk please.

I am very interested in this. Just like other electronics, the price of this will come down as usual.

The one dangerous thing with this system is copy protection, the fact that ANY dvd can be copied into the kaliedescape system is not a favorable thing to mass market.

Once a DVD has been ripped to this device, it is prevented (although I am sure that some could beat this protection) from being displayed or streamed to a source outside the Kaleidescape system. Being able to stream movies in 5.1 or higher at 1080i to any television in the house and then being able to play multiple movies at once on different televisions is the media center wet dream.

I am a bit put-off on the disc limitation though

Ok, without the details of the ripping part.

Basically my server is SATA RAID 1 (redundant duplexing) with 8 250GB (2TBs) Hard Drives, on my Gigabit wired LAN and 2.4Ghz Wireless LAN. I have the room to fit the full DVDs onto my server without re-encoding or recompressing them. I use an ATi All In Wonder 9800 Pro that hooks right into my TV and comes with a RF Remote to control the system. And sound is ported out to my stereo for DD and DTS.

That’s it in simple terms.

It's all fun and good until those cheap commodity HDs die a smoking death at 27 months.

Hope you have big bold DLT backups run on it.

After seeing the Kaleidescape at CES this year, I knew I really wanted one. But seeing as I already have 400 DVDs, the cost to store all of these through a few Kaleidescape drives is close to that of a new BMW 300 series. It is a very good idea, since in the future we probably won't be using media anymore, just storing everything digitally on disk drives. It is just too much money right now. Maybe in 2-3 years, the price will be in some people's range, then in 5-6 years it will be cost effective enough for the majority of people to purchase one. My problem with that is, by that time, we may be streaming movies through a satellite using the same DLP technology movie theaters use directly from the studio. So who knows what will happen in the near future, but I think the Kaleidescape is something to watch. Just my $0.02.

I read about this in S & V, too. I laughed at the cost and the limit of 300 dvds, but it really is a pretty sweet concept.

I shudder to think of that happening. You know what'll be the rule? "Here's your downloaded, non-physical movie. You can watch it once. Any more than that and you'll have to pay us again." DRM and the like is gonna try real hard to make sure we never really own movies.

Me, they'll take my plastic and aluminum discs when you pry them from my cold, dead hand.

I heartily agree.

I love the idea of this server though, as long as I control what I put into it. $27,000 is waaayy too much money for it though, especially if you can build one yourself with a bit of effort for a lot less money.

The reason I like it is because I can just have it shuffle my movie collection at random, so there will always be something on. I tend to get pulled into something if it's already on, rather than actually making the decision to put it on. That's why I watch movies that I may already own on cable or late at night. I get sucked right in. I figure my collection will be be put to more use!

Yep. I have something similar. Anyone with an HTPC (Home Theater PC) pretty much already has this, and for a hell of a lot less money. Plus we can listen to music and surf the web on our big screen.

They're obviously using regular PC hard drives (hence the 250 - 300 GB disk sizes).

Woah, I think you guys are missing some math concepts though. The Kaleidescape is expandable to 3.6TB. To hold 300 DVDs, at let's say 9GB per DVD as a rough estimate(that way boxsets, single discs, double discs, etc. can all be included) equals to 2,700GB. That's 2.7TB. So unless you have rack mount servers with that kind of space, you're not building one on your own. I know you can build an HTPC with, let's say an array configuration in RAID-0, but I don't think you're fitting 13 200GB HDs in that HTPC. Just thought I'd do a few corrections before some other members think they can make this on their own. Now if we're talking a few Apple G4 servers, then that's something different

I have 1.3TB in my home right now, and I'm not even trying.

Why would one need rackmount servers? I can easily get 10 (300 GB) harddrives into my case, which means at least 3000 GB.

What kind of case do you have? I'm running an Antec server tower and the most I could hold would be 4 or 5.