S1Digital Adds 100-Disc Blu-ray Changer

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 2/3/2010

New Rochelle, N.J. - S1Digital said Tuesday it is now shipping a 100-disc Blu-ray Disc changer designed to integrate with its S1Digital Entertainment Server or third-party Media Center.

The S1Digital Blu-ray Disc changer, which carries a $1,499 suggested retail, will integrate with any Microsoft Windows 7 or Vista PC that includes Media Center software to select, store and play up to 100 Blu-ray Discs, and DVDs.

The included playback software will scan metadata and cover-art and automatically download it to the server. Once catalogued, users can view more information about the movie, or watch the movie by selecting the appropriate cover-art.

The changer is a BD changer only and does not playback the discs, opting to use Arcsoft Total Media Theater for BD playback on the server, which supports all Blu-ray features, the company said.

For audio CDs, the S1Digital changer will store non-copy protected CDs to a connected S1Digital Entertainment Server. Using Windows Media Center connections, CDs are not supported.

S1Digital said the changer was designed for ease of use and will enable almost instant access to movies without having to physically find and load each disc.

When connected to the S1Digital Entertainment Server or Windows Media Center the changer will automatically archive copy-protection-free discs through the included software, the company said. No decryption software is supplied.

In-the-clear movie and audio discs will automatically be stored on the hard drive, catalogued and metadata and cover-art will be downloaded and integrated into the Media Center user interface.

Going forward, the company said the changer is also expected to support archiving of managed copy Blu-ray Discs, although no managed copy enabled Blu-ray titles were available to date.

As each movie or album is stored, it is immediately available on the customer's home network from any S1Digital Media Center for playback, S1Digital said.

"A typical Blu-ray disc can take an hour or more to archive," said Paul Heitlinger, S1Digital president. "With our solution, you simply load up the changer and hit go. You don't have to load each disc one by one. The changer will automatically move from disc to disc so customers don't have to worry about spending days manually storing movies and music."