ATLANTA
— Kaleidescape is unveiling at
CEDIA Expo a new user interface and remote
designed to help children use its movie server
system, and will announce availability of a
dual disc-vault changer system for its M-Class
movie servers.
The child interface was developed after the
company determined that a large percentage
of Kaleidescape system users are children.
“We found that seven of the top 10 movies
played most often on Kaleidescape systems
are children’s movies,” said Tom Barnett,
product management director. “That’s one of
the real values that we bring — we make it easy
enough that a child can walk up and make selections
without having to fumble through FBI
warnings and menus, get the correct orientation
of the player and so forth.”
Kaleidescape developed a special rubberized
remote, which will be available in bright
primary colors appealing to young children. It
will feature nine basic buttons using different IR codes than the conventional Kaleidescape
remote.
When any button is pressed on the
child remote, the Kaleidescape system
switches into the kids’ user interface using
movie cover graphics without text to
read.
Movie listings that appear are preselected
by parents, ensuring children don’t
get access to inappropriate material.
Barnett said as soon as an adult presses
a button on the main remote, the system
will revert back to the original user
interface.
The child interface update will start
shipping to coincide with CEDIA Expo,
he said.
Meanwhile, Kaleidescape’s dual discvault
systems are being designed to ensure
that copies of Blu-ray and DVD titles
are always present in the system to activate
the company’s unique copy-authentication
mechanism.
By using disc-changer-like magazines
to hold the discs, users will not have to repeatedly
get up to load discs in the server
to playback movies ripped to the system’s
hard drives.
To assuage the piracy concerns of
content holders, Kaleidescape’s system
is based on a copy-protection mechanism
that enables recording movie discs
to a hard drive for playback through
Kaleidescape hardware. The hardware
includes copy-control safeguards that
ensure a copy of the original source
disc is always present in the system
before the recorded content can be
played back.
That way the server can stream
stored versions of movies to any connected
player or multiple players in
the home.
The first planned modular server will
be demonstrated at the show, Barnett
said. The vault will connect via USB
to either an M-300 or M-500 player,
using the player as the controller.
In 2011, the company will introduce
a second approach featuring an integrated
disc-vault system with a builtin
player, capable of holding substantially
more discs (around 300) without
the need of a USB connection.
The modular changer demonstrated
at the show will hold up to
100 Blu-ray Discs, Barnett said. The
modular disc vault will carry a $1,500
suggested retail.
Additionally, Stephen Watson, Kaleidescape
chief technology officer,
will address “Why Innovators Get
Sued By Hollywood” at 4:00 p.m. Friday,
Sept. 24, in room A309 at CEDIA
Expo.
