We discuss what might happen in the DVD server market now that Kaleidescape has put their legal struggles behind them, including devices like the T2 Media Server from Interact-TV. We also picked our 10 favorite shows in High Definition, but we each used slightly different criteria to pick them. You'll have to listen to find out more.
Our Top Ten shows in HD
Ara:
American Idol (Fox)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Football/Basketball/Sports Center/Etc on ESPN
Planet Earth/Sunrise Earth (Discovery HD Theater)
Lost (ABC)
CSI Miami (CBS)
CSI (CBS)
Bikini Destinations (HD Net)
Heroes (NBC)
NHL Hockey on HD Net
Braden:
The Unit (CBS)
Las Vegas (NBC)
Numb3rs (CBS)
Monday Night Football (ESPN)
Lakers Basketball on KCAL
24 (Fox)
I Shouldn't Be Alive (Discovery HD)
Destination HD (Discovery HD)
Planet Earth (Discovery HD)
CSI Miami (CBS)
Gadgets to Watch For
Now that
Kaleidescape
has put their legal issues behind them, they should be a little more
free to start pushing the price down and offering entry level systems
that average consumers can afford. As an expensive, high-end, custom
install product, they sat in a small somewhat low profile niche. With
the freedom to go mainstream, does that mean Kaleidescape will ever
have a mass market product for sale at Best Buy, or on the HT Guys
store? Your guess is as good as ours. But now that they've blazed the
legal trail, you can bet there will be a few enterprising companies
willing to make a go at it.
One such company is called
Interact-TV. They've recently announced availability of their
T2 Media Server.
It's a Linux based machine with full DVR and DVD server capabilities.
Not just that, but it comes with a whopping 2.25 Terabytes of storage
in a case no larger than your average home theater receiver. They
claim it can hold over 450 uncompressed DVDs and still have room for
hours of recorded DVR content and thousands of songs. The retail price
will start at $2495 US when it's available.
Features wise it can
output up to 720p over component video, has a built-in MPEG2 encoder
and can even upscale videos and DVDs to 720p. From the screen shots
available on the web, the cover art DVD interface looks pretty similar
to a Kaleidescape. Odds are it isn't as animated and cool, but
probably close to as functional. We're not claiming it is a
Kaleidescape killer by any means, but it does sound very intriguing at
that price. Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on one to play
with.
So whether or not you'll ever get a Kaleidescape from Best
Buy remains to be seen. But if the T2 from Interact-TV is any
indication of where things are headed, you can bet that DVD servers
will be in stores pretty soon. Now that the legal wrangling is over,
nothing is preventing Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba from making a device
of their own. Your alternative right now is to spend around $700 on a
Sony 400 disc DVD changer, then pay more than $1000 for an Escient
Fireball to control it. That, or someone could just come up with a
nice consumer DVD server with a decent interface and we would all be
happy.
Maybe Amazon, Netflix or Blockbuster would be interested in downloading movies right onto the server.
Article at Home Theater Magazine with a screen shot
