Blu-ray, DVD, HDTV, Video info and more at WesleyTech.com

Redbox adding Blu-ray rentals

Even with the limited space within a rental machine, Redbox is making room for Blu-ray Discs to appear within the next few months.

Along with a new agreement from Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, to include new movies 28 days after street date, is a partnership to provide Blu-ray Disc versions of popular movies. Rentals will incur a $1.50 rate per day.

Redbox rental kiosks account for 23% of the rental market, with 40 million DVDs renter per month. Owners of Blu-ray players hold 16.9% of Redbox customers.

Source: Home Media Magazine

Kaleidescape adds Blu-ray support

After over two years of press releases, Kaleidescape has finally released their Blu-ray Disc players. First announcing BD support in 2008, Kaleidescape has been hard at work on a powerful high-definition media player. Originally scheduled for 2009, the project was put on hold in order to engineer a whole new processor enabling multiple streams of high-definition video.

The M500 movie player is the main player for the Kaleidescape System which allows for content loading and video playback (including discs not loaded on the server) and retails for $3,995. The M300 movie player retails for $2,495 and is a small-form factor movie client allowing streaming from the server.



The big questions have been answered. The server will store the Blu-ray Disc content, index it in the same menu as DVDs, and stream it over the network. A gigabit network will support five streams of bit-for-bit high definition video, while a standard 10/100T network will only support one stream. The kicker is the disc must be loaded in a player before the movie will start (any player in the system). The benefit is Kaleidescape bookmarks movies so the film will start immediately instead of waiting to load a menu, and so there is no sitting through trailers and warnings.

Kaleidescape has the largest metadata collection in the world (even bigger than Gracenote), and is individually bookmarked by Kaleidescape and given additional content like cover art, reviews, and more. Concert videos are even bookmarked to each song, another bonus. Additionally, if you run across an obscure title Kaleidescape doesn’t have, you can mail it to them and they will index it for free.



If finding a movie and loading it in the player before playing beats the whole purpose of a server, it does. But it was done that way for DRM purposes. Kaleidescape still hasn’t worked out all of the kinks with licensing, and until they get the go ahead from the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator (AACSLA), they will have to prove the disc is present. This is why Kaleidescape is working on a multi-disc changer which will provide this presence without having to load the movie. The changer will index movies as they are added so it won’t have to find the disc before allowing access to the movie. Michael Malcolm, CEO of Kaleidescape, said, “Every once in awhile, there is a way to randomly check. Once it finds that one [disc] is missing, it will check them all.”

The multi-disc changer should retail between $3,000 and $5,000, which is more than half the cost of the Crestron BD multi-changer.

The new M Class players are also said to be “a platform for future sources of content.” These sources have not been named, but Kaleidescape feels content should be owned by the client, not rented, borrowed, or streamed. Also on the road map is iTunes sync and AVCHD support.

Along with new high definition players is news of an upgrade to the GUI, now in full 1080p high definition.

For videos on how the Blu-ray works, and on the new GUI, visit the Kaleidescape website.

RealDVD bested in MPAA match up

Two years ago, the MPAA sued RealNetworks over their RealDVD software, which allowed for backing up DVDs to a hard drive, claiming an infringement of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Last August, the MPAA prevailed in the case against Real. The Judge in the case made a very cryptic comment in the decision stating:

Had Real’s products been manufactured differently, i.e., if what happened in Vegas really did stay in Vegas, this might have been a different case. But, it is what it is. Once the distributive nature of the copying process takes hold, like the spread of gossip after a weekend in Vegas, what’s done cannot be undone.

After months of deliberation, Real decided not to appeal the decision, and paid $4,500,000 to the MPAA for legal fee reimbursement. They also shut off their online metadata service.

From the judge’s comments, it seems this decision affects software which could lead to distribution of the content. This may favor Kaleidescape’s argument considering their closed-architecture does not allow for data on their servers to be accessed except by associated Kaleidescape players.

It also seems to target a retail software, and should be a pronouncement on personal Fair Use.

Panasonic Blu-ray/VHS combo baffles

Question: What do Demi Moore, Fred Thompson, and Panasonic’s newest Blu-ray Disc player have in common? Answer: They’ve all played a VHS tape.

The Panasonic DMP-BD70V Blu-ray Disc player also plays VHS cassette tapes. This makes as much sense as recording cable shows on a VCR (as one recent client asked to do). No, it makes less sense because this VHS player won’t even record – it only plays!

As mind-blowing as this product’s mere existence is, what’s more discombobulating is the fact that Amazon is selling it for $139 with free shipping. Pretend the VHS player isn’t attached and it’s one of the best deals I’ve ever seen on a BD player … ever.


Included on the player is an SD memory card slot; USB port; upconversion to 1080p for DVD and VHS; 7.1 channel audio decoding with bitstream output over HDMI (including DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD); and, internet video streaming from Amazon, YouTube, and more. Quite a fully-featured player, with VHS to boot.

Maybe my mother-in-law can use this…

Sony CEDIA booth tour

Home Theater Forum put together a brilliant booth tour video for Sony’s new products. Highlights include:

The new XBR10 line of BRAVIA LCD televisions with LED light engine for an ultra-thin design. It uses an outboard media box and delivers video to the display itself wireless.

A new Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-N460, which includes streaming from Netflix and other sources. It has drivers for a Linksys wireless bridge installed so if you do need wireless connectivity it’s available, although the existing BDP-S560 has WiFi built in. It will sell for $249.

Finally a 400-disc Blu-ray mega-changer is available! The BDP-CX960 and BDP-CX7000ES both have BD-Live, DVD upscaling, and decoding for all high-res audio. They will automatically pull down metadata for discs loaded in the slots from Gracenote. The interface isn’t very user-friendly, but it’s steps above the older mega-changers.

Microsoft and Tesco collaborate on virtual DVD

Digital delivery of movies have fallen short of the DVD experience due to a lack of added features. Microsoft and retail giant Tesco have teamed up to fix this disparity with what they are calling “virtual DVD.” The new delivery service is built on Microsoft Silverlight technology, adding interactive features to online video, including the bonus features included on the DVD.

Tesco, the second most profitable retailer behind Walmart, will allow customers in the United Kingdom, who purchase certain home video titles, to download a digital copy beginning in the autumn. The digital copy will feature exclusive content including online movie viewing parties with chat, MP3s, ring tones, and games.



There is no announcement for US customers, but Tesco is growing their presence Stateside, and I doubt this is a worldwide exclusive anyway so Microsoft can be working with other retailers to implement this program here.

Blockbuster downgrades service

Blockbuster Total Access online subscribers who have looked at their online queue in the past week have probably noticed a new banner notice at the top of their queue page.

Clicking on the banner will take you to this page on Blockbuster.com, which explains a new Blockbuster policy change: “any free in-store movie exchanges will count towards how many online rentals you may have out under your plan. Your next online movie will ship after the in-store movie exchange has been returned to the store you rented it from.”

Previously, Blockbuster would ship you the next movie from your online queue as soon as you exchanged a movie instore. Now they will not ship you another movie from your online queue until you return the instore rental back to the store.

Is Blockbuster actively trying to lose subscribers and push people over to Netflix? It certainly seems like it. This service downgrade causes Blockbuster to lose any advantage that it once had over Netflix. Other Blockbuster subscribers on DVDRentalForums are also upset over the change and are headed to Netflix.

Instead of trying to continually improve their service, Blockbuster continually makes it worse. Bye bye Blockbuster! I’m ditching them and going with Netflix.