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Pioneer’s 2008 lineup announced

Sorry for all the Pioneer updates, but this is something that gives clarity to all the discussion of the new Kuro panels.

There are four models in the Elite line, and they share similar specs. All are 1080p, Kuro plasmas. There is a new line within Elite called “Signature Series;” these will be monitors without on board tuners and will be a thin 2.5″ deep. The $5,000 PRO-111FD and $6,000 PRO-151FD are 50″ and 60″, respectfully. The Signature Series are PRO-101FD and PRO-141FD in the same sizes. The Elite plasmas will ship in June, and the Signature Series will ship in October and August (101FD and 141FD).



The consumer line features a 50″ PDP-5020FD and a 60″ PDP-6020FD, both in 1080p. The new panels are almost a full inch thinner than their predecessors at 3.7″ deep. They’re all receiving the Home Media Gallery allowing connection to networked DLNA devices to view video, photos and audio on the TV. The consumer level plasmas will be $4,000 and $5,000 around June.



Interestingly, Pioneer has added a KRF-9000FD front projector to their lineup. They still don’t have full specs on it, but it is a 1080p LCoS projector based on the popular JVC DLA-RS2. This will retail at around $9,000.



Pioneer is also expanding their Blu-ray lineup with a player in their consumer line and in the Elite line. Both Blu-ray Disc players are BD1.1 “Bonus View,” and I’m a bit disappointed that they don’t have a BD2.0 player. The Elite model is BDP-05FD and the Pioneer brand is BDP-51FD. As far as I can tell they’re both the same unit. They both decode all audio codecs, they both have HDMI 1.3, BD1.1 profile, 1080p/24fps and PureCinema Deinterlacer. The Elite seems to simply add gold-plated connectors, touch-sensitive buttons, and an aluminum face plate. I hope there’s more to it than that.



Finally, Pioneer’s highly-respected Elite A/V receivers have been revamped. They will now all feature three audio zones, two video zones and will have RS-232 control. This is another effort to court the custom integrators. The new SC-07 and SC-05 receivers will follow the flagship SC-09TX with ICEpower class-D amplifiers. The VSX-03TXH and VSX-01TXH will be joined with the existing VSX-94TXH to complete the line.

Panasonic unveils Blu-ray HTIB

New hardware news has been coming in on the Blu-ray tide. Panasonic has revealed specs and pricing on their new SC-BT100 home-theater-in-a-box system, as well as announced a new BD2.0 player.

The SC-BT100 features BD1.1 “Bonus View” compatibility, 24fps output on HDMI 1.3, and codec support for all mandatory and optional formats. It is a 5.1 surround system with all satellites in the famous D’Appolito array. The rear speakers are wireless, meaning they are powered at the rear and wires still need to be attached but they don’t have to run to the front of the room. You can also add another pair of wireless speakers for a 7.1 setup. Out of the box, 7.1 sources are give phantom channels in the rears.

This HTIB also features an embedded iPod dock that plays audio and video from all iPods with the exception of the iPhone. The integrated Blu-ray Disc player upconverts DVD to 1080p over HDMI. This system costs $999 MSRP.

Also announced is the new DMP-BD50 which will be identical to the DMP-BD30 but with added features. Included are all advanced codecs on board, BD2.0 “BD-Live” compatibility (using an SD card slot on the front panel), and 24fps video support. This player will retail at $699. The DMP-BD30 is the BD1.1 player at $499.

Kaleidescape to support Blu-ray

When I first wrote about Kaleidescape, they were ambivalent to HD DVD and Blu-ray. Yesterday they announced they would be supporting Blu-ray in the future (thanks to Kaleidescape Owners’ Forum).

A new Blu-ray player will be released for the system that will rip DVD, CD and possibly Blu-ray to the server. This player will be compatible with all existing servers, so it will be easy to upgrade if you currently have one (and don’t we all?). As Kaleidescape is trying to keep their business on the “up-and-up,” I imagine they’re looking to get the BDA to give them the ability to copy the discs without resorting to third-party encrypting software as other companies are doing. It’s posible the user might have to pay the studio a “user fee” on each copy of the movie.



The player is expected in 2009 at about the same cost as the current media player. They’re predicting at least 5 streams of video and audio from the player with the possibility of going up to 20 on a gigabit network.

There are no plans for an HD DVD model, but they will be watching the marketplace and revisit that decision in the future.

So all of you with $20,000 sitting around and don’t know what to do with it, find a Kaleidescape dealer and enjoy the ride.

Alienware details new High Definition Media Server

The latest, greatest Windows Media Center is the new Alienware High Definition Media Server. Besides its ubiquitous name, the High Definition Media Server (I’m going to call it the HDMS) has a sleek design, up to 4TB storage in RAID-5 redundancy, Intel quad-core processor, 1080p video, Blu-ray Disc read/write, up to four cable tuners (two in high-def), and 7.1 channel pre-amp outputs.



At this point there is no MSRP. Alienware is searching for custom installation firms interested in integrating this product into high-end homes. If I had an undisclosed amount of money I’d consider this.

Visit the Alienware site for more details.

Digital downloads don’t threaten optical media

In a strange turn of events, many bloggers are touting iTunes as the killer of Blu-ray Disc. It seems the majority of these people were HD DVD supports in December, and the rest are Steve Jobs. Why the sudden change in tune?

iMovie isn’t anything new, video-on-demand has been around for over a decade. Time Warner was boasting last year about how big their VOD business was and one executive even declared optical media dead. Funny, DVD actually did better than expected last year.

Why are comparisons even being made with Blu-ray Disc anyway? The iTunes movies are not high-def. Some are, but they’re only available to AppleTV Take 2 owners. VOD is in high-def with cable providers. AppleTV is also a rental service. People kept buying VHS and DVD even though Blockbuster was renting movies. Online rentals have been available for a couple years as well. People buy movies to collect them, you don’t collect movies on a hard drive.

Some people point to music to support their case. They saw CD is in a slump. This is true, but some argue that there isn’t music worth buying right now. The fact that music is essentially free online also hurts the music industry, something the movie industry is fighting with all their might.

But why are so many HD DVD fans dropping their support of high-quality movies in 1080p with lossless audio to now support poor-quality video downloads? The best-quality AppleTV only movies are 720p highly-compressed video files with low-bitrate Dolby Digital audio, and most aren’t even in surround sound. Were they not thouroughly impressed with HD DVD’s quality?

What do you think? Will video downloads replace physical media, or will it supplement it?

Disney to add support for D-Box

D-Box Technologies offers a niche product for the home theater enthusiast - a motion actuator for seating. This is a unique product unlike all the “bass actuators” you see out there. D-Box doesn’t just shake your chair, it lifts, drops and shifts your chair much like the theaters you find at an amusement park. Movement is programmed with D-Box Motion Code for each specific movie and the data is part of the DVD’s soundtrack giving each film a unique experience.



Considering only a select bunch of movies even use D-Box technology, it seems like quite an investment to gain an arbitrarily greater theatrical benefit. This may be changing now that Disney has signed up to support D-Box Motion Code on upcoming titles. Fox and Lions Gate have already been releasing DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with D-Box enabled soundtracks, but then only on select titles. Disney will bring Game Plan and The Rock to Blu-ray on 22nd January 2008.

Whether you care about moving recliners or not, it seems like D-Box is looking to significantly grow their niche. They’re already working with gaming companies to bring a more “simulation” feel to games. Sounds fun … for a while I guess.

Since 2001, Kaleidescape has been the leader in home media servers, delivering high-quality DVD content to distributed locations throughout the home via ethernet network. Many other companies have sprung up to challenge the entertainment server market offering myriad features, but every one of them has had to follow in the steps of Kaleidescape - often borrowing ideas. The elegance and ease of use Kaleidescape offers with their user interface is one thing every company emulates.

Aside from the hardware and software offerings, Kaleidescape has been watched by the entire A/V convergence industry for their court battles with the DVD-CCA. This is a complicated story, so I’ll try to make it brief. Kaleidescape is the only company to have obtained a license from the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA) to remove the Content Scramble System (CSS) from the DVD to rip and play back from the hard drive. This license requires Kaleidescape to use a closed system with proprietary software and hardware to limit the content’s output to mirror CSS specifications. This includes limiting analog video outputs at 480p, and the protection keys and unscrambled data cannot be on “user-accessible buses,” like the PCI slot. There is even a separate license obtained from Macrovision required for the analog outputs.



However, in spite of all the licenses Kalidescape has received, the DVD-CCA continues to claim the system does not stand up to the CSS requirements. The DVD-CCA has repeatedly sued Kalidescape over this claim and has lost every case. Most recently was a March ruling where the judge found in favor of Kalidescape. Since this ruling, the DVD-CCA is attempting to amend the license making it so the DVD must be physically present for the video to play back and that the CSS codes cannot be moved to a hard drive. This is ridiculous, of course, as it completely voids any advantage a hard drive based storage system yields. The good news is that the courts and appeals courts have all agreed with Kaleidescape in several court decisions. The amendment reads as follows:

6.4. Certain Requirements for DVD Products, shall not be designed to descramble scrambled CSS Data when the DVD Disc containing such CSS Data and associated CSS Keys is not physically present in the DVD Player or DVD Drive (as applicable), and a DVD Product shall not be designed to make or direct the making of a persistent copy of CSS Data that has be descrambled from such DVD Disc by such DVD Product.

Founder and CEO Michael Malcolm wrote a scathing letter to the Content Protection Advisory Council (CPAC) claiming the group is attempting to put his company out of business. The CPAC is made up of several electronics manufacturers Malcolm claims are using their position to stifle competition. None of the CPAC companies make a media server system. Malcolm wrote that the amendment violates antitrust regulations.

The purpose of this proposed amendment is to put Kalidescape out of business by excluding the Kalidescape system from the DVD playback devices authorized by the CSS License Agreement.”

I asked Malcolm if his company was seeking legal action against the DVD-CCA and he denied that in no uncertain terms. However he has previously stated they were looking at it.

Looking to the future

Like another product innovator, Apple, Kaleidescape doesn’t usually talk about future products and features. When I spoke to Michael Malcolm, founder and CEO of Kaleidescape, he would not comment on any plans to bring Blu-ray or HD DVD to the Kaleidescape platform. On August 16, Mercury News reported Malcolm believes the quality of DVD upscaling is so good that you cannot tell the difference between the new formats and regular DVD. This might hint at no future adoption of the formats. Another hint is Kaleidescape is looking to a future of delivering high-def content over the internet, something Microsoft is pushing as well.

In fact, their initial goal was to create an internet delivery system and even filed a number of patents on that technology. Malcolm told Engadget in a 2005 interview that the hurdle that has yet to be overcome is getting studios to agree to digital delivery. “To do Internet delivery of movies, you need to convince the content owners to license their movies to you, and you need a large enough installed base that it’s economically interesting to them,” he said. “But you need people to buy the platform, and you can’t get there without the movies.”

With studios like Universal, Disney and Lions Gate bowing high-def content on such services like VUDU and Xbox LIVE over the internet, I wonder if Kaleidescape will revisit digital delivery. In the meantime, they offer pre-loaded movie collections including categories such as “Academy Award Winners Best Picture,” and “The Criterion Collection Catalog.” This is a quick and easy way to fill up your hard drives with quality films cataloged properly with no work from yourself, and the best part is many of these films are hard-to-find.