Niveus Adds Movie Gallery Interface to Aggregate Films

Niveus Media is rolling out a new user interface, Movie Gallery, that shows artwork and metadata for all the movies on a server -- whether they are recorded from TV, downloaded from the Internet or even ripped from Blu-ray, HD DVD and DVDs.

The UI is a pet project of CEO Tim Cutting, who wanted to go beyond the often-used "My Movies" plugin for Media Center and differentiate the company's offerings from other Media Center manufacturers.

And yes, the display does indeed include ripped movies from DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. "We have dealers who are ripping movies," says Cutting, because their customers are asking for it.

Niveus isn't installing any decryption software into their units, so they're confident that aggregating all movie information, including ripped movies, isn't an issue.

"We're making no hesitations in what we are talking about to our customers," says Niveus's Scott Varner. "We're confident that what we're doing is fine."

Ripped Blu-ray and DVD films will work on the main server, but not on extenders -- they will simply disappear from the interface. Movie Gallery also includes a recommendation engine, which at this point suggests films from the same genre to the user.

The UI has a Kaleidescape look-and-feel, and Cutting isn't afraid to to make the comparison. "Art inspires art," he says.

Dealers will be able to beta test Movie Gallery within "two weeks," and Niveus expects a two-week beta period before it is officially released.

The company is also running a Blu-ray upgrade program, letting dealers who have purchased product within the past 90 days change their HD DVD-based systems to Blu-ray for the price of the drive.

Niveus isn't the only company at EHX working with ripped high-def movies. VidaBox is also showing off Blu-ray and HD DVD ripping on their media center systems.

Inteset also recently announced that it was adding a Blu-ray drive to its Vana Extender, which is not an official Windows Media Center Extender.

At EHX, principal David Hirsch said the company is not yet enabling Blu-ray ripping and streaming across the network from its Blu-ray Media Centers. His smirk, however, suggested that such a feature was in the offing.