Kaleidescape 1080p Upconverting Players “Rival” Blu-ray

Can upconverted DVDs challenge the image quality of Blu-ray? Kaleidescape certainly thinks so.

The media server provider is unveiling two new upscaling movie players -- the 1080p Player and 1080p Mini Player -- that, according to the company, rival the viewing experience of Blu-ray.

"We're not going to say you get a bit-for-bit identical image," says Linus Wong, product development director at Kaleidescape.

"But we certainly believe, that for most consumers, the experience they get with our new players will, in fact, rival the experience you might get with Blu-ray."

Both players feature Sigma Designs VXP Video Processor, delivering 10-bit 4:4:4 color processing, motion adaptive deinterlacing and reverse 3:2 and 2:2 pull-down.

The 1080p Player is a 1U rack mount device that has a DVD/CD-ROM drive for import and direct playback.

The 1080p player displays cover art and other metadata and a "Play Movie" feature that starts the movie instantly without trailers or advertisements. And, yes, this applies to rented movies.

The 1080p Mini Player, half the size of the 1080p Player, doesn't have a DVD/CD-ROM drive. It plays content stored from an existing Kaleidescape server.

Both players are to be used as part of a Kaleidescape system and don't function as standalone components.

"The new Kaleidescape Movie Player produces the best quality video I have ever seen from any source device," says David Raife, owner of Paragon Technology Group.

The 1080p Player has added protection for copyright infringement with an "Import" button on the front panel. Movies will only import if users hit that button, which should spare Kaleidescape from any further DVD ripping legal issues.

"It gives [the users] peace of mind that the player won't automatically import content, as it did in the past," Wong says.

Wong says Kaleidescape still plans on releasing a Blu-ray player in 2009. He says upscaled DVDs will do for now.

"We certainly believe an upscaling DVD player provides compelling value to the majority of consumers out there," says Wong.

The 1080p Player is currently available for $4,295. The 1080p Mini Player will be available in the second half of July for $2,995.