DVD and beyond - Kaleidescape launches industry's first DVD/BD-quality Internet movie delivery

Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies

Kaleidescape launches industry's first DVD/BD-quality Internet movie delivery

Kaleidescape, developer of home servers, announced a service that enables the digital delivery of movie purchases over the Internet with video and audio quality equal to Blu-ray and DVD. Featuring the newly-released kOS 5.0 operating system, Kaleidescape's downloads include video resolution up to 1080p, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless soundtracks, and 24 frame-per-second progressive scan video. However, a YouTube video presentation says that Blu-ray-quality downloads will be available 'in the future.'

Customers can purchase and download movies directly to their Kaleidescape Systems from the newly-launched Kaleidescape Store that is designed exclusively for online movie sales. Once a customer's system is linked to an account on the Kaleidescape Store website, the titles of their current movie collection are automatically cataloged and kept up to date.

The new service is initially backed by a multi-year license agreement with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and marks the first agreement that enables the electronic delivery of digital movies containing all of the extra content found on physical Blu-ray Discs or DVDs. The Hollywood studio makes accessible nearly 3,000 premium films and over 8,000 television episodes.

To ensure Kaleidescape System owners have access to their movies on their mobile devices, the company has also licensed UltraViolet rights for inclusion with the purchase of most titles. Future plans will enable the consumer to add movies already purchased on disc to their UltraViolet Collection for a small fee.

"The potential represented by the Kaleidescape System and the new Kaleidescape Store is, in many respects, similar to the role the iPod played in kick-starting online music purchases," said Michael Malcolm, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Kaleidescape. "Our movie servers enable customers to consolidate their film libraries - whether from disc or download - for immediate playback. We believe that this consolidation is a pre-requisite for mass adoption of electronic movie purchases."