OTHER TECH

The Short Form

Price $16,720 (AS TESTED) / kaleidescape.com / 877-352-5343

Snapshot

Still pricey after a major price break, it remains the slickest and best system for managing your digital media

Plus

•Still the most elegant user interface on any digital media server •Now handles music as well as movies •Flat-out terrific audio and video quality

Minus

•Imports files only via front-panel drive •No cherry-picking files from your discs •Limited movie descriptions

Key Features

•Uncompressed storage for all media •Elegant user interface •Fully loaded server stores combination of 335 DVDs or 3,900 CDs •Supports up to 25 audio or video streams •Full Web-based control •Parental controls •1U Server: 17.5 x 1.8 H x 18.5 in, 24 lb (with four drive cartridges) •Movie Player 2: 17.5 x 1.8 H x 13.5 in, 10 lb •Music Player: 17.5 x 1.8 H x 13.8 in, 9.9 lb

LOADING MEDIA My server included four 750-GB cartridges and arrived preloaded with about 120 CDs and 120 movies, including some high-def content. With the original system, adding new media to the server required a separate component called the DVD Reader. Now, DVDs and CDs can be imported using the disc drive in either the Movie Player 2 or Music Player, and you can get multiple players importing at once.

If multiple terabytes of storage seems like a lot, it's because file compression is a no-no in Kaleidescape's lexicon - even lossless compression. All files are imported bit-for-bit from the source disc to produce the highest quality. Adding movies takes roughly 20 minutes; CDs, around 6 minutes. Kaleidescape maintains its own movie database to provide cover art and DVD info, which they constantly update; for music, they use data from AMG. Information for unrecognized discs can be added manually from any computer on the network. Or, you can enter the disc's UPC code and let Kaleidescape do the work. I entered UPCs for two obscure titles, and their information appeared on the server in about 2 days.

One drawback is that discs can be added only in their entirety - no cherry-picking favorite tracks from CDs or importing the feature from a DVD without the extras to conserve space. Nor can you transfer media to the server over the network, so existing collections must be re-ripped.

PERFORMANCE Once everything booted up, my TV screen became populated with high-resolution cover art for the DVDs on the server. Pausing on a cover produced the first bit of Kaleidescape magic: The other covers resorted themselves, with similar movies intuitively placed around my selection. Very cool, and the recommendations were usually spot-on. The Sting, for example, is one of my favorites, so Kaleidescape suggested Ocean's Eleven and The Italian Job. You can sort and browse your movie collection by title, actor, director, rating, release year, or running time. Selecting a film displays all its info, though the description is only a sentence long - a bit skimpy compared to other movie managers.

Living with a Kaleidescape is a bit like having a personal-entertainment concierge: It enables and enhances the total experience but disappears once its job is done. Selecting a film causes it to start immediately: no FBI warnings, no trailers. Titles spanning multiple discs, such as the extended cuts of The Lord of the Rings films, are seamed together and automatically jump to the second disc. A new provision lets you string together favorite scenes to create your own killer demo. A car chase here, a gun battle there, sprinkle in a couple of explosions, and you've created a moment sure to wow any guests. Can't make it through all 154 minutes of Superman Returns in one sitting? The system keeps track of paused movies for as long as you wish, resuming exactly where you left off with the push of a button.