Kaleidescape have started shipping their 1080p Player and 1080p Mini Player - two Movie Players that produce video quality from ordinary DVDs, potentialy challenging Blu-ray.

Kaleidescape won the legal right to copy DVDs to its hard drives so that its customers could access the movies.


The Kaleidescape 1080p Player

A Superior Court judge ruled last March against the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) in a suit that asked the court to force Kaleidescape to change its design or stop selling its server that stores hundreds of DVD movies on a hard drive.

The court said that Kaleidescape did not violate the CSS DVD protection technology.

But the company hasn't yet said whether it can get a license to do the same with Blu-ray disks. Hence, Kaleidescape has a focused in making sure that DVDs remain the movie format of choice.

The new family of Players makes it possible to enjoy movies even with DVDs and CDs that have not been imported into a Kaleidescape System, and a new form factor makes it possible to place a 1080p Mini Player anywhere in the home.

The 1080p Player is designed as a 1U rack mount device, and includes a DVD/CD-ROM drive for import and direct playback of DVDs and CDs. The 1080p Mini Player offers the video and audio performance of the 1080p Player, in a smaller package with a lower price.

"These new Players have achieved our goal of producing beautiful high definition video from the DVDs that we've all been collecting for years," said Michael Malcolm, Kaleidescape founder, chairman and CEO.

"The new 1080p Players leverage Kaleidescape's extensive Movie Guide database to make the viewing experience even more entertaining. Our patent-pending video bookmarking changes the way rental movies are enjoyed - no more annoying trailers, advertisements and DVD menus. And the compact 1080p Mini Player saves valuable space so customers can enjoy their movies and music in more locations throughout the home."

The 1080p Player is available now, priced at $4,295 (£2,195 / €2,770). The 1080p Mini Player will be available in the second half of July, 2008, at a suggested retail price of $2,995 (£1,530 / €1,932).