Kaleidescape is a California-based company that makes media servers for large and custom home theater systems. In the twelve years it's been around, it has become known for creating complicated, powerful systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars to store all of your movies and music into one place, retaining all of the quality and content you'd get from the physical discs. It's been a name well-known among home theater installers, but has only now gone into the consumer market with its first media server intended for purchase and setup without assistance. It's called the Kaleidescape Cinema One, and it's an impressive home theater component.

It's also $3,995 (direct), so it's not exactly accessible to the average consumer. That's as much as eight high-end Oppo BDP-103 Blu-ray players, or seven top-of-the-line TiVo DVRs. On one hand, it means you can rip your entire DVD and CD collection to a single box and have a curated, responsive library of movies and music at your fingertips that stores every scene, trailer, and extra from your discs. On the other hand, it's extremely expensive and requires an additional pricey piece of gear to offer the same convenient experience with your Blu-ray disc library.

Design

The Cinema One is a large brick, albeit a very stylish large brick. At 2.8 by 17 by 10 inches (HWD) and 10.2 pounds, it's comparable to the Oppo BDP-103, which is large for a Blu-ray player. Its front panel is a glossy white framed with gray metal that covers the player's body. The front holds a slot-loading Blu-ray drive and Eject, Power, and Source buttons, with a glowing Kaleidescape logo between them. Around back, there are minimal inputs and outputs: a single HDMI port, stereo RCA and coaxial audio outputs, a USB port, an Ethernet port, and a port for an infrared receiver if you want to put the box behind cabinet doors. It conspicuously lacks an optical audio output, but HDMI is more than functional enough, especially if your home theater uses a separate A/V receiver to handle audio (which, if you can spend $4,000 on a media server, is very likely).

The included remote looks like a slightly translucent satellite or cable box remote. It's simple to use, but you have plenty of other options for controlling the Cinema One. An iOS app lets you browse your library and manage playback from your iPhone or iPad. Ethernet support for home theater and automation systems let you integrate the Cinema One into your already present (and very expensive) Crestron or Control4 custom control system. Currently, there's no Android app. You can also get the $39 Child Remote, a simplified and colorful remote that restricts kids to browsing movies you add to the Cinema One's Child collection.