That's the other direction, the normal direction, allowing you to connect to them with an enrypted connection. It doesn't do anything for them to prove that you are who you say you are.

I think I have gotten lost in terms of the application we're discussing then. A content provider can send encrypted content to an approved client device or devices to be displayed locally assuming that box has an authorized user logged in...modern game consoles do this w/ games and movies. There doesn't seem to be widespread problems w/ people stealing content from these services.

But, as you indicate, that's a service, as in really a service. An online game is like a search engine. You can't steal it because it's never the same thing twice. You have to be connected to their system to use it and play against other users. And, if bunches of people show up connected using the same user credentials, they can just cancel that account.

Movies and music, once you've got them, are always the same and so you don't need to go back to the service to get it again if you can find a way to record it, and the provider of the content cannot know if a million people are watching one downloaded copy, or who downloaded it and made it available.

So they are really different sorts of animals.

While I never sold a K Scape, I was always intrigued by the concept of a movie server, especially 10+ years ago (before BluRay). But no matter what the brand, or the cost, or the reliability, it was still hella expensive and when Vudu came out, I really thought this kills the concept of a movie server. Then when Vudu partnered with Ultraviolet, it really started making the cost of a dedicated movie server seem a bit bloated.

For the cost of the server, especially K Scape, you could simply keeping renting any given movie over and over again and still be bags of money ahead. If you buy that movie on Vudu, you can watch it anywhere in the world, on a Vudu machine, Vudu app on an iPad, laptop, PC etc...

The only thing Vudu, or Apple Movies can't do as well is organize your movies by genre (subjective at best) or by actor or director, etc But you can do a "search" within" a movie streaming service and find all movies directed by Spielberg or with Tom Cruise as an actor. Granted some movies are simply not available, but some movies are available for streaming, that are not available to purchase (depending on timing).

The thing that blows a hole in the movie server (IMO): Unlike music, we tend to not watch movies 300 times (except Disney for some kids) like we do music. While yes, Like many people, I have a movie collection. But honestly, I rarely watch a movie more than twice and then maybe again a 3rd time in 10+ years. Arguably, some classics may exceed that number. But if you crunch the numbers, you would still be way ahead if you just rented it everytime you want to watch it, instead of paying for and maintaining a "movie server".

Obviously many on here will disagree, and have sold server systems. But the math simple doesn't pan out and the cool factor often isn't enough for many to bias a vote against a movie streaming service (like Apple or Vudu). Certainly sales of hard servers aren't based on people doing math. But now you get to explain why that multi thousand dollar K Scape box you sold them may now become a door stop.

Does one need any company resources to simply play movies already on the server?

Meta data ?

We have only ever sold movie servers to wealthy clients. Their homes are treated more like luxury hotels than typical houses. They also come in handy for cabins in remote locations and yachts out in the middle of the ocean or luxury RV's that are on the road.

Streaming/downloading etc obviously killed it. I personally haven't purchased a physical music disc since 1998 and its been at least 15 years since i purchased a DVD. I think i own 3 Blu-ray discs. On demand is killing digital purchases. I haven't bought anything from iTunes in 3 years because i use pandora for music and i renewed my cable service so i can watch tons of content online now.

Bottom line is that convenience is what made kscape popular and its also what made it obsolete. There are a half dozen awesome features that kscape has had all along that i would love to see in other products but it is what it is.

After hearing about Kscape folding, I started to look into alternatives. I had a friend tell me about Fusion Research, and their Genesis 9 and 12 models, which at a first glance seem to be a LOT like a Kscape. Even the interface. Anyone familiar with those?


I also wonder what'll happen with yachts. KScapes were a good fit on those.

There are a couple of players left, and all are comparable.

- Vidabox (acquired by PHT - Perfect Home Theater)

- Fusion Research

- Request

- S1 Digital

Just slam your nuts in a car door. It will be less painful than dealing with Fusion.

This is so true! the pain is real!

I'd go with ReQuest as the most likely to survive although you have to wonder if any of them will be around 5+ years out. I have an F3, MP+ and MP in my own home system and I'm pretty pleased with the performance. OK, it's no Kscape but it comes close enough for me at an acceptable cost. The real downside is that ReQuest relies totally on AnyDVD being online to be able to load BD movie content, otherwise its just a very good music server. The other issue with the movies element of the system is that they use Gracenote for disc lookup and in my experience that is a very poor database for movies since Sony got involved and then disposed of them.
For example the Bond movie 'Spectre' wasn't listed for almost 6 months after the BD release. I can live with that and edit my own cover art / bio but not good for clients who need the system to do all the work for them.
As I work with a select few clients who hire me to do EVERYTHING even slightly technical I get to load and edit content for them but time ain't free ;)
Now if ReQuest could acquire the Kscape database and hire the team that kept it current they would have real added value for their hardware. No idea of the economics of this!

One of the stupidest decisions ever made, IMO, when the whole next gen optical disc development stuff was going on, was the failure to include high quality, reasonably full featured, standardized metadata on each disc. Clearly when the disc is manufactured all of that info is available, and it could have probably been pretty automated eventually. That would have made a huge difference moving forward for media management products at almost all price tiers.

+1 Dean,
but we are where we are and to turn the thread back to Kaleidescape I found their disc lookup to be excellent. They also added to the database quickly based on user requests for more obscure disc titles. It wasn't just a US media-centric database and I remember loading media for one client who had a large library of Russian classical music and many obscure international movies and it correctly tagged virtually every title.

There has to be commercial value for that database alone never mind the actual technology? The current owners of Gracenote need to grab themselves a bargain :)
The complete mess Gracenote currently makes of tagging many recent movie and tv series box sets is actually quite hilarious/annoying. 

The content is all available online right now to anyone with internet access. Its Bit Torrent. And while it obviously conflicts with copyright laws, a VPN is the workaround.
(I'm not condoning this, but just pointing it out)