The point of home automation is two fold, one is automation, the other is control. In a media room, it is basically what a universal remote does, turn on six devices, set all the inputs, etc, by just pressing a movie marked "Watch Movie". All of this, included lights can be done with a good universal remote.

If you want to control a whole house, that is where a full automation system comes in. At night I press a button in the master suite that says "good night", all of the lights in the house, except bedrooms, shut off, all electronics are shut off, security system is armed, it checks to make sure the garage doors are closed, and lowers the thermostats. Now that you can't do with a remote!

Unless you just enjoy playing with the stuff, most of the true usefulness is when you go beyond one room and have a larger home. If your house has one thermostat, just get a programmable one, if it has two furnaces and five thermostats, you may want more control and hence a control system.

Aaron,

Yes, it takes a control system, what Kaleidescape adds is the integration. They send a signal when a movie starts that tells the aspect ratio. You need to understand that it is no easy task, look at the crap info you get from the professional metadata companies that say "widescreen" for a 2.35 or 1.85 or 1.78 movie. Kaleidescape gets you that data.

They send you a signal to dim the lights. A signal for intermission and a signal when the end credits start. Again, this is powerful stuff not currently done in ANY other system on the market.

As for the RS2 having the same processing, that is just simply incorrect. Everything has a scaler of some sort, but there are different levels. The RS2 has an external box that you can add-on that gives you, well, the same chip :)

You are 100% correct that you don't want to process twice. In my theater my Kaleidescape system outputs at 480i. My Realta box at the end of the line does all the work.

Okay,

Let me say this again, it cost this price BEFORE THEY PUT IN THE GENUM CHIP! Kaleidescape systems costs tens of thousands of dollars. This is one part of the system. You are paying for the software experience they provide, not a piece of hardware.

They pay dozens of people to put in meta-data for every DVD (obviously they license data as well), but with their updates it has bookmarks to skip intros, fbi warnings, marks where the credits start and more.

So, to sum this up:

This is a CEDIA product, not mass market.
It is expensive for many reasons, and not because it is $4k worth of dvd playing nirvanna!

Scaling chips DO make a huge difference. I have 150" screen, people mistake good dvd for being bluray all the time. YES, I DO have a bluray player and it is better quality. (okay, and HD DVD but we won't go there). Kaleidescape gives me a better experience and plays my current library in a kick-ass way. Next year they will add Bluray, but in the meantime this upgrade means standard DVDs will look better.

The key is that you need to actually know what the Kaleidescape system is... These are new players, not dvd players. The old players cost just as much. The new plays add a scaling chip and the mini-player is the lowest cost player they have had.

If you are in the market for a Kaleidescape system this is all good news.

If a 20k DVD server isn't your thing then it hardly matters, just stop calling it an expensive DVD player! Kaleidescape is sold for the experience. Play a movie and the theaters masking system moves into place giving you a 2.35 experience. The lights automatically dim. The fbi crap is skipped and you enjoy the movie in seconds.

When the credits hit, the lights slowly raise. When it ends the house lights go all the way up.

Kaleidescape is for people who both have the money and are willing to spend it for an experience like that. On top of it now, they scale better.

Truth be told, odds are they already had a scaler in their theater, but for other rooms this is a cool upgrade.

If you don't understand scalers then you know even less about this product to discuss it.

Curt

Anyone know if it internally decodes the lossless formats?

There is still a market for single chip at that range, and you will find them from Digital Projection, Projection Design, Runco, etc...

Why is it worth it? Well, most low cost 1080p projectors have a very low light output (900 lumens if you are lucky). Most high end get you more light, more lens options, better scaler, etc...

If the price is an "investment" in technology for you, you are not in their market :)

paragraph,

The problem is you are at Svideo resolution at best, in the world of HDTV that just isn't enough.

Perhaps I spoke too soon on the details, there isn't an official price/release date yet, but it certainly sounds like it will make a lot of installs easier.

Movies are done on film and then transferred. They don't use digital projectors for film, it is all analog.

Distributed video and HDMI don't go well together... In the custom installation world we rarely use HDMI do to HDCP. With HDCP you can't matrix switch, aka, send the same input to multiple HDMI sources. Add that to the cost differences of sending component 100+ feet and HDMI, and the benefits of HDMI go pretty fast.