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Disc to Digital on Strato idea

AlienW

Well-known member
I was reading the new Strato review over at AVS today along with the follow up comments from K's Brett B. He was really pushing disc to digital as a way to leverage an existing disc library to lower the cost of purchasing movies in the store. Of course we all know that already and many of us have (or had at one point) a Premiere system to catalog all of our discs for D2D. But what about a new user that is buying just a Strato S? There have been a few new users here asking this exact question recently. If the new user's dealer has a disc vault, then it could be used to assist in accomplishing this task. But otherwise the answer is usually to buy an Alto, C1 2nd gen, or DV700. But those items can be hard to find now and/or cost prohibitive for just a one time use. So I will suggest this...

K should provide for an additional cost an external Blu-ray drive that will connect to the Strato via the USB port. The Strato will recognize each disc that is inserted and catalog it to the user's store account for D2D purposes. The functionality should be the same as what the Alto does except for the actual playing of the disc.
 
Neat idea. Not sure if the connectivity and licensing might easily allow for this, but I did pass it along directly.
 
That would be a great idea! In my case, unfortunatel, I had a bunch of movies catalogued when selling an Alto unit end of last year. I was also trying to clean up some movies, and consolidate everything to a new Terra, that had previously loaded to my Strato. In the process, I had already removed my Alto, and had selected to “delete all” of the movies from the Strato to then download to my Terra. I never thought that catalogued movies were included in that mix.......lost about 185 movies.
 
In the meantime, I'm working on a plan to acquire the necessary components to help our members catalog their discs. My plan is make these components available free of charge to members, other than the shipping cost, and when they've completed their cataloging, they ship to the next person in line (I'll provide that info), and when the last person is finished they ship back to me. I'm not sure how many of these components I'll make available, but I'd like a few if it makes sense.

This will be available to members with a confirmed Strato and no system device capable of cataloging, and to those members considering the purchase of a new Strato but are reluctant because they have no way to catalog the discs they own. It is NOT a requirement that the Strato have been purchased through me, in fact I'll support other dealers if it helps them sell Strato systems. I'll update this in the coming days, probably with a separate sticky thread. Just trying to help.

Jim
 
I like this idea. Although I have just about duplicated my disc catalog with K-Store purchases.

I would like the ability to upload discs not in the K-Store yet. Not at all sure this is possible or feasible. But I have some movies that have never been digitized, like Ron Howard's Ranson for instance. Plus a few great foreign films.


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I like this idea. Although I have just about duplicated my disc catalog with K-Store purchases.

I would like the ability to upload discs not in the K-Store yet. Not at all sure this is possible or feasible. But I have some movies that have never been digitized, like Ron Howard's Ranson for instance. Plus a few great foreign films.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You will need Premiere components to do that, the Strato/Terra (and Alto) can only download content from the Kaleidescape Store, there is no ability to import from physical discs.

Jim
 
Understood, thanks. My comment was asking if that would work if I had access to a disc based K system


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Sorry, but the answer is still no, unfortunately (I'm assuming your question is about adding disc based content to a Strato/Terra/Alto for movies not in the K Store). This is one of the reasons many of us still have both Premiere component systems, and Strato/Terra/Alto systems. We use Premiere to "import" disc based movies not in the Store, and Strato/Terra/Alto for digital "downloads" to those components. (Store based digital copies can be downloaded to both Premiere and Strato/Terra/Alto systems, but disc based content can only be "imported" to Premiere components.)

Sorry, I realize I'm repeating myself, but that's for the general education of others that may be reading these posts, I just want to be clear, but perhaps I'm making it more confusing......

Jim
 
Oh, ok I understand now. Good explanation, more information is better, at least for me. Thanks!


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In the meantime, I'm working on a plan to acquire the necessary components to help our members catalog their discs. My plan is make these components available free of charge to members, other than the shipping cost, and when they've completed their cataloging, they ship to the next person in line (I'll provide that info), and when the last person is finished they ship back to me. I'm not sure how many of these components I'll make available, but I'd like a few if it makes sense.

This will be available to members with a confirmed Strato and no system device capable of cataloging, and to those members considering the purchase of a new Strato but are reluctant because they have no way to catalog the discs they own. It is NOT a requirement that the Strato have been purchased through me, in fact I'll support other dealers if it helps them sell Strato systems. I'll update this in the coming days, probably with a separate sticky thread. Just trying to help.

Jim
Thats awesome. When all of this works through the heavy hitters I'd love to get my old DVD stock onto my Strato.
 
Thats awesome. When all of this works through the heavy hitters I'd love to get my old DVD stock onto my Strato.

You're all "heavy hitters" my friend.....and you just became first on the list, I'll be in touch soon.

(I will need your shipping info at some point, but please don't post in this thread, send it privately (email or forum private message by clicking the envelope icon to immediately to the right of your forum name at the top of the screen). (You may already know that, I posted this for others.)

Jim
 
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I want to be clear about something. While I realize we live in a world where every company or marketer wants your email or address so they can add you to a marketing list, or use your contact info to sell to others, that is NOT the case with this offer, nor is it designed to increase membership on this forum. I've given zero thought to any of that, I'm just trying to reduce the financial cost associated with getting already owned content into your Strato systems. I assure you of the following:

1. You will NOT be added to any marketing list from anyone, including this Forum.

2. Your info will NOT be sold, given away, nor shared with anyone other than the owner that will ship the component to you once they have completed their cataloging.

My motivation is simple, it is my hope this will eliminate one of the impediments to adding a Strato to existing Premiere systems, and encourage others to join the Kaleidescape family, which ultimately benefits all owners. I do not have ANY financial interest in Kaleidescape (other than being a dealer myself), and certainly have no interest in interfering with other dealer's sales. Purchase Strato from your local dealer, and if you want to be added to the list (when it becomes official), reach out to me on this Forum, or by email (cinelifellc@gmail.com).

Jim
 
What a great idea! Still believe K should come up with a way outside of the current process. My idea was to implement something like others have done. How hard would it be to write a PC and Mac application to do this or somehow use their app and a phones camera. Who knows, but think they should consider.....

D2D Program
 
Yes, Vudu has that already... With their app you scan the barcode on the case of your movies and it will give you a D2D upgrade. There is some type of tie in with your phone's location and your address to prevent someone from just scanning all the discs inside the local Walmart. Before mobile apps became the default, there was also a PC application that would recognize a movie that was inserted into the computer's optical drive in order to validate for D2D. In effect, K has already implemented the latter in the Premiere line. As such it became the basis of my suggestion to connect a temporary optical drive to a Strato to facilitate the same functionality there.
 
Connected with K this morning and it turns out there are "some" dealers that already have Alto's for this purpose, so what I'll be working on is supporting our members.

A separate, inexpensive, optical drive that can connect to a Strato for cataloging would be the best option, I'm just not sure what engineering work is involved to make that happen (assuming it's possible without violating existing contracts).

Jim
 
Connected with K this morning and it turns out there are "some" dealers that already have Alto's for this purpose, so what I'll be working on is supporting our members.

A separate, inexpensive, optical drive that can connect to a Strato for cataloging would be the best option, I'm just not sure what engineering work is involved to make that happen (assuming it's possible without violating existing contracts).

Jim
Jim - That would be an absolutely outstanding solution. It doesn't even need to be licensed to play discs... just read them and understand they exist!
 
Jim,

You are always so proactive on these matters. I wonder if it could work the way it used to work with Vudu's D2D and be more of a software driven solution? Instead of connecting a device to your Strato, perhaps simply logging into your store account from your PC which could have a $100 4K BD reader. The store then recognizes the proper disc id and provides your account a D2D offer if it exists. This way new customers could conveniently convert all their discs, including 4K which I don't think the Alto could read using equipment they already have or could easily obtain.

K would not have to create any new equipment and reading a disc id would be more secure than a photo or a barcode. Even a pirated disc would not work since it would be a BD-R instead of a BD and would not have the proper id code.

Just a thought.
 
I like that idea Noah, I'll certainly pass it on, but they'll likely read this today as well. As mentioned before, I'm not an engineer, so not sure what is needed to accommodate that suggestion, but both of the above would be much easier for owners for sure. I recognize that my idea is still burdensome for those owners needing to catalog, but it's the only real option currently available, unfortunately.

Let's hope one of the above ideas is viable and can be supported by K, otherwise we'll be using my option for now.

Jim
 
I am starting the mentioned "Borrow an Alto Service" next week. The details of this Service can be found in this thread:



Jim
 
Vudu's current D2D system has people scan the barcode of the disc case. No disc player required. Couldn't K do the same thing in the mobile app? Would love to see support for 4K discs as well.
 
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