NEWS: Strato K Movie Player with 8K capability and new "4K Cinematic" full-chroma & higher bitrate support

[Wonkavision]

I have an 83 inch LG G5. I sit around 9 feet from the screen. It would be great if I could get feedback on picture quality improvement from someone with similar set up.

I’d love to see the same. I’ve had OLED for years… but am also wondering how the K might perform with an 85” 8K QLED from Samsung. When not watching movies, it might be nice to have the equivalent of four 42” computer monitors for displaying stock charts, market news, etc.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Is it possible some of the perceived picture improvements are from the newer O/S version? it was mentioned that the new K is coming with the upgraded version before our existing M/E/V get the upgrades.

He was using a Strato C so those updates don’t apply. I do have to wonder though, would an upgrade to an NZ8 with the high contrast optical block, higher brightness or more coverage of DCI-P3 provide a larger upgrade for the same relative price difference (not that it’s an option I’m just playing devils advocate!).

I’m still not convinced it’s going to be a worthwhile difference but hasn’t stopped me enquiring to purchase one and see for myself!

 

[Gallo24]

Here was a response from an earlier question I asked Kscape engineering. Hope this helps a few of you out there

Engineering's response to your question -
Strato K question- if the user has a Strato K but does not want to use the "PC" mode of an LG OLED to enable 4:4:4, as this disengages calibration settings, is there any advantage? IE 4:2:2 or should they stay with Strato V for

Answer: Strato V is limited to 4:2:0. 4:2:2 has double the colour information of 4:2:0, so there still is a meaningful upgrade even if the display's processing cannot achieve (be set for) 4:4:4. Plus, the content itself is encoded at a higher bitrate, leading to better quality.

 

[Edgar]

Thanks for all of this.

I would love to see A/B photos comparing them, if you happen to have a DSLR, tripod, using manual exposure settings, etc. Phone pictures would likely not be adequate, for a variety of reasons.

If you don't, that's fine - appreciate your sharing your observations.

You're very welcome! Technically yes I have all that gear, but I have neither the confidence (I'm more a portrait guy) nor the time (3 kids, a job, annual physical) in the near future to do it justice. I can comment here in bursts though! I'm sure others who are used to screenshotting will get there with a bunch of units arriving today.

@Edgar Looking Great - It will fit like a 'glove' in my Rack.
Do the lights stay on all the time on the new K or are they on only when you play the content (On the V they would turn off when the Strato was idle) - I love the lights, I hope they stay ON all the time just like my Terra SSD

I think they do, they blink as before if you have a disc drive attached. Hence my disco comment, which I may come to regret.

Is it possible some of the perceived picture improvements are from the newer O/S version? it was mentioned that the new K is coming with the upgraded version before our existing M/E/V get the upgrades.

Yes, but I doubt it. I think the new OS or new chipset makes the whole UI buttery smooth. But I don't quite see how the OS being at the end of the process could impact the PQ?

I wasn’t worried about the lights, myself. I disabled the blue glow on my Strato E the day I set it up, so I was confident I could survive the disco lights (coined by @Edgar ) as well. They were simply too easy a target to resist.

On a completely unrelated note, any chance of a Strato K Mini arriving before Christmas? Asking for a friend.

I never should have said "disco"!

Yeah I’m not sure what they were thinking with those LED’s they aren’t even diffused to a nice even glow for such a premium product. The LED’s on the name was sufficient but tell me you can turn them off like you can the name….

Yes, you can. The crisis is over!

Here's off on both Strato K and Compact Terra.

Here's Brightness 1 on both.

What projector and screen type are you using? Blacked out room? Thanks for the comparisons!

Sure thing! JVC NZ7 and Silver Ticket 127" AT woven WAB. And yes, darkness. No parents.

Considering upgrading my Kaleidescape Strato V to the new Kaleidescape Strato K. I'm running a Lumagen Radiance Pro (12-bit 4:2:2 pipeline) into a JVC NZ9. Will they be video improvement with the 4K Cinematic titles with this combination? Or should I stick with the V?

Most likely yes you would. As for sticking to your existing device, you could wait for more feedback. Early adopters are a weird bunch.

 

[DLCPhoto]

You're very welcome! Technically yes I have all that gear, but I have neither the confidence (I'm more a portrait guy) nor the time (3 kids, a job, annual physical) in the near future to do it justice. I can comment here in bursts though! I'm sure others who are used to screenshotting will get there with a bunch of units arriving today.

Come on man, get your priorities in order!!

But seriously, thanks again for all that you have been able to share!

 

[cardsdoc]

You're very welcome! Technically yes I have all that gear, but I have neither the confidence (I'm more a portrait guy) nor the time (3 kids, a job, annual physical) in the near future to do it justice. I can comment here in bursts though! I'm sure others who are used to screenshotting will get there with a bunch of units arriving today.

Same. 3 kids. Both the wife and I work full time in health care which also means many weekends as well. Looking forward to retirement (still have about 12 years) so I can spend more time on this hobby. If I spend too much time now the family gets mad!

 

[Imakeller]

Brightness on 1 is much better. That earlier disco pic had me worried @Edgar !

 

[J.Green]

Oh, getting it set up was simple too. I just disconnected the Strato C, and plugged all the same cables into the Strato K, including the power cable

While a Strato C power supply will work with Strato K, it's not recommended. They use different PSUs.
Strato C uses an earth-grounded power supply whereas Strato K uses an earth ground isolated power supply. When using the Strato C power supply, there is an increased risk of audio interference. So one should really use the power supply included with the Strato K. If earth ground is desired, use the grounding screw on the back panel or a ground adapter that plugs into the IR port.

 

[Darthbishop79]

You're very welcome! Technically yes I have all that gear, but I have neither the confidence (I'm more a portrait guy) nor the time (3 kids, a job, annual physical) in the near future to do it justice. I can comment here in bursts though! I'm sure others who are used to screenshotting will get there with a bunch of units arriving today.

I think they do, they blink as before if you have a disc drive attached. Hence my disco comment, which I may come to regret.

Yes, but I doubt it. I think the new OS or new chipset makes the whole UI buttery smooth. But I don't quite see how the OS being at the end of the process could impact the PQ?

I never should have said "disco"!

Yes, you can. The crisis is over!

Here's off on both Strato K and Compact Terra.
View attachment 10441
Here's Brightness 1 on both.

View attachment 10442

Sure thing! JVC NZ7 and Silver Ticket 127" AT woven WAB. And yes, darkness. No parents.



Most likely yes you would. As for sticking to your existing device, you could wait for more feedback. Early adopters are a weird bunch.

@Edgar does the Harmony remote work with the Strato K?

 

[J.Green]

[D]oes the Harmony remote work with the Strato K?

Strato K uses the same IR codeset(s) as all other Strato players so any IR remote -- including Harmony -- that works with prior Stratos will work with Strato K.

 

[Patricio]

yes, I have a MK3

Excellent. I have a Core MK2, looking forward to hearing about your experience.

 

[Sasquatch]

Strato K uses the same IR codeset(s) as all other Strato players so any IR remote -- including Harmony -- that works with prior Stratos will work with Strato K.

What control4 driver does it use as I know there was a change for the C vs E?

 

[Edgar]

I’d love to see the same. I’ve had OLED for years… but am also wondering how the K might perform with an 85” 8K QLED from Samsung. When not watching movies, it might be nice to have the equivalent of four 42” computer monitors for displaying stock charts, market news, etc.

I'm also coming from standardizing on LG OLEDs across my home. Prior to that, CRT (obviously) and plasma. From a color fidelity POV, this current combination of JVC laser and Strato K gets me very very close to feeling like I have 4 OLEDs on the wall. Just without the bezels.

Come on man, get your priorities in order!!

But seriously, thanks again for all that you have been able to share!

Haha! You're very welcome.

Same. 3 kids. Both the wife and I work full time in health care which also means many weekends as well. Looking forward to retirement (still have about 12 years) so I can spend more time on this hobby. If I spend too much time now the family gets mad!

Nice. My wife and I are in games, and also work some weekends. She in fact asked for my help this afternoon with a design challenge she's having (!!!) so I have to strike while the iron is hot. Also needed to get my son's bike wheels back to 40 PSI. Refill the living room tissue box holder. Empty the so-called superautomatic espresso machine. Tough life indeed.

While a Strato C power supply will work with Strato K, it's not recommended. They use different PSUs.
Strato C uses an earth-grounded power supply whereas Strato K uses an earth ground isolated power supply. When using the Strato C power supply, there is an increased risk of audio interference. So one should really use the power supply included with the Strato K. If earth ground is desired, use the grounding screw on the back panel or a ground adapter that plugs into the IR port.

Yikes! Thanks for the warning. I thought about that for a moment, but will make the switch later today. Luckily I still have my alien removed from the back of the player slot. Actually, is it okay to have an alien in there?

@Edgar does the Harmony remote work with the Strato K?

Good catch! I haven't tried it yet. It's still there as a backup in case my UC3 fails. But I haven't used my Harmony in a couple of months.

 

[J.Green]

What control4 driver does it use as I know there was a change for the C vs E?

There is an updated Control4 driver package (v02.07) posted to our Support site that includes a specific driver for Strato K:

https://support.kaleidescape.com/support/article/Control4-Control-System-Guide

 

[Techthusiasm]

Looking forward to hearing about it! Any chance you have a madvr in that setup as well?

My setup has an NZ900 with madVR Envy Extreme MK2. I'm very eager to see how the capabilities of the K line up ASAP as soon my players arrive. I also have 98" TCL QM9K which will have a K direct connected. I'll cover it all on my channel coming up. Curious if there will be any reason to feel compelled to upgrade to the MK3 or consider the HDMI 2.1 capture board for the MK2. Seems like it shouldn't be necessary.

 

[Techthusiasm]

I honestly don’t know much about Dolby Vision 2, but really hope it doesn’t involve a new player

If/when DV2 comes to pass, the best case scenario, IMO, would be that it is just a software update for the K model.

 

[tinboski]

While a Strato C power supply will work with Strato K, it's not recommended. They use different PSUs.
Strato C uses an earth-grounded power supply whereas Strato K uses an earth ground isolated power supply. When using the Strato C power supply, there is an increased risk of audio interference. So one should really use the power supply included with the Strato K. If earth ground is desired, use the grounding screw on the back panel or a ground adapter that plugs into the IR port.

Hi John, how about those of us with a Strato V? Is the power supply the same as the K? Mine is going to be Reflecting Pool type of challenge to swap out if not. KK

 

[LoveCinema]

My K is on the way thanks to @cinelife but do I hear a Dolby Vision 2 K player coming out soon? (Me spreading rumors LOL).

I honestly don’t know much about Dolby Vision 2, but really hope it doesn’t involve a new player

Dolby Vision 2 is a pretty misunderstood product (s). At the core there is a revised HDR spec that may or may not yield any real-world difference for most viewers. But, most of DV2 is what is colloquially referred to as "video processing." "Sony's processing is just better than TCLs, and that's the difference." That kind of stuff.

Dolby is essentially trying to farm themselves out as the "video processor" for all the TV manufacturers so they can simply license DV2 rather than continue development. This is why LG isn't onboard yet, they're already doing the stuff DV2 claims it will do. If DV2 delivers and it's cheaper to license than develop, maybe we'll see that change. Regardless, I'm unsure of how this would play out with K. Personally I'm considering it a non-factor in decision making for now.

 

[by96]

Considering upgrading my Kaleidescape Strato V to the new Kaleidescape Strato K. I'm running a Lumagen Radiance Pro (12-bit 4:2:2 pipeline) into a JVC NZ9. Will they be video improvement with the 4K Cinematic titles with this combination? Or should I stick with the V?

@KDeering has posted a few times on this topic. I also had asked the question, as I use an LRP. Here is one some of his posts:

You shouldn’t be losing any chroma. K has already said the majority of titles are in 422. I’ll bet it will be extremely rare to get a 444 title. There is zero difference in the color format itself, just the chroma resolution you are starting with.

There is no difference to this format that relates to your AVR. It is just the player isn’t chroma scaling as much as before. The players have always output either 422 or 444, they’ve just been scaling from 420 to start. Now they are likely going to be native 422 most of the time with rare content at 444. Just set the new player to 444 and you should be good to go. It will pass the occasional 444 title and upscale the 422 ones. There is zero new required for this from what people had before from an HDMI perspective.

Some comments on the colorspace issue. If you want to ensure full fidelity through the chain, then yes there would be some issues with colorspace conversions. This would apply to the Radiance Pro line and possibly the Artisan if it is not full 444 end to end. But there is more to it than that. ANYTHING in your chain could have similar effects. For example, say you are using a AVR/SSP for switching at it has onscreen graphics for volume or something, it is likely converting the colorspace/chroma resolution to add those graphics.

Then there are the displays. Let's look at JVC for example. They do their internal processing at 422 and then convert to RGB at the end, so there are conversions there. There will ALWAYS be colorspace conversions in video chains, it is almost impossible to avoid. But honestly it shouldn't matter. You are starting off with more chroma resolution than before, so it should technically be better regardless. The real question becomes "will you even see a difference?". We are far less sensitive to chroma than we are to luma, which is why we use these types of compression to begin with. Then there is the fact that every player/processor does chroma upscaling on the little bit of chroma there in the first place. Typically you only notice chroma when there is an issue with it, which hasn't really been much of a problem in a long time.

Having used 4K with Kscape for years now, chroma issues or compression issues are very rare. Most of the time an issue is seen it is either baked into the mezzanine file or a player related issue (especially with the V/E). Kscape has never had a compression cap that I am aware of, as they don't have space limitations like discs. It will be really interesting to see how much different these actually look subjectively with actual video content from seating distance. There is no doubt that objectively this is offering a better video baseline to work with that nothing else is offering, the question becomes how much difference does it make subjectively. I'm looking forward to doing some comparisons and finding out.

There is no "cinematic HDR format" it is just a higher chroma resolution and higher bitrate. That would stay the same, it would just be converting the DV signal to HDR10. This is not a new format, it is just an increase in bit rate and chroma resolution. Chroma has always been 420 in files but players convert it to 422 or 444 for output already. So this ultimately becomes, is having more resolution in the beginning visibly better than the chroma upscaling we had before. I imagine with test patterns it would be, but with moving video, who knows. We are not nearly as sensitive to chroma as we are to luma, which is why we have the compression in chroma we have already (that no one has complained about since the CUE bug back in the DVD days).

Doesn't really matter as almost all HDMI chains have some type of conversion in them. OSD overlays from an AVR/SSP will usually change the input/output if you use them as a switcher. Most projectors don't process in 444 either, most use 422. What really matters if that you have more data at the start. Given our sensitivity to chroma, I wouldn't worry about the chain anyway.

On top of that, with the Strato K player 4K SDR will be either 422 or 444 10 bit with these new files. For HDR10 you have to convert from DV, which is nearly always a 422 file but with a bit more precision (closer to 12 bit). So it is HIGHLY unlikely you will actually have HDR 444 EVER outside of the player upconverting. There will be no dedicated 4K HDR versions in this new file type, it has to be converted by the player from the 4K Dolby Vision file.

 

[todo]

While a Strato C power supply will work with Strato K, it's not recommended. They use different PSUs.
Strato C uses an earth-grounded power supply whereas Strato K uses an earth ground isolated power supply. When using the Strato C power supply, there is an increased risk of audio interference. So one should really use the power supply included with the Strato K. If earth ground is desired, use the grounding screw on the back panel or a ground adapter that plugs into the IR port.

Is the Strato V power supply same as the Strato K or is it different also?
Also, Is there a new Crestron Module for the Strato K or will the Strato V Crestron module work with the Strato K?
Moving from Strato V to Strato K thus the questions.