• Thanks for visiting the Kaleidescape Owners' Forum

    This forum is for the community of Kaleidescape owners, and others interested in learning about the system, equipment, services, and the company itself.

    It is run by a group of enthusiastic Kaleidescape owners and dealers purely as a service to this community.

    This board is not affiliated in any way with Kaleidescape, Inc.
    For official technical support, product information, or customer service, please visit www.kaleidescape.com

  • You are currently in "Guest" mode and not logged in with a registered account.

    The forum is free to use and most of the forum can be used by guests who are not registered....

    ... but we strongly encourage you to register for a full account. There is no cost to register for a full account.

    Benefits of registering for a full account:

    • Participate in the discussions! You must have a registered account to make posts on the forums. You will be able to start your own thread on a topic or question, or you can reply to other threads/discussions.
    • Use the "Conversation" feature (known as "private messaging" on other forums) to communicate directly with any of the other users here.
    • Access the Files area. The "resources" area of the forum contains many "Favorite Scene" and Script files that can dramatically increase the enjoyment of your Kaleidescape system. Go directly to great scenes in your favorite movies, created by other owners, and add automation to playback of your system with Scripts.
    • You won't see this annoying notice at the top of every screen!😊

    It's easy and free to register for the forum. Just click the "Register" button in the upper right corner of this page, and follow the instructions there.

Apple TV

JerryL

Well-known member
How about Apple TV?

Ive been playing with it for a little while now and I think its pretty good! The interface is great and the quality out of the 1080P is not up to K Scape BR playback standards but for renting some lighter fare, its really more than fine.
 
I LOVE my AppleTV, but don't (yet?) see it as an alternative to Kaleidescape. Love it for buying on occasional TV show I want and missed, I use it for getting to Netflix streaming, and love the airplay and photo features. But it's not a whole-home high-end way to navigate owned movies, to watch movies many times, to enjoy bonus content and features, etc. that's why i bought Kaleidescape.

AppleTV going to a faster processing and (finally) 1080p does signal good things may be coming...
 
I can tell you on my 64" plasma a sample of 1080P I tried looked very pleasing.

Its really not an alternative to K for many of us here, BUT, while I like owning the movie, I think there many that do the math and say- gee for $5 or so I can rent a HD quality movie whenever I want and I'll probably only watch it once anyway. Compare with spending the money for the disc which is many times that plus the server and other equipment.

I guess while Apple TV isn't truly an alternative for us here, I can see some people cross shopping it and other devices.
 
I can tell you on my 64" plasma a sample of 1080P I tried looked very pleasing.

Its really not an alternative to K for many of us here, BUT, while I like owning the movie, I think there many that do the math and say- gee for $5 or so I can rent a HD quality movie whenever I want and I'll probably only watch it once anyway. Compare with spending the money for the disc which is many times that plus the server and other equipment.

I guess while Apple TV isn't truly an alternative for us here, I can see some people cross shopping it and other devices.

I don't know why I couldn't buy my movie from apple and store it on my K system. Once on the system I would continue to get all the K benefits......Right?
I know we can't do that now but perhaps the current realities for K might prompt them now to consider it seriously.

Peter
 
I am about to get Apple TV but I am planning on using it for auditioning shows/movies, if I like something I will still buy a hard copy.

Apple TV has enormous potential given the might of Apple it will be interesting to see how it develops.

I am a collector and I still prefer a disc on the shelf and a copy on the server. If I own a hard copy I am assured of its future availability.
 
Peter the reason right now is legal and technical. I don't think the K system supports the files in the format they are but both of these could be overcome. It would be nice to have the K as a kind of high end NAS.
 
I am about to get Apple TV but I am planning on using it for auditioning shows/movies, if I like something I will still buy a hard copy.

Apple TV has enormous potential given the might of Apple it will be interesting to see how it develops.

I am a collector and I still prefer a disc on the shelf and a copy on the server. If I own a hard copy I am assured of its future availability.

I'm a collector as well. There is still some distance to be covered with respect to uncompressed bit for bit originals but I honestly believe it will happen. The current arrangement with Apple (aside from the aforementioned quality) is actually a superior arrangement to buying the physical disk. You can download the movie to your own storage system. You can stream it formatted to your iPad, iPhone(heaven forbid), pc/Mac or tv/projector. If you lose your movie you can download it again. I haven't tried it yet but if it works as advertised you can match your standard movie and they will recognize a master copy in the cloud and offer a free upgrade to HD (note thats not Blue Ray quality yet). You can rent a movie to watch before you buy. I own more movies than I care to admit that I probably would never watch a second time but would have risked a rental if it was convenient.

Also Apple is committed I believe to a well resourced long term product strategy that will continue to build value over the next decade. The only downside I think is the lack of protection for obsessive collectors who can bulk up their collection with a simple click of a mouse.

I just wish I could integrate all of these benefits into my Kaleidescape system.

Peter
 
I love the new Apple TV. If you have young kids, the Netflix interface is great. We used to watch netflix through the app on our BluRay player which only showed what was in your queue and it was in a linear format and had the grown-up stuff mixed with the kids stuff.

The Apple interface has a "just for kids" section which shows your queue, but more importantly shows suggestions and under what I call the "cool factor" it has a characters section which shows a picture of the main character (e.g. sponge bob, spider-man, elmo) of a show and your child can just select the character to watch the show. My 5 year-old can independently operate it perfectly (which is perfect for a 6AM weekend wake-up) (Please note: this is not intended to be support for using the TV as a babysitter but as a training mechanism for future home theater enthusiasts)

and as others stated - pretty fast and picture quality is very good (watching it on a 65" plasma)
 
And they still call this just a "hobby"... I wonder what happens when they decide its an actual business...
 
And they still call this just a "hobby"... I wonder what happens when they decide its an actual business...

I'm pretty sure that the "Apple TV" is the game. The current puck is merely a placeholder, a non invasive litmus test for the next iPod/Ipad ???? journey.

A product strategy that continues the enormously successful evolutionary technological path through a revolutionary quantum leap in an appliance that just works........... Apple has the economic power to create a new Bentley with a significantly reduced selling price.

I for one can hardly wait....

Peter
 
I expect Apple TV will provide a mass market solution that will give the "higher end" plenty to think about.

Fascinating to think of what may be available in 5yrs time.
 
Oh I agree, my statement was a bit tongue in cheek- but-- officially Apple still refers to the Apple TV as a hobby.
 
Sort of off-topic, but I wanted to ask....

If I buy an 'album' through the iTunes store, I am entitled to make a hard copy to put on my shelf, so to speak. If I take that and then attempt to import it to Kaleidescape, would it work as if I purchased the CD at Best Buy? I could try it, but I was just wondering....

Thanks, Steven
 
Sort of off-topic, but I wanted to ask....

If I buy an 'album' through the iTunes store, I am entitled to make a hard copy to put on my shelf, so to speak. If I take that and then attempt to import it to Kaleidescape, would it work as if I purchased the CD at Best Buy? I could try it, but I was just wondering....

Thanks, Steven

I asked a similar question in the past, and yes. I buy from amazon, burn to cdrw and import.
 
I don't know about the legal side of this but when you burn it to the disc what happens to the audio files is the lossy data is expanded to the data that CD players read. When you go to import it to the Kscape, so long as the table of contents of the new burned album is the same as whats in the database, it will be recognized. If its different, then it won't. Thats how it knows the data for the CDs. When you go to play it back the sound quality will be no better than that when played back from the computer because the data is generated from the lossy file. With most pop and new rock music now days Im not so sure if you'd notice the difference between a good iTunes encode and what you get on the CD. But I still buy the CDs when its an album I want. When its a track here and there what I do is I have an apple TV plugged into my whole house audio system and I just stream the music off my phone to that. The sound quality isn't as good but when Im listening to some top 40 song that Ill forget in a few weeks it doesn't really matter. (to me-- very much)
 
AppleTV vs. Kal

I have both and use them both.
My preference is still with Kaleidescape
For user interface and quality, but have to
admit that Apple TV has become the device of
great convenience. Specially for a quick
movie with friends or impulse watching.
 
Well if AppleTv or Google get more powerful, Kaleidescape might have to come down on there price.

Kaleidescape Does one thing and does that one thing very well. However I would love to see more integration with h mor third parties to allow also access things like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Spotify so it’s a control center for all my entertainment needs and avoid multiple boxes of iTunes multiple interfaces.
 
Kaleidescape Does one thing and does that one thing very well. However I would love to see more integration with h mor third parties to allow also access things like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Spotify so it’s a control center for all my entertainment needs and avoid multiple boxes of iTunes multiple interfaces.

Personally, I'd have to disagree. Look at streaming apps on otherwise good devices, like Oppo or Sony BD players. They're just never executed very well and are always a tacked-on afterthought. After all, it's not the product's main purpose so I can understand. They simply don't channel the same dev resources into that portion of the product like Roku or Google can. It's one reason I've never liked streaming with native apps on receivers or BD players. I vastly prefer streaming on a Roku device or Sony Android TV, although I think I prefer my Roku TV for that.

I believe if K were to go down that road, it would end up interfering with the core product. Heck, I'd say it's almost preferable that it remains a "walled garden" within our home's network because UNLIKE Roku/Android/Vizio/Samsung/AppleTV, I actually trust my Kaleidescape system to keep my privacy, passwords, CC info, etc. safe. I feel much more secure with my family using a Strato versus the Wild West that is the more open systems.
 
Back
Top