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

[artur9]

A question about the Strato K.

Does it do CEC volume control?

 

[shak]

Yes. Works with my LG OLED TV. I believe you have to turn it on manually in settings from the browser interface.

 

[DLCPhoto]

I know that virtually all movies will be sent at 23.976 or 24 fps. But what about "TV" content (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Planet Earth, Yellowstone, etc.), or possibly Movie Concerts/Live Performances? I would think that at least some of this might be 59.94 or 60 fps, as that is the standard for broadcast TV (at least in the U.S.).

The context for my question is that if/when any of this content become available in Cinematic 4k/HDR10 format, with 4:4:4 chroma, then at least theoretically the component receiving the signal from the Strato K would need to support HDMI 2.1.

Any information on this?

 

[txfeinbergs]

I know that virtually all movies will be sent at 23.976 or 24 fps. But what about "TV" content (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Planet Earth, Yellowstone, etc.), or possibly Movie Concerts/Live Performances? I would think that at least some of this might be 59.94 or 60 fps, as that is the standard for broadcast TV (at least in the U.S.).

The context for my question is that if/when any of this content become available in Cinematic 4k/HDR10 format, with 4:4:4 chroma, then at least theoretically the component receiving the signal from the Strato K would need to support HDMI 2.1.

Any information on this?

Some of that is already available in Cinematic 4K i.e. The Madison and House of Dragons. Don't know the answer though.

 

[Broncowrangler]

I suspect you need 18gbps bandwidth which should be well within the purview of hdmi 2.0, but I could be wrong.

 

[DieZwei]

I suspect you need 18gbps bandwidth which should be well within the purview of hdmi 2.0, but I could be wrong.

With 8 bit color depth, yes. With 10bit, it would already be beyong 18gbps (20gbps).

 

[DLCPhoto]

I know that virtually all movies will be sent at 23.976 or 24 fps. But what about "TV" content (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Planet Earth, Yellowstone, etc.), or possibly Movie Concerts/Live Performances? I would think that at least some of this might be 59.94 or 60 fps, as that is the standard for broadcast TV (at least in the U.S.).

The context for my question is that if/when any of this content become available in Cinematic 4k/HDR10 format, with 4:4:4 chroma, then at least theoretically the component receiving the signal from the Strato K would need to support HDMI 2.1.

Any information on this?

I'm still interested in knowing whether or not there is any Kaleidescape Cinematic content that would be 59.94 (or 60) fps native, sent with 4k resolution and 4:4:4 chroma. This would exceed HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, necessitating an HDMI 2.1 device on the receiving end.

Or is all content, including TV, Music Concerts, etc. always sent at 23.976 (or 24) fps?

Thanks.

 

[sseller1234]

The only 60 frames per second movie I I’ve watched in Kaleidescape is Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and it’s not in Cinematic yet.

 

[lujan]

The only 60 frames per second movie I I’ve watched in Kaleidescape is Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and it’s not in Cinematic yet.

I can test it since I own it, but we'll have to wait and see if they upgrade it to Cinematic. I only have the Envy Core without the Premium package, so it should not work currently in 60fps.

 

[thrillcat]

I know that virtually all movies will be sent at 23.976 or 24 fps. But what about "TV" content (Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Planet Earth, Yellowstone, etc.), or possibly Movie Concerts/Live Performances? I would think that at least some of this might be 59.94 or 60 fps, as that is the standard for broadcast TV (at least in the U.S.).

The context for my question is that if/when any of this content become available in Cinematic 4k/HDR10 format, with 4:4:4 chroma, then at least theoretically the component receiving the signal from the Strato K would need to support HDMI 2.1.

Any information on this?

Most high quality TV content is produced in 23.98/24fps and only receives a pulldown if/when necessary at the point of transmission. They’re not creating distribution files from a broadcast recording.

 

[DLCPhoto]

Thanks for these replies. Movies are not in question, it's more the other types of content, including TV, concerts, etc. that I'm curious about.

The general statement is that one doesn't need an HDMI 2.1 capable audio processor in order to get the best output from the Strato K. I'm just trying to determine if there are exceptions that might require that statement to be qualified according to the content.

(And I certainly realize that you would need HDMI 2.1 to play 8k content, but that is such a unicorn at this point in time, I'm not concerned about that just yet!)

 

[mkozlows]

The general statement is that one doesn't need an HDMI 2.1 capable audio processor in order to get the best output from the Strato K. I'm just trying to determine if there are exceptions that might require that statement to be qualified according to the content.

I don't know what's out there in terms of actual real-world content, but I will say that if you hook it up to an HDMI 2.0 receiver, the web settings UI does note that 4K Cinematic 60fps content will drop down to 30fps, so this isn't purely theoretical, it's an official Kaleidescape-acknowledged limitation of HDMI 2.0:

 

[DLCPhoto]

I don't know what's out there in terms of actual real-world content, but I will say that if you hook it up to an HDMI 2.0 receiver, the web settings UI does note that 4K Cinematic 60fps content will drop down to 30fps, so this isn't purely theoretical, it's an official Kaleidescape-acknowledged limitation of HDMI 2.0:

View attachment 11574

Thanks for this. And yes, the bandwidth limitations are real with HDMI 2.0 vs 2.1, although it is interesting that even in this scenario, the content will still play, and just drop frame rate from 60 to 30 fps. That in turn raises another interesting question - would that change be readily perceptible if it did occur?!

The remaining question is does KScape currently have content like this which would result in the reduced frame rate. Given that nobody seems to be seeing it, or aware of it, it seems possible that there just isn't much (any?) current content that would be impacted by this limitation.

Thanks again.

 

[DieZwei]

Thanks for this. And yes, the bandwidth limitations are real with HDMI 2.0 vs 2.1, although it is interesting that even in this scenario, the content will still play, and just drop frame rate from 60 to 30 fps.

I don´t think that´s a valid conclusion.
I think it just means that it won´t play content >24/30Hz at all.

 

[DLCPhoto]

I don´t think that´s a valid conclusion.
I think it just means that it won´t play content >24/30Hz at all.

Good point. I'm not in a position to test this as I don't have a Strato K.

If someone can identify some Cinematic 4k/4:4:4 content that is native 60 fps (or 59.94) and try playing this through a processor that has an HDMI 2.0 input, that would give us the answer. Will it simply not play, or will it reduce frame rate?

 

[DieZwei]

Good point. I'm not in a position to test this as I don't have a Strato K.

If someone can identify some Cinematic 4k/4:4:4 content that is native 60 fps (or 59.94) and try playing this through a processor that has an HDMI 2.0 input, that would give us the answer. Will it simply not play, or will it reduce frame rate?

The standard behaviour of Strato players up to now is that they don´t play what´s not listed there. I don´t expect that to have changed with the K.

 

[DLCPhoto]

The standard behaviour of Strato players up to now is that they don´t play what´s not listed there. I don´t expect that to have changed with the K.

That's a reasonable assumption. I'd still be interested in empirical confirmation.

I turn back to my original question: is there Cinematic 4k/4:4:4 content that is native 60 or 50 fps, that would require an HDMI 2.1 audio processor.

 

[DieZwei]

That might still not satisfy your request for empirical confirmation, but there´s a thread here about available content in 4K Cinematic 4:4:4 => 4K Cinematic titles with 4:4:4 chroma sampling
As these are all movie titles with 24Hz, there´s just no content yet available to do the test you´d like to see, I believe.
This doesn´t mean there won´t be any titles above 24Hz in the future, but at the moment, there just aren´t any.

 

[David Shapiro]

So I finally got my new Strato K to connect to my existing server. However, the screen keeps going black every few seconds. Interestingly, not when it’s playing a movie. I was downloading some updates, but they're paused now. Has anybody else seen this issue. Is there a software issue? Do I have a dud?
David

 

[David Shapiro]

Or a better HDM cable?