• 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.

MGM, Movies Anywhere, and Advanced CODECS

Thrang

Well-known member
Post CEDIA, wanted to open a more focused thread for conversations about:

Movies Anywhere: I sent multiple emails to them encouraging support of KScape, as others have. Separately from that, my only general understanding is that it will "likely" happen but "not likely" until sometime next year.

Missing Advanced Codecs: NBCUniversal was supposedly contractually done some time ago; there were some "technical issues" with the files, allegedly; and since then, nothing.

With 20th Century Fox titles now Disney properties, and Disney already supporting advanced codecs in their relationship with KScape, can we expect at least these titles to be upgraded to match the rest of the Disney/KScape contract?

MGM: Anyone hear what happened, as the word was fairly certain around CEDIA 2019?


Any thoughts or comments on these topics? Post away!
 
This is my understanding.

MA we need to push on MA ourselves, per my other post. K is committed to this, but it's not in their hands.

Codecs for NBCU is something with progress, but we are stuck waiting. Fox is still in quite a bit of disarray with the merger and is a TBD.

MGM just a matter of time (weeks maybe?) before movies land in the store. Bond will follow.
 
One would hope/think 20th Century would become easy as they are now Disney properties

In general, I agree. Disney bought Fox, so you would assume that as Fox gets assimilated into Disney, they will take on certain processes and procedures as Disney has done them. That stuff takes time though and there's periods of pain and change as it happens and old goings on are put to rest.

While it would good for Fox to adopt Disney workflows in the case of Kaleidescape, there's an inverse fear that Fox movies could stop appearing in UHD HDR at all on iTunes if Disney's stance is applied there.
 
The bit I fear most with Disney is them applying their policy of no D2D and charging full whack for upgrades across the board... For instance I have the full Disney Classic Collection on Blu-ray, that wasn’t cheap, it’s 55 films afterall. They want $27 for each one in HD or/and $34 for each one for HDR... ouch, I might as well buy another 2nd hand disk vault!)

Apart from that, I’m all for them, they do have some great stuff LOL
 

Attachments

  • 9E147096-843A-4559-912E-E8EA61617B4F.jpg
    9E147096-843A-4559-912E-E8EA61617B4F.jpg
    84.9 KB · Views: 32
The bit I fear most with Disney is them applying their policy of no D2D and charging full whack for upgrades across the board... For instance I have the full Disney Classic Collection on Blu-ray, that wasn’t cheap, it’s 55 films afterall. They want $27 for each one in HD or/and $34 for each one for HDR... ouch, I might as well buy another 2nd hand disk vault!)

Apart from that, I’m all for them, they do have some great stuff LOL

Yeah. That's honestly why I haven't upgraded a single one. Sure, I'll spring for NEW ones in 4K that I don't already have in my collection, but since even the standard 1080p HD versions look so beautiful to begin with (especially the Pixar films), I've been less motivated than usual to bother upgrading. Especially at almost full retail.
 
Many have new audio as well which makes them more appealing than just the video. We just watch Maleficent in 4K with Dolby Atmos (prior to going to the new movie). Looked and sounded amazing...
 
Many have new audio as well which makes them more appealing than just the video. We just watch Maleficent in 4K with Dolby Atmos (prior to going to the new movie). Looked and sounded amazing...
I'm sure it's great, but is it $34 great when you already own the HD version? Because that's what Disney wants to bilk us for the "upgrade." Really frustrating when they drug their feet getting us many of these films in 4K/HDR/Atmos to begin with, so many of just went all in on the standard HD versions, which were honestly fine for the most part.

So sure, when it's a new release I'll typically purchase the 4K version like I did with Coco. But when they want FULL price for the upgrade, that's a "nope" from me.

At least with SOME of the other studios such as WB or Lionsgate, they allow us to upgrade for a small cost compared to essentially buying it all over again.
 
Xfinity X1 released a message yesterday that as they’ve linked with MA, you can now access movies through the Purchases tab on their X1 box......here’s hoping MA can approve the Kscape system soon!
 
continuing periodic emails to MA....still generic responses


Chad (Movies Anywhere)
1 Dec, 03:05 GMT
Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! While we currently offer the ability to connect with 8 separate digital retailers we're always looking into the possibility of expanding our library. The ability to connect with Kaleidescape has been highly requested, so we're certainly looking into the possibility. We don't have any announcements to make at this time but we recommend keeping an eye out in the future.

Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. We're always happy to help!
 
So as we approach the end of the year, the mgm launch happened but seems to have stalled (no additional releases other than the first batch, and no further word on Bond)

And still no advanced audio codecs for UHD from 20th Century (née Disney) or NBCUniversal. Ironically, my dealer’s rep proactively told him in a call two months ago the codecs were right around the corner...

Nothing further on Movies Anywhere either.

Happy New Year!
 
"Are we there yet??"

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Jim
 
Are we there yet? With K, it’s feeling like the Circle Line in NY - lots of motion and glimpses of things, but then you end up back where you started, having progressed nowhere.

With the codecs this can only be a money issue. There is no justifiable technical reason for adoption to be withheld (for years). There is no reason why the studios would permit K to deliver the highest quality video stream available, but somehow feel it’s important to withhold the high quality audio equivalent.

It remains a large issue for a system that purports to be (and is priced to be) the unparalleled content delivery system in the market.
 
Are we there yet? With K, it’s feeling like the Circle Line in NY - lots of motion and glimpses of things, but then you end up back where you started, having progressed nowhere.

With the codecs this can only be a money issue. There is no justifiable technical reason for adoption to be withheld (for years). There is no reason why the studios would permit K to deliver the highest quality video stream available, but somehow feel it’s important to withhold the high quality audio equivalent.

It remains a large issue for a system that purports to be (and is priced to be) the unparalleled content delivery system in the market.

K has added four straight studios with advanced codecs as I have documented below:


So you can say we still don’t have Fox/Universal with advanced codecs but K is continuing to add studios with HD codecs. It can’t be a money issue if K continues to add these new studios.

John
 
It IS NOT a money issue with K. While it is fine to express frustration at some HD codecs not being available yet, there is no evidence or set of facts that would support the statements made above that K is responsible for the lack of HD codecs. Just thinking something is true, doesn't make it true. No one posting here has any idea what the studios are thinking or doing with regards to Kaleidescape, content distribution, or joining MA.

Jim
 
K has added four straight studios with advanced codecs as I have documented below:


So you can say we still don’t have Fox/Universal with advanced codecs but K is continuing to add studios with HD codecs. It can’t be a money issue if K continues to add these new studios.

John

Thanks for the perspective,

This has been an issue for years, correct? 20th Century and NBCU are studios with titles that supported advanced codecs in their Blu Ray workflows, and they already support K workflows to supply their 4k titles to the KStore.

There cannot be technical reasons (at least ones that are taking two years and counting) that prevents the studios from supplying Atmos/DTS:X for 4K (Universal does for the HD titles in fact on K as you know) Many other studios do this without a problem. So there is no technical issue. Thats a spurious claim if anyone were to make it, at least without explaining it what makes their sourcing so different than the other studios.

It further makes little sense that the studios would want to enter into agreements with K, and further permit K to sell the best possible video quality, but in the same breath, have great reservations or some harbor some unknown impetus to withhold advanced codecs to go along with those movies

At the least, given these gaps over this lengthy period of time: why can't K publicly speak to the issue as a courtesy to their clientele?

I know of two individuals (one directly, one indirectly) who are very interested in K but will not buy until they're are sure it is more of a complete solution given its marketing and price point.

I continue to invest in K, and have reached out to MA on multiple fronts to encourage support of K, but K needs to respect the situation in some areas can be extremely frustrating

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Feel free to list the names of all content providers that currently offer the 4K w/HD codecs that Kaleidescape does not offer. (I'm looking for specific example(s) of 4K titles that include the HD codecs available on disc, that another online provider has available that is not available in the K Store.)

Jim
 
Last edited:
Back
Top