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4K HDR Titles in K Store Missing Immersive Audio (Dolby Atmos/DTS:X)

This list is now 6 pages long. Even studios that provide Atmos are now skipping that. What is going on?

I know the usual spiel about it’s not K, it’s the studios. But K has a responsibility to its customers to let them know what the plan is for these titles.

If we get it, we will give it to you does not cut it. Let us know the titles that will receive the updates, titles that won’t and a rough timeframe for getting these updated. I see no point in buying discs in addition to having K system and praying every time a new release comes in that they will have full immersive audio.

Give us a timeframe. At least an answer on which titles are being actively worked on and which ones won’t get an update.

This prolonged silence is extremely frustrating and needs to be addressed. Many K customers are running out of patience.
 
Excellent post - but don't get your hopes up on a reply of any substance, or even a recognition of the problem.

I'm afraid I'm one of those customer who has run out of patience. I have a recently purchased Terra server which I will use to continue to populate with titles which provide a full audio/video experience, but will now purchase other titles from other retailers, and rip to my NAS for playback.

Not my preferred option, but one I feel I am being forced into with the situation as it exists.
 
We understand your frustration and feel terrible about it.

Kaleidescape's HD titles are almost always sourced from the original Blu-ray Disc. If this has the lossless immersive soundtrack, our movies will offer the same.

Kaleidescape's UHD and HDR titles are sourced from mezzanine files. These master files are often the source files for the discs, but the workflow for digital and physical products vary greatly within the different studios.

The majority of the titles you cite as lacking immersive audio support are with two major studios. These studios very much appreciate and understand your needs and are working to provide us with Dolby Master files so that we can offer those titles with immersive audio support. We expected this to happen this fall, and continue to work with their operations team to make this possible.

We've also been too busy with onboarding a couple of important content brands and this has caused a resource contention to process the immersive audio formats for titles from the other studios on the list. We're also aware of titles which will never receive immersive audio support because there is no digital file for the same.

The best thing is for us to share a list of titles in the works for immersive audio support, those which will never receive it and those where we are anticipating the files from the content owners. Giving you a date will cause us to lose credibility as we don't control the time when we will have something to work with.

I can assure you that lossless immersive audio support is a brand differentiator. We take this very seriously. Being the only retailer to offer such support means that we are asking much from the content owners for an important, discerning but small customer base.

I hope this sheds some light and hope that we're hearing you loud and clear. We'll gladly share more information when we are ready to do so.
 
Thanks @cheena - appreciate you taking the time and effort to come back with an answer.

I certainly know, I for one don't need a timescale for completion on individual titles, but it would be nice if just the occasional title 'slipped' through. Titles in that thread have been lying stagnant for so long, and there was little to no official comment which was frustrating for all of us (well at least those who have atmos systems), particularly where the physical disc was available with a full compliment of audio and video.

Not quite sure what a "mezzanine title" is?

Thanks again for interjecting and providing background to what - for me at least - had become an issue.
 
We understand your frustration and feel terrible about it.

Kaleidescape's HD titles are almost always sourced from the original Blu-ray Disc. If this has the lossless immersive soundtrack, our movies will offer the same.

Kaleidescape's UHD and HDR titles are sourced from mezzanine files. These master files are often the source files for the discs, but the workflow for digital and physical products vary greatly within the different studios.

The majority of the titles you cite as lacking immersive audio support are with two major studios. These studios very much appreciate and understand your needs and are working to provide us with Dolby Master files so that we can offer those titles with immersive audio support. We expected this to happen this fall, and continue to work with their operations team to make this possible.

We've also been too busy with onboarding a couple of important content brands and this has caused a resource contention to process the immersive audio formats for titles from the other studios on the list. We're also aware of titles which will never receive immersive audio support because there is no digital file for the same.

The best thing is for us to share a list of titles in the works for immersive audio support, those which will never receive it and those where we are anticipating the files from the content owners. Giving you a date will cause us to lose credibility as we don't control the time when we will have something to work with.

I can assure you that lossless immersive audio support is a brand differentiator. We take this very seriously. Being the only retailer to offer such support means that we are asking much from the content owners for an important, discerning but small customer base.

I hope this sheds some light and hope that we're hearing you loud and clear. We'll gladly share more information when we are ready to do so.

Cheena,

Thanks for taking the time to respond and share the background. Very much appreciated.

I think the part in bold is exactly what is needed. Even if there is no timeframe, at least a list of titles being worked on, the titles waiting on content owners and those that will never receive an update will be perfect.

I am assuming that those that don’t have digital files do not have immersive audio on disc either. As long as K can bring the content on parity with discs, that would be great. Anything extra is a bonus and shines a light on K as a differentiator.

But sharing the list would be a great first step.

Also, would it be possible to share similar info on Movies Anywhere support? This is the other piece where K is lagging. With MA support and immersive audio parity with discs, K would be on a different level given the lack of need for discs but having the same quality and the excellent interface.
 
I think it's worth mentioning that there's concern of content lacking Atmos, but I also believe there are some number of titles that may not have Atmos/DTS:X coming, but could be 7.1 instead of 5.1.

I also second @20hertz comment politely asking for a similar statement about MA and K.
 
Perhaps this is a good time to re-ask another audio question that nobody has been able to adequately answer, and which continues to annoy:

Why are many of the Star Wars titles in the K store missing the surround back channel(s)? On disc, these titles come with 6.1 or 7.1 audio; but, in the K store, they're 5.1.

One is left to presume that it is "the studio," but...what the hell? To what end?

And, these are HD titles, which Cheena says are typically sourced from the Blu-ray disc. Either, not in these cases; or, lost in translation.

Frustrating.
 
Cheena,

Thanks for taking the time to respond and share the background. Very much appreciated.

I think the part in bold is exactly what is needed. Even if there is no timeframe, at least a list of titles being worked on, the titles waiting on content owners and those that will never receive an update will be perfect.

I am assuming that those that don’t have digital files do not have immersive audio on disc either. As long as K can bring the content on parity with discs, that would be great. Anything extra is a bonus and shines a light on K as a differentiator.

But sharing the list would be a great first step.

Also, would it be possible to share similar info on Movies Anywhere support? This is the other piece where K is lagging. With MA support and immersive audio parity with discs, K would be on a different level given the lack of need for discs but having the same quality and the excellent interface.

We're working on the list. I believe in transparency, but there are matters I can't elaborate or comment on due to confidentiality concerns.

Not all digital files are equal. Our support for immersive audio is always in lossless (TrueHD, for example) format. We've not embraced the DolbyDigital+ which is popular in the streaming world.

Parity with discs is what we strive for to the extent that it's possible - i.e., we have the right assets to work with. Our sourcing methodology is highly specialized from a process, workflow and transcoding perspectives.

I want to get the frustration out because of lack of communication. I believe that over time we will work the remaining kinks in the process. Thanks for your understanding.
 
I think it's worth mentioning that there's concern of content lacking Atmos, but I also believe there are some number of titles that may not have Atmos/DTS:X coming, but could be 7.1 instead of 5.1.

I also second @20hertz comment politely asking for a similar statement about MA and K.

We love Movies Anywhere. We're in discussions with the studios about Movies Anywhere. Kaleidescape needs to be onboarded by Movies Anywhere. This is not something Kaleidescape could do by itself, nor is Kaleidescape dragging its heels about this important customer benefit due to any internal constraints. The onboarding process is complex, and we've been told that the priority status is driven by the size of the customer base for that service. We serve the luxury market segment, so by definition, it's smaller than the services which cater to the mass market.
 
We love Movies Anywhere. We're in discussions with the studios about Movies Anywhere. Kaleidescape needs to be onboarded by Movies Anywhere. This is not something Kaleidescape could do by itself, nor is Kaleidescape dragging its heels about this important customer benefit due to any internal constraints. The onboarding process is complex, and we've been told that the priority status is driven by the size of the customer base for that service. We serve the luxury market segment, so by definition, it's smaller than the services which cater to the mass market.

Thank you. I really appreciate this.

I've been considering K for some time. MA is essentially the only point left keeping me from opening my wallet.

Kudos on making progress to resolve the audio format concerns. Also eager to see who are the new content partners you referenced. Hopefully one is MGM to get Bond, Rocky, and some other landmark films in the store. Others I'd like to see are Criterion, HBO (Game of Thrones in HDR, please), and would love to see Funimation and lots of disc-quality anime.
 
Great feedback from Cheena in this thread recently and from Mike in numerous other threads over the past while. It is reassuring to know that many of the concerns posted by forum members are being seriously considered and addressed when and where possible. It must be quite a challenge working with all the content and service providers that they do.

We can all look forward to more developments in the not too distant future. I am excited to hear that new content is in the works, hopefully later this year. Happy Thanksgiving to Cheena, Mike and everyone at Kaleidescape. Have a great long weekend one and all.

Wayne
 
Great feedback from Cheena in this thread recently and from Mike in numerous other threads over the past while. It is reassuring to know that many of the concerns posted by forum members are being seriously considered and addressed when and where possible. It must be quite a challenge working with all the content and service providers that they do.

We can all look forward to more developments in the not too distant future. I am excited to hear that new content is in the works, hopefully later this year. Happy Thanksgiving to Cheena, Mike and everyone at Kaleidescape. Have a great long weekend one and all.

Wayne
I agree, I'm sure Cheena's schedule is horribly busy and taking the time to respond to questions directly and clear stuff up says a lot about how much they care about their customers. Have a great weekend everyone
 
We're working on the list. I believe in transparency, but there are matters I can't elaborate or comment on due to confidentiality concerns.

Not all digital files are equal. Our support for immersive audio is always in lossless (TrueHD, for example) format. We've not embraced the DolbyDigital+ which is popular in the streaming world.

Parity with discs is what we strive for to the extent that it's possible - i.e., we have the right assets to work with. Our sourcing methodology is highly specialized from a process, workflow and transcoding perspectives.

I want to get the frustration out because of lack of communication. I believe that over time we will work the remaining kinks in the process. Thanks for your understanding.

Cheena,

Thank you for your candid response and update on immersive audio and MA. I look forward to having all of these kinks flushed out.

I am already committed to K and have stopped buying discs and frequency of my purchases from K store has been increasing steadily.

Flushing out the last remaining kinks will help us as customers and will help K get more customers in the process.

Happy thanksgiving to you, Mike and the rest of K families.

Happy thanksgiving Jim, John and all my fellow forum members.
 
Cheena,

Thank you for your candid response and update on immersive audio and MA. I look forward to having all of these kinks flushed out.

I am already committed to K and have stopped buying discs and frequency of my purchases from K store has been increasing steadily.

Flushing out the last remaining kinks will help us as customers and will help K get more customers in the process.

Happy thanksgiving to you, Mike and the rest of K families.

Happy thanksgiving Jim, John and all my fellow forum members.
Well said. Ditto. :)
 
Removed many Lionsgate titles from list

Added

Mama Mia! Here We Go Again (Atmos)
Skyscraper (Atmos)
The Fast and the Furious (DTS-X)
2 Fast 2 Furious (DTS-X)
Fast and Fueious: Tokyo Drift (DTS-X)
BlacKkKlansman (Atmos)
Jurassic World - Fallen Kingdom (DTS-X)
The Big Lebowski (DTS-X)
The First Purge (DTS-X)
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Atmos)
The Darkest Minds (Atmos)
The Predator (Atmos)
Red Sparrow (Atmos)

Excited for the list of titles that will be upgraded and those that will never be upgraded...

Sorry for the delay in updating the list, I think I got them all, let me know if I forgot any and I will add them...
 
Last edited:
Thanks for updating.

I thought I would go through and analyze the total based on 1) excluding Fox and Universal, and 2) exclude titles that are missing due to no 4K (or HDR version in Sony’s case). When I do this here is what I get:

Lionsgate: All but one on the list are due to no 4K version available on the store yet.

Sony: There are three titles on t(e list that are due to only having UHD versions and I am assuming that once the HDR versions are added will have update audio.

So the total titles missing immersive audio by studio is:

Lionsgate: 1
Paramount: 11
Sony: 5
Warner Bros: 2
Disney: 0

Total: 19

Fox: All
Universal: All but “Lucy”

So if we could get Fox and Universal on-board plus a few others, we would be in great shape.

John
 
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