NEWS: 7.3 Released to dealer demo systems

[gwsat01@gmail.com]

My Strato updated to 7.3 earlier this evening too. Now if the Movie Store will add UHD HDR Atmos titles I will be a truly happy camper.

 

[steelman1991]

Mine too - oh for some HDR/UHD/DTS-X/ATMOS goodies

 

[Drhemi]

HDR titles starting to show up in the store. Today Concussion, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Risen, Elysium and Ghostbusters II show availability in HDR and Atmos audio. Can hardly wait to get my new display and try it out!

Wayne

 

[gwsat01@gmail.com]

When I checked just now, the Kscape store was down. That's may be good news, though. I suspect that the admins took it down in order to modify its design to show UHD HDR titles. I hope so, anyway.

 

[jfr0317]

When I checked just now, the Kscape store was down. That's may be good news, though. I suspect that the admins took it down in order to modify its design to show UHD HDR titles. I hope so, anyway.

Check again. I am looking at it right now and have just initiated two UHD HDR downloads of UHD titles I previously purchased.

 

[SJHT]

I think we are all downloading! When you download the HDR version of the movie, do you still also have the non-HDR 4K version? If so, our Stratos are going to fill up quickly... SJ

 

[RAV]

So close...and yet so far!

The Kaleidescape Movie Store is not allowing me to download HDR movies, saying that "This system does not support 4K HDR", yet my system has been upgraded to 7.3 and my Strato > HDMI Capabilities > Supported HDMI Features > HDR says "Yes".

Any ideas?

 

[jfr0317]

The Kaleidescape Movie Store is not allowing me to download HDR movies, saying that "This system does not support 4K HDR", yet my system has been upgraded to 7.3 and my Strato > HDMI Capabilities > Supported HDMI Features > HDR says "Yes".

Any ideas?

I am initiating my HDR downloads remotely as I am away from the house where we have our Kscape system. I got the message that my system didn't support HDR, but it gave me the option to download anyway and required me to acknowledge that I was aware it might not play or that I was planning on adding an HDR-capable display. When I check what my system's capabilities are from within the Strato's settings, I get the "HDR supported" indication there just as you do.

 

[gwsat01@gmail.com]

I think we are all downloading! When you download the HDR version of the movie, do you still also have the non-HDR 4K version? If so, our Stratos are going to fill up quickly... SJ

I just ordered the UHD HDR version of Fury. I already owned the UHD only version and was prompted to "upgrade." I hope that the HDR version will be copied over the UHD only version. Will report further when I know more.

Also ordered the upgrade from BD quality to 4K HDR of Men in Black.

 

[RAV]

I am initiating my HDR downloads remotely as I am away from the house where we have our Kscape system. I got the message that my system didn't support HDR, but it gave me the option to download anyway and required me to acknowledge that I was aware it might not play or that I was planning on adding an HDR-capable display. When I check what my system's capabilities are from within the Strato's settings, I get the "HDR supported" indication there just as you do.

That is really interesting. I was not given such an option. The good news - I am no longer getting the error message. And - it looks like there is now an HDR collection (which I did not see an hour ago).

 

[naylorman32]

noticed the store update as well... a title like Journey to space... it says HDR, but not UHD. Somewhat confused by that since other ones have both...

 

[RAV]

noticed the store update as well... a title like Journey to space... it says HDR, but not UHD. Somewhat confused by that since other ones have both...

When you have a chance can you let me know how the HDR titles looks on your JVC DLA-RS600? I am curious if you will find the image to be visually superior to the HD and UHD versions (given the limited light output of projectors like ours).

I was a bit disappointed that there isn't an option to "switch" HDR off - or better yet an option to remap from HDR to SDR as is provided by the Panasonic and (upcoming) Oppo 4K Blu-ray players.

From my perspective there are four benefits associated with 4K UltraHD:
- 4K
- HDR
- Wider color gamut
- Atmos (since some studios reserve Atmos for 4K UltraHD)

I have been reading that quite a few people prefer UHD SDR BT2020 on the JVC RS500/RS600 (in other words the above list with HDR remapped to SDR).

 

[SJHT]

I'm running a Strato into a Lumagen Pro and then feeding a RS600. The results so far is very impressive, but need a lot more watching and ultimately calibration. The colors are so much richer, but the black levels and overall brightness suffer a bit on the JVC. However, I think the overall improvements are well worth it. SJ

 

[MikeKobb]

I just ordered the UHD HDR version of Fury. I already owned the UHD only version and was prompted to "upgrade." I hope that the HDR version will be copied over the UHD only version. Will report further when I know more.

It will not be copied over the 4K Ultra HD version. You will have both versions on your system, but you can delete the older version if you wish.

Note that on 7.3, if you have multiple versions of a movie on your system (e.g. 4K HDR, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray quality), you will only see a single cover on the player. That cover will be for the best version of the movie that the particular player and display that you're currently using can play.

Example: you will see the HDR cover of Fury on your system. If you highlight the cover and hit Play, that's the version that will play. If you also had a second Strato connected to a display that doesn't support HDR, then on that Strato, you would see the 4K Ultra HD cover, and that version would play.

If you want to play the other version(s) of the movie on your system, open the movie's details and scroll down to the new "Other Versions" option.

By the way, it's common for the Extras to differ between versions of a movie. Because that's so common, we merged all the Extras from all versions into a single list in the movie details. You don't have to navigate the Other Versions menu to see them. We didn't do this with scenes & songs because usually those are bookmarked the same on all versions.

 

[MikeKobb]

noticed the store update as well... a title like Journey to space... it says HDR, but not UHD. Somewhat confused by that since other ones have both...

That movie is currently only available in 4K HDR. There is no standard-dynamic-range 4K Ultra HD version available. That's why there's only the HDR badge.

On the Movie Store, the original badging design was based upon the idea that we would always show the best-quality version of the movie that was available. We assumed that we would nearly always be able to also offer the other qualities, so we didn't think there would be any need to show more than one badge -- if you saw "HD", you could assume SD. That's held up pretty well over the past several years, although lately we do have Blu-ray quality content that's not available in DVD quality, so we may need to revisit this design.

In the meantime, HDR presents a new and interesting challenge. There are a fair number of TVs and projectors installed in people's homes today that support 4K, but don't do HDR. Not all 4K movies are available in HDR, and there are also some movies, like the one you found, that are available in 4K, but only in an HDR version. So, we decided to display both the UHD and HDR badges if both versions are available, or only one badge if only one of the two 4K formats is available.

 

[RAV]

That movie is currently only available in 4K HDR. There is no standard-dynamic-range 4K Ultra HD version available. That's why there's only the HDR badge.

On the Movie Store, the original badging design was based upon the idea that we would always show the best-quality version of the movie that was available. We assumed that we would nearly always be able to also offer the other qualities, so we didn't think there would be any need to show more than one badge -- if you saw "HD", you could assume SD. That's held up pretty well over the past several years, although lately we do have Blu-ray quality content that's not available in DVD quality, so we may need to revisit this design.

In the meantime, HDR presents a new and interesting challenge. There are a fair number of TVs and projectors installed in people's homes today that support 4K, but don't do HDR. Not all 4K movies are available in HDR, and there are also some movies, like the one you found, that are available in 4K, but only in an HDR version. So, we decided to display both the UHD and HDR badges if both versions are available, or only one badge if only one of the two 4K formats is available.

Is it uniformly true that if the 4K HDR version has an Atmos soundtrack then the 4K UHD version will as well?

And is the wider color gamut available in both?

My projector supports HDR but honestly I quite prefer 4K SDR BT2020 in most cases (usually a brighter overall picture and deeper blacks).

 

[SJHT]

When I originally purchased two Stratos, one for our HT that has full 4K/HDR and a second one for another room which currently has a 1080P display. My thinking was that I could download a 4K movie and play it in either room. With HDR versions, assume that the Strato can't downrez to 1080p and that you need the nonHDR 4K version in order for the Strato to do this? Storage is going to go quickly if I do that. Might be better to get the 4K HDR version and the BD quality which can then run on the 1080p second system? Thanks. SJ

 

[sbutter]

When I originally purchased two Stratos, one for our HT that has full 4K/HDR and a second one for another room which currently has a 1080P display. My thinking was that I could download a 4K movie and play it in either room. With HDR versions, assume that the Strato can't downrez to 1080p and that you need the nonHDR 4K version in order for the Strato to do this? Storage is going to go quickly if I do that. Might be better to get the 4K HDR version and the BD quality which can then run on the 1080p second system? Thanks. SJ

You should look at HDFury Linker. I believe it will convert the 4kHDR to 1080p. Then you could keep only one download on the extra Strato.
https://www.hdfury.com/

 

[gwsat01@gmail.com]

It will not be copied over the 4K Ultra HD version. You will have both versions on your system, but you can delete the older version if you wish.

Note that on 7.3, if you have multiple versions of a movie on your system (e.g. 4K HDR, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray quality), you will only see a single cover on the player. That cover will be for the best version of the movie that the particular player and display that you're currently using can play.

Example: you will see the HDR cover of Fury on your system. If you highlight the cover and hit Play, that's the version that will play. If you also had a second Strato connected to a display that doesn't support HDR, then on that Strato, you would see the 4K Ultra HD cover, and that version would play.

If you want to play the other version(s) of the movie on your system, open the movie's details and scroll down to the new "Other Versions" option.

By the way, it's common for the Extras to differ between versions of a movie. Because that's so common, we merged all the Extras from all versions into a single list in the movie details. You don't have to navigate the Other Versions menu to see them. We didn't do this with scenes & songs because usually those are bookmarked the same on all versions.

Mike -- Thanks a million! Armed with your explanation and after some experimentation, I managed to delete my copy of the 4K only version of Fury. My Strato is nearly full, so I try to delete stuff I probably won't need very soon, if ever, in order to create room for more titles from the Movie Store.

So far, I have found the audio on both 4K only and 4K HDR titles disappointing. They all seem to have only DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtracks. The only 7.1 or TrueHD Atmos titles I have been able to buy have been BD quality. Will this be corrected over time?

Overall, I have been crazy about my Strato; kOS 7.3 has made it better than ever.

 

[JohnJ]

Base on the description in the store, 10 out of 31 HDR titles have Dolby Atmos soundtracks.

John