Blu-ray quality downloads and UltraViolet

[TomBarnett]

Hello, everyone. It's exciting for all of us to see the work we've done preparing the Blu-ray quality downloads and bonus features bearing fruit! There have been a lot of great questions in this thread:

Tom, any chance you guys can/will raise the bandwidth cap above 100 Mbps?

Would love to see an option that would show me all the movies I own on SD that are available for HD upgrades.

This is coming soon, when we add the ability to get Blu-ray quality upgrades for titles you own on DVD.

"Some titles will not download until an automatic kOS update is installed"

Telem, please send me a personal message with the serial number of your Kaleidescape server so I can investigate why it hasn't updated yet and get your titles downloading.

Does the HD+ BluRay price include both HD+ and SD DVD for older players?

Yes, it does. Once you've purchased the HD+ Blu-ray quality download, you can download the DVD quality version for free.

Tom, what about the prospect of upgrading our bluray titles for $6.99 so we could free up space on our vaults? I think I would be willing to pay again for that convenience.

Another question...so anything we buy in the store we can get via UV. But what about stuff we already have in our collection? Will there be any way to "upgrade" those for UV support? My guess is if you upgrade to HD you can, but what about titles for which there isn't any upgrade to HD and you own the DVD. Are those likely not available via UV anyway?

These two questions are related, as they both suggest additional offers that we could make based on the movies you already own on your Kaleidescape system. The offer we're starting with is the DVD-to-Blu-ray quality download offer (which includes UltraViolet rights whenever they are available, which is nearly every Blu-ray quality movie in the Store right now.)

Tom Barnett
Kaleidescape, Inc.

 

[cinelife]

Thanks for the responses Tom, very helpful!


Jim

 

[BigHat]

Awesome post Tom and great work. The store is really starting to hum.

Got my first B_R as soon as I stopped by this morning. Took about an hour at 42mps. Great news about being able to update to B_R and maybe also freeing up M700 slots too.

 

[eschmidt]

Incredible work guys!
I'm on my 3rd download already.
Interesting observations-Comcast business class service at our Design Center seeing a consistent 50mbs with downloads taking well under two hours. Comcast residential service at home started off strong at 50mbs but appears that its being throttled back. Download took roughly 4 hours with ending up with only 9mbs. Silly Comcast
Still faster than ordering a BD from Amazon .

 

[TomBarnett]

And the most popular Blu-ray quality download so far is...

https://store.kaleidescape.com/movies/details/10143411

Maybe everyone's really pumped up about the Cyndi Lauper music video in the bonus features.

Tom

 

[mantonuc]

Hey guys,


This is great news about BD quality downloads now live on K... So, I have a question. I contacted my ISP (comcast) today and waited a long time on hold to finally get someone on the phone... Once I got them on the line, they seemed to be not so knowledgable... Eventually, they were able to tell me that my maximum download cap is 300 GB per month. They also told me that while the speed could be upgraded from its current 24 MBps, I would be capped at 300 GB per month irrespective of speed...

So, I know that what is supposed to be available is HD quality, but are the downloads the same size as a BD? Doing a quick search, the FAQ says that an average Blu-ray disk is 37 GB... So, assuming that I do not use the internet at all except for downloading just BD content form K, that equates to somewhere around 8 disk per month. I also assume it may be prohibitively expensive to exceed the monthly quota... Does this sound about right to you guys?



Matt

 

[TomBarnett]

As far as I know, Comcast stopped enforcing their bandwdith cap last May and has not resumed:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/05/comcast-suspends-data-caps-for-now/

You can also purchase Comcast Business Class (no cap):
http://business.comcast.com/smb/services/internet/plans

The size of each download is listed on the Kaleidescape Store (see "Additional Information.") For example, the Matrix is 40.4 GB in Blu-ray quality.
https://store.kaleidescape.com/movies/details/16487557

Tom

 

[mantonuc]

Thanks Tom for getting back to me so quickly… Looking on the Comcast site just now, here is what I see:

http://customer.comcast.com/help-an...-usage-what-are-the-different-plans-launching

It indicates there is still a 300 GB cap for most plans, and it was last updated on the 8th of April… But, at the bottom of that listing it does show some plans going up to 600 GB… I guess I will need to speak with someone a little more knowledgable at Comcast, not always an easy task…



Matt

 

[dlittle]

Tom and the Kaleidescape Wizards:

Kudos and great job on this wonderful store!

A couple of suggestions after looking at it:

1) In the Sort Window, consider adding the ability to sort based on the most recent titles added to the store.

2) Consider putting the title above the cover art - on some movies, the title is hard to read unless you click on the movie.

Also, couple of questions:

1) if I choose too high of a bandwidth for my download speed that my connection can't handle, are there any complications that will occur?

2) If I purchase a Blu Ray quality movie, and say it is remastered and rereleased by the studio in the future, will there be an upgrade price option?

3) Are other Studios besides Warner on board yet?

4) I noticed some titles I already have on DVD that are available in your store as HD don't appear to have an upgrade price - e.g. THX. Is the upgrade pricing from DVD to HD only for a few titles?

Again, great job!

Dave Little

 

[JerryL]

WOW Tom- great news! I can't wait to find some titles I'm looking for.

I'm kind of bummed about UV and Flixter as they have been a major headache for me- I tried these services when they first came out and Im convinced my accounts are either corrupted or I have multiple accounts etc. Also, I'm curious to find out if one can watch content from these services while off line.

 

[kscape75]

Watching content on portable devices

Jerry,
You most definitely can watch content on portable devices when you are off line. You will just need to download to your portable device first. I tried this last night with Flixter and was able to successfully download a movie I have purchased earlier in the day at the K Store.

Thanks!
Kscape75

 

[MikeG]

My, my. Thanks Tom!!

Read the title and went right to the store to download the Hobbit.

Two questions:

When Warner bros releases the extended/directors cut, will it be available to me, have to purchase it at full price, or upgrade fee?

Why the decision to use ultraviolet and not iTunes? Just curious as I already have a large collection of titles with them for my various "i" devices.

 

[TomBarnett]

If I choose too high of a bandwidth for my download speed that my connection can't handle, are there any complications that will occur?

I have a 15 Mbps Comcast connection, and leave the bandwidth limit set to 100 Mbps on the Kaleidescape Store. I've never had any problem, and my downloads simply go as fast as my Internet connection can handle at any given time. The reason we provide that control is to give you some control if you want to slow down your Kaleidescape downloads to reserve bandwidth for any reason - hopefully this isn't necessary for most people.

Are other Studios besides Warner on board yet?

We are in discussions with most major motion picture studios, but at this point the only studios that are live are Warner Bros. and New Line.

I noticed some titles I already have on DVD that are available in your store as HD don't appear to have an upgrade price - e.g. THX. Is the upgrade pricing from DVD to HD only for a few titles?

At this point, we only have the upgrade offer running for titles you bought from the Kaleidescape Store in DVD quality. We will be expanding the offer to include movies you bought on DVD disc in a few weeks - stay tuned!
Also, make sure you link your Kaleidescape account to UltraViolet first. That is a requirement to qualify for the upgrade price.

I'm kind of bummed about UV and Flixter as they have been a major headache for me- I tried these services when they first came out and Im convinced my accounts are either corrupted or I have multiple accounts etc. Also, I'm curious to find out if one can watch content from these services while off line.

You certainly may have more than one account. This is not uncommon. To merge two accounts, sign into one account at uvvu.com, go to Account Settings (in the Our Account section) and select "Merge Two Accounts". Follow the steps to complete the merge.
Once you have Flixster and Kaleidescape linked to the same UltraViolet account, install the Flixster app for whatever mobile device you want to use, and then you can download movies to watch offline (e.g. airplane).

Why the decision to use ultraviolet and not iTunes? Just curious as I already have a large collection of titles with them for my various "i" devices.

There are UltraViolet apps for iOS devices, including Flixster. With UltraViolet you can also enjoy the movies on other devices (Android, PC, Mac) or from other streaming providers like VUDU. There is a big push by the content producers to support UltraViolet for content you own digitally, as it is cross-platform/cross-retailer (like DVD and Blu-ray).

 

[JerryL]

Cool- thanks- then I guess I have to take some time to clean things up.

 

[rbienstock]

In a few weeks, we?ll also be enabling titles you own on DVD disc to be upgraded for the same $6.99 price.

Did I read that right? I can upgrade any title I own on DVD to the HD version for $6.99? That's the best news I've heard yet. And what is on the HD version in terms of features? Is it movie only or the Blu-ray special features too? Is UltraViolet included? Even it it isn't, that may be the best solution of all for me.

 

[TomBarnett]

Did I read that right? I can upgrade any title I own on DVD to the HD version for $6.99? That's the best news I've heard yet. And what is on the HD version in terms of features? Is it movie only or the Blu-ray special features too? Is UltraViolet included? Even it it isn't, that may be the best solution of all for me.

Both extra content and UltraViolet rights are included in the $6.99 upgrade.

Tom

 

[MikeG]

New to the uv and flixster camps. Albeit I just joined both last evening after starting my download of the hobbit (btw Jim it completed in 1'33" at 52 mbs!), out of my more than 800 movies in my library only 6 are available to stream in flixster. I had hoped that more would be available.

Am I not allowing enough time to catalog my library?

 

[cinelife]

........(btw Jim it completed in 1'33" at 52 mbs!).........

That's right....rub it in.....

My ISP (AT&T) only provides DSL here and the claimed "max" speed of 18Mbs is more like 11 - 13Mbs. That's also the fastest service in the area, couldn't even get "business" speed at this location. Oh well, one movie per night is okay as well, considering I'm approaching a couple thousand in my current collection. Slowly converting all to BR.


Jim

 

[djb_rh]

New to the uv and flixster camps. Albeit I just joined both last evening after starting my download of the hobbit (btw Jim it completed in 1'33" at 52 mbs!), out of my more than 800 movies in my library only 6 are available to stream in flixster. I had hoped that more would be available.

Am I not allowing enough time to catalog my library?

No, Flixster only has your UV purchases. The only UV purchases you have are the ones you've bought via the K *download* store.

If you'll scroll back a page or so, you'll see there are those of us asking about getting UV versions of the DVDs already in our library. That will happen (assuming there *is* a UV version of a given title) when they roll out the ability to upgrade your DVD collection to HD in a couple weeks.

So to get UV versions of the DVD stuff you have, you have to pay $6.99. But you also get upgraded to HD.

Also note that many of the DVD/BR you may have purchased physically over the last year or two have paper inserts with a UV code for that movie. If you go find those and punch those codes in on the UV site, you'll get that movie added to your UV account, too.

I thought UV was kind of a passing when I first tried it. The software was buggy and not much had it so I've ignored/tossed most of those. *sigh*


--Donnie

 

[LJG]

This is great news. Just wondering if the Bluray quality download is encoded by the studios for delivery or if Kaleidescape burns them direct from bluray on to their servers and then downloaded to Kaleidescape owners?