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Can a UHD/HDR purchase be downloaded and viewed in HD on the Alto?

P

Peter Nielsen

Well-known member
Hello,

I have a Strato/Terra system and recently got a need for another player in my other house with only a HD TV. Instead of splurging on a Strato, I am considering picking up an Alto, figuring it will do all I need since the TV set doesn't support 4K.

However, if I do this, will I only be able to view movies I purchased in SD or HD? Will my UHD/HDR movies be unavailable, or will they still be available to me either in SD or HD?

What I'm asking in short: Will the Alto let me watch all titles purchased in the Kaleidedcape store at some resolution, or will titles be dropped? (Note: Titles have been and are purchased based on the main Strato/Terra UHD setup)

I do remember seeing some titles only available as SD+UHD and of course I'm fine with these playing back as SD only on the Alto. I just want to make sure that I don't get myself into a situation where I lose a lot of titles...

Thanks,
Peter
 
Last edited:
You can obviously download all available resolutions to your Terra and play them back on your Strato.
You will be able to download all available HD/SD to your Alto and they will play from the Alto and/or from the Strato.
The Alto will not download or play UHD/HDR, but can play back any SD/HD downloaded to the Strato.
 
ht guy said:
You can download all available resolutions to your Terra and play them back on your Strato.
You will be able to download all available HD/SD to your Alto and they will play from the Alto and/or from the Strato.
The Alto will not download or play UHD/HDR, but can play back any SD/HD downloaded to the Strato.
Click to expand...
That makes sense and is what I already know. Let me rephrase my question: I have more than 1000 purchased movies in the Kaledescape store. Is there a way to identify which movies are *only* available in UHD/HDR and thus cannot be downloaded and played back on the Alto?
 
Not that I'm aware of, at least not in a list format.

One way that would be very time consuming with that many titles, would be clicking on each movie in the interface - as that does show the available formats.

To make it easier to identify HD titles, I've asked before for a "HD Only" filter option. Currently the only sort option for HD is "HD or higher."

Another thought - while they will provide another 4-6 tb of storage, Altos have gotten a bit pricey due to their D2D capabilities. If you've already moved most/all of your collection K, and don't see a need for D2D going forward, you may find the Strato won't run you much, if at all, more - and you get warranty and no need to upgrade if/when you replace that TV with a 4K model.
 
One other thing to consider is that the Strato can be set to output 1080p so that all UHD titles can be viewed on an HD TV. Obviously, you can’t convert HDR titles to play on an HD TV, but this would allow all SD, HD and UHD titles to be played in the second zone.

John
 
Interesting! So no need to download the HD version for the Alto? It will simply play the HDR version on the Terra w HD quality?
 
ht guy said:
Interesting! So no need to download the HD version for the Alto? It will simply play the HDR version on the Terra w HD quality?
Click to expand...
It would play the UHD version in HD quality but not the HDR version (no way to convert HDR back to SDR).

John
 
Any movie that you purchase at a given quality level also includes all available lower qualities.

It's very rare to have a movie that only has a 4K version on the store. There are a handful, though (for example, from the studio "4KUNIVERSE", unsurprisingly). I don't have a list handy, I'm afraid.
 
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