Encore Line FAQ from K

[JohnJ]

Just for general information, per the Disney Content Amendment, you have 10 days from the time you opt-in to change your mind and opt-out again.

John

 

[Mr.Poindexter]

If you opt out again, do you lose the movies you purchased online? Is there a refund if you cannot watch them any longer?

 

[JohnJ]

Yes and no. Here is the exact wording:

"If you accept this Amendment by mistake, you may terminate the Amendment, and reverse the changes to your System, by notifying Kaleidescape via email to legal@kaleidescape.com within ten (10) days of acceptance. In that case, any Disney titles you have downloaded from the Movie Store will no longer be playable on your System, and your purchases of such titles will not be eligible for refund."

John

 

[Kostas]

I am concerned one day they will put out a movie that they might decide to not include in the download store...

This shouldn't be an issue as the movie will be playable from your m500 tray or vault, the latter acting as a regular BD/DVD player. The disc will be catalogued and won't be imported. See attached video it addresses your concern.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SueaBUa4Ynk

 

[iansilv]

This shouldn't be an issue as the movie will be playable from your m500 tray or vault, the latter acting as a regular BD/DVD player. The disc will be catalogued and won't be imported. See attached video it addresses your concern.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SueaBUa4Ynk

Yeah... And that negates the entire point of K- to not have to mess around with disks. I understand you get all the ui and menu skipping but the real main point of K originally was to not have to mess around with disks.

 

[MikeKobb]

Hello Jim

Does this mean scripting will come to Alto and Strato? I would love this feature.

Cheers

Raj

Hello Raj,

There are no immediate plans to bring scripting capability to the Encore line, at least in the same form that it exists today on Premiere.

I would be very interested to learn what features of scripting are important to you, though. Could you describe your use case(s)?

 

[House72]

Hello Raj,

There are no immediate plans to bring scripting capability to the Encore line, at least in the same form that it exists today on Premiere.

I would be very interested to learn what features of scripting are important to you, though. Could you describe your use case(s)?

Hello

Thanks Mike for joining.

One use case is I would like to create a script to play couple of scenes from each Bond movie before playing say Spectre when ever that movie gets released in BR.

Cheers

Raj

 

[iansilv]

MikeKobb- any chance of the K iPad app or another remote control program aggregating the movie collection from two different systems on the same network to solve this Encore / Premiere issue?

 

[JerryL]

Thanks fellas, well, I am pretty far gone from the 10 days. I opted in on 9/8... I just didn't think it all the way through and I wanted the ease of downloads and yeah, I got sucked in on Ultron. The worst part is I didn't think it was that great of a movie!

 

[MikeKobb]

Thanks for the explanation, Raj. iansilv (Ian?), that might be technically possible, but I'm not sure if it's the best approach. There are always complexities in even seemingly simple features, especially where you have to deal with something like control system integration.

 

[JerryL]

PS I like the scripting feature also. I really do use it.

 

[MikeKobb]

Hi Jerry! Please say a bit more about how you use it, if you don't mind. Anything you can't do with it that you wish you could?

 

[djb_rh]

Thanks for the explanation, Raj. iansilv (Ian?), that might be technically possible, but I'm not sure if it's the best approach. There are always complexities in even seemingly simple features, especially where you have to deal with something like control system integration.

To me, the right answer is one player that can see and play Encore and Premiere content.

If that can't (or won't) be done, the next best thing is a Kapp that can do that. I think you provide one app that by default lets you pick which K client you are controlling, but has a setting that lets you integrate Encore and Premiere content into one interface and control two different players. Users who choose to set that up will then be REQUIRED to have an advanced control system that listens to the K server and switches sources on your system appropriately.

That's pretty much exactly how the volume control stuff works now with Kapp. I was able to DIY my own control system using Indigo on a Mac as my server that does the relaying of volume stuff, and that same system could handle the input switching requirements of the above system, too.

I do realize that the "integrate content from Premiere and Encore" isn't trivial. But I doubt it's horrible, either. That's all assuming K is allowed to do such things under current distribution agreements.


--Donnie

 

[sbutter]

I love the script feature. We use it more like a Playlist feature for scenes.

Examples:
Favorite Songs or Music Videos
Star Wars Favorite Scenes - Similar to the old THX WOW Montage
Kids Favorite Scenes
Holiday Kid Videos.
Favorite Car Chase Scenes
Atmos Scenes

Repeat Script is great to loop the scenes for parties. Also great way to quickly demo the system.

New feature would be to have the script play the selected scenes randomly. Nice for music videos. .

Not a script but another new idea would be to just start a movie randomly. I find it hard to select a movie sometimes while browsing the large library.

 

[JerryL]

I often like to watch strings of favorite scenes while using my home gym. So maybe I have my favorite scenes from Star Wars, etc.

One thing I'd love to have is the ability to play an intro script before each movie. So when you select play movie- it would first play the script and then the movie...

 

[JohnJ]

Scripting - Let Me Count The Ways....

Hi Jerry! Please say a bit more about how you use it, if you don't mind. Anything you can't do with it that you wish you could?

I am going to jump in here too. Here are most of the ways that I use scripting with my system.

Demo Material

I have a lot of scripts that I started mainly as demo material. I would show then when friends and relatives would come over just to show off Kaleidescape and my system. It also was useful when people wanted to see something but just did not have time for a full movies. It also one of the things that sucked me in - my dealer had his system playing demo material and pointed out I could do the same thing - I was hooked! My scripts for demos are divided up into the following:

Favorite All Time Scenes
Favorite New Release Scenes
Best Video
Best Audio
Atmos Audio

I am constantly updating/modifying to keep them fresh.

Enjoyable To Watch

This group is scenes that are grouped by genre and are put together so that when I have had a hard day and need some down time but do not have enough time to watch an entire movie I can play these. These help me wind down and relax before I have to stop and pitch back in on things. Here is how I have these divided:

Concert/Musical Songs (I sometimes break these up into two groups and sometimes mix.)
SciFi
Action
Comedy
Drama

I have other categories from time-to-time but these are the main ones now (basically my favorite genres). I am constantly updating these also - again to keep me interested. I probably spend more time watching these than actually watching movies (but that is a statement about me - my family mainly watches entire movies).

Movie Night Scripts

When I have a formal "movie night" (either with friends or just family) I will put together a script with 2-3 movie scenes and maybe a concert scene that play prior to the movie starting. I usually set it up so that the scenes play and stop before starting the movie so that I can go off and make popcorn and drinks for everyone without having to worry about missing the beginning of the movie. I set this up the day of the event.

Making Scenes and Scripts

I enjoy the process of marking scenes and making scripts. Doing this is an additional way of relaxing and winding down. It is part of the overall Kaleidescape experience to me and I love it. I also enjoy exporting and sharing scenes and scripts with other Kaleidescape users. Of course, now that Kaleidescape marks a fair number of scenes themselves there is a lot less need for doing this. However, there are still movies that do not have scenes marked and I also tend to still mark my own in order to have scenes that give a flavor of the movie without giving anything away, slightly modify the start of the scene so that I have sound from the important part, modify a scene to make it shorter or longer to have it fit in the context of my script and mark additional scenes that I find entertaining.

That is the fairly detailed summary of what I do with scripts. If I have to switch to a system that does not have this capability I loose a large chunk of what I derive enjoyment from with my Kaleidescape system. It is extraordinary that this system has the capability to piece together pieces of thousands of titles and can then play them back with almost no delay between them. It would be very sad to see this capability go to waste.

Thanks for listening.

John

 

[Pio435]

... and I use the script system in combination with RTI (Remote Control System) for:

- Playing custom intro's on movie startup
- Returning custom commands during intro to setup the correct volume for each intro part
- Trigger certain events on RTI during intro to control lights

In case I would have the option to change to new encore line (if online store would be available in Switzerland) I would really miss the script system and think, K should see this as one of the USP's and should implement this for all systems ...

and just thinking loud : assuming, once the store will be available in Switzerland and I would go for 4K, it would not be a problem, to switch inputs over a system like RTI depending on which system the movie is hosted. But I think K should be able to present us a consolidated movie library for both Systems (permier and encore) and just add a few more commands in the remote protocoll to allow automated switching of the inputs. But a merged library is the minimum to realize to keep the user experience we are used to.

 

[House72]

More I think about, scripting will not work with Alto or Stratos. They currently work on Premier System as all data reside on the servers. With Encore line its fragmented and some stay on discs in disc server and some in Stratos and Terra Server. If at all they can allow scripting it can only use data available on Stratos or Terrs Server. So Bond Movies or south asian movies that are not available in store can never be available for scripting.

This is my logic, but again I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Cheers

Raj

 

[JohnJ]

I think it is understood that the movie would have to be loaded on a hard drive for scripting to work. Otherwise, it would take so long to load that it would be useless.

In my case, that is all I want on the Encore. I want to be able to create scripts of scenes from movies I download and store on hard drives on either a player or server.

John

 

[House72]

As not all movies are available in store, this does create issues. So scripting in here will not be as good as what Premier Line offers.