Encore Line FAQ from K

[andrej770]

Thanks for the update.

I actually opted in on Disney on my Premiere system. I did it because I simply wanted to have access to the Disney downloads and I don't think I really thought it completely through. Right now I have no problem with my decision, but I am concerned one day they will put out a movie that they might decide to not include in the download store... I guess we'll just jump off that bridge when it happens.

I just don't see the purpose in restricting myself for any purpose where there is an alternative. There is no difference in the REAL price of the Blu-ray Disc and K's download version other than convenience. The inconvenience of the restriction is not worth it for me.

Just my own opinion folks.

 

[BigHat]

I just don't see the purpose in restricting myself for any purpose where there is an alternative. There is no difference in the REAL price of the Blu-ray Disc and K's download version other than convenience. The inconvenience of the restriction is not worth it for me.

Just my own opinion folks.

I agree with you Andre. There is one other difference to consider though and that's the price of a vault slot. Thanks to the creation of the store I was able to unload a number of B_R discs and have 150 or so slots empty in my lone vault. A Disney movie here and there isn't a big deal any longer. But I suspect I'm not the only one that looks at the cost of importing a B_R disc into the 361st or 721st slot required and the hefty price to do so.

 

[JerryL]

Andre, you're right. It was a bit of a "brain fart" on my part. (no rhyming intended!). I probably shouldn't have, but I did. Out of al the things in life you could apply that sentence to... this one ain't so bad.

 

[Haywood]

Given that a Vault slot costs about $16, I would think long and hard before using one for anything I could acquire digitally.

 

[brodricj]

Given that a Vault slot costs about $16, I would think long and hard before using one for anything I could acquire digitally.

I can't acquire anything digitally. Here is why:
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/1422138996
That is the speed of my ADSL2+ internet. I wish we could go back to dial up modems, they were quicker.

 

[Haywood]

I can't acquire anything digitally. Here is why:
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/1422138996
That is the speed of my ADSL2+ internet. I wish we could go back to dial up modems, they were quicker.

Have you considered pigeons? They might be faster.

 

[smiley]

IP over Avian Carrier

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt

 

[brodricj]

Have you considered pigeons? They might be faster.

...and no doubt cheaper. $85/month I pay for that 0.2Mbps broadband Internet bundled with free local phone calls.

 

[Haywood]

Living in a place where I can get 75Mbps symmetrical for $50/mo, I tend to forget that there are still a lot of places that don't have good broadband infrastructure.

 

[House72]

I never would have thought it would be that slow in Perth of all places in the world.

Cheers

 

[djb_rh]

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt

Reminds me of a saying from back in the good ole days:

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with TK50 tapes.


--Donnie

 

[djb_rh]

Oh, and I thought it had it *bad* with the speed of my DSL at my mountain house...I'm getting a constant 4.2MBs download from K. That's me launching downloads remotely and nobody at the house, so no bandwidth really getting used by anything else. Of course, for that I pay the standard $80ish a month, I think.

Here at my main residence I have a 25MBs connection that can burst to 50Mbs. It's fiber all the way and K can usually fill it unless I throttle, which I typically do throttle to 15Mbs (and kudos for K for making a throttling interface that really works, along with the ability to download a bunch of stuff IN THE ORDER YOU WANT IT!). But getting that fiber to my house was $20k-ish of install (ATT was actually kind enough to finance it over three years...which I didn't NEED, per se, but they did it at 0% so I sure as hell did use it). And my connection is $1400/month. That's down from $2600/month I was paying!!!

But I'm way the hell out in BFE with no other options. Well, satellite is an option. *cough* But nothing else wired.


--Donnie

 

[Kostas]

WT*????

In Switzerland the cost of the full package that includes

Telephony:
Unlimited phone calls to all Swiss fixed and mobile networks and all networks abroad (EU,USA)

TV over IP
Over 250 channels, incl. 100+ HD
7-day Replay
Unlimited simultaneous recording
Live Pause
Enjoy TV on a total of 5 TV sets at the same time

Internet up to 1 Gbit/s

Fibre optics: 1 Gbit/s down- | upload max. NOT OFFERED IN ALL AREAS
Copper: 100 | 20 Mbit/s down- | upload max. WHEN FIBER IS NOT AVAILABLE
Free mobile surfing in the Swisscom Public WLAN - at max. 20 Mbit/s
1 year free Internet Security
WLAN Router for free (Internet-Box standard)

is $170 per month(with the curent exchange rate) and installation is free of charge !

 

[Haywood]

I pay about $100/month for 75Mbps internet from Verizon FiOS, excellent VOIP phone service from Ooma and subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu (ad free), Funimation, Drama Fever and Viki (those last three are for my daughter and my wife). I have a nice networked quad-tuner OTA DVR for all of my live and recorded broadcast TV needs and feel absolutely no desire whatsoever to pay for Cable TV service.

 

[Mark H]

At my 'summer house' in Malaga I have a satellite connection 22Mbps down and 6Mbps up that is uncapped but if I use too much in the day it sometimes gets throttled to 4/5Mbps but overnight no throttling and the cost is €70 per month so not too expensive. No good for playing games due to latency but ideal for downloads especially as cable is not available and the local telco speed is 2Mbps

 

[JerryL]

I have 300mbps down and I think 100 up plus IP phones and Cabletv etc for $175 a month. I just guess its what services are available. I remember when I thought I was fast with a 300 baud modem!

 

[Kicker]

It is definitely where you live. I pay $115 for 30 Mb/s down and 2 Mb/s up. It could be worse but it's not great.

 

[Drhemi]

Dear Mike,

Thank you joining this Forum. All members stand to benefit from your insight and input regarding the maintenance of their current products as stand alone systems, the pros and cons of maintaining both Encore and Premiere line systems, or the complete transition over to the new Encore system depending on their various circumstances.

Here are some questions that have come to mind regarding how I and others can best plan for the future. I realize that some of these may be answered once detailed specs and user guides become available.

Questions regarding the new Strato player and Terra Server:
1. Personally, I have yet to decide on an UHD Display and frankly, I am waiting for further progress especially in the OLED arena. Until then, is the Strato player compatible with current HDTVs? I obviously realize I will not get 4K or HDR, but will I get at least as good picture quality for 2K HDTV as the M-class players? Are there settings for resolution and other options such as in the M-class players?
2. I understand the in-player decoding of lossless audio tracks will be coming. Will this be ready in time for the product’s first availability in Q1, 2016 or will the software update be at a still later date?
3. How will remote control codes be handled? Hopefully there will be no interference with current products in the same location using the supplied remotes. I realize many (most) of us use custom controllers but even then, it would be ideal if the codes were complete different from those currently in use.
4. As this system only accepts downloads, how is region encoding handled or is it handled at all? Are the players the same around the globe, i.e. region free? Currently, in the premiere system, if I try to play a disc either in the tray or imported, but not in the database (using “Play Disc”), I must use the correct M-class, region specific, player. Is this an issue when playing Blu-rays or DVDs from the disc server (vault) in an Encore system with only 1 Strato player or will 2 separate players, 1 for each region, be required?
5. If someone were to maintain both Encore line and Premiere line systems:
a. Can these be grouped as 1 system or must/should they co-exist as 2 systems?
b. Currently, only UV-enabled titles can be downloaded to more than one K. system. I understand that downloads of 4K titles to the Encore system will allow HD and SD downloads as well. Does this apply to the Premiere system only if grouped into 1 system? What happens if there are 2 systems? How will non-UV titles be managed in this case? Will downloads be shared between 2 systems, even with a single, specified owner? If 2 systems are an issue, could downloads be set up on a user/owner basis instead of system basis?

Questions regarding the current Premiere Line Products:
1. I think I speak for everyone on this forum that we are glad to hear there will be ongoing support for the Premiere line. Kudos Kaleidescape!
2. Aside from the 6TB drives hopefully arriving soon, is any further hardware development planned (perhaps an updated player with some of the wish list features posted elsewhere on this forum)? We all realize that resources, human and otherwise, are extremely limited, and concern exists that future development will be devoted mostly or entirely to the new product line instead of the “legacy line.”
3. Migration from a Premiere line server to the Terra Server, even if for downloads only (such as with 2 systems being maintained side by side - 1 for downloads, the other for imports), remains a problematic issue. Are there any preliminary ideas that can be shared at this point on how best to accomplish this? Is replication even possible with such incompatible products? Re-downloading everything is a huge bottleneck (ISP restrictions that many of us face) and not at all practical, except for small numbers of titles. Perhaps the feasibility of pre-loaded software titles can be further investigated by Kaleidescape.

I realize that there may not yet be answers for many of these questions for a great variety of reasons. My point in this post is to stimulate thought and further discussion between end users, retailers and K. headquarters. Thank you for listening!

Wayne

 

[J.Green]

I'm not Mike but I can answer some of these questions. I'll leave the other, future looking questions to Mike:

Questions regarding the new Strato player and Terra Server:
1. Personally, I have yet to decide on an UHD Display and frankly, I am waiting for further progress especially in the OLED arena. Until then, is the Strato player compatible with current HDTVs? I obviously realize I will not get 4K or HDR, but will I get at least as good picture quality for 2K HDTV as the M-class players? Are there settings for resolution and other options such as in the M-class players?

You can, indeed, use Strato on non-4k TVs. On a 1080p screen, picture quality will be at least as good as M-class players and performance (scrolling, place changes, etc) will be faster and smoother.

3. How will remote control codes be handled? Hopefully there will be no interference with current products in the same location using the supplied remotes. I realize many (most) of us use custom controllers but even then, it would be ideal if the codes were complete different from those currently in use.

Strato uses the same IR codesets as prior Kaleidescape players. All Kaleidescape players support two sets of IR codes (Kenwood and Toshiba) which are user-selectable. To avoid crosstalk, simply set each player to use a different codeset.

5. If someone were to maintain both Encore line and Premiere line systems:
a. Can these be grouped as 1 system or must/should they co-exist as 2 systems?

They must co-exist as two systems.

b. Currently, only UV-enabled titles can be downloaded to more than one K. system. I understand that downloads of 4K titles to the Encore system will allow HD and SD downloads as well. Does this apply to the Premiere system only if grouped into 1 system? What happens if there are 2 systems? How will non-UV titles be managed in this case? Will downloads be shared between 2 systems, even with a single, specified owner? If 2 systems are an issue, could downloads be set up on a user/owner basis instead of system basis?

All titles purchased directly from the Kaleidescape store can be downloaded to 5 separate systems (that are activated on the same store account). This is true for all resolutions.

Titles available on the Kaleidescape store that you have purchased from a different vendor and are in your UV Locker can be downloaded to a varying number of systems depending on the licensor. In some cases it is 2 systems and in other cases it is 5.

 

[Drhemi]

Thanks, John, for such a quick response.

The compatibility of the Strato with HDTV is as expected (and hoped for) and the 2 system requirement is also what I was expecting. Thank you for confirming.

The remote codes are really not an issue as I, and I am sure many others, control their systems with something more than the supplied remote. Personally, I rarely use IR anymore anyways.

I was confused about the non UV titles as the message "UltraViolet-enabled for viewing on mobile devices. In addition, it may be downloaded to as many as 5 Kaleidescape Systems" only appears Store titles that are UV enabled, so I mistakenly thought only those titles were available for multiple systems. Great news!

Regards,

Wayne