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Expanding from single Strato - Confused

livitup

Member
Hi all...

I've had a single Strato for a couple years and we love the system. I also have a bunch of DVDs and BluRays from the preK era.

What's the easiest and/or cheapest route to expand my system to be able to play as many of those discs as possible without touching them?

Mainly I'm confused about the advantage/disadvantage of buying an older grandfathered system vs. an Alto and a DV.

I think that in order to get all my movies in a single OSD, and not have to touch discs, the Alto/DV solution is the only way to go? Because a Cinema One OSD would not be able to integrate with the Strato? Is that right?

I'm sure there are other details I am missing - your advice would be appreciated!
 
A second generation Cinema One can be paired with a Strato by using the Co-Star Switch. The Strato will present all content from both systems on-screen. If you want to import your BR disc collection for playback from the internal storage of the Cinema One, you would need a Vault as well (DV700 being the less expensive option) because of the requirement that BR discs be present during playback. Obviously store downloaded HD content does not have that requirement.

Assuming your Cinema One is grandfathered (purchased before the date established in the settlement between K and the DVD-CCA), you can import and playback all of your DVD content.

So....you have two options, both involve using a Co-Star:

1. Purchase a Premiere server and player (or Cinema One 2nd Gen), add a vault if importing your BR discs, and pair that system with a Strato.

2. Purchase an Alto and Vault, pair that with a Strato. It sounds like you understand that this option allows you to play physical discs through the Vaults optical drive, like the old Sony carousels, but all additional content on this system (Alto or Strato) would come by downloads from the Store.

Hope that helps.

Jim
 
Also, you mentioned:

"Mainly I'm confused about the advantage/disadvantage of buying an older grandfathered system vs. an Alto and a DV."

If you are using the Premiere system components, and assuming you have a grandfathered server, you are only limited in the number of DVD's you can import by the amount of storage you have available. Also, your BR content can be imported and played back directly from the hard drives, and the Vault only acts as the importer, and storage of discs, so there is less wear and tear on the Vault (but it does limit the BR's to 320 discs).

With the Alto/Vault, you are limited to playback of physical DVD's and BR's stored in the Vault, again 320 discs, and none of that content will be imported. This does place more wear and tear on the Vault (assuming you play a lot of disc based content). Only Store downloads will be stored on the Alto's hard drives.

Jim
 
Also, we these systems, it will allow you to catalog your discs which gives you store discounts as available per studios....
 
For your consideration -

I just recently went through this dilemma. In my case, using my Alto I can catalog my discs. The corresponding discount to upgrade from disc to digital ($5.99 in many cases) has more value to me than the cost of adding a vault. Of course there are storage/space considerations, but I figure I'll upgrade my most frequently watched titles first. As I want to watch the other discs, I'll add those at that time.

I have no idea what a valut

I can immediately use my Kscape system to catalog ALL my movies. If it requires a disc, the cover art will show up with the blu-ray bands on top/bottom, and I can then play it through the Alto (if I havne't yet or don't choose to upgrade to digital in the kscape store).

I know you said you wanted access to all of your discs without touching them. That's EXACTLY where my family wants me to go. I just found this solution to be an excellent compromise, and I'm investing my money in digital movie licenses rather than hardware.
 
Thanks all for the replies. What I am not seeing is any disadvantage to the Cinema One G2 + DV-700 + Costar route. Without having researched it, I would assume a Cinema One G2 would be cheaper than an Alto on the used market. Is there any features I would be missing by going the Cinema One route instead of the Alto?

I appreciate the help!
 
If you don't think the ending of the Premiere line, and the reduction in support of that lines products (including the C1) is a disadvantage over the Alto, then go with the C1 if that helps your budget. Otherwise they both perform about the same with the Vaults.

Jim
 
There are Pros and Cons of both. It kind of depends on the mix DVDs and Blu-rays that you would like to have access to. With the C1, everything is imported to the hard drive, so you will run out of space on the hard drive before the vault is full. A grandfathered 4TB C1 can only hold about 100 Blu-rays. However, if you have a lot of DVDs, it can hold about 600 DVDs (and these don't have to stay in the vault).

With a 4TB Alto, you could hold 320 discs in the vault (DVD or Blu-ray) plus ~100 HD downloads.

The benefit of the C1 + Vault is that everything plays faster, since it plays from the hard drive and not the vault. You are also not wearing out your vault as fast.

With the Alto, you will likely get more total storage (unless you have a lot of DVDs), but disc playback will be slower to start while you wait on the Vault to load the appropriate disc.

Both players are out of production and use the same hardware, so I don't see any difference in longevity.
 
Thanks all for the replies. What I am not seeing is any disadvantage to the Cinema One G2 + DV-700 + Costar route. Without having researched it, I would assume a Cinema One G2 would be cheaper than an Alto on the used market. Is there any features I would be missing by going the Cinema One route instead of the Alto?

I appreciate the help!
The main thing I would encourage you to consider is that if you're using a Cinema One with a Disc Vault, anything you put into the vault will be imported onto the Cinema One's hard drive, up until it fills up. (Assuming that the system is grandfathered and therefore has DVD import capability.)

The Cinema One is not likely to have enough space on the hard drive to store a full DV700's worth of Blu-ray discs. You'd want to do some careful math on this score. If all of your discs will fit, then it's an excellent option.

If you use an Alto, then nothing is imported from disc onto the hard drive. Whenever you play a movie that's on a disc in the DV700, the DV700 loads that disc and sends the bits over the network to the Alto for playback. You're not constrained by the hard drive size in the Alto, but this does obviously cause additional wear & tear on the disc vault.

If you could find a used, grandfathered 1U server and an M700 (which has a built-in player), that would be an excellent complement to the Strato, and suitably configured, you would have enough storage that you could import all your DVDs and fill the M700 with Blu-ray discs without running out of space.

You should also consider how much it would cost to buy the movies you have on disc for your Strato, factoring in disc-to-digital discounts if they're available. It may turn out to be more economical to go that route, but it really depends on what content you have. I personally have a reasonable number of pretty esoteric and/or foreign titles that are really not available except on disc, so I anticipate that I will be using a Co-Star system for quite some time.
 
I personally keep my DV700 full (access from Alto). When I need a slot for another disc, I purchase a movie from the store to download (usually at a discount because of disc to digital or K special pricing) and put the new disc in the DV700. Less of an issue these days with all the studios covered by the K store. SJ
 
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