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How To Get Discounted Prices In The Movie Store

LloydS

Member
08/13/2021

Apologies if this has already been posted, but I couldn't find anything like this post when I was first thinking about buying the Strato S, so I thought this post might be helpful, especially for new buyers.

Kaleidescape (hereinafter designated as K, cause I can never remember how to spell K) has a program that will reduce the price we pay for movies in the Movie Store. It is often referred to as the "Disc to Digital" program. I have never used the program myself, so if my post here contains error(s), hopefully a more seasoned user will make a correction(s).

Basically, the way it works is that one catalogs the discs that one already owns and then the Movie Store will show the discounted price. But there are some catches:

1. It doesn't work for 4k discs. No discounts for 4k, even if you already own it.
2. To be able to "catalog" the discs you already own, you'll need to somehow beg, borrow, or steal.....or maybe buy off eBay, a device that is no longer available and no longer made or sold by K. These are the devices that will allow you to catalog/"prove that you own" your discs:

a. The Alto - this is the most commonly mentioned device that one can use to catalog our discs
b. The M-700
c. The DVD-700.

So your problem is going to be finding one of this devices (probably an Alto). Most often the way one does this is by finding a dealer who will lend you one. A way to do this is by making an agreement with your dealer for him to lend you an Alto. You might say something like this: "If you'll agree to lend me an Alto, I'll buy the 12 TB Strato S from you." You get the idea, right?

Then, once you have the device (probably an Alto) in hand, you insert your previously purchased disc into it and it records the metadata, thus proving that you own that disc. I have no idea if that'll work for "copies" of discs that one has made, but I kinda doubt it. But I really don't know.

Now, here is the (possible) kicker. Dealers have told me that it can take up to 2 - 10 minutes or more to "catalog" each disc. However, a guy on this very forum says that that is poppycock, and that it is more like a few seconds, which certainly makes better sense to me. But I suppose your mileage may vary, as they say. Oh and the guy who told me that it only took seconds didn't actually use the word "poppycock." But, should it take several minutes per disc and you have a lot of discs, you could be spending quite a bit of time "cataloging" your previously purchased discs. Hopefully then, it'll just take a few seconds per disc.

Then, after the cataloging is done, somehow that info is transmitted to your account, and then, quite nicely, the discounted price shows up in the Movie Store when you are logged into your account.

Why didn't I do the above when I bought my first addictive wave of movies? Laziness. Plus I didn't really have all the info above. So I ended up maxing out a credit card making payments for movies I already owned on discs. But then as Homer Simpson, my role model, says, "What are ya gonna do?"

Other possibly helpful notes for new buyers:

1. Initially I thought that the way to go was to buy a Strato C (a player) and a Terra (the digital storage unit, sometimes called a server). But the Strato C is getting hard to find. So it seems that the way to go now is to buy the Strato S (which is a combination player and storage unit), and then possibly add a storage unit (a Terra) if you need it.

I'm an old guy who loves movies, but is not particularly impressed by explosions and such if the story ain't worth much. Example: If it's a choice between the latest Star Wars or Super Hero movie who saves the world, yet again, and maybe, say...... "Mr. Holland's Opus," I'll chose the "Mr. Holland" category every time. I'm all "whooshed" out, and that being the case, I found that I needed just over 12 TB of space to contain all the movies I really cared about.

Now, an unsubstantiated rumor has it that K will be showing off an 18 TB Strato S at the Cedia event in September, 2021. If that's true, that is the one I would wait for and buy. On the other hand, if you prefer a ton of movies of every sort, you may want to buy a Strato S AND a Terra storage unit.

2. With all the compliments that one reads about the fantastic picture you get from the K Strato, you'll likely find that you'll have a Blu-ray or three in your disc collection that K only offers in DVD! There are probably good reasons that K doesn't have those movies in a higher quality, but I was surprised.

3. Also, you'll likely find that K doesn't even offer for sale movies that you love.....not even Young Frankenstein! Explain that to your wife that you spent thousands and yet some of her favorite movies aren't available! Good luck with that. Well, I'm led to believe that they're working on it! Hopefully so. They do already have a ton of movies in their inventory.

Well I gotta tell ya that I'm rather enjoying this adventure. I hope you new buyers will join us. Hey, I just joined up about a week ago with a shiny new 12 TB Strato S!
 
Last edited:
For your item #2, you need to read this forum more closely:


John
 
For your item #2, you need to read this forum more closely:


John
Actually, I did read that, but at the time that I read that, I didn't really understand what was being talked about. Seen from the eyes of someone completely new you know, things don't totally add up like they do to you seasoned users. Thus my clear title for new users, "How To Get Discounted Prices In The Movie Store."

Plus I didn't really know how serious that offer was. I don't think I've ever met anyone that generous and kind! So I was hesitant to point a bunch of folks to him. I didn't want him to be inundated.
 
Kaleidescape offers an iOS app called "Disc Search" that will tell you if Disc-to-Digital is available for a particular movie when you scan the barcode. It doesn't tell you the cost though.
Great to know! Thanks Wilson! ......and come back (silly movie reference)
 
Kaleidescape offers an iOS app called "Disc Search" that will tell you if Disc-to-Digital is available for a particular movie when you scan the barcode. It doesn't tell you the cost though.
Sadly I cannot find anything like that in the Google App Store. It would be nice to know ahead of time that if I buy a BD movie it will be available on the store. Otherwise I may prefer to buy the DVD to load into my 3U. Again, this assumes I end up getting rid of my M700. Guess I should just plan on keeping it for a while.

Thanks again!
 
For the purposes of cataloging, in addition to the Alto, the Cinema One (2nd generation) is functionally (and almost physically) identical to the Alto.

The vaults you mentioned above do not work as standalone components. They can however speed up cataloging when paired with a Strato, Alto, C1, etc...

As for the offer of borrowing an Alto... Yes, cinelife is lending them out to forum members for cataloging. And yes, he is that generous!
 
Sadly I cannot find anything like that in the Google App Store. It would be nice to know ahead of time that if I buy a BD movie it will be available on the store. Otherwise I may prefer to buy the DVD to load into my 3U. Again, this assumes I end up getting rid of my M700. Guess I should just plan on keeping it for a while.

Thanks again!
I also was not able to find the "Disc Search" app on the Google Play store on my Android phone, but I do have it on my iPhone. That leads me to believe KScape only released it to the Apple Store for IOS devices. I will say its a useful app, as it also indicates if you already own a movie, which is really nice if you ever browse movies at a brick & mortar store and wonder 'do I already own a copy of that?'. Its saved me a few times from purchasing a duplicate I already had.
 
You can get 4K movies discounted. Almost all 4K discs come with the 2K disc bundled in. You catalog the 2K version and the store offer you a D2D+4K upgrade price.

Cataloging a disc doesn’t take a lot but it can take a while for the D2D discount to apply. I have cataloged many discs in my DV700. I think it takes something like a min to catalog each disc. If you let the disc sit in the DV700, it can take up to an hour to receive the D2D discount. If you reject the disc immediately after its cataloged, the discount appears within 10 mins.

DVD-R/RW discs don’t work. Those get rejected immediately. They need to be original copies.

If you plan to buy many movies, I do recommend the Terra+C route. You get a significant performance cut once the spinning drive in your Strato is near full. With the Terra, this is not a worry plus many of the core computational functions are offloaded from your Strato to Terra which should make the GUI snappier.

CoStar is the only remedy for the missing titles in the Store. You have valid points on how to buy and maintain these discontinued products. There is no remedy for the missing 4K titles.
 
Thank
I also was not able to find the "Disc Search" app on the Google Play store on my Android phone, but I do have it on my iPhone. That leads me to believe KScape only released it to the Apple Store for IOS devices. I will say its a useful app, as it also indicates if you already own a movie, which is really nice if you ever browse movies at a brick & mortar store and wonder 'do I already own a copy of that?'. Its saved me a few times from purchasing a duplicate I already had.
Thanks Kragan! It would be nice to have that app, but I won't switch to iPhone just for it. And I doubt the government would let me download it to my issued iPhone!! Our agency created their own app store and if it isn't listed in there, we can't download it!

I have been trying to get rid of as many of my BD movies so that I could sell my M700 and use the proceeds to help fund the Terra and Strato C. But with a number still not available on K store, and possibly never becoming available, maybe I should just hold on to it for a while. Have 280 open slots right now!! And 10 slots are occupied by DVDs I cannot get to eject!! Have to find a matching screw head in order to open it up and pull them out.

I need to put together a bundle of old equipment to try to get someone in an entry level theater environment. I could probably put an old 1080p projector, receiver, 5.1 speakers, m300 and 1u server together. My biggest problem would be boxing it and shipping it!!
 
Thank

Thanks Kragan! It would be nice to have that app, but I won't switch to iPhone just for it. And I doubt the government would let me download it to my issued iPhone!! Our agency created their own app store and if it isn't listed in there, we can't download it!

I have been trying to get rid of as many of my BD movies so that I could sell my M700 and use the proceeds to help fund the Terra and Strato C. But with a number still not available on K store, and possibly never becoming available, maybe I should just hold on to it for a while. Have 280 open slots right now!! And 10 slots are occupied by DVDs I cannot get to eject!! Have to find a matching screw head in order to open it up and pull them out.

I need to put together a bundle of old equipment to try to get someone in an entry level theater environment. I could probably put an old 1080p projector, receiver, 5.1 speakers, m300 and 1u server together. My biggest problem would be boxing it and shipping it!!
I got to less than 40 and decided to pull the trigger. Most are things we rarely watch. Haven’t watched them in over a year or more… We have 2 Altos paired with costar/Stratos in 2 zones in our home (also have Terras). With the recent promo, you can trade in an Alto and DV700 for a discount on a Strato C and Terra. Did the trade in and now will just have to physically insert the discs in the rare case we watch those movies. Just decided it was time to get rid of the beast…. SJ
 
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