It is run by a group of enthusiastic Kaleidescape owners and dealers purely as a service to this community.
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I enjoy this feature as well, but it's worth noting that you can turn it off if you prefer not to have the automatic shuffle. Then the Shuffle button on the remote control will allow a manual shuffle when desired.One comment I would have is that the reviewer stated that he is not totally sold on the feature where you select a movie and immediately see a resort of similar movies.
Thanks Dan...I'm the reviewer.Great review! One comment I would have is that the reviewer stated that he is not totally sold on the feature where you select a movie and immediately see a resort of similar movies. Even though this feature may not be totally useful for resorting your own movie collection (especially is it is small), it is a brilliant feature when you are in the store and looking for a movie to watch. It’s really one of the most powerful features of the system that we use all the time when we have an idea of a specific film to watch but want to see other related choices.
Aside from audio and video quality, our top 5 features would be:
1) Titles otherwise not available in HDR/UHD
2) Frequent release dates in advance (sometimes well in advance) of the physical media release
3) Ease of use (including no forced advertising, warnings or previews, the ease of moving from title to title, and the automation of aspect ratios for the Lumagen)
4) Compared to physical media, the cost of (most) titles - especially with the sales
5) The sale of all our physical media / taking down storage units / less clutter
Thanks for sharing this, Tom! I appreciate it! Looking forward to share Chapters 2 & 3!
Thanks Tom!
Nice work. I just watched 2 and 3 after earlier today recording a "top 5 reasons I bought into K" for my own channel. I promise I didn't copy. We have some similar history and takes on media and content collecting.
One point of discussion, I do think you conflate concepts of ownership and access. Apple and Vudu purchases are "purchases" in parallel to what a Kaleidescape purchase is.
People say "streaming" but it really means two things. One is streaming being a licensed subscription service. The other being a delivery mechanism for content that is sent to you over the internet as you play it. iTunes is "streaming" only in the latter sense, not the former. Netflix is both.
I know this isn't 100% and content can get taken on any digital platform. I owned the original Transfers 1986 movie on K in HD. It disappeared from the store *and* from my purchases. It came back a little while later in 4K, but I no longer owned it and didn't have an upgrade offer. I had to rebuy it. This is the only instance of this I've experienced with Kaleidescape.
I'm not aware of Apple taking iTunes purchases away from me, but I have films and TV series I bought or redeemed that are not in the store to purchase any more. They remain streamable in my library. They are not taken away. Same for K, an example being the Laika films. Those have come and gone from the K store a couple of times, yet the ones I bought remain in my library. iTunes works the same way.
With regards to K, having something downloaded doesn't mean you "own" it any more than if it were delivered to you in a stream, assuming it's on a platform on which you've bought it (and not Netflix, D+, or whatnot). Downloading just means you can access it during an internet outage because the assets are local and a network check is not immediately required to authorize playback. As you said, you can't buy or download content offline with K.
With regards to K, having something downloaded doesn't mean you "own" it any more than if it were delivered to you in a stream, assuming it's on a platform on which you've bought it (and not Netflix, D+, or whatnot). Downloading just means you can access it during an internet outage because the assets are local and a network check is not immediately required to authorize playback. As you said, you can't buy or download content offline with K.
Travis (@thrillcat ) was right to point out that streaming services have to cut off access when they no longer have a license to the title. But as long as our agreement with the studio survives, and the rights continue to allow this, existing customers can get access to the titles they have licensed on our headend to download to their systems.