• Thanks for visiting the Kaleidescape Owners' Forum

    This forum is for the community of Kaleidescape owners, and others interested in learning about the system, equipment, services, and the company itself.

    It is run by a group of enthusiastic Kaleidescape owners and dealers purely as a service to this community.

    This board is not affiliated in any way with Kaleidescape, Inc.
    For official technical support, product information, or customer service, please visit www.kaleidescape.com

  • You are currently in "Guest" mode and not logged in with a registered account.

    The forum is free to use and most of the forum can be used by guests who are not registered....

    ... but we strongly encourage you to register for a full account. There is no cost to register for a full account.

    Benefits of registering for a full account:

    • Participate in the discussions! You must have a registered account to make posts on the forums. You will be able to start your own thread on a topic or question, or you can reply to other threads/discussions.
    • Use the "Conversation" feature (known as "private messaging" on other forums) to communicate directly with any of the other users here.
    • Access the Files area. The "resources" area of the forum contains many "Favorite Scene" and Script files that can dramatically increase the enjoyment of your Kaleidescape system. Go directly to great scenes in your favorite movies, created by other owners, and add automation to playback of your system with Scripts.
    • You won't see this annoying notice at the top of every screen!😊

    It's easy and free to register for the forum. Just click the "Register" button in the upper right corner of this page, and follow the instructions there.

Movie Store - downloading multiple resolutions in an "all Encore+costar" environment

josh

josh

Administrator
Staff member
Forum Administrator
Moderator
⭐️⭐️PATRON⭐️⭐️
Curious if the Movie Store is smart enough to stop downloading BOTH the 4K version AND the HD version of a purchased movie if your system has all of your Premiere-line players paired via Costar? I'm pretty sure that in that type of environment, there's really no need for the store to keep defaulting to downloading multiple resolutions of the movie, unless I'm missing something.
 
When I had only a DV700 with my Strato/Alto costar pair, it would only download the 4K version by default. This was the same when I changed my Alto's to M500s, added a 1U+ and changed the costar to a Strato/M500 costar system pair. As soon as I added the M700 though (no costar because it's "in the garage") it now asks to download 4K and HD.
 
If your system is paired in that fashion, it should only queue the 4K versions, assuming that all of your zones support 4K HDR. If you have any 4K, non-HDR zones, then it may queue HD downloads for movies where there is no 4K standard dynamic range version.
 
I have my Strato/Terra and my Alto on two difference "systems" cause I'm only using the Alto for D2D now and I don't keep or want anything stored on it for playback.
 
I have an Alto and I'm looking to add a Strato/Terra. I'd like to use them in the following way:
Strato/Terra - store HDR/4k version of a movie only, unless the Alto is full
Alto - store HD version of a movie ONLY if the movie is not available in a 4k version

Essentially, I want to store only the best copy of a movie, and have it go to the Strato/Terra for 4k, and Alto for HD. The Terra/Strato can store HD movies only if the Alto becomes full or is removed from the system.

Is that something that I can set up automatically for current titles? For future downloads? Or do I have to curate that manually?

One day, I hope to just add more Strato/Terra storage and be done with the Alto. Or, better yet, is there any chance/way the Strato/Terra can take a 4k movie and downscale it to play on the Alto?
 
Are you intending to keep the Alto as a separate playback zone? Are you using any optical discs as well, or only purchasing movies from the movie store?

Whenever you have a player that is part of a system, the movie store defaults to downloading whatever qualities you need in order for each zone to be able to play the movie at the highest quality it supports. So for example, if you had your Alto and a Strato with a 4K HDR display, and you purchased a movie like Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is available in 4K HDR, 4K UHD, and HD, your system would by default download 4K HDR (for your Strato) and HD (for your Alto).

Unfortunately, there is not currently a way to tell the system that a player that is part of your system is not actually being used for playback. This could happen if you kept the Alto purely to use its storage, for example.

If you were not intending to keep the Alto as a separate zone, and you did have need for optical disc playback, then one option would be to Co-Star pair the two players together. This is supported to allow Strato+Alto systems to handle optical discs within a single user interface (typically with a DV-700 as well, but that's not required). In this scenario, the download logic recognizes that you only have a single playback zone because the players are paired, and the download-steering logic will produce exactly the results you said you want.
 
Thanks Mike. I had kinda wanted the option to do both, depending on circumstances. But I think that'd lead to lots of confusion in my home about what movies were avaiable in which zone. So, I suspect the easiest answer is to leave the Alto and a Strato in the same zone, allowing for disc playback.

Speaking of which, can I have the Alto in one zone and a Strato in the other, and then view a disc in the Alto through the Strato?
 
No, a disc in the Alto can only be played on that Alto. The exception is if you Co-Star pair the Strato & Alto (in the same zone). In that case, even though you're looking at the Strato's onscreen display, it will show the information for the disc inserted into the Alto, and if you play it, the Co-Star switch will automatically switch to the Alto for the duration of playback.
 
Does the disc play through the HDMI output of the Alto in that case, or through the HDMI of the Strato? Trying to figure out if I need to switch HDMI inputs when that happens?

Disregard that! Reading is powerful stuff. Just looked into Co-Star and discovered it is an HDMI switching system, which answers my question! :)
 
This is what the Co-Star switch is for. You connect the two players to the Co-Star switch, and then it handles the transition for you seamlessly.
 
This video is old, and talks about Strato + Premiere Co-Star, but it still gives you an idea of how things go together. The switching is typically more seamless than it was back when we made this video, too.

 
Thanks for that! Which makes me think of another question... If I have the Alto and Strato in separate zones, can I still see/watch HD movies that are stored on the Alto via the Strato? Or do I need the co-star to see both discs AND stored digital movies?
 
If you have them in separate zones, the Strato can play any content stored on the Alto's hard drive. If the Strato has any HD or SD content on its drive, the Alto can play that as well. (And if they're Co-Star paired, then the Strato plays anything on the Alto's drive as well.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top