New K Owner

[alexbeans]

I've been looking into Kaleidescape for well over a decade and opted the DIY model with Plex. I have around 400 TV shows and 2000 movies uncompressed from my Bluray source. For content that I cannot buy and can only stream, I would record them using DVDFab. I really wish Disney+ and AppleTV would release their content either in Bluray, 4K or Kaleidescape for movie lovers like us.
I then got into 4k and started ripping my 4k purchases into Zappiti. This worked out great and I was able to rip my 200+ 4k collection. What I didn't like is that not all my 4k disks could be ripped and many times I receive the error message of bad sectors. So that's when I came back to Kaleidescape to see what has changed since the early 2000's.

The hardware was expensive but what attracted me was the movie sales. At $6.99 to $9.99, it is the pricing point that I can get by. I still buy the physical media and rip the 4k version to my Zappiti and the Bluray version to my Plex. For the select movies that I happen to buy during the sales, I would watch them in my Kaleidescape with all its glory. And loving it. It was close to $10k for the Strato C and Terra 6TB and is truly a luxury item considering that my Plex and Zappiti is serviceable.

What I don't like: the price for storage. At the rate of how I purchase movies, I can easily surpass 6TB in a few months. One of the reasons why I'm not buying that many K-movies compared to the physical media is because I don't want to use up too much space. Between all my digital media in my Synology server, I've easily surpass 100+ TB. Someone posted in a thread asking if it is possible to have all their purchased movies in the wall (not just downloaded ones) with the ability to play the movie while it is downloading (instead of waiting 10+ minutes in optimal conditions to download).

I know that Kaleidescape makes their money through their hardware and that despite the high prices for the digital movies, it's mainly the studios that set these absurd prices especially when people can stream the content from their other streaming services.
I don't know what you all think, but what about charging users for a premium subscription service?

Here's what would make sense:
1. Keep the equipment pricing model the way it is: Strato C plus Terra storage. There's a lot of R&D and legal put into the company, and this type of device is for movie-lovers. Others who are fine with streaming, they can buy their AppleTV, Roku, etc. $3-4k for the Strato C is fine for me. For those who want to buy the Terra storage because they don't want things to be stored in a "cloud"? Sure. But some owners don't want to have so many servers running 24/7 generating heat and using electricity.
2. Have the ability to display all your purchased content in the wall instead of viewing only your downloaded content.
3. Nice to have - the ability to play the movie while they are downloading it in the background. Since my Strato C can download a 4k movie within 10-15 minutes I can live with it. But it will be great to not having to plan ahead to download a movie.
4. Subscription model. Many of us are asking for more software features. What if we grant users access to premium content for a monthly fee? You can do away with the bonus materials for the default software but charge a premium of $9.99/month to have access to bonus materials that you may find in the physical disc. Such as movie commentary and extended bonus features.
5. Price of movies: This is outside of K's control as movie studios are still being greedy. They need to realize that they days of charging more than $20 per movie is over now that people can stream them using their streaming service. $9.99 to $14.99 is the soft spot for me for new releases with the higher prices being the ones that are exclusive like the Criterion Collections. Having fire sales and bundle sales is always welcomed too.

Anyways, I'm a nobody and all of this is just a wish-list. But if Kaleidescape wants to hear the voice of the customer, this is my 2 cents.

 

[Transepoch]

4. Subscription model. Many of us are asking for more software features. What if we grant users access to premium content for a monthly fee? You can do away with the bonus materials for the default software but charge a premium of $9.99/month to have access to bonus materials that you may find in the physical disc. Such as movie commentary and extended bonus features.

While not interested in adding subscription fees, I'm not against them in principle. However, I'm definitely opposed to adding them for bringing parity of platform to already purchased content (it feels like paying a monthly fee to use all of the doors on your vehicle.)

 

[Substance]

I understand this is an attractive model for someone who is looking to make the entry to the Kaleidescape platform but very unfair to the customers of the past 20 years who invested 10s of thousands dollars into storage and purchased content.

 

[alexbeans]

While not interested in adding subscription fees, I'm not against them in principle. However, I'm definitely opposed to adding them for bringing parity of platform to already purchased content (it feels like paying a monthly fee to use all of the doors on your vehicle.

I understand this is an attractive model for someone who is looking to make the entry to the Kaleidescape platform but very unfair to the customers of the past 20 years who invested 10s of thousands dollars into storage and purchased content.

Yeah, I get that. I’ve invested in $10k to enter the K-platform and in just a week I already filled up 2TB of my server. At the rate, I can see in a year needing to spend $20-30k for a 70+TB server when the hard drives can be purchased at 1/10 of the price.
I also see very little in development in the software front as they seem dated in comparison to Plex who are constantly getting updated. If having a subscription gives the company an incentive to innovate the software and allow the company to reduce the price for the servers, that’s great.
I am certain physical media will die but I don’t want consumers to choose inferior movie stores like Vudu and iTunes.
Purists don’t mind spending hundreds of dollars a month buying content. But I also think that they would rather spend $10k in more movie content than an empty 12TB server.
Maybe for those who invest tens of thousands can be grandfathered from having to pay subscription fees for the software?
I was an early adopter for my Tesla and paid more for my lower range and lower tech car, but I do enjoy the fact that I am grandfathered in the unlimited super charging.

 

[alexbeans]

Yeah, I get that. I’ve invested in $10k to enter the K-platform and in just a week I already filled up 2TB of my server. At the rate, I can see in a year needing to spend $20-30k for a 70+TB server when the hard drives can be purchased at 1/10 of the price.
I also see very little in development in the software front as they seem dated in comparison to Plex who are constantly getting updated. If having a subscription gives the company an incentive to innovate the software and allow the company to reduce the price for the servers, that’s great.
I am certain physical media will die but I don’t want consumers to choose inferior movie stores like Vudu and iTunes.
Purists don’t mind spending hundreds of dollars a month buying content. But I also think that they would rather spend $10k in more movie content than an empty 12TB server.
Maybe for those who invest tens of thousands can be grandfathered from having to pay subscription fees for the software?
I was an early adopter for my Tesla and paid more for my lower range and lower tech car, but I do enjoy the fact that I am grandfathered in the unlimited super charging.

I also think that $4-5k for the Strato C is priced right. It has to cover for all the R&D work for years past. So I’m not interested in them dropping their price to under $1k just so that the masses can join the platform. For people who complain and want it priced like an AppleTV are people who are content to stream movies rather than pay money to own them.

 

[Oldred]

I am not so convinced about the subscription model for them but what has crossed my mind a few times now is that the costs of a server are high and ending up with just the ‘tin’ isn’t a great feeling. I say that having ordered my second server within months of the first.

I do wonder that if they had added a further amount to the purchase cost but gave you say $1000 or $500 credit in their store. Then I would feel far better about things somehow. Maybe different amounts for each TB size. Even if that amount was the full money (sure they can better that) then I am not sure the extra cost loses punters but rather makes them happier to pay the K premium pricing. I know this is just smoke and mirrors but it is about how you feel, Not suggesting it would work if they had advertised the details of that but more that if they had done that, I would have felt that the movies were part of the purchase justification.

Also I would be filling up my server from day one and studios get the sales etc.

I know this may sound odd and who wants the price to go even higher as a customer, but I am more talking about how they perhaps could have positioned this initial purchase.

If they want they can credit me a $1000 for the idea and you can write me hate mail for suggesting a price rise

 

[Transepoch]

I also see very little in development in the software front as they seem dated in comparison to Plex who are constantly getting updated. If having a subscription gives the company an incentive to innovate the software and allow the company to reduce the price for the servers, that’s great.

Personally, I don't care if it looks like a DOS prompt directory listing if it shows me everything I want and always works the way I expect it to, not that covers view doesn't have its uses.

 

[Substance]

Personally, I don't care if it looks like a DOS prompt directory listing if it shows me everything I want and always works the way I expect it to, not that covers view doesn't have its uses.

I am also on board with this. I am never a big fan of all in ones. I love my Kaleidescape box does only Kaleidescape, not bloated with other apps and 3rd party services. The current form is to the point and reliable. All settings are dialed in on the web interface by your dealer or an expert user, all movies are downloaded ahead of time to the local storage, you only need to chose what you want to watch and it starts immediately.