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.
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.