No director cuts?

[SteveWisconsin]

Newby here, so roast if applicable.

I noticed two new catalog releases, Little Shop of Horrors and The Frighteners, both are on K without the director cut versions that are on the 4K discs. I bought Little Shop disc since the dir cut is vastly superior. Is it typical that these catalog titles on here don’t get much in terms with bonuses?

I’m asking also because I bought Coyotes v Acme last week ( surprisingly fun) and was a bit bummed it was 5.1 only. My receiver unmixed it fine, but I knew the upcoming 4K disc will have Atmos. But this week, the K version was updated to add Atmos.

Should I wait to buy titles on K if their disc counterpart has more offerings? It’s this regular to have releases upgraded like that?

Steve

 

[Space Sheik]

Dolby atmos for ‘acme’ was released a few days ago through movie updates, as you know.

Sometimes it pays to wait a week or more for the Atmos mix to roll out through an update as has been the case in the past (‘Pressure’ etc).

 

[rafaelsmith]

Kaleidescape often is missing "special editions" of movies....Director, Extended, Unrated, etc. And often when they do have them..they are separate purchase and in lesser quality...like HD or without ATMOS.

 

[artur9]

.. It’s this regular to have releases upgraded like that?

Steve

Regular is a hard thing to quantify. It does happen fairly frequently.

Keep an eye on the Movie Update thread and if you have a question about whether to wait or not, post it there, too.

 

[LoveCinema]

Newby here, so roast if applicable.

I noticed two new catalog releases, Little Shop of Horrors and The Frighteners, both are on K without the director cut versions that are on the 4K discs. I bought Little Shop disc since the dir cut is vastly superior. Is it typical that these catalog titles on here don’t get much in terms with bonuses?

I’m asking also because I bought Coyotes v Acme last week ( surprisingly fun) and was a bit bummed it was 5.1 only. My receiver unmixed it fine, but I knew the upcoming 4K disc will have Atmos. But this week, the K version was updated to add Atmos.

Should I wait to buy titles on K if their disc counterpart has more offerings? It’s this regular to have releases upgraded like that?

Steve

Ah, one of my favorite topics. I've got a dedicated thread for "Alternate Cuts" on the forum with a lot more data, but there's a few factors at play here:

1. What does a studio make available? In your examples, Little Shop of Horrors 4K was released as two separate offerings available to digital stores. Unfortunately, it appears K has only chosen to get the Theatrical Cut. (I check every day hoping The Director's Cut appears.). For The Frighteners, only the theatrical cut is available digitally at this time. So, K has what they can have.

2. What does K get? K talks a lot about limited resources, every title needing to justify its place in the K Store, etc. So, there's a lot of times when K doesn't get alternate cuts or gets them in lower quality. This is why we have The Martian in 4K but The Martian Extended Cut is still in HD. When The Abyss and Aliens finally came to 4K, K only got the theatrical cuts and after (many) months of user requests they added The Special Editions.

The same holds true for things like Extras. These are optional add-on packages and more often than not K chooses not to get them. (Further, as part of the HD Compatibility Update hundreds of titles had their Extras stripped or downgraded to SD and have yet to return.)

In general, if you're a fan of alternate cuts and extras you're going to struggle with K's offerings. Depending upon your quality needs, I recommend augmenting with digital purchases from another store like Apple or Fandango. For titles that are really important to you when you want the best quality, I recommend buying the disc.

(In regards to Atmos mixes, this is a little less straightforward and there's threads dedicated to this. K will always try to get the best they can, but sometimes digital offerings are limited. But, this isn't like alt cuts or extras where K makes a choice to get less.)

 

[rafaelsmith]

In general, if you're a fan of alternate cuts and extras you're going to struggle with K's offerings. Depending upon your quality needs, I recommend augmenting with digital purchases from another store like Apple or Fandango. For titles that are really important to you when you want the best quality, I recommend buying the disc.

This is IMO the most important piece of advice I give to friends and coworkers that are interested in getting Kaleidescape....i tell them that based on reviews and marketing, one could naturally assume K would be the spot for collectors and movie enthusiast...who often prefer alternate/extended editions of favorite movies ..it often is not. It was perhaps the biggest disappointment I had when I first got into it...I really should have done more research. I tell them that K is mostly about convenience and sometimes earlier access to disc quality digital versions of titles....but for special editions, collector type stuff that disc is still king.

K doesnt replace anything....its just another source to add to the list of sources we get our movies from.

Also, now with the likes of Apple, Amazon and Netflix producing big budget type movies..those may or may not show up on K...so still having digital movies from those sources will be a thing.


Wife has been on a kick lately in watching some her favorite Rom coms with the daughter....many of which simply are not on K at all ....so she has to use the Zidoo which she hates. Fortunately, I use this time to play some video games

The lack of The Martian Extended Edition is without a doubt a trigger point for both myself and wife lol.

 

[artur9]

... K will always try to get the best they can, but sometimes digital offerings are limited. ....

I never understand this part. Why is K only limited to the digital offerings? Don't they also have access to the assets used to create discs?

 

[LoveCinema]

I never understand this part. Why is K only limited to the digital offerings? Don't they also have access to the assets used to create discs?

No, absolutely not and it's essential that people understand this. K HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DISCS. ZERO. NOTHING.

K is a digital store just like the Apple TV App (iTunes), Fandango (Vudu), Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies, etc. The fact that K produces high-quality encodes of the mezzanine files is the key distinction. But, those files are the same provided to those other companies. Want to know if K can get a title? Look at Apple or Fandango. Want to know why it's not HDR? Check those other stores. The fact that something is on disc? Absolutely irrelevant and inconsequential to K.

So, am I saying there's completely different physical and digital assets? No, generally studios make a single batch of mezzanine files for home video and certainly assets are shared between disc and digital. However, there's multiple areas of potential deviation. A studio may make a streamlined digital package. Or, the initial package circulated for digital is later expanded for disc production. While Atmos is often a focus on this forum, there are many other audio tracks that might appear on a disc but not digitally including other languages, commentaries, original stereo tracks, original audio vs. dubs, etc.

In regards to the topic of Alternate Cuts, studios also make decisions on what to make available. Sony recently re-released The Patriot and the disc includes the Theatrical and Extended Cuts both in 4K DV. However, Sony only released the Theatrical Cut digitally in 4K DV. The Extended Cut remains in HD for digital purposes. There's nothing K can do. Sony also recently re-released Talledega Nights, again with both the Theatrical and Extended Cuts in 4K DV on disc. This time, Sony also released both versions digitally in 4K DV so K has the ability to match the discs. However, K already had a 10+ year old 4K SDR version of the Theatrical Cut and (to date) has chosen not to update it. K did get the newly updated 4K DV version of the Extended Cut. So, 50/50 there. Technically K has both cuts in 4K but one is the current version and one is dated. If you're a fan of the film and want the best quality your only choice is to buy the disc.

Anyway, tons more examples including Little Shop of Horrors... knock on wood... fingers crossed... please, please, please appear...

 

[rafaelsmith]

The Martian Extended Editiion .......far as I know only Fandango has it in 4k but not ATMOS. Amazon has it but only in HD.. iTunes does not have it.

I really hate movie studios and their bizarre practices.

 

[LoveCinema]

The Martian Extended Editiion .......far as I know only Fandango has it in 4k but not ATMOS. Amazon has it but only in HD.. iTunes does not have it.

I definitely own it on Apple so I don't know if it's been delisted or if it's just Apple's terrible handling of multiple versions. But, yes, given Fandango's 4K but no Atmos I would suspect that this would be the case with K as well. Of course, only one way to find out...