Plex User looking to switch to Kaleidescape Questions

[ERPauls]

Hello,
I am a current Plex user with my own server. I have almost 400 4k movies(all from purchased BluRays) in my Library.
I thought I read something about being able to import these into Kaleidescape.
Is this true? Can you bring existing purchased media into the Kaleidescape?

Any help/info is appreciated!

Eric

 

[thrillcat]

No.

You can take the blu-rays and transfer via "disc to digital" which is akin to the old VUDU program that allowed the same. There is a fee to convert which will vary based on the studio. You pop the disc into a connected USB drive (search here for info on approved drives and experiences - I've not actually done it with Kaleidescape) and catalog the disc into your system, and you'll see the prices for each title to convert them into your Kaleidescape.

I transitioned from a a few hundred movies on a PLEX server to Kaleidescape a couple years ago, before the "Disc to Digital" program launched. I thinned out a bit of the stuff that was just taking up space in PLEX that I'd not likely watch again, and created a wish list in Kaleidescape of the stuff I wanted to transition over and just waited until I either wanted to watch it or things went on sale, and then I bought them in Kaleidescape. My wish list is down to probably 25 of those titles and some new titles as well. Kaleidescape gives you notifications when a movie in your wish list goes on sale, and again before the sale ends, so it's easy to do a rolling transition using sales.

I still have about 75 titles in PLEX, things that I wanted to hold onto that didn't warrant re-purchasing, things that have never been released on digital (lots of concert films and obscure movies). PLEX is my OTA DVR, so it will always be part of the system, though I downloaded from a 60TB server on an industrial machine to a Mac Mini with a 5TB usb drive. Much quieter and more energy efficient and I no longer need to keep all those discs around.

I have not once regretted the transition, and have never looked back.

 

[ERPauls]

Thank you for the quick response!

I think it was the Disc to Digital program that I saw mention of.
I wish I would of known or researched Kaleidescape 4 years ago before I built my plex server and purchased all the movies. Now, its hard to justify the $$$$$ for the equipment and then the repurchase of all the movies I would want on it.

I think I will have to wait at least until there is a need to upgrade/replace my current plex setup. It works well and the $$$ have already been spent.

 

[thrillcat]

Thank you for the quick response!

I think it was the Disc to Digital program that I saw mention of.
I wish I would of known or researched Kaleidescape 4 years ago before I built my plex server and purchased all the movies. Now, its hard to justify the $$$$$ for the equipment and then the repurchase of all the movies I would want on it.

I think I will have to wait at least until there is a need to upgrade/replace my current plex setup. It works well and the $$$ have already been spent.

The longer you wait, the harder it will be to transition over. I'd go now if you think you're going to go.

Remember, they can coexist. You don't have to duplicate any content if you don't want to. Just move all new acquisition into Kaleidescape.

 

[alexbeans]

Thank you for the quick response!

I think it was the Disc to Digital program that I saw mention of.
I wish I would of known or researched Kaleidescape 4 years ago before I built my plex server and purchased all the movies. Now, its hard to justify the $$$$$ for the equipment and then the repurchase of all the movies I would want on it.

I think I will have to wait at least until there is a need to upgrade/replace my current plex setup. It works well and the $$$ have already been spent.

Dear OP,
It's ok to have it co-exist. The price for the Kaleidescape is either on par with the physical disc or cost more. Rarely it is cheaper. Hence the reason why I still buy physical media. I buy the 4K version and rip it into my server for my Zappiti player (now R-Video) as an ISO image to preserve the quality of the disc (lossless). I take the Blu-ray version and rip it to my Plex server. And then I place the Blu-ray Disc for Kaleidscape's D2D program. If the price is $4.92, I buy. Sometimes it doesn't recognize and you have to pay full price (e.g. $24.99, $29.99, $39.99, etc.). For those movies I would wait until they are on sale for $14.99 or under. If I own the physical movie, I would only wait until it drops below $9.99. But Marvel and Disney/Pixar movies usually do not drop below $14.99.

Why do I bother maintaining Plex, Zappiti and Kaleidescape?

1. I've been ripping using Plex for close to 15 years and have amassed an extremely large collection that will take me five lifetimes to watch all the content. I love the User Interface but sometimes I get "buffering" problems. It happens rarely but it happens. I rip my Blu-ray into MKV.

2. For my 4k movies, I use the Zappiti player (with the now R-Video software). This is equivalent to a 4k player so you don't get lossy audio that you will get from a cheap Apple TV player. You can rip it as MKV but I prefer an ISO image. How R-Video categorizes things aren't as good as Plex but when you select your movie, there's a moving image preview that makes the player feels "premium".

3. Then there's Kaleidescape. With over 1000 movies in my collection, I'm all-in. If I haven't invest in #1 and #2, Kaleidescape would have been my only option. I like that you don't have to maintain a RAID server and pray that your hard-drive does not crash. I dislike the cost of the Kaleidescape server which means that I have to offload movies to make room for the new ones once my hard drive space fills up. I don't like how basic the UI is for Kaleidescape but that is all preferences. Some users in this forum love how it is now. To each their own. I don't like the cost of the media (movies and TV shows). As mentioned earlier, they tend to cost more than the physical version. It's outside of Kaleidescape's control and it's the studios that set the price. So no fault of Kaleidescape. Another thing that I don't like is that sometimes Kaleidescape movies do not have all the special features you find in your physical disc or in other streaming platform like VUDU or AppleTV. But you are assured that you have the best quality available. And you are only limited to playing your content on the K-player. So if you have multiple TVs, you will need to buy a player for each TV which will set you back around $4k, which I would probably buy a Apple Vision Pro!

 

[randman]

Thank you for the quick response!

I think it was the Disc to Digital program that I saw mention of.
I wish I would of known or researched Kaleidescape 4 years ago before I built my plex server and purchased all the movies. Now, its hard to justify the $$$$$ for the equipment and then the repurchase of all the movies I would want on it.

I think I will have to wait at least until there is a need to upgrade/replace my current plex setup. It works well and the $$$ have already been spent.

I've been using Plex for many years and have ripped all the physical discs that I have (nearly 2K movies). Except for a small handful of demo movies (I like the scripting feature of Kaleidescape), I don't plan on repurchasing movies that I already have in Plex. I've learned that it's rate that I re-watch a movie, and if I do, I can always watch it in Plex. If Kaleidescape has a better version of a movie that I have in Plex, and I want to watch it, it's just a 10 minute download away. Since movies are readily available online, I don't see the need to buy vast amounts of movies ahead of time. When I want to see it, I download it the day I want to see it. It's not like the old days with Plex when there can be a multi-day turnaround time to order/buy a physical disc and then need free time to rip it.

So, I think Plex and Kaleidescape can live harmoniously.

 

[randman]

One other thing.Kaleidescape fulfills my "must have now" need when I need to get a movie now and don't want to wait. Also, many movies dont come out in 4K physical disc but are available in 4K in Kaleidescape. But if I'm not in a hurry, I still do buy physical media. I can rip it to Plex. And, most movies have a digital code, so I can get it via Movies Anywhere and/or iTunes which is great for watching anywhere.

 

[alexbeans]

I want to add one more thing. I've gotten into AV/VR with the new Apple Vision Pro. No, I didn't buy an AVP and only demo it. I could afford it but I couldn't justify a $4000 purchase with my limited use case, and especially it being a first gen product. But because I love the tech so much, I settled for a Quest 3. But once Apple drop the price to sub-$2000 in the future either in a "non-pro" model or a Gen 2 model with cheaper components, I will certainly replace it.

With Quest 3, I am able to view all the movies I ripped into my server. I rip 1080p and 4k content. Quest 3 has a limit of 2064 x 2208 resolution so it is near 4k. I think that the AVP will be much more sharper with better speakers. But what Quest 3 has right now, it is acceptable. It's not all the time that I want to watch my movies in my home theater room. Sometimes I like to kick back and lay on my bed or outside the patio to watch on my headset.

My point is, I want to plan for future use-cases.
Kaleidescape will probably not have a dedicated app for these AV/VR headset and currently there's no way to read your files from your Kaleidescape server outside the Kaleidescape player. Because of this, I will continue to rip my Blu-ray and 4K movies into my server so that I can access them using Plex or any DLNA client.

 

[randman]

Yeah, I can see the Apple Vision Pro as a future purchase. While it seems very good, I'm sure it will only get better for later generations. Looks like Apple will provide updated versions of movies for free if you already own those movies. Free updates has always been a nice policy of Apple's; for example, when a movie goes from Blu-Ray to 4K, the update is free. So, it seems they'll continue that policy for future Apple Vision Pro enhancements of their movies. But if you have an Apple movie due to a Movies Anywhere redemptions, I don't think they provide free updates for those, unfortunately. I can see getting a future Apple Vision Pro. I don't think it will be preferable to a nice home theater, so Kaleidescape/physical disk/Plex still great to have. Aside: I got home and my wife was watching Dune. After a few minutes, I was thinking "what's wrong with the sound? Where's the bass? I recall the sound being much better when I saw the movie a couple of years earlier. Then, I realized she was watching it on Apple TV. I quickly switched to the Kaleidscape version!

 

[alexbeans]

Currently the Apple Vision Pro cannot hold a candle to my home theater set up that I probably spent $30k-40k on. This is not including the $15k of Kaleidescape hardware. Nor does it include the home theater seats, blackout shades, etc. the $30-40k is just for the 4k projector, screen and speakers. So $3500 for an AVP is a bargain! But because I have a home theater room, it limits my use case because I have something better.

When I do want to enjoy myself or have a family movie night, I switch to Kaleidescape. But sometimes when it is a nice day and I want to lie next to the pool or patio and want to watch a movie, these headset (which I will own the future generation version of) will be great.

 

[thrillcat]

Last night I watched The Creator again via Kaleidescape on my 124" scope screen and in that time I took my glasses off 3 or 4 times because I hate wearing them, I can't imagine strapping on a scuba mask for 2-3 hours and expecting to enjoy it.

 

[alexbeans]

Last night I watched The Creator again via Kaleidescape on my 124" scope screen and in that time I took my glasses off 3 or 4 times because I hate wearing them, I can't imagine strapping on a scuba mask for 2-3 hours and expecting to enjoy it.

Totally agree. But I’m not posting about AV/VR headsets to talk about the merits of owning one or convince myself to buy the overpriced AVP ‘prototype’ that is sold to early adopters. It is to reply to the post on whether Plex and Kaledeiscape can live in harmony. Yes. The majority of the time I will pop in my Kaleidescape and enjoy the experience. The audio is much better than streaming in Plex using my AppleTV. Maybe not by much, but with the money I spent on speakers, I don’t want to be restricted by my video playback hardware.

I’m not trying to get Kaleidescape to develop a VR app as there’s many more in my wish list that I want their developer to work on. But because I have multiple TVs in my household and occasionally want to stream my content in other rooms, iPads, laptops, and in the future with the headsets, make my argument to have both media in the Plex server and media in the Kaleidoscape my preference.

 

[thrillcat]

Totally agree. But I’m not posting about AV/VR headsets to talk about the merits of owning one or convince myself to buy the overpriced AVP ‘prototype’ that is sold to early adopters. It is to reply to the post on whether Plex and Kaledeiscape can live in harmony. Yes. The majority of the time I will pop in my Kaleidescape and enjoy the experience. The audio is much better than streaming in Plex using my AppleTV. Maybe not by much, but with the money I spent on speakers, I don’t want to be restricted by my video playback hardware.

I’m not trying to get Kaleidescape to develop a VR app as there’s many more in my wish list that I want their developer to work on. But because I have multiple TVs in my household and occasionally want to stream my content in other rooms, iPads, laptops, and in the future with the headsets, make my argument to have both media in the Plex server and media in the Kaleidoscape my preference.

Absolutely. I also use PLEX and Kaleidescape side by side as I posted early on in this thread.

They don't need to be exclusive, PLEX will always have a place in my system even if I move 100% to Kaleidescape for movies because PLEX is my Live TV system, DVR, I have a bunch of old content that was digitized from LaserDisc that has never seen additional releases, and I produce video content, so I use my PLEX for client previews, master storage and more.

 

[randman]

Currently the Apple Vision Pro cannot hold a candle to my home theater set up that I probably spent $30k-40k on. This is not including the $15k of Kaleidescape hardware. Nor does it include the home theater seats, blackout shades, etc. the $30-40k is just for the 4k projector, screen and speakers. So $3500 for an AVP is a bargain! But because I have a home theater room, it limits my use case because I have something better.

When I do want to enjoy myself or have a family movie night, I switch to Kaleidescape. But sometimes when it is a nice day and I want to lie next to the pool or patio and want to watch a movie, these headset (which I will own the future generation version of) will be great.

Yeah, I don't see the Apple Vision Pro as a substitute for a good home theater. But I can imagine some good use cases for it, just like there are good use cases for using headphones (but in this case the Vision Pro are "headphones" for the eyes).

 

[randman]

The majority of the time I will pop in my Kaleidescape and enjoy the experience. The audio is much better than streaming in Plex using my AppleTV. Maybe not by much, but with the money I spent on speakers, I don’t want to be restricted by my video playback hardware.

I’m not trying to get Kaleidescape to develop a VR app as there’s many more in my wish list that I want their developer to work on. But because I have multiple TVs in my household and occasionally want to stream my content in other rooms, iPads, laptops, and in the future with the headsets, make my argument to have both media in the Plex server and media in the Kaleidoscape my preference.

In my Home Theater, I have a Kaleidescape Strato C, an Apple TV, and an Nvidia Shield. I ran out of rack space for my old Panasonic Blu-Ray/UHD player, which I was using maybe once every two years, so I put it away. The Nvidia Shield is only used with Plex for playing local media in my NAS. Nothing else (I prefer Apple TV for all other streaming; IMO, Apple TV has a much better UI than Shield). The audio using Plex in the Nvidia Shield is the same audio that came from the physical media. So the audio is great. Apple TV doesn't support bitstreaming Dolby Atmos from local content, so I don't use Plex with Apple TV. It doesn't sound as good (although in other rooms outside the home theater, I use Apple TV even for Plex since the audio is good enough for those other rooms). So, I use the Shield only for Plex, Apple TV for all other streaming, and of course Kaleidescape for movies that I don't have the physical media for (and therefore not in Plex).

Funny - I have Dune 2021 in:

1. My NAS (so Plex in my Apple TV and in my Nvidia Shield can play it).
2. Movies Anywhere and iTunes (from digital code that came with the physical disk), and
3. Kaleidescape (I already bought the disc and ripped it to Plex before I got into Kaleidescape, but I just had to get the movie in Kaleidescape to include in a demo script).

I came home last weekend and my wife was watching Dune. I was thinking that the sound wasn't as good as my recollection from 2 years ago when watching it with Plex on my Shield. I recall the bass being really great in many scenes, but it just didn't sound good. So, after a few minutes, I checked what source my wife had picked, and as I suspected, she had started Dune in the Apple TV. I quickly switched to Kaleidescape, and it sounded so much better.

 

[randman]

Absolutely. I also use PLEX and Kaleidescape side by side as I posted early on in this thread.

They don't need to be exclusive, PLEX will always have a place in my system even if I move 100% to Kaleidescape for movies because PLEX is my Live TV system, DVR, I have a bunch of old content that was digitized from LaserDisc that has never seen additional releases, and I produce video content, so I use my PLEX for client previews, master storage and more.

Another Plex use-case for me are family/home videos that I've created over the years. Very useful for archiving home videos and being readily accessible.