Premier system the way ahead?

[SGI]

Firstly thank you for allowing entry to the Forum.

This is my first post so please be gentle and I am sure this sort of question has been asked before, especially with the news from Kaleidescape but I have carried out a quick search and cannot find detail.

I have a Premier system that I have used for many years (probably around 9-10) and only had to change the 1U out after it fried. My system comprises of:

1U
M500
4 x M300

With the current Premier product line ceasing sales, what is the best way to go for continued enjoyment? Add a Strato S, buy a new 1U+ and extend warranty, although understand that all data would need to be transferred as 1U drives are not to be sapped across to 1U+.

I have been told by a local dealer that buying a 1U+ is not cost effective, he advised adding a Strato S but then added current content on 1U could be upgraded/downloaded from Kaleidescape store if on there at a =cost of £5 per title?

Would it be advisable to swap out M300's for Strato C or add coStar

As a way of system explanation the 1U is in my rack with the M500 fed through a Matrix to the cinema and the M300's supporting 4 of the bedrooms etc

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and sorry for being a total numbskull at this.

SGI

 

[josh]

Welcome to the forum!

There are people here better equipped than am I to answer most of your questions, but I'll get the conversation started with this:

• the information from your dealer about the ability to upgrade your older content for £5 per title sounds VERY optimistic. There are SOME studios that offer this "disc to digital" upgrade, but it's typically on SOME of their titles, not all, and prices are all over the place, at least here in the U.S. store. I've been able to do this type of upgrade on a very small fraction of my HD titles... but in most cases, I've had to pay full price for buying the title again if I really want it in 4K.

I'm certainly not going to tell you not to get s Strato or Terra to being to enjoy the amazing 4K HDR titles that Kaleidescape is offering... it's a fantastic experience and you'll become addicted to that new high quality format if your equipment is capable of showing it properly.

SO... if money were no object, I'd recommend:

• get a Strato for your main viewing zone (and other "important" viewing zones) and a co-star switch for each new 4K zone so you can pair it with your current M500 or M300. The paired system is really pretty seamless... you get a unified library with all your titles in both 4K and DVD/HD/BR, and you just pick the movie you want and it will either play back from the M-class player or the Strato and handles all the HDMI switching for you. Now you'll be able to purchase 4K titles from the movie store, as well as lower resolution when you want to save some money.
• consider the "upgrade" price that K is currently offering for buying a new 1U+ server at 25% off if you return your older 1U server. You get 3 years fresh warranty on that system and can purchase an additional 2 years. This is a guaranteed 5-year lifespan for your older content, and in reality, it would probably last longer than that. right now, a 18TB unit is around $13k (less 25% when you return the old server) and the 30TB is around $18.5k (less 25%).*

I realize that for many of us (me included) cost is definitely a factor, so I understand you may not be able to do all that is described. I've upgraded 2 of my 4 zones to be co-star-paired Strato players (main family room setup and our master bedroom) and recently added a Terra server as well. Two of my zones remain just HD (a guest room and our "teen lounge" room) for now and for budget reasons.

*Many of us are lobbying Kaleidescape to offer those trade-in 1U+ servers at lower cost than their current 25% off retail, but as of now, there's no response so I'd consider it something that may not come to fruition. Use the 25% off price to make that decision right now.​

As for my Premier-line, I have an aging 3U server with about 28TB of movie content stored. I'd LOVE to upgrade that to a new 1U+ (longevity of my library, 2 freed RUs, and lower electricity operating cost). BUT I'd need their 30TB unit which would be $18.5k - 25% = $13,875. For me, that's too expensive to pay to extend the life of my Premier-line content. I hope pricing will come down, but for me it'd have to come down a LOT for me to pull the trigger on this upgrade. So I keep running my 3U with fingers crossed that it will last another few years at least.

 

[SGI]

Hi Josh,

Thank you for the welcome and the detailed reply.

I am in the position (don't tell my wife) that money is not the overriding factor in what to do.

I will approach the UK dealer in my area again concerning the 1U to 1U+as he implied the upgrade would not attract any concession.

The Strato/costar way ahead looks the way to go to continue to have full enjoyment of the products, our cinema room has a 4k tv and projector so it would seem sensible to get full functionality out of the entire system, the lounge and family room also have 4k as do 4 of the bedrooms; so deal done.

Once again thank you for the reply and advice/info

Much appreciated

Steve

 

[cinelife]

Hi Steve, first welcome to the forum, thank you for taking the time to register. Feel free to ask ANY question in this Forum, you will not be attacked by our members, as happens on some forums. There are no stupid questions. Josh did a good job explaining the current situation, I'll throw in my 2 cents.

You are in the same position as many of us with Premiere systems. There are really only 3 options given K's decision to shutdown Premiere sales, and these options depend on how you feel about your Premiere content. If you want to maintain your current Premiere system, then options #1 or #2 should be considered. If you don't care about maintaining your Premiere system for as long as possible, and still want a Kaleidescape system in your home, then option #3 may be the better option.

1. Upgrade your older, out-of-warranty, Premiere components to new, in-warranty, components and thereby extend your warranty and support for those components out to a possible 5 years (or longer with available parts). (3 year warranty can be extended 2 additional years). This would effectively protect your Premiere content for the next 3 to 5+ years, or longer.

2. Purchase additional "used" components (players/servers/parts) to serve as back-up components in the event one of your current components fail. (Disk drives will remain available for the foreseeable future, so those shouldn't be a problem.)

3. Upgrade your Premiere components to the Strato/Terra components (formerly referred to as the "Encore" line). These only work with the K Store, not physical discs, but the quality is better, and you can do 4K content as well. (You might have digital offers, disc-to-digital, etc., that should allow you to purchase some Store content at a discount.)

These options obviously assume you want to remain a Kaleidescape owner.


Jim

 

[SGI]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for the welcome and also taking the time to reply to my questions.

I most definitely want and plan on remaining a Kaleidescape user and what with currently having home improvements done it seems the ideal time to get the system more stable for the longer term.

I have approached my local dealer with comments after taking onboard comments by yourself and Josh.

I have asked them about the concession to go from a 1U to a 1U+ and also to quote for a Strato for the main zone (cinema) with associated Costar as well as costing for adding more of the zones in my house to 4K via Strato C players and costar.

I will keep you posted on the feedback

Once again thank you for taking the time.

Steve

 

[cinelife]

Happy to do it, good luck with the upgrades, reach out anytime with questions.

Jim

 

[Joe]

OK, deadline is fast approaching on the Premiere line. I'm thinking, after waiting on the sidelines for a long time, that I will make an investment in the Terra and 4K players, but I want to try to preserve the Premiere. I have a 3U, 48TB server - decently filled, so I wouldn't want to lose capacity. Crazily, that would mean 2 1U+ servers. Pretty expensive. I'm curious, if you have a grandfathered 3U and "upgrade" to a 1U+, do you retain grandfathered status on the new server? Also, Do I lose that status in any way if I get the Terra and want to use the co-stars for seamless integration? I just don't want to lose that Premiere functionality (and content).

I guess the new players only work with the Terra? Trying to think of how to upgrade my existing system - like maybe get new players that are covered and could work with both servers, or something like that. A couple of times, one of my M500 players would turn on but no video would show up. After several reboots, the problem goes away, but I could definitely see problems there and would want to maybe get new ones that would be under warranty. Not yet sure what to do about the 3U. Again, 2 1U+'s seems crazy - plus I doubt I could upgrade 1 3U to 2 1U+'s anyway. I wonder if I could purchase like a spare motherboard, fans, power supply for the 3U. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kevin D]

The available disc to digital upgrades would be cheaper than the second 1u+ and that storage would now be on the Terra. Have you calculated that?

Kevin D.

 

[cinelife]

Hi Joe, I just sent you a private message.

You can transfer the ability to import DVD's (Grandfathered status) to a new Server, that's not a problem. NO, you do NOT lose the ability to import DVD's just by adding a Strato and Co-Star, these are separate systems. (You would lose the ability to import Disney DVD's (or any disc based Disney owned content) ONLY if you "opted in" to the Disney requirements to be able to download Disney content from the Store to a Premiere Server.)

I'll explain other consideration and answer your other questions if/when we talk, or I'll add to my above comments later today.

Jim

 

[Joe]

Sounds good. Looking forward to the conversation.