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PrimaCinema-why not join forces with Kaleidescape?

I

iansilv

Well-known member
I have been following prima cinema- the company that is supposedly bringing first run movies to the home day and date with theater releases... I haven't heard any news lately, and it would seem that the biggest hurdle they would have to coming to market would be the encrypted hardware. Since K has nailed this, I wonder if a partnership might be beneficial for both companies. I assume that Prima is getting licensing deals in place... Thoughts anyone? Pure speculation, obviously... :confused::eek:
 
Hard to say where PC is placed these days. I inquired right after the announcement and no one contacted me. I tried a second time a couple of months later and got the same result, no response. It's difficult to establish a client base if you don't pick up the phone. I will not try a third time, and have not been following their progress, assuming there is progress.

Forget about third parties, I would think K could work this market on their own. While I realize there may be some hard feelings given the contract litigation issues, when it comes to making money both sides are served by putting aside differences and reaching out to K's client base. There are certainly K owner's that can afford that program. I guess the challenge is the same, getting enough interest to justify the program, and doing it in a way that doesn't offend theatre owner's who will likely lobby to prevent the program.


Jim
 
If they do it I want to see higher resolution than HD. A cheat could be done if they go anamorphic for those of us with 2.35:1 setups. Or they could go full 4k. :)
 
JerryL said:
If they do it I want to see higher resolution than HD. A cheat could be done if they go anamorphic for those of us with 2.35:1 setups. Or they could go full 4k. :)
Click to expand...

I agree. Full 4K would be awesome. I would pay a lot to see a movie I really wanted to see in my home, even if the license was for a three day block starting at the premier time or something. It would just be cool to premier, say The Dark Knight Rises in my home...

Does anyone know how many K systems are installed throughout the world? It seems like this is a ready-made install base for what Prima Cinema wants to do...
 
I agree. PC needs K more than K needs PC. Frankly, if it is possible to do, ie. If the studios are interested in this, then K is the logical channel. I hope K is looking into this, with or without PC. But, is it just me,or does K seem to be moving mighty slowly these past few years?
 
The bluray system probably took a lot of resources, but hopefully they will be looking for something big as their next move. Maybe line direct to hone distribution. Problem with K is, unlike PC they will not announce anything until they are ready to pounce...
 
I expect new things to start rolling from Kaleidescape fairly soon.
 
ptrubey said:
I agree. PC needs K more than K needs PC. Frankly, if it is possible to do, ie. If the studios are interested in this, then K is the logical channel. I hope K is looking into this, with or without PC. But, is it just me,or does K seem to be moving mighty slowly these past few years?
Click to expand...

Can the current players output 4K resolution? My guess is that if they did something like that, they would need a new player for it. Maybe that player can fix the HD audio output for those with older SSP's that cannot be updated to the newer formats while they are at it.
 
I'd doubt it. It seems to me they have used all the headroom in the processing plus it would probably be a different HDMI spec which Im not sure their HDMI chips could handle. You are right.
 
Visited Prima Cinema

BTW, I visited Prima Cinema last week since it is in my neck of the woods. The CEO, Jason Pang (who was one of the founders or early employees, I believe, of Divx) gave me a quick tour of their offices and technology. They've been developing their product and partnerships for almost 2 years now, and are just starting to sign up early adopter customers (and dealers, guys). I specifically asked him why they didn't partner with Kaleidescape and he said the studios told him point blank that they would never in a million years cut a deal directly with Kaleidescape due to the on-going lawsuit. Sigh. Anyways, Prima has cut deals directly with the studios and Jason even showed me a demo movie they have for a non-released studio pic.

Their product will be both a hardware box and a movie download service. The hardware box will connect to Prima in the middle of the night and download (over several days) to be released movies. The idea is that on the theatrical release day, the box will have a local copy of the movie ready to go. To satisfy the studios, of course, they have lots of encryption and security including per customer watermarking. Movie quality will be better than blu-ray but not 4K - I think they are going to encode with 10 bit color rather than 8 bit color. You'll need a high speed Internet connection - probably around 10Mb/s, and preferably one with no caps since each movie is going to be at least 50GB in size (note than many broadband providers have a 250GB or even less per month cap). The box itself will store a number of movies.

It was nice visiting them - definitely a startup feel, as it should be. The hardware seems beefy enough, hopefully the software will be bullet proof too. Regardless, these guys seem to be the only game in town for day and date.

I don't know if the price has been finalized yet, but it will cost more than a typical Kaleidescape system. As I said they are taking deposits right now to be on their early customer program, so if you are interested, now is the time to call. Ask for Jason and say you heard about them from Phil Trubey, just for kicks. I did go ahead and put my deposit in, BTW.
 
A few questions:

First, why the need for a deposit? They are not even up and running yet so why risk $ on a "may' work concept. (If the model has value, investor's should already be funding it at a level that shouldn't require a deposit.)

Did they release the names of studios currently onboard?

Any details? (i.e. do you have to take "all" new releases (and pay for movies you may not want?)

I tried reaching out when they first started up and never got a response, even after several attempts.

BTW, while I don't question Jason's (nor your) veracity when it comes to the studio's and K relationship comment, I doubt that's true. To think this (litigation) is as personal as some claim it is, is juvenile. I know some key player's in the industry, including a major studio exec that could care less about the ongoing legal case and are all about making money.

Jim
 
If you pay the deposit, your unit will get a special engraved early customer number or somesuch. Why the deposit? Yes, they appear well enough funded - they have both corporate money as well as VC money. But as a startup (and in a brand new market too), while they have sales projections, they really don't know the demand level so it hard to plan out hiring, inventory levels, etc. Having an early adopter program allows them to make those plans based on much more concrete data. As a former startup CEO myself, that knowledge is golden, so their pre-sales program makes a lot of sense to me.

As far as why you the customer would want to plunk down a deposit, well, do you want to be one of the first people to have day and date theatrical release in your home theater? Everyone has different risk tolerances - for me if I that company goes under and I never see that money again, I won't be shedding any tears. And of course, that money IS kept in a segregated account, and by general accounting rules, in the case of bankruptcy, that money should be refunded back to customers before anything else happens.

He gave me the names of the studios they have inked deals with, but I have no idea if that info is secret still, so call them up!

The default is for the unit to take all releases (about 2-3 a week). I have asked him to modify their software to allow people to select the releases they are interested in.

Yes, the Kaleidescape litigation comment seemed unlikely to me too, however the continued lawsuit with no settlement talks is also surprising to me. Frankly, the studios have already demonstrated to me their juvenile behavior, so it is more of the same. And no doubt individual studio people could care less, yet the lawsuit drags on.
 
And remember, the internet is a series of TUBES! ;) I don't think we're quite done with physical media.

Thanks for the info Phil. Interesting stuff.
 
What kind of deposit are they looking for?

I know that numbers floated around in the past on the hardware and per download cost. What ballpark are they looking for?

Is it subject to a window where it goes "poof" after so many days or do you own them all "forever"?
 
$10K deposit. I don't know about the owning movies forever thing - actually you probably wouldn't want to since there is a per viewing fee as well as the up front cost. Once the blu-ray became available, you'd want to use that. In fact, Jason said they were were working on some sort of plan where if you paid to watch a movie, then you'd get the blu-ray for free when released, but I don't think that has been finalized yet.
 
Thanks Phil, like you I'm interested, for the novelty if nothing else. IIRC correctly there was an up front investment of $30-$50K??, don't remember, and an annual or monthly cost. I thought they were asking for that amount to "put you on the list." If it is more reasonable, I may go along with the deposit, otherwise I'll do the wait-and-see thing.

I'll may try reaching out again.

Jim
 
Well, that was quick, just got off the phone with one of the founders. Got the info I was looking for and will likely sign up. Unable to post details because they requested no public disclosure at this point, but that will likely change when they launch early next year.

Interesting.:)

BTW, for those that may be wondering, IMO this does not affect K in any way. All you are really doing with this service is getting the release in your home at the same time as the theatre release. It does not affect "collecting" as we currently do with K. I will continue to buy the BR version of films I like and store them on my K system.:)


Jim
 
And if they can swing the credit for the BR version then that makes it even easier. I think they could do this even if the studios don't give them a subsidy, it would just cost them more and it might take the form of a partial credit rather than full but still its the principle.
 
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