QUESTION for Premiere Owners

[cinelife]

I would appreciate some feedback from Premiere owners on the following question:

Would you consider moving to the Encore system in place of your current Premiere system (includes any size Premiere system) if you were provided with an upgrade path (i.e. credit for your Premiere component(s)). If so, what kind of credit might interest you the most, store credit? price reduction credit?

Just an exercise for now, but who knows........

(If you prefer to comment privately, please PM or email mail (CINELIFELLC@gmail.com)


Jim

 

[JohnJ]

Short answer: No

1) I have thousands of CDs that I have loaded on my 3U server that I would loose the capability to play.
2) I have hundreds of BR/DVD discs that aren’t available from the store. I also want them loaded on a server so that I can play scripts of scenes and songs from these discs.
3) Even without the above capability issues, it wouldn’t make sense financially to pay anything to upgrade to get get to the same storage capacity that I currently have on my 3U.
4) The merging of the Encore and Premiere systems with a Co-star switch was done really well and acts as if it is one system!

John

 

[iansilv]

The only thing I have a premiere system for is to handle legacy DVD copies, Disney Bluray disk copies or CD copies. I only keep it for stuff I can't get through the store or copy through the encore.

 

[JerryL]

Good point about the music. I would not want to lose that functionality as well.

 

[20hertz]

I would switch if capacity is met (for eg, if I had 32 TB of storage in premiere, an equivalent storage in encore) would interest me in an exchange. If it is 25% off or something like that, not interested, especially for those with larger disc capacities (multiple 6 TB drives).

 

[cinelife]

Thanks for commenting guys. I'll leave this thread open for a month to gather other comments, all of which are helpful.

Jim

 

[Mr. Integration]

Yes I would as would a great number of our clients. The lack of new products for the premier system dictates it is time to move on

 

[MTrueblood]

No, my reasons parallel those of JohnJ above. I am still loading additional DVDs, not first run movies but old films as well as documentaries, lectures and technical items. This is not to say that I am resistant to piggybacking an Encore device onto the system. Right now I have no display that demands 4K. I have upgraded my control configuration so that I will be able to handle the higher definition when the time comes, but for now everything is working fine and no new displays are needed. Moreover I still have additional capacity in my 3U server and my disc vaults.

 

[cinelife]

Appreciate the input guys!


Jim

 

[20hertz]

I think K should offer the upgrade. A lot of folks will take the upgrade and the relative few who use K for music may stick with premiere systems. Best if both worlds.

But the writing is in the wall and premiere is going to go away. It’s a question of when, not if. If I were to guess in the next 10 years, the premiere would be out. So if I had a lot of cds, I would plan accordingly.

 

[JohnJ]

I am not getting the idea that the Premiere system is going away. After all, K did come out with a new 1U Plus server just last year in March 2017 that will take the new 10TB drives used in the Terra server. Also, K certainly put in a lot of development effort in order to come out with the Co-star switch that combines the two systems.

Now that they have done the above all of their development efforts SHOULD be aimed at the Encore system and just maintanence of Premiere Line.

I do agree that K should offer a upgrade path for the customers that would like it. It just doesn’t work in my particular situation. I need/like the capability to add CD’s, DVD’s and obscure BR titles to my system.

John

 

[Mark H]

As someone with over 2200 cd's and nearly 7000 DVD / BluRay 's on my Premiere servers I don't see any likely upgrade path for me away from the Encore / Costar / Premiere systems I have. Maintain the Premiere line systems and put development resources into the Encore line.

The store away from the US is very limited and even the US store is sadly lacking in material around TV series so I am sure my roughly 10 to 1 purchase pattern of Amazon supplied dvd's to one store download isn't going to change in the near future.

We all use our systems differently and that is the beauty of what we have but if ALL data could be migrated to the Terra server platform at a near zero cost I could reduce my server footprint and hence running costs but would still need DVD and music imports / playing capability.

I believe I am with JohnJ on this.

 

[andrej770]

My issue with them offering an upgrade plan is that when companies do this, at times, it signals the end of support for previous products. I know K has put a tremendous amount of time, effort and money into the Premiere line and I know they would not make a decision like that lightly. But there has to come a time where the the new gets all the development attention and I, personally, think that time is nearing. Ripping DVDs to HDD is, frankly, old technology especially when the direct from movie houses version is so much better. I'm a technologist myself and I hardly use DVDs or CDs at all EXCEPT to import into my K systems. The difficulty for me is that I like my independence from K in that I can import whatever I want into my K systems regardless of whether its in their catalog or not; that's priceless to me. I will never give up that feature unless they pry it from my cold dead hands lol . At some point though, the Premiere system will lose active support and the focus will be on the next generation devices; I'll both dread and welcome that day (again, I'm a technologist too - I'm torn). But if they toss us bones like discounts on Premiere parts and access to larger HDDs (exempting themselves of liability), I'd appreciate it more AND it will show Ks additional good will toward us early adopters and devout followers that will make me eventually put the newer systems in my budget (to co-mingle with my existing system until it dies lol )

 

[Mrci10]

I would prefer not to loose my Premiere system.

I have just over 2000 CD’s loaded and don’t want to loose them. The secondary reason is the movies that I own that aren’t available in the store. I don’t want to loose them.

I have the co-star and like it. For me to ditch my Premiere system, I’d like the ability to save what I’d otherwise loose.

Russ

 

[cinelife]

Thanks for the comments.


Jim

 

[Noah Winter]

I agree with the previous gentlemen. I have every intention of purchasing a Strato/Terra/Costar to add to my Premier system but not to replace it. Its exciting to see the Store grow daily but it only contains a fraction of my movies and the Premier system just works too well combining my movies that are outside the store with my store purchased titles. Maybe many folks are only interested in the newest movies but I get excited when I see the Store add an old favorite such as recently adding "Airplane". I see the Strato as supplementing the Premier, not replacing it.

While I do not see the advantage to K of re-acquiring its Premier components (what would it do with them?), if it makes financial sense for K to offer incentives for existing customers to purchase the Strato I am all for that.

 

[iansilv]

As you get more stuff on the store, the Premiere becomes less and less necessary. I buy everything on the store now. Everything new, unless it’s not available on the store, I buy I’m the store. Get the Bond movies, BBC, Star Wars cartoons, etc etc and the need for the Premiere becomes less and less.

 

[MikeG]

No, with a caveat.

Too many of my movies are still not in the store. If that were to change, and I do believe K is adding content daily, I would change my answer. But they are still far away (Bond?? yes please). As you are (painfully) aware of my recent jump to the strato, I do think this is Ks future. Digital downloads with their priority interface is what I'm paying for. I don't buy digital media any longer; easier to "click" buy now, especially with digital copies for our small i devices, and move on. I even gave into the Disney agreement which I never thought I would.

Up the content and I'll sign on!

 

[Jerry D]

I wouldn't wish to move to the Encore system for all the reasons mentioned above. I like being able to watch and listen to old DVDs and CDs etc. I like the option of buying content from any source - not just from the K Store.
Also, importantly, I like the RAID system. I am in an area that does not have fast broadband - 3Mbs is about the best I can get. If one of my drives failed - and it happens more often than I would like - it literally would be months before being able to restore everything.

 

[Calm-One]

Many good points have already been made.

Ideally Kaleidescape would offer a product line like Premier that provides me with similar functionality wiith physical 4K media as Premier did for Blu-Ray, DVD, and CDs. But alas, that does not seem to be in the cards as everyone seems to gearing for streaming these days.

To answer the question. Sure, a trade-in program would be enticing. A existing customer credit to get me into another Kaleidescape program and I keep the legacy gear would be better. An existing customer credit plus a "I survived the DMCA era!" t-shirt would be best.

Cheers