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Strato K - latest backlog status & shipping info

swhmetta said:
I'm not criticizing them for failing to predict demand perfectly. Again, I am happy they are having success. We want them to have success. Investing in hardware and movies, is something we want to stick around. I'm saying that the longer the wait becomes, the more prospective discretionary buyers they'll inevitably lose. Those are two different things.
Click to expand...
As I reread your original post I believe you are decidedly lecturing them and us on the potential lost customers from not ordering enough.
 
Golfx said:
As I reread your original post I believe you are decidedly lecturing them and us on the potential lost customers from not ordering enough.
Click to expand...
Glad I could entertain you. It doesn't matter at this point.. And who really cares? I am not lecturing you. I was merely venting in my own way. What I said is true. It is frustrating, not because of me not getting my Strato K. It's frustrating to see money left on the table with any company, that I feel is missing the mark. This is a habit of mine from analyzing companies in the stock market. I do the same thing when I walk in a restaurant. It is an annoying trait of mine. But, I retired at 56 by being passionate and more importantly believing in the Lord. With that being said, back to your statement..Stating that long backorders cause demand destruction isn't a lecture; it's basic business math. Kaleidescape makes incredible hardware, but passion cools down over time. When a company cannot fulfill an order for months, 'life happens' to the buyer. Priorities shift, alternatives arise, and spontaneous capital gets spent elsewhere. Acknowledging that Kaleidescape is leaving money on the table from frustrated impulse buyers isn't a lecture—it's a financial reality. Having owned businesses, being on the lending side, etc..I can attest to this. What Jim said is also true. One runs the risk of building too many without knowing the outcome.
Shame on them? Absolutely. Inability to scale manufacturing to meet demand is a operational failure, especially for a company that already died once in 2016 due to cash flow issues. They are giving up a massive chunk of "easy money" from affluent, spontaneous buyers who would have pulled the trigger on a whim.
However, because they are deeply embedded in the slow-moving custom installation industry and have zero direct competitors for master-quality digital downloads, most of their core client base will grumble, complain on owner forums like myself, and ultimately just wait it out. I am done venting. Thank you.
 
leo9000 said:
Damn. I ordered mine for AudioAdvice and didn't get any movie credit. Still patiently waiting for mine to ship out.
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I called them to try and order and when I refreshed the page I noticed it said back ordered but epic systems didn’t. They just updated the website today with credits and free remotes for some systems.
 
Credits, or lower pricing, depends on the dealer. Some offer a discount, others give credits, amounts to the same thing. There are no credits from Kaleidescape related to Strato-K sales. Any credits are dealer generated.

Just didn't want people to think some dealers are holding back credits, there are no official credits from K.

Jim
 
I miss the days when K would give you movie credits when you bought new products. Considering how they just launched a product with no products to sell, store credit would be a nice consolation while customers wait for K to make more.
 
Not sure I would describe it as "launched a product with no products to sell," they've sold multiple hundreds, and continue to ship weekly. The demand is just much higher than expected given historical sales and current market data. Although they acknowledged underestimating demand, that doesn't mean the metrics used were wrong. It was fair to base initial inventory numbers as they did given the available data and current market drivers.

Store credit offerings are part of marketing, they are only offered to help generate sales. I think at this point it's fair to say store credits are not needed for this latest player release, so I doubt we'll see any (except from a dealer's private offering).

Jim
 
cinelife said:
Not sure I would describe it as "launched a product with no products to sell," they've sold multiple hundreds, and continue to ship weekly. The demand is just much higher than expected given historical sales and current market data. Although they acknowledged underestimating demand, that doesn't mean the metrics used were wrong. It was fair to base initial inventory numbers as they did given the available data and current market drivers.

Store credit offerings are part of marketing, they are only offered to help generate sales. I think at this point it's fair to say store credits are not needed for this latest player release, so I doubt we'll see any (except from a dealer's private offering).

Jim
Click to expand...
I can understand how K-scape could have underestimated demand pre-launch. They were probably asking themselves “how many current customers are really going to buy a new $5k player to squeeze out the modest quality bump with 4KC, versus sticking with the standard 4K?”. Also, it’s an 8K player, but there’s no 8K content yet. They may have thought it could be a tougher sell. Well, “SURPRISE!”, K-scape has struck a chord of customer enthusiasm with the Strato K.
 
There is currently no plan for a separate non-storage Strato "K," so if anyone is waiting on that before adding a "K," be prepared for a long wait. We should never say never in business, so things could change someday, but AFAIK the answer hasn't changed since I last asked that question.

Jim
 
And for people who are looking to get something for a lot cheaper by omitting that SSD: A 1TB SSD costs <$200 even at today's prices.

$5000 is a very round number, suggesting that the cost of a Strato K is not particularly driven by some fixed margin over hardware cost, but by them targeting a price point. I strongly suspect that if they took $200 of component costs out of the Strato K, its MSRP would still be $5K.
 
mkozlows said:
And for people who are looking to get something for a lot cheaper by omitting that SSD: A 1TB SSD costs <$200 even at today's prices.

$5000 is a very round number, suggesting that the cost of a Strato K is not particularly driven by some fixed margin over hardware cost, but by them targeting a price point. I strongly suspect that if they took $200 of component costs out of the Strato K, its MSRP would still be $5K.
Click to expand...
I suspect you’re right. I think every new player going forward is going to be capable of operating standalone without an external server.

The player changes I would hope for would be an optional larger internal drive (~8TB, & preferably serviceable post-warranty) and the ability to use player storage in combination with server storage.
 
(moved my question to Hardware setup forum)
 
Last edited:
mkozlows said:
And for people who are looking to get something for a lot cheaper by omitting that SSD: A 1TB SSD costs <$200 even at today's prices.

$5000 is a very round number, suggesting that the cost of a Strato K is not particularly driven by some fixed margin over hardware cost, but by them targeting a price point. I strongly suspect that if they took $200 of component costs out of the Strato K, its MSRP would still be $5K.
Click to expand...
I think it’s kind of interesting that you’d go and compare the cheapest ssd on Amazon to a premium product that is advertising premier hardware. Perhaps you should google enterprise grade SSD prices.

It took me 40 seconds to find a real enterprise grade ssd on my phone. It’s $4000 for 3TB. Sure the 1TB is cheaper, but there is more to a computer than the hard drive. A 48b/s bus is also like $50 for me to buy online. That also needs parts. I’m willing to wager the hardware cost even with their bulk discounts is closer to 3k.

www.newegg.com

Solidigm Solid State Drive D7-PS1030 Series (3.2TB, U.2 15mm, PCIe 5.0 x4, V7, TLC) Generic No Opal Single Pack Data Center / Server / Internal SSD (SB5PH27E032T001) - Newegg.com

Buy Solidigm Solid State Drive D7-PS1030 Series (3.2TB, U.2 15mm, PCIe 5.0 x4, V7, TLC) Generic No Opal Single Pack Data Center / Server / Internal SSD (SB5PH27E032T001) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
 
ConnorG said:
It took me 40 seconds to find a real enterprise grade ssd on my phone. It’s $4000 for 3TB. Sure the 1TB is cheaper, but there is more to a computer than the hard drive. A 48b/s bus is also like $50 for me to buy online. That also needs parts. I’m willing to wager the hardware cost even with their bulk discounts is closer to 3k.
Click to expand...
The player would still require internal memory for the system, so it'd be roughly the difference between a 64GB/128GB and 1TB SSD. However, this may also require a different fork of the firmware/software and associated development cost. This all begs the question, why? I believe we all agree that there would be no difference in sales price. No one has said, let alone K, that they have a mountain of Strato K's hung up in production due to lack of SSDs. The fact is at K's level of need the supply is likely there.

No price difference. No difference in supply. No faster in shipping. Just expand the product line to make a product with a smaller SSD because people don't want to waste it? How many Strato K's (or V's, E's, and M's) are attached to projectors that aren't Dolby Vision capable? Save a few bucks on the license and ship those without DV capability? Make a Strato C that doesn't have a second audio port because most don't use it? Sorry, this whole discussion about a storage-less Strato K baffles me. Maybe I'm missing something...
 
ConnorG said:
I think it’s kind of interesting that you’d go and compare the cheapest ssd on Amazon to a premium product that is advertising premier hardware. Perhaps you should google enterprise grade SSD prices.

It took me 40 seconds to find a real enterprise grade ssd on my phone. It’s $4000 for 3TB. Sure the 1TB is cheaper, but there is more to a computer than the hard drive. A 48b/s bus is also like $50 for me to buy online. That also needs parts. I’m willing to wager the hardware cost even with their bulk discounts is closer to 3k.

www.newegg.com

Solidigm Solid State Drive D7-PS1030 Series (3.2TB, U.2 15mm, PCIe 5.0 x4, V7, TLC) Generic No Opal Single Pack Data Center / Server / Internal SSD (SB5PH27E032T001) - Newegg.com

Buy Solidigm Solid State Drive D7-PS1030 Series (3.2TB, U.2 15mm, PCIe 5.0 x4, V7, TLC) Generic No Opal Single Pack Data Center / Server / Internal SSD (SB5PH27E032T001) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com www.newegg.com
Click to expand...

Just as an aside, it’s incredible what has happened to physical memory and chip prices! … to the Moon!
 
ConnorG said:
I think it’s kind of interesting that you’d go and compare the cheapest ssd on Amazon to a premium product that is advertising premier hardware. Perhaps you should google enterprise grade SSD prices.

It took me 40 seconds to find a real enterprise grade ssd on my phone.
Click to expand...

Kaleidescape doesn't specify what kind of hardware they use, and there are no teardowns that I can find. But it seems significant that they use the phrase "enterprise-class" to describe the storage in their Terra drives, but not to describe the drives in their players (which would not, after all, have the usage patterns that server hardware is designed for).

I'd be thrilled if someone would do an actual teardown of one of these boxes and post some components, but my strong suspicion is that the Strato players are extremely normal consumer hardware -- a normal consumer SSD and an SoC that's slower than the Apple TV's -- and that the price is about sales channels and business models.
 
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