NEWS: Strato K Movie Player with 8K capability and new "4K Cinematic" full-chroma & higher bitrate support

[Yame01]

You didn’t mention what kind and size of screen?

I recently upgraded to the Sony Bravia 8 projector, my third Sony. That made the most impact and difference, was a big improvement.
I just moved the Strato C to the bedroom and added a K for the theater.
Another big improvement. From a brighter movie wall to many 4KC movies.
You can’t go wrong with either decision you make.
It’s only money

Welcome to the Sony Bravia 8 projector and 4KC club!

 

[alexbeans]

Since you say you are likely to keep the Strato C and deploy it to a new zone, it's worth considering the following:

• Strato C can only play 4K SDR and 4K HDR10 titles not Dolby Vision. So you will need to stick with HDR10 and SDR titles if you want to be able to play the same movie in both zones. Or you would have to download two versions of the movie essentially cutting your storage space in half.
• Similarly, only the Strato K is able to play 4K Cinematic content. Your Strato C can't. So again, you're faced with having to download two versions of the movie or opt for the "regular" 4K.

If you were simply replacing your Strato C with a Strato K, then I'd heartily recommend the upgrade. But since there's a chance you'll keep your Strato C, then it's a tougher call. Are you willing to live with either only being able to watch certain content in your theatre zone because it's the zone with 4K Cinematic support OR reducing your available space for movie downloads because you're downloading two copies of most movies in order to support the Strato C?

This is the downside of owning a K and a C. That you will need to download two different files and given how expensive storage is, it the slight improvement in picture quality worth it? You can swap out the C with the K and sell the C in the forum. Originally I was going to upgrade my C to a K and have the C in another room, but since people are selling their used C for under $1000, I decided to have two C's instead.
I wasn't complaining when I had Strato C and thought that the quality was good already!

 

[DrNeal]

It is great!

 

[DrNeal]

You are correct depending on the movie the C produces a great 4k hdr10 image.
But if you want the very best, only the K will do!

 

[Techthusiasm]

I went without a video processor a while in my theater setup, even with a scope screen for a while, but after having the madVR I would not want to take it out.

 

[JonProphet]

Could that be because your projector does not have any dynamic tone mapping capability?

Projectors in general, except for those costing more than a Lexus, can't hit the level of nits required for true HDR, therefore dynamic tone mapping is applied. The quality of that algorithm and the ability to custom tailor it for your specific installation play a huge part of the perceived quality of the DTM. DTM has to take 1000 nits or whatever the content is mastered at, and map all those points along the scale into 100 nits, or whatever your specific system is capable of and calibrated to.

The JVCs are largely thought to have the best in-projector DTM capability, but even then, the settings are minimal - on/off, auto/low/mid/high, and entering screen information is pretty much all you get.

A Lumagen or MadVR allows your calibrator to dial in the DTM settings to a much more granular degree, accounting for many variables that you just don't get with low/medium/high. This is on top of the ability to more precisely add a calibration to the projector as well.

Well said. That helps significantly. I knew there was more to it. Currently my experience on screen has been very positive on a 10 year old Sony 4K projector. Like I said in the PM, I'm getting a NZ500 this weekend. I'm sure my upgrade will be significant.

 

[Oldred]

Since you say you are likely to keep the Strato C and deploy it to a new zone, it's worth considering the following:

• Strato C can only play 4K SDR and 4K HDR10 titles not Dolby Vision. So you will need to stick with HDR10 and SDR titles if you want to be able to play the same movie in both zones. Or you would have to download two versions of the movie essentially cutting your storage space in half.
• Similarly, only the Strato K is able to play 4K Cinematic content. Your Strato C can't. So again, you're faced with having to download two versions of the movie or opt for the "regular" 4K.

If you were simply replacing your Strato C with a Strato K, then I'd heartily recommend the upgrade. But since there's a chance you'll keep your Strato C, then it's a tougher call. Are you willing to live with either only being able to watch certain content in your theatre zone because it's the zone with 4K Cinematic support OR reducing your available space for movie downloads because you're downloading two copies of most movies in order to support the Strato C?

Without ‘seeing the uplift’ it’s difficult to answer as to exactly what I would do. The point of retaining the C is to get some further value from it. In part because I have never yet successfully sold any AV kit which is why I could open an AV museum just with what is squirrelled away in the loft. The second part is that selling it tends to be for a pittance anyway and the best value tends to be from redeployment. So redeployment was the first thought. We have a decent TV in the lounge and 5.1 sound. (Anthem) which doesn’t match the cinema room but we prefer to watch series in the Lounge and movies/gigs in the cinema room so it’s not completely bonkers. So we wouldn’t hold duplicate copies as such. If we did want to flip that split occasionally the download-watch-delete option would suffice.

Bigger question I already have is that if I do as you imply and try to hold every movie in cinematic format instead of hdr we would need a load more disk space which changes the cost equation considerably. The servers are pretty full already just with hdr versions. So I have already considered adopting an approach of downloading a subset of movies we intend to watch in cinematic if we buy the K. I would love to buy a massive server but that probably knocks the projector and Madvr upgrades sideways so unless I get a bargain somehow we may have to ride that one out for a while.

If re using the C here made that worse we simply wouldn’t do it.

In truth our experience so far has been 99.5% of the movies we own have been watched once. That might change but it hasn’t over the past 4 or 5 years. So a download and delete approach probably works. I prefer the thought of having them all but with server space prices soaring and now files sizes doing the same the cost of holding movies has a serious inflation problem It’s not that we can’t find the cash even it’s just that at some point it gets uncomfortable to think that we should spend that much on a cinema room. Maybe adding a third server with say 48tb might fix it for now but that’s circa £19k I think. I have compact terras so not sure how nicely they play and what that means to downloads etc.

Anyway, I digress. So my immediate thought is do I wait to resolve all of this at projector buy time or will we get interim benefits by buying the K today. Oh and if anyone has a 48 or 120tb uk based they want to sell at a decent price I could be interested but best not clutter the thread further.

We are knee deep in a large solar/battery investment right now which is just a complex distraction from all of this but any advice on this av stuff greatly appreciated and thanks for the comments so far.

Apologies for the rambling post.

 

[Oldred]

Could that be because your projector does not have any dynamic tone mapping capability?

Projectors in general, except for those costing more than a Lexus, can't hit the level of nits required for true HDR, therefore dynamic tone mapping is applied. The quality of that algorithm and the ability to custom tailor it for your specific installation play a huge part of the perceived quality of the DTM. DTM has to take 1000 nits or whatever the content is mastered at, and map all those points along the scale into 100 nits, or whatever your specific system is capable of and calibrated to.

The JVCs are largely thought to have the best in-projector DTM capability, but even then, the settings are minimal - on/off, auto/low/mid/high, and entering screen information is pretty much all you get.

A Lumagen or MadVR allows your calibrator to dial in the DTM settings to a much more granular degree, accounting for many variables that you just don't get with low/medium/high. This is on top of the ability to more precisely add a calibration to the projector as well.

That is one of the things that steer me away from the JVC. I know I am paying for a bunch of cost for that processing that I would never use. Maybe someone in demo will change my mind but it feels a mistake so Madvr etc and a projector that doesn’t do that is my first thought. We have lived with Sony tv/projector images for most of our lives and prefer that approach to colour etc so it’s where I will start. The only time we have moved away from that we were never quite happy. But that’s a personal view not a pro view cos I am no av pro just an enthusiast.

 

[Naiera]

Why not Lumagen? The DTM is better there.

 

[thrillcat]

That is one of the things that steer me away from the JVC. I know I am paying for a bunch of cost for that processing that I would never use. Maybe someone in demo will change my mind but it feels a mistake so Madvr etc and a projector that doesn’t do that is my first thought. We have lived with Sony tv/projector images for most of our lives and prefer that approach to colour etc so it’s where I will start. The only time we have moved away from that we were never quite happy. But that’s a personal view not a pro view cos I am no av pro just an enthusiast.

The JVC’s blacks are what you’re paying for more than its tone mapping.

There are likely going to be a lot of Lumagen units on the used market in the next 6 months as they are due to launch the 8K Artisan in the coming months, after much delay. I think there will be many folks upgrading, and if you don’t need 8K there should be some deals to be had.

 

[JonProphet]

The JVC’s blacks are what you’re paying for more than its tone mapping.

There are likely going to be a lot of Lumagen units on the used market in the next 6 months as they are due to launch the 8K Artisan in the coming months, after much delay. I think there will be many folks upgrading, and if you don’t need 8K there should be some deals to be had.

Now yer talking my language. Still not sure I could spend the coin to improve the image. It would have to be significant.

 

[Naiera]

The JVC’s blacks are what you’re paying for more than its tone mapping.

There are likely going to be a lot of Lumagen units on the used market in the next 6 months as they are due to launch the 8K Artisan in the coming months, after much delay. I think there will be many folks upgrading, and if you don’t need 8K there should be some deals to be had.

Nobody actually needs 8K; it’s a range of other features that’ll be selling the Artisan. “8K” is just “large number look good” marketing, the same way my Zidoo is advertised as a 8K compatible.

 

[Oldred]

So does anyone have a view on whether there would be material benefit in swapping the c player for a K with my current setup? I apologise for distracting from my core question by adding further info. Just keen to get an opinion or two. Thx. I may see if I can persuade my dealer to demo it here or lend it for a weekend for me to a vs b it although would adding it need a recalibration ?

 

[Reezepees]

The K player is superieur against the V. So Yess, you will benefit from swapping it.

 

[LionCiti]

So does anyone have a view on whether there would be material benefit in swapping the c player for a K with my current setup? I apologise for distracting from my core question by adding further info. Just keen to get an opinion or two. Thx. I may see if I can persuade my dealer to demo it here or lend it for a weekend for me to a vs b it although would adding it need a recalibration ?

I had the Strato C for a number of years and just replaced it with the Strato K.

What I feel I gain
1.Cinematics. Played Eric Clapton Slowhand. Looks better. Noticeably better.
2. Ability to play movies if my Compact Server failed with a small config change
3. Strato K ran much cooler
4. 8K ready. Though I believe only one clip is available. But can test my projector
5. Black color

What I feel I lose
1. Strato C feels more solidly built. Heavier
2. Separate HDMI Audio port.

Overall, for me. I feel the first 2 points is sufficient to justify the change.

 

[Oldred]

I had the Strato C for a number of years and just replaced it with the Strato K.

What I feel I gain
1.Cinematics. Played Eric Clapton Slowhand. Looks better. Noticeably better.
2. Ability to play movies if my Compact Server failed with a small config change
3. Strato K ran much cooler
4. 8K ready. Though I believe only one clip is available. But can test my projector
5. Black color

What I feel I lose
1. Strato C feels more solidly built. Heavier
2. Separate HDMI Audio port.

Overall, for me. I feel the first 2 points is sufficient to justify the change.

Is it connected to a Projector or a TV? If the former, did it require projector recalibration at the time?

 

[steelman1991]

Is it connected to a Projector or a TV? If the former, did it require projector recalibration at the time?

Mine is connected to a PJ and re-calibration wasn’t required.

 

[DieZwei]

did it require projector recalibration at the time?

Why would it?

 

[LionCiti]

Is it connected to a Projector or a TV? If the former, did it require projector recalibration at the time?

It’s to a projector. JVC NZ7 current, going to be replaced by NZ800 when it arrived.
I did not do a recalibration. I don’t feel it is needed.

 

[Oldred]

thx everybody, very helpful.