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

Pleasantly surprised with FedEx Sunday delivery.
Any suggestions of what title(s) to start with to best compare with old versions?

Anyone have this combination of players?

View attachment 10431
Heard Avatar Fire and Ash would be a good comparison. The file size is incredibly large vs the original 4K, about 60GB larger.
 
Actually it’s a great way to run players with two different capabilities.

I currently have a Strato M here for review. When it arrived it was connected to a default reviewer Kaleidescape account with some movies so I could test it.

Last week I started digging a little deeper. I added it to my K account but NOT to the system. This allows me to just quickly download a movie that we want to watch in the living room, or outside for a BBQ movie party, and it doesn’t have to have a network connection to play loaded content.

Meanwhile nothing changes in the theater where my Terra is loaded with my entire library for my Strato C.

Depending on your use case, I might suggest having the K locked into a theater with the Terra and making the V a standalone, but if that is going to require a larger Terra then it’s perfectly fine to run the K as a standalone and just download the next few movies you plan to watch in 4KCinematic.


This is my exact plan for a bedroom M unit once I find a used one
 
Pleasantly surprised with FedEx Sunday delivery.
Any suggestions of what title(s) to start with to best compare with old versions?

Anyone have this combination of players?

View attachment 10431

Check out the theoretical comparisons below by @Trevor for some potential movies to compare:

Some geekdom here (bear with me). I just finished updating my local spreadsheet that I use to compare disc vs KScape encode data. Everything KScape wise is educated guesses (file size divided by run time minus estimated total audio track bandwidth). Raw bitrate wise everything offered in KScape "4K Cinematic" easily gets the nod over disc (not surprising at all given their new targets).

The closest title? Sisu at 82.91 mbps average video bitrate for the 4K DV disc vs an estimated 105+ mbps for KScape's DV encode (127%).

The other end of the spectrum with the bit-starved discs is where it gets really interesting:
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - 41.93 v 103+ (247%)
Casino Royale - 41.93 v 106+ (253%)
Toy Story 4 - 38.40 v 101+ (265%)
Ford v Ferrari - 38.93 v 105+ (271%)
Avengers: Endgame - 36.53 v 103+ (284%)

And the grand prize so far goes to:
Bohemian Rhapsody - 37.21 v 105+ (285%)

Of course, the normal disclaimer applies that bitrate doesn't always equal image quality but...that's not a small difference. 😲

Mine went on order this morning. No tracking yet. ;)
 
It is easy, yes, but Jim's procedure above won't do it. If you just remove the Strato V from a system via the browser interface, it'll still be in player-only mode (i.e. looking for a server to connect to).

To restore a Strato K, V, E, or M to standalone mode:
  1. With the player powered on, press and hold the reset settings button on the player's back panel for approximately 5 seconds. You'll know that the reset to standalone mode is taking place as the player's front panel (or internal LEDs in the case of the Strato E/M) will start blinking prior to the player rebooting.
  2. Once the player reboots, it will be in standalone mode. You will need to activate it on your store account.

Apologies, I forgot that step!! (Thanks @J.Green!)


Jim
 
Can the internal 960 GB SSD of the Strato K be combined with the Terra server storage?

If not, will there be a Strato K player with no storage made available? Seems like it would be a waste of money to pay for a hard drive you can't use.
That would make too much sense. Never going to happen.
 
My dealer was told the K was shipping out next week, but I am seeing posts here saying some of you have ones that have already been shipped. Are the ones in shipment preorders from dealers?
 
My dealer was told the K was shipping out next week, but I am seeing posts here saying some of you have ones that have already been shipped. Are the ones in shipment preorders from dealers?
I put my order in Thursday
 
My dealer was told the K was shipping out next week, but I am seeing posts here saying some of you have ones that have already been shipped. Are the ones in shipment preorders from dealers?

There were a limited number available on the release date, and the demand that followed shortly after release exhausted that supply. K shipped Dealer's orders based on when the order was placed with K. Many of our client/friends, some posting here, immediately reached out to me and I was able to get a dozen or so orders placed within the first hour or two of the official release, so those shipped right away. Several already have their Strato-K's. Others got to me later in the day, so those will likely ship next week. The demand is high, so some may experience a short delay. More are incoming and I'm sure K will ship asap.

Jim
 
There were a limited number available on the release date, and the demand that followed shortly after release exhausted that supply. K shipped Dealer's orders based on when the order was placed with K. Many of our client/friends, some posting here, immediately reached out to me and I was able to get a dozen or so orders placed within the first hour or two of the official release, so those shipped right away. Several already have their Strato-K's. Others got to me later in the day, so those will likely ship next week. The demand is high, so some may experience a short delay. More are incoming and I'm sure K will ship asap.

Jim
Thanks Jim. I assume "next week" refers to the week of June 29?
 
The best approach to setup a Strato K, Strato V, and Terra is going to be a hot topic! Lots of people, me included, will be moving V’s to another room when they get their K. I am pondering standalone vs system for the V and not sure which way to go.

It poses a difficult situation for those of us with strato c’s - can’t use them in standalone and don’t want to double server capacity just to have different versions of same movies… so for now I’ll stick with my 2x strato C’s and only get K’s (or whatever comes after… hopefully a cheaper streamer only version without the ssd) in future when I need to replace my C’s.

However if kscape could work out a way for the same 4k cinematic file to be playable in HDR 4:2:0 on the C then I’d add a K today!
 
Sorry, I was referring to this coming week....but maybe I'm just overly optimistic. 😂 We'll see!

Jim
I hope you are right, and you would know better than me!!

Update - My dealer just told me that he was told the next batch released will be this coming week. 🥳
 
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Small gripe but those screws on the top make it look cheap. Like at least use black painted screws.

It does seem like an odd choice. Rushed perhaps? But I'd assume most of us will end up mounting it in a rack or behind the tv never to be seen again anyways.
 
It does seem like an odd choice. Rushed perhaps? But I'd assume most of us will end up mounting it in a rack or behind the tv never to be seen again anyways.
The top screws are black but are glossier than the case.
 
Hello, what have we here?

View attachment 10435
So what is that in the glass? Suppose it could be tea or cider or some delightful form of whiskey. Nice coater BTW

I did have an old fashioned with brunch today, but I’m afraid that’s just a sweet iced tea. But Cinema 77 rules require glassware, so there you go.

And yes, thank you, I love my coasters! I won them in a raffle here. I haven’t won a prize in 37 years, so I’m really thrilled with them.
 
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