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

[DieZwei]

Maybe I’m too influenced by modern technology, where every new generation tends to get smaller, faster, and more capable. When Apple releases a new Mac mini, my expectation isn’t that it’ll be twice the size of the previous model.

Yes, but the K is not a "new Strato E", but an additional full-size model.

Then again, the A/V industry has never entirely shaken the notion that premium gear should occupy a lot of rack space.

I believe a main factor is that keeping the same form factor as the previous C and V Stratos makes it a lot easier to swap it in an existing installation.

If the answer is thermal management, airflow, serviceability, or some other engineering requirement, that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.

I believe that is also another factor. My comment above just focusing on the TV<>rack mount aspect was not meant to be covering all aspects of the design choice.

But I totally get if people would prefer a smaller form factor.

 

[Wonkavision]

Yes, but the K is not a "new Strato E", but an additional full-size model.

I believe a main factor is that keeping the same form factor as the previous C and V Stratos makes it a lot easier to swap it in an existing installation.

I believe that is also another factor. My comment above just focusing on the TV<>rack mount aspect was not meant to be covering all aspects of the design choice.

But I totally get if people would prefer a smaller form factor.

Fair enough. There are probably multiple factors involved, and unless Kaleidescape publishes the design rationale, we’re all doing a bit of educated guessing. I can certainly imagine arguments for compatibility with existing full-size installations, thermal considerations, serviceability, and so on.

The one exception may be the disco lights. I remain unconvinced that those were driven by engineering requirements.

I still find it interesting that the most recent additions to the lineup (E, M, and Mini Terra) all moved toward the smaller form factor, which is why the K surprised me.

At the end of the day, my biggest concern isn’t really the chassis size. It’s that I now want a K and my rack hardware is suddenly giving me opinions about it.

As a dealer, your real mistake was engaging me in a debate about industrial design instead of sending me a trade-in offer.

 

[DieZwei]

The one exception may be the disco lights. I remain unconvinced that those were driven by engineering requirements.

Happy to agree on this one for sure.

I still find it interesting that the most recent additions to the lineup (E, M, and Mini Terra) all moved toward the smaller form factor, which is why the K surprised me.

The mentioned devices are all aimed towards the lower end of the portfolio. Whereas the K is placed at the top end. Isn´t it obvious that the top end units need to be larger than the lower end?

As a dealer, your real mistake was engaging me in a debate about industrial design instead of sending me a trade-in offer.

Would love to - but being located in Germany, I think it wouldn´t make any sense to ship devices over the big pond and adding international shipping cost and customs/tax on top of it.

 

[DLCPhoto]

Sure thing! I’m using a JVC NZ7, with both a Denon AVR and a Lumagen Radiance Pro in between. So I’m losing some of that chroma along the way. [Edit: corrected per @KDeering below]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the wall looks amazing too. Very vibrant and non-washed out. I literally did a double-take when it powered on.

Oh, getting it set up was simple too. I just disconnected the Strato C, and plugged all the same cables into the Strato K, including the power cable. The web interface found it, and I added the Strato K. I had to change the aspect ratio and turn off the display brightness, and also select HDR-10 as my output. I was getting a scary weird red picture at first. But all is well again!

Most of my time was spent on swapping out the Strato C with the K in automations I set up on my UC3 and HA.

Thanks for all of this.

I would love to see A/B photos comparing them, if you happen to have a DSLR, tripod, using manual exposure settings, etc. Phone pictures would likely not be adequate, for a variety of reasons.

If you don't, that's fine - appreciate your sharing your observations.

 

[todo]

If the screws are upsetting, wait until you see the disco lights!

View attachment 10436

@Edgar Looking Great - It will fit like a 'glove' in my Rack.
Do the lights stay on all the time on the new K or are they on only when you play the content (On the V they would turn off when the Strato was idle) - I love the lights, I hope they stay ON all the time just like my Terra SSD

 

[cardsdoc]

Sure thing! I’m using a JVC NZ7, with both a Denon AVR and a Lumagen Radiance Pro in between. So I’m losing some of that chroma along the way. [Edit: corrected per @KDeering below]

One thing I forgot to mention is that the wall looks amazing too. Very vibrant and non-washed out. I literally did a double-take when it powered on.

Oh, getting it set up was simple too. I just disconnected the Strato C, and plugged all the same cables into the Strato K, including the power cable. The web interface found it, and I added the Strato K. I had to change the aspect ratio and turn off the display brightness, and also select HDR-10 as my output. I was getting a scary weird red picture at first. But all is well again!

Most of my time was spent on swapping out the Strato C with the K in automations I set up on my UC3 and HA.

Thanks for the info particularly since I’m using almost identical gear. NZ7, Lumagen, Denon A10H. Currently have a Stato V standalone.

 

[J.Green]

The one exception may be the disco lights. I remain unconvinced that those were driven by engineering requirements.

I'd just point out that most of the photographs of the Strato K -- including the ones on our website -- tend to exaggerate the brightness of the front panel lights and the prominence of the light through the vent holes. Even at default brightness, it's not nearly as bright as the photos seem to suggest. And you can always dial the brightness down or even turn it off.

Do the lights stay on all the time on the new K or are they on only when you play the content (On the V they would turn off when the Strato was idle) - I love the lights, I hope they stay ON all the time just like my Terra SSD

They do not. When you play a movie, the front panel lights will dim (but not turn completely off). When the player enters standby, the front panel LEDs turn off completely.

 

[RAGJr]

Just curious, has anyone been able to confirm if using a Strato K with an OLED panel requires using the PC Mode/4:4:4 passthrough input settings, thus bypassing calibration?

It would be nice if anyone from Kaleidescape, or perhaps a pro calibrator could chime in.

Thanks!

 

[stanrozenfeld]

Just curious, has anyone been able to confirm if using a Strato K with an OLED panel requires using the PC Mode/4:4:4 passthrough input settings, thus bypassing calibration?

It would be nice if anyone from Kaleidescape, or perhaps a pro calibrator could chime in.

Thanks!

Good Question!

Also,

I have an 83 inch LG G5. I sit around 9 feet from the screen. It would be great if I could get feedback on picture quality improvement from someone with similar set up.

 

[jglowinski]

Okay, I've done a bit of A/B testing with Top Gun Maverick and Dune. I'm just a lay-person, a consumer, so I may not be as precise as others or know what to look for. But I do care about color and how clear the image looks. It's not night and day, but there is a subtle improvement. The colors of sunsets and skin tones are more lifelike, the image overall looks more dense and dimensional, blacks look slightly more black. When flipping back to the regular 4K HDR version it look slightly grayer and flatter. Not something I would have noticed before. But now I've seen it.

Overall 4K Cinematic looks closer to an OLED picture, or at least closer to what a movie looks like when it's a quarter of the size of a projector screen. 4K Cinematic looks less stretched, like there's more information to fill my 127" of screen. Basically, it's what I thought Kaleidescape would be.

Is it possible some of the perceived picture improvements are from the newer O/S version? it was mentioned that the new K is coming with the upgraded version before our existing M/E/V get the upgrades.

 

[Ironman1718]

Looking forward to hearing about it! Any chance you have a madvr in that setup as well?

yes, I have a MK3

 

[Wonkavision]

I'd just point out that most of the photographs of the Strato K -- including the ones on our website -- tend to exaggerate the brightness of the front panel lights and the prominence of the light through the vent holes. Even at default brightness, it's not nearly as bright as the photos seem to suggest. And you can always dial the brightness down or even turn it off.

I wasn’t worried about the lights, myself. I disabled the blue glow on my Strato E the day I set it up, so I was confident I could survive the disco lights (coined by @Edgar ) as well. They were simply too easy a target to resist.

On a completely unrelated note, any chance of a Strato K Mini arriving before Christmas? Asking for a friend.

 

[todo]

I wasn’t worried about the lights, myself. I disabled the blue glow on my Strato E the day I set it up, so I was confident I could survive the disco lights (coined by @Edgar ) as well. They were simply too easy a target to resist.

On a completely unrelated note, any chance of a Strato K Mini arriving before Christmas? Asking for a friend.

On hindsight, after selling my Strato V, I think it is better for resale to get a player with the 1 TB Drive.
It becomes attractive to people who want to enter the the K platform with the minimum entry cost.
My K is on the way thanks to @cinelife but do I hear a Dolby Vision 2 K player coming out soon? (Me spreading rumors LOL).

 

[Imakeller]

On hindsight, after selling my Strato V, I think it is better for resale to get a player with the 1 TB Drive.
It becomes attractive to people who want to enter the the K platform with the minimum entry cost.
My K is on the way thanks to @cinelife but do I hear a Dolby Vision 2 K player coming out soon? (Me spreading rumors LOL).

I honestly don’t know much about Dolby Vision 2, but really hope it doesn’t involve a new player

 

[macfan2k24]

On a completely unrelated note, any chance of a Strato K Mini arriving before Christmas? Asking for a friend.

Guess it depends how long it takes for Kscape to sell thru existing Strato V and E’s. There was only a 10-month gap between the release of the E after the V.

 

[Golfx]

I honestly don’t know much about Dolby Vision 2, but really hope it doesn’t involve a new player

The LG engineers were saying that DV2 like capability already existed using the settings menu on their G tvs without the need to add it via firmware. So that kind of calmed me down a little bit.

 

[Sasquatch]

Just curious, has anyone been able to confirm if using a Strato K with an OLED panel requires using the PC Mode/4:4:4 passthrough input settings, thus bypassing calibration?

It would be nice if anyone from Kaleidescape, or perhaps a pro calibrator could chime in.

Thanks!

My K's haven't arrived yet, so this was my proactively playing around in the menu's. It looks like on LG's, you can enable 4:4:4 passthrough without PC mode, which I'm assuming wouldn't change the picture mode from one of the isf settings that my calibrator setup.

On my Samsung S95D, I haven't found a menu option and Google says it can only be done via PC mode. I'm cautiously optimistic it'll "just work" as long as the signal plus flag is flipped on.

I've got 3 K's on order, which will be split amongst a LG G5, LG G4, and Samsung S95D. Can confirm for sure from a user perspective once they're delivered.

 

[Gui0312]

If the screws are upsetting, wait until you see the disco lights!

View attachment 10436

Yeah I’m not sure what they were thinking with those LED’s they aren’t even diffused to a nice even glow for such a premium product. The LED’s on the name was sufficient but tell me you can turn them off like you can the name….

 

[Gui0312]

Okay, I've done a bit of A/B testing with Top Gun Maverick and Dune. I'm just a lay-person, a consumer, so I may not be as precise as others or know what to look for. But I do care about color and how clear the image looks. It's not night and day, but there is a subtle improvement. The colors of sunsets and skin tones are more lifelike, the image overall looks more dense and dimensional, blacks look slightly more black. When flipping back to the regular 4K HDR version it look slightly grayer and flatter. Not something I would have noticed before. But now I've seen it.

Overall 4K Cinematic looks closer to an OLED picture, or at least closer to what a movie looks like when it's a quarter of the size of a projector screen. 4K Cinematic looks less stretched, like there's more information to fill my 127" of screen. Basically, it's what I thought Kaleidescape would be.

What projector and screen type are you using? Blacked out room? Thanks for the comparisons!

 

[Nelsonkscape]

Considering upgrading my Kaleidescape Strato V to the new Kaleidescape Strato K. I'm running a Lumagen Radiance Pro (12-bit 4:2:2 pipeline) into a JVC NZ9. Will they be video improvement with the 4K Cinematic titles with this combination? Or should I stick with the V?