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

[rafaelsmith]

How were you able to sell your Strato E and what % of purchase price did you get back? I feel ripped off by Kelidescape not making public this was coming. I bought it a month ago for my new 180 inch projector home cinema under construction and feel like I've been rugpulled. Had I known the Strato K was coming there's no way I would have bought the Strato E.

I sympathize. That said, this is the nature of this hobby. Companies have to walk a fine line when it comes to announcing new products while still keeping current products profitable. Some companies handle it better than others. My V turned 2 years old when K was announced so I do not feel bad....only thing I feel a little disappointed about is that there are still issues with the V that have existed since launch they seem to not care about and instead have been focused on new product. I really think the V and by extension the M and E were beta tests...which does not exactly sit well with me. Luckily for me the K does not really seem to be worth it given rest of my system so FOMO has not reared its ugly head.

 

[OCD2]

How were you able to sell your Strato E and what % of purchase price did you get back? I feel ripped off by Kelidescape not making public this was coming. I bought it a month ago for my new 180 inch projector home cinema under construction and feel like I've been rugpulled. Had I known the Strato K was coming there's no way I would have bought the Strato E.

I don't understand. I think you have unrealistic expectations.

(1) How many companies announce new products that will kill an existing product line before the new product is released?

(2) What's the urgency for buying a K? I bought an E last summer as a reluctant new user. I've gotten good use from it and feel no urgency to buy a K at this time. AAs a customer, I'm essentially locked in now. I hope there will be lots of new products over the next few years.

Is this simply FOMO? I don't feel K ripped me off. The E performed as promised. For example, no one knows when the new ATV4K is going to be released or what it might have as new features. If you want an ATV4K streamer then today the only viable option is the 3rd generation. And it will remain that way until the new product is officially announced.

Very few and mostly subjective only reviews of the K have been released. Even though $5K is not a huge amount of money, I typically want to see some thorough objective reviews from those I respect before making even a $5K investment.

If you wanted a player then the E was probably a good choice at the time. If they told you a new K was coming and then it got delayed, you would still be unhappy. And it is likely an improved version of the K will be coming with features that the current K is missing.

Did you ask your dealer if a new product was coming before making your E purchase?

 

[rafaelsmith]

I don't understand. I think you have unrealistic expectations.

(1) How many companies announce new products that will kill an existing product line before the new product is released?

(2) What's the urgency for buying a K? I bought an E last summer as a reluctant new user. I've gotten good use from it and feel no urgency to buy a K at this time. AAs a customer, I'm essentially locked in now. I hope there will be lots of new products over the next few years.

Is this simply FOMO? I don't feel K ripped me off. The E performed as promised. For example, no one knows when the new ATV4K is going to be released or what it might have as new features. If you want an ATV4K streamer then today the only viable option is the 3rd generation. And it will remain that way until the new product is officially announced.

Very few and mostly subjective only reviews of the K have been released. Even though $5K is not a huge amount of money, I typically want to see some thorough objective reviews from those I respect before making even a $5K investment.

If you wanted a player then the E was probably a good choice at the time. If they told you a new K was coming and then it got delayed, you would still be unhappy. And it is likely an improved version of the K will be coming with features that the current K is missing.

Did you ask your dealer if a new product was coming before making your E purchase?

Been awhile since I have witnessed this level of FOMO

I really believe waiting is the most prudent thing with regards to the Strato K. Just too much FOMO going on atm...people obsessing over stuff like Chroma without really understanding what its all about or if it really makes any difference beyond some bullet point on a spec sheet. As for me $5k is alot...so it better be an improvement I immediately notice with my eyes...not one that just looks better on paper...or that requires I spend thousands more on additional hardware like processor or higher end projector. I will let the dust settle and revisit decision in 6 months or so.

 

[Darthbishop79]

Been awhile since I have witnessed this level of FOMO

I really believe waiting is the most prudent thing with regards to the Strato K. Just too much FOMO going on atm...people obsessing over stuff like Chroma without really understanding what its all about or if it really makes any difference beyond some bullet point on a spec sheet. As for me $5k is alot...so it better be an improvement I immediately notice with my eyes...not one that just looks better on paper...or that requires I spend thousands more on additional hardware like processor or higher end projector. I will let the dust settle and revisit decision in 6 months or so.

My brotha, this is not FOMO, especially with you rig your gear is listed as the following:
Video: JVC RS1100, Silver Ticket 135" 16x9 4W 1.4 Gain White.
Audio: Marantz Cinema 30, PSA MT-110 x5, RSL C34E x4, JBL Studio 610 x2. HSU VTF-15H MK2 x2
Media: Kaleidescape Strato V, Zidoo Z30 Pro , Apple TV 4k
Featuring OCA Evo optimization!

The Strato K for you is a must own, stop talking yourself out of it or postponing it. Your system deserves the very best content/fuel being sent to it. This is a no brainer upgrade. Sell your V, order that K today.

 

[rafaelsmith]

My brotha, this is not FOMO, especially with you rig your gear is listed as the following:
Video: JVC RS1100, Silver Ticket 135" 16x9 4W 1.4 Gain White.
Audio: Marantz Cinema 30, PSA MT-110 x5, RSL C34E x4, JBL Studio 610 x2. HSU VTF-15H MK2 x2
Media: Kaleidescape Strato V, Zidoo Z30 Pro , Apple TV 4k
Featuring OCA Evo optimization!

The Strato K for you is a must own, stop talking yourself out of it or postponing it. Your system deserves the very best content/fuel being sent to it. This is a no brainer upgrade. Sell your V, order that K today.

 

[NCCatLady]

My K is at my dealer’s warehouse. We have been waiting for some other (non-Kaleidescape) items to arrive. Everything is there now, so I’m just waiting for them to schedule the install date.

Looks like I have been assimilated!

 

[Bigmoviefan]

I sympathize. That said, this is the nature of this hobby. Companies have to walk a fine line when it comes to announcing new products while still keeping current products profitable. Some companies handle it better than others. My V turned 2 years old when K was announced so I do not feel bad....only thing I feel a little disappointed about is that there are still issues with the V that have existed since launch they seem to not care about and instead have been focused on new product. I really think the V and by extension the M and E were beta tests...which does not exactly sit well with me. Luckily for me the K does not really seem to be worth it given rest of my system so FOMO has not reared its ugly head.

What problems still exist with Strato V?

 

[Broncowrangler]

Wish to read some more feedback/observations of owners with the K. Always check in (multiple times..even) to see new owners posting their thoughts. It invariably adds to the overall experience. Right now the only posts I’m seeing out here are centered around justifications for staying away from the K.

 

[Edgar]

The screenshot I posted above was from the Kscape capabilities tool located in the settings section. However the AVR was indicating DV (bt.2020, 8 bit). Not too clear about this.

Maybe @Edgar @lujan and others could check this as well on the osd of their receivers, while playing a DV cinematic title. Preferably Predator Badlands. I would really appreciate it.

I haven't had a moment to really play with my system since the weekend, and may not get another shot at it until the coming one. My work and home life feel like Everything Everywhere at Once but in a mostly good way!

Wish to read some more feedback/observations of owners with the K. Always check in (multiple times..even) to see new owners posting their thoughts. It invariably adds to the overall experience. Right now the only posts I’m seeing out here are centered around justifications for staying away from the K.

I'm still enjoying the F out of my K. Can I say that?

Speed Racer really astounded my audience on Sunday, myself included. It's such a vivid movie to start with, but to have all that visual information land uncompressed and gorgeous was just nuts. The kids liked the sincerity of the film itself, which was great to see, since my kids seem to like banter-y films these days.

One nit to pick so to speak is that I did notice a bit of brightness flickering on transitions to bright scenes. I've logged this issue with Support, hopefully we can find a fix. It seems a lot like the DV flickering issue some folks reported. I went back and looked at Titanic and it is there slightly, but not as noticeable as Speed Racer. It's possibly related to my Lumagen spoofing LLDV or something, but seems like a fixable thing.

 

[rafaelsmith]

What problems still exist with Strato V?

What problems still exist with Strato V?

I still have occasional audio dropouts...and while not V specific...there are still encoding artifacts as well as DV to HDR conversion issues!

 

[Trevor]

Wish to read some more feedback/observations of owners with the K. Always check in (multiple times..even) to see new owners posting their thoughts. It invariably adds to the overall experience. Right now the only posts I’m seeing out here are centered around justifications for staying away from the K.

My daughter wanted to revisit the Star Wars saga. I know I already posted about Phantom Menace in 4K_C DV on my new Bravia 9 II and both Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith looked better than I've seen before but I also have the feeling they're rather source limited. We then watched Solo in standard 4K HDR10 on a Strato C and it looked great. I swapped to the disc afterwards and it was devoid of quite a bit of detail. Finally, we just finished Rogue One in 4K_C DV. So, Rogue One...man...Rogue One...holy smokes it's incredible! Take time out to watch it when you get the chance. Wow! Demo worthy for 4K_C...no question!

 

[Broncowrangler]

My daughter wanted to revisit the Star Wars saga. I know I already posted about Phantom Menace in 4K_C DV on my new Bravia 9 II and both Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith looked better than I've seen before but I also have the feeling they're rather source limited. We then watched Solo in standard 4K HDR10 on a Strato C and it looked great. I swapped to the disc afterwards and it was devoid of quite a bit of detail. Finally, we just finished Rogue One in 4K_C DV. So, Rogue One...man...Rogue One...holy smokes it's incredible! Take time out to watch it when you get the chance. Wow! Demo worthy for 4K_C...no question!

Planning on doing an Andor (4k disc) /Rogue One marathon. They tie in beautifully..imho.

 

[rafaelsmith]

My daughter wanted to revisit the Star Wars saga. I know I already posted about Phantom Menace in 4K_C DV on my new Bravia 9 II and both Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith looked better than I've seen before but I also have the feeling they're rather source limited. We then watched Solo in standard 4K HDR10 on a Strato C and it looked great. I swapped to the disc afterwards and it was devoid of quite a bit of detail. Finally, we just finished Rogue One in 4K_C DV. So, Rogue One...man...Rogue One...holy smokes it's incredible! Take time out to watch it when you get the chance. Wow! Demo worthy for 4K_C...no question!

Oh crap...Rogue One is one my may favorites...and IMO under appreciated movies ever...Resistance is futile?

 

[lujan]

I haven't had a moment to really play with my system since the weekend, and may not get another shot at it until the coming one. My work and home life feel like Everything Everywhere at Once but in a mostly good way!



I'm still enjoying the F out of my K. Can I say that?

Speed Racer really astounded my audience on Sunday, myself included. It's such a vivid movie to start with, but to have all that visual information land uncompressed and gorgeous was just nuts. The kids liked the sincerity of the film itself, which was great to see, since my kids seem to like banter-y films these days.

One nit to pick so to speak is that I did notice a bit of brightness flickering on transitions to bright scenes. I've logged this issue with Support, hopefully we can find a fix. It seems a lot like the DV flickering issue some folks reported. I went back and looked at Titanic and it is there slightly, but not as noticeable as Speed Racer. It's possibly related to my Lumagen spoofing LLDV or something, but seems like a fixable thing.

I also saw speed Racer over the weekend for the first time. I didn’t notice any brightness flickering but it may depend on the display? I thought that the video was fantastic in Cinematic 4K. I didn’t like the movie as much as I thought I would because it was a more “over the top” for me.

 

[rafaelsmith]

I also saw speed Racer over the weekend for the first time. I didn’t notice any brightness flickering but it may depend on the display? I thought that the video was fantastic in Cinematic 4K. I didn’t like the movie as much as I thought I would because it was a more “over the top” for me.

I liked Speed Racer...not sure I want to know what that says about me!

 

[Broncowrangler]

I haven't had a moment to really play with my system since the weekend, and may not get another shot at it until the coming one. My work and home life feel like Everything Everywhere at Once but in a mostly good way!



I'm still enjoying the F out of my K. Can I say that?

Speed Racer really astounded my audience on Sunday, myself included. It's such a vivid movie to start with, but to have all that visual information land uncompressed and gorgeous was just nuts. The kids liked the sincerity of the film itself, which was great to see, since my kids seem to like banter-y films these days.

One nit to pick so to speak is that I did notice a bit of brightness flickering on transitions to bright scenes. I've logged this issue with Support, hopefully we can find a fix. It seems a lot like the DV flickering issue some folks reported. I went back and looked at Titanic and it is there slightly, but not as noticeable as Speed Racer. It's possibly related to my Lumagen spoofing LLDV or something, but seems like a fixable thing.

Try and watch speed racer without the lumagen (DV/ HDR10 conv.) and see If it replicates the same behavior. Possible way to eliminate one of the variables.

 

[Darthbishop79]

Oh crap...Rogue One is one my may favorites...and IMO under appreciated movies ever...Resistance is futile?

 

[abs085]

I don't understand. I think you have unrealistic expectations.

(1) How many companies announce new products that will kill an existing product line before the new product is released?

(2) What's the urgency for buying a K? I bought an E last summer as a reluctant new user. I've gotten good use from it and feel no urgency to buy a K at this time. AAs a customer, I'm essentially locked in now. I hope there will be lots of new products over the next few years.

Is this simply FOMO? I don't feel K ripped me off. The E performed as promised. For example, no one knows when the new ATV4K is going to be released or what it might have as new features. If you want an ATV4K streamer then today the only viable option is the 3rd generation. And it will remain that way until the new product is officially announced.

Very few and mostly subjective only reviews of the K have been released. Even though $5K is not a huge amount of money, I typically want to see some thorough objective reviews from those I respect before making even a $5K investment.

If you wanted a player then the E was probably a good choice at the time. If they told you a new K was coming and then it got delayed, you would still be unhappy. And it is likely an improved version of the K will be coming with features that the current K is missing.

Did you ask your dealer if a new product was coming before making your E purchase?

1. Plenty. We all know when there's a new phone or computer or TV or Gaming console coming.
2. If I had bought a year ago I would not be having buyers remorse because like you said you've got a years use out of the leading edge of what is available in terms of content to feed your high end home cinema. But in my case because i only bought like 2-3 weeks before it was announced I feel completely rugpulled and blindsided by Kscape.
3. Buying the E is thousands of dollars anyway. You don't invest in a Stratto to permanantly be locked into 2nd best right after you bought, otherwise why would you bother just get a 4k bluray player and have the budget for hundreds of movies.
4. If they told me the K was coming and it got delayed I would have waited and not spent the money.
5. Sure there maybe even more players coming in time and you got to draw the line somewhere but having shelled out thousands, I feel I have really screwed up and on the wrong side of that line. I feel huge regret like I bought the blackberry just before the Iphone came out. Doesn't mean the Blackberry wasn't a capable phone, but it's about missing out on 4k Cinematic altogether. Newer future players might have more features, but it would still be running on 4k Cinematic at the end of the day.
6. Kscape kept this under wraps, not a peep out of anybody and nobody knew about it. My dealer had no idea about it. Thats why I feel so betrayed by Kscape. They could have let potential customers make an informed choice whether to wait and stretch to a K or stick with the E or V. Now there's a group of recent customers like myself all feeling like they have been rugpulled.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

1. Plenty. We all know when there's a new phone or computer or TV or Gaming console coming.
2. If I had bought a year ago I would not be having buyers remorse because like you said you've got a years use out of the leading edge of what is available in terms of content to feed your high end home cinema. But in my case because i only bought like 2-3 weeks before it was announced I feel completely rugpulled and blindsided by Kscape.
3. Buying the E is thousands of dollars anyway. You don't invest in a Stratto to permanantly be locked into 2nd best right after you bought, otherwise why would you bother just get a 4k bluray player and have the budget for hundreds of movies.
4. If they told me the K was coming and it got delayed I would have waited and not spent the money.
5. Sure there maybe even more players coming in time and you got to draw the line somewhere but having shelled out thousands, I feel I have really screwed up and on the wrong side of that line. I feel huge regret like I bought the blackberry just before the Iphone came out. Doesn't mean the Blackberry wasn't a capable phone, but it's about missing out on 4k Cinematic altogether. Newer future players might have more features, but it would still be running on 4k Cinematic at the end of the day.
6. Kscape kept this under wraps, not a peep out of anybody and nobody knew about it. My dealer had no idea about it. Thats why I feel so betrayed by Kscape. They could have let potential customers make an informed choice whether to wait and stretch to a K or stick with the E or V. Now there's a group of recent customers like myself all feeling like they have been rugpulled.

Why isn’t your dealer letting you swap if you only just bought it? Also whilst I can understand having some frustration the K is still another $2000, 40% more than the E and had the K not been a thing you would be perfectly happy. You haven’t bought something that isn’t doing what you bought it for!

I would wait and see some technical comparisons, it’s very easy to have FOMO but we don’t even know what the actual differences between 4K and 4K Cinematic is in real terms.

Also phone, TV’s and computers/consoles aren’t a good example because they operate on a very different model where there is a constant cadence of new technology released and all their processes are built around that where they completely stop manufacturing old stuff and want you to only buy the new things.

I don’t think there is an ideal way to do it really but realistically I’m sure they would rather you had spent $5000 on the more expensive model than $3000 on their budget model as that benefits them more.

 

[brodricj]

...and feel like I've been rugpulled...

I hear you but I don't agree. Apple never announce new products ahead of release. It's common practice.