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

[Broncowrangler]

My whole family could pick out the 4KC as being better on playback in our living room. That’s the K straight to a 98” TV and a few people that don’t know or care much about this stuff.

Yup this is legit. You don’t need data or stats to validate / quantify human experience. Lol.

 

[Broncowrangler]

Lol. I actually did movie it again just for visuals and atmos.

I have this as demo material in my HT; both for audio and video. The atmos is badass.

 

[Trevor]

An updated Batman Begins 4K_C DV encode is now available that fixes the black levels. They look proper (as good as they get for that title anyway) and the letterboxes stay dead black now. I let support know that it's a good fix and reminded them to hit up Blade Runner 2049 (and maybe review anything else from Warner Bros that shares the same DV encode recipe).

 

[artur9]

An updated Batman Begins 4K_C DV encode is now available that fixes the black levels. They look proper (as good as they get for that title anyway) ...

Can the 4KC fix Tenet and the other Nolan films?

My desire is for a Strato-K and a server that can hold about 100 movies in 4KC. What would that take?

 

[josh]

My head is spinning from all the discussions about which format (SDR, HDR10, DV) and settings to use for viewing. I have the JVC 8K-ish (e-shift) projector, so DV is not an option. The projector does have the "Filmmaker Mode" feature on it and so does the new K.

It's really a shame that this huge long thread is now pretty much impossible to find those few posts that really contain the settings to use to properly see 4K-C with different equipment combinations.
It's why I started this thread, but it's just not working. No one who knows the answers will post clear, simple instructions in that thread.
I give up trying to organize this for users just now trying to figure out how to get the best results. Good luck navigating this thread with now 905 posts and over 40 pages to wade through.

 

[josh]

I'd encourage people to start making NEW threads in the forum for topics related to the Strato K, with a descriptive title of your question or finding or reaction, rather than just replying to this megathread. Adding more posts to the 1000 here (that was meant to just be about the announcement itself) isn't helping other users, most of whom are not going to wade through 1000 messages.
Y'all can post wherever you want, including here, but to get more attention to your question and to help users find useful information, it would do better in a new thread.

 

[iansilv]

Why doesn’t it support a costar switch?

 

[MikeKobb]

Why doesn’t it support a costar switch?

It will work fine with the Co-Star switch, but not for 8K, because none of the existing Co-Star compatible switches/processors support HDMI FRL (fixed-rate link), which is required for 8K.

 

[lujan]

My whole family could pick out the 4KC as being better on playback in our living room when blind testing them on a couple of movies. That’s the K straight to a 98” TV and a few people that don’t know or care much about this stuff.

Sounds like my family (sister, brothers, etc.). They occasionally come over for holidays and we’ll watch a movie on K. They do comment on how good it looks but mostly comments from nephews who notice the great audio (especially when playing a script for them). I haven’t had a chance to demonstrate the Cinematic versions yet, but not sure they would even notice a difference.

 

[iansilv]

It will work fine with the Co-Star switch, but not for 8K, because none of the existing Co-Star compatible switches/processors support HDMI FRL (fixed-rate link), which is required for 8K.

Oh- ok also if I am not concerned with 8K video, I can hook it up to my costar and directly replace my Strato C?

 

[Golfx]

My whole family could pick out the 4KC as being better on playback in our living room when blind testing them on a couple of movies. That’s the K straight to a 98” TV and a few people that don’t know or care much about this stuff.

Similarly my 14 and 11 year old male grandkids were over with their mom and we A/B 4K DV and 4KC DV versions of Project Hail Mary (particularly scene harvesting helpful microbes at distant planet) and Jurassic World Rebirth (pretty much any scene) and all identified the KC versions as better. Wife and Daughter even looked up from their phones from time to time.

 

[KDeering]

Dont get me wrong....i see from a tech pov how this Strato K and 4kC is better..... I just wonder how big a factor everything else in the chain plays a factor...expensive video processors,etc... Is someone with a basic system...Strato to avr to projector going to see a quantifiable improvement!

With video where it has been and the quality of displays we have, it was always going to be a case of small improvements at best from this point on. Even when 8K comes out. You hit a point where the "improvements" are so subtle because the video is already so good. The biggest "improvement" most people will likely see in their setups at this point is moving to better displays with higher dynamic range and such or doing more to the viewing environment to improve performance.

 

[Amblinfan]

I’ll clearly never get mine (I’m a dealer with horrid FOMO) so I come here to bask in the info. Feels like the longest wait ever.

 

[comptr]

Has anyone ordered their K through Best Buy and received it? I placed my order a week ago Monday for delivery last Wednesday and I'm still waiting for it. BB says Kaleidescape is still processing orders, but it seems a little slower than usual. My past orders of Kaleidescape equipment through BB have always been fast, so I'm not sure what to think.

I got my current Starto V and compact terra from Best Buy, but I got it from my designer, as I have a Savant system they sold me and installed, but they are kinda slow. If you want the K fast, I would get it from Audio Advice or an independent dealer like @Techthusiasm. It will take a few weeks for Best Buy to get it to you, as I have learned through my designer, everything gets shipped to a central facility, and they have a few of these throughout the US, and then from there it gets moved to the store, and then they bring it to your home to install it.

 

[Jae]

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.

I guess the issues that some of you have with the V just depend on the setup. I have mine going straight to my LG C2 and I’ve never experienced any issues with it since launch.

 

[OCD2]

"You hit a point where the "improvements" are so subtle because the video is already so good"

This is why I have become less demanding with decreasing FOMO as I get older. Constantly trying to decide if "the juice is worth the squeeze" before making purchases or changes. Is a minimal improvement really worth a large investment? It's the law of diminishing returns.

 

[KDeering]

"You hit a point where the "improvements" are so subtle because the video is already so good"

This is why I have become less demanding with decreasing FOMO as I get older. Constantly trying to decide if "the juice is worth the squeeze" before making purchases or changes. Is a minimal improvement really worth a large investment? It's the law of diminishing returns.

That is home theater in general though, not just Kscape.

I am trying to put together a group to do some A/B testing of the new files vs the standard ones in the coming weeks. I am going to wait until the patch is released for the DV to HDR bug, but at some point I hope to have some better info for those on the fence.

 

[randman]

That is home theater in general though, not just Kscape.

I am trying to put together a group to do some A/B testing of the new files vs the standard ones in the coming weeks. I am going to wait until the patch is released for the DV to HDR bug, but at some point I hope to have some better info for those on the fence.

I still remember back in the late 1980’s when stereo hi-fi was at its peak. It had been some years since CD came out and remastered albums were already prevalent. Back then, changes to stereo products were not huge and what might be a big difference for one might only be characterized as small by someone else. Remember the days when folks were worried about judder differences? Anyway, I hope we still have lots of upcoming improvements for our home theater hobby. Sure, we can always get bigger and brighter displays… not sure how many more speakers we can add… Yet 8k would be beyond our vision to fully appreciate (unless one were using a computer screen and sitting 4’ from a >> 100” display).

One difference between the 1980’s and today is there is (unfortunately) very little local stores to sample the latest gear. So, one has to read about gear online. So, your A/B testing results would be interesting. I’m curious if one has to switch back and forth multiple times to see the differences, or one can watch half an hour of one version of a movie, take a short break, and then watch the same half an hour of the other version of the movie, and then still appreciate the differences.

Without easy local access, I guess another option is to travel to a trade show like Audio Avice. Or save the time and travel $ and just get the K to satiate the FOMO!

 

[Spooky]

With a chain of equipment that can manage 4.4.4 and 8K (sort of) and a large screen, I am curious to see what the cinematic files can bring.

 

[cardsdoc]

That is home theater in general though, not just Kscape.

I am trying to put together a group to do some A/B testing of the new files vs the standard ones in the coming weeks. I am going to wait until the patch is released for the DV to HDR bug, but at some point I hope to have some better info for those on the fence.

Sounds like a good plan for a little more objective info. Have you done any viewing yourself? Any prelim thoughts?