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

[Trevor]

You really should put eyes on this @KDeering.

 

[KDeering]

You really should put eyes on this @KDeering.

I have one here already.

 

[grettagirl]

I'd like to retract the part of my comment that claimed to be more sensitive to color in the context of a forum with people who actually spend much of their lives looking at and analyzing colors on screens.

 

[Kabillyhop]

I'd like to retract the part of my comment that claimed to be more sensitive to color in the context of a forum with people who actually spend much of their lives looking at and analyzing colors on screens.

No need to retract. Here's what AI has to say:

Women generally have slightly better color discrimination​

Studies have found that, on average, women:

• Can distinguish between very similar shades of color slightly better than men.
• Tend to perform better on tests involving subtle differences in hue, particularly in the red-orange-yellow part of the spectrum.
• May have a somewhat broader vocabulary for describing colors (although that's a language/cultural effect as much as a visual one).

One proposed biological explanation is that the genes for the red and green cone photopigments are located on the X chromosome. Since women have two X chromosomes, they have more genetic variation available than men, who have only one X chromosome.

 

[Spooky]

The Kscape content that is 8K will not be 444, it will be 420. Granted, 8K 420 is already starting with more chroma information than 4K 420 anyways.

I've said this a few times already but I cannot stress enough how people REALLY shouldn't get to worked up about 422 or 444. No matter what you are starting with more information than we had before, but we are also not very sensitive to chroma resolution in the first place. The difference between raw and upscaled chroma is likely slight at best, but I will always take more resolution to begin with as anything in the pipeline of your video chain that is doing any type of processing is always taking something away (never a free lunch), so better to start with more. I think the bit rate could help with more demanding titles, but I also think it would be more in line with worst case scenarios.

I am stoked that Kscape is offering something that is objectively better video than you can get anywhere else. I just hope people keep their expectations a bit in check and not fall for the trap of FOMO or overly gushing hype that is likely unwarranted.

I was not saying that 8K and 444 go together.

I was saying two separate things - that my equipment chain is able to accept both of these things and that I’m interested to see what cinematic files look like (and particularly with a reasonably large screen).

As you said, there’s no free lunch, so the system doing less processing with files that contain more data should be a good thing.

I expect there to be a difference but we are no doubt into the realms of diminishing returns.

 

[DoubleDown]

I wouldn't be surprised if my sister (graphic artist) and my son are tetrachromats; their ability to distinguish the slightest difference in color is amazing.

Some people are certainly more sensitive to it then others.

Some People Can See 100 Times More Colors Than You

Most humans can see about 1 million colors. Some people can see around 100 million. This 4-minute video by DNews is an interesting look at this condition,

petapixel.com

 

[KDeering]

I'd like to retract the part of my comment that claimed to be more sensitive to color in the context of a forum with people who actually spend much of their lives looking at and analyzing colors on screens.

Oh I wouldn't worry about it at all. If at the end of the day YOU see what you feel is an improvement, who cares if others don't. What ultimately matters in all of this is how it works for each viewer. Hope you are enjoying it!!!

 

[Spooky]

Deleted (responding to wrong person).

 

[artur9]

No need to retract. Here's what AI has to say:
...

I took this test years ago and used it to lord over my family because male as I scored unusually highly.

Free Online Color Challenge and Hue Test; X-Rite

X-Rite's online color challenge and hue test is a free tetrachromatic test that allows you to test your color accuracy and color vision.

www.xrite.com

 

[lujan]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but in the case of the movie "The Beekeeper" now in 4K Cinematic; I would download the HDR10 version for 4:4:4 chroma, right?



I have a TV that supports DV, but my MadVR Envy Core is going to convert to HDR10 anyway. This would be the best in this situation?

 

[edthomp]

I've got a Strato K on order (placed a couple weeks ago) coming from a Strato S, and I'm trying to get a realistic picture of what I'm actually getting.

The 4K Cinematic side is well covered here — full chroma, higher bitrate. What I'm less clear on is whether there's anything else worth expecting from the generational jump itself. The S is six years old at this point. Is there anything in the newer hardware — HDMI transmitter, output stage, decode — that would show up on screen independent of the new format? Or is the format the whole story, and the hardware delta is essentially nil?

Related: I heard on a podcast (couldn't tell you which) that the K has better audio than the S. I don't understand the mechanism there - it's a bitstream out to a processor either way — so I'm skeptical, but curious if anyone knows what that claim was actually referring to?

Context on my chain: Lumagen Radiance Pro 5348 into a JVC NZ8. Last year, when I was looking at a Strato V, Kris Deering talked me out of it — good call, since the V wouldn't have gotten me the Cinematic formats anyway. Which is partly why I'm asking now rather than assuming.

Anyone who's had both S and K in the same rack, I'd be interested in what you noticed.

 

[KDeering]

So correct me if I'm wrong, but in the case of the movie "The Beekeeper" now in 4K Cinematic; I would download the HDR10 version for 4:4:4 chroma, right?

View attachment 10784

I have a TV that supports DV, but my MadVR Envy Core is going to convert to HDR10 anyway. This would be the best in this situation?

Correct, if you insist on needing 444.

 

[Reezepees]

I have one here already.

And? What do you see? Or don,t..

 

[mkozlows]

The 4K Cinematic side is well covered here — full chroma, higher bitrate. What I'm less clear on is whether there's anything else worth expecting from the generational jump itself. The S is six years old at this point. Is there anything in the newer hardware — HDMI transmitter, output stage, decode — that would show up on screen independent of the new format? Or is the format the whole story, and the hardware delta is essentially nil?

You'll also get Dolby Vision. Beyond that, the newer hardware lets it be smaller and less power-hungry and need less cooling. But it doesn't really unlock any new capability, because there's little capability to unlock -- video decode is easy, and doesn't need fancy hardware, which is why $20 Fire Sticks can do it just fine, and $150 Apple TVs from five years ago are massive overkill.

Related: I heard on a podcast (couldn't tell you which) that the K has better audio than the S. I don't understand the mechanism there - it's a bitstream out to a processor either way — so I'm skeptical, but curious if anyone knows what that claim was actually referring to?

The audio should be identical.

 

[edthomp]

I've got a Strato K on order (placed a couple weeks ago) coming from a Strato S, and I'm trying to get a realistic picture of what I'm actually getting.

The 4K Cinematic side is well covered here — full chroma, higher bitrate. What I'm less clear on is whether there's anything else worth expecting from the generational jump itself. The S is six years old at this point. Is there anything in the newer hardware — HDMI transmitter, output stage, decode — that would show up on screen independent of the new format? Or is the format the whole story, and the hardware delta is essentially nil?

Related: I heard on a podcast (couldn't tell you which) that the K has better audio than the S. I don't understand the mechanism there - it's a bitstream out to a processor either way — so I'm skeptical, but curious if anyone knows what that claim was actually referring to?

Context on my chain: Lumagen Radiance Pro 5348 into a JVC NZ8. Last year, when I was looking at a Strato V, Kris Deering talked me out of it — good call, since the V wouldn't have gotten me the Cinematic formats anyway. Which is partly why I'm asking now rather than assuming.

Anyone who's had both S and K in the same rack, I'd be interested in what you noticed.

In my earlier post I mentioned hearing on a podcast that the K had better audio than the S, and said I didn't understand why. Found it: DJ Briggs' Bright Side Home Theater interview with Andre Floyd (Kaleidescape).

Asked directly whether the K improves audio, Floyd said no - the improvement happened at the S/C -> V/M transition, where they changed how the audio is processed. The K just inherits the V/M pipeline.

So:

• V/E -> K: no audio change.
• S/C -> K: you do get it - but not because the K is special. You're leaving the old pipeline, and S -> V would have gotten you the same thing.

Still no mechanism. Floyd only says they "process the audio a little differently," and Cobb has said elsewhere that the audio is already lossless from the master - so it's not obvious what's left to improve. If anyone knows what actually changed, or has run an S and a V/E/K into the same processor, I'd like to hear it.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

I took this test years ago and used it to lord over my family because male as I scored unusually highly.

Free Online Color Challenge and Hue Test; X-Rite

X-Rite's online color challenge and hue test is a free tetrachromatic test that allows you to test your color accuracy and color vision.

www.xrite.com

A momentary panic as it gave me a score of 0, I thought how on earth have I got them all wrong?! Thankfully that’s a perfect score, it didn’t seem very hard tbh, is that just like the online IQ tests where it’s just a sample of the real thing or is that the whole thing?

 

[DoubleDown]

I took this test years ago and used it to lord over my family because male as I scored unusually highly.

Free Online Color Challenge and Hue Test; X-Rite

X-Rite's online color challenge and hue test is a free tetrachromatic test that allows you to test your color accuracy and color vision.

www.xrite.com

I am red-green colorblind. I got a 4. :/

Perhaps that explains why I am sensitive to motion.

 

[artur9]

A momentary panic as it gave me a score of 0, I thought how on earth have I got them all wrong?! Thankfully that’s a perfect score, it didn’t seem very hard tbh, is that just like the online IQ tests where it’s just a sample of the real thing or is that the whole thing?

Here's another one: Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test

Neither of these are the ones I took years ago. I'll have to find that....

 

[lujan]

I am red-green colorblind. I got a 4. :/

Perhaps that explains why I am sensitive to motion.

I got a score of 8 but couldn't really tell what the scale is. I think it's 0-100 so 8 would be pretty good.

 

[cinelife]

I tried it, very interesting, I scored a 1, whatever that means....

Jim