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

[Balthazar2k4]

Delete! That's sacrilege! I am at a Petabyte now. Fingers crossed I don't have to replace any drives soon

 

[Nathan28]

Uninstalling my Strato V and Installing my Strato K was a complete breeze… downloading movies now, I’ll be up way too late pixel peeping

 

[Nathan28]

Cinematic impressions:
I checked out Pacific Rim, Fury Road, Ready Player One , Top Gun Maverick and Interstellar.

I noticed in Pacific Rim, in the waves when the Kaiju are fighting, it’s easier to see what’s going on, more detail in the faster shots, foggy shots and little details on the armor.

Same with Fury Road… more detail in the sandstorm and busy shots.

Couldn’t see any thing different about Interstellar or Maverick.
No noticeable difference in colors… the difference I’m seeing is in busy shots, fast shots, fog, rain, night time, shadows…. Detail is more clear. It’s a small difference, I’d say most ppl would be hard pressed to see it and in a real world test wouldn’t be able to pick out the cinematic version over the regular 5 out of 5 times, same with myself knowing my equipment and having watched those scenes demoing a 1000 times.
If anyone is on the fence I’d say.. if you want the best go for it, I can make out minimal differences when I look for it, if you already have a K system you aren’t missing out on much…I’m happy I chose to purchase…

 

[Htjinus]

Cinematic impressions:
I checked out Pacific Rim, Fury Road, Ready Player One , Top Gun Maverick and Interstellar.

I noticed in Pacific Rim, in the waves when the Kaiju are fighting, it’s easier to see what’s going on, more detail in the faster shots, foggy shots and little details on the armor.

Same with Fury Road… more detail in the sandstorm and busy shots.

Couldn’t see any thing different about Interstellar or Maverick.
No noticeable difference in colors… the difference I’m seeing is in busy shots, fast shots, fog, rain, night time, shadows…. Detail is more clear. It’s a small difference, I’d say most ppl would be hard pressed to see it and in a real world test wouldn’t be able to pick out the cinematic version over the regular 5 out of 5 times, same with myself knowing my equipment and having watched those scenes demoing a 1000 times.
If anyone is on the fence I’d say.. if you want the best go for it, I can make out minimal differences when I look for it, if you already have a K system you aren’t missing out on much…I’m happy I chose to purchase…

This is probably the most accurate owner report I’ve read so far, and it lines up pretty closely with my own experience.

That makes some of the earlier “3D pop,” “night-and-day,” “dramatic leap”, “Everyone can see the improvement”, “my family can see the improvement”, commentary age rather… cinematically.

So maybe the buying guide is simpler:

If you have $5K burning a hole in your pocket and want the absolute last few percent, go for it.

And if part of the fun is being able to say, “Yes, mine has four times the color data,” while everyone in the room politely admires the Emperor’s new 4:4:4 wardrobe… well, home theater has always had room for that hobby too.

 

[rafaelsmith]

This is probably the most accurate owner report I’ve read so far, and it lines up pretty closely with my own experience.

That makes some of the earlier “3D pop,” “night-and-day,” “dramatic leap”, “Everyone can see the improvement”, “my family can see the improvement”, commentary age rather… cinematically.

So maybe the buying guide is simpler:

If you have $5K burning a hole in your pocket and want the absolute last few percent, go for it.

And if part of the fun is being able to say, “Yes, mine has four times the color data,” while everyone in the room politely admires the Emperor’s new 4:4:4 wardrobe… well, home theater has always had room for that hobby too.

Like everything else in life...the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. I pretty much ignore glowing..."night and day", "game breaker", "dramatic leap" style "reviews" etc just as much as I ignore "it sucks", "no difference whatsoever" style "reviews".

Same goes for "pro/influencer" reviews....if it either has nothing bad to say or nothing good to say...I discount it....to me it signals someone is being paid!

 

[kscape360]

To be fair, I couldn’t really notice much of a difference for Top Gun Maverick either. I know it’s a standard demo title, and it does look good; it just doesn’t differ that much from the standard 4K. I think it’s a mistake to choose it as the test title for K. Same with Ready Player One. I haven’t tested the others.

 

[Balthazar2k4]

It really is somewhere in the 5-10% difference and a lot of that might be due to differences in the overall video chain one might have. High-end direct view sets seem to show the difference better than projectors from what I can tell. I am using the K with an 85” Bravia 9 II and can see a difference, but it isn’t a night and day difference by any stretch. I do think it is an improvement for sure. Is it worth $5k and bigger downloads? For me, yes.

 

[lujan]

It really is somewhere in the 5-10% difference and a lot of that might due to differences in the overall video chain one might have. High-end direct view sets seem to show the difference better than projectors from what I can tell. I am using the K with an 85” Bravia 9 II and can see a difference, but it isn’t a night and day difference by any stretch. I do think it is an improvement for sure. Is it worth $5k and bigger downloads? For me, yes.

Me too, not dramatic and depends a lot on the movie. I do notice on my 110" mini LED.

 

[thrillcat]

Same goes for "pro/influencer" reviews....if it either has nothing bad to say or nothing good to say...I discount it....to me it signals someone is being paid!

That's a little black and white. I don't do any negative reviews. I decline offers to review things almost daily these days.

I don't post reviews if I have nothing good to say, but I think by the tone of my reviews you can tell which I'm more excited about. I look for the positives and the best use case for devices. If I'm sent something that I don't really like, I'll decline to do anything with it. If I can see a use for something, I'll review it and highlight that use, along with perhaps some things to be aware of. If I love something, I'll review it and you'll continue to hear about it because I'm still using it regularly.

 

[konga056]

I saw a huge difference with LOTR two towers. When the Ents went to war with Saruman maybe it was all the extra detail now but the entire scene looked like it was all toyish. Ended up being too distracting. There was a couple other scenes like that where it took me out of the movie. Maybe there is such a thing as too much detail? lol

 

[rafaelsmith]

That's a little black and white. I don't do any negative reviews. I decline offers to review things almost daily these days.

I don't post reviews if I have nothing good to say, but I think by the tone of my reviews you can tell which I'm more excited about. I look for the positives and the best use case for devices. If I'm sent something that I don't really like, I'll decline to do anything with it. If I can see a use for something, I'll review it and highlight that use, along with perhaps some things to be aware of. If I love something, I'll review it and you'll continue to hear about it because I'm still using it regularly.

You are the type of reviewer I appreciate. Nothing wrong with being excited but no product is perfect...so bringing up pros and cons is important. What I can't stand are the so called "reviews" that sound like nothing more than paid advertisements. By the same token I question anyone that puts out a "reviews" that just completely trashes a product. Sadly, good honest reviewers on sources like youtube are in the minority.

 

[Nathan28]

Smaller things on the screen… things off in the distance , that type of stuff looks more refined. I do not notice anything different with the color. I checked mortal kombat II out as well….same result, on that title the fast motion simply seems more refined. Easier to focus and see what’s going on.
It’s minimal.. and what I was expecting.
Next up is return of the king… I’m willing to bet, the large armies of soldiers when there is a wide shot, the soldiers will be more refined… that’s exactly what I’m noticing so far. It is an upgrade… worth 5k ? That’s entirely depends on your finances…I would buy it again

 

[Nonametofame]

Smaller things on the screen… things off in the distance , that type of stuff looks more refined. I do not notice anything different with the color. I checked mortal kombat II out as well….same result, on that title the fast motion simply seems more refined. Easier to focus and see what’s going on.
It’s minimal.. and what I was expecting.
Next up is return of the king… I’m willing to bet, the large armies of soldiers when there is a wide shot, the soldiers will be more refined… that’s exactly what I’m noticing so far. It is an upgrade… worth 5k ? That’s entirely depends on your finances…I would buy it again

This is what I'm expecting with the K. Having the additional bitrate to help flesh out scenes that normally would struggle with detail/motion/black levels. I was listening to a podcast discussing projectors and how not all PJs are able to make out difficult scenes like the beginning of Alien Romulus, or the flyby scene in Zero Dark Thirty.
I'd expect we'll find more scenes and movies that really highlight these discrepancies. I'm impressed by the frequency and output of new 4kc conversions. I'm just confused on the "selection" of said titles.

 

[wilson]

It really is somewhere in the 5-10% difference and a lot of that might due to differences in the overall video chain one might have. High-end direct view sets seem to show the difference better than projectors from what I can tell. I am using the K with an 85” Bravia 9 II and can see a difference, but it isn’t a night and day difference by any stretch. I do think it is an improvement for sure. Is it worth $5k and bigger downloads? For me, yes.

I think it also depends on the projector type: LCOS vs DLP, laser vs lamp.

 

[Htjinus]

One thing I hope we can protect here is what makes an owners’ forum genuinely valuable: independent owner experience.

I’m becoming less comfortable with the repeated effort to frame Strato K impressions as a “majority,” “consensus,” or what “most owners” supposedly see.

That matters even more in a community where some of the most influential voices may also have moderator, administrator, industry, or dealer roles. There is nothing inherently wrong with that—we benefit enormously from their knowledge—but those voices naturally carry more weight and can unintentionally shape expectations.

Once “3D pop,” “dramatic improvement,” and “most owners see it” are repeated often enough, a new owner is no longer approaching the comparison with a completely blank slate.

And the newer owner reports are showing exactly why we should leave room for nuance: some see improvements in difficult scenes, some describe them as very small, some cannot reliably identify them every time, and some see essentially no meaningful difference.

None of those owners should need to find themselves on the “wrong side” of a consensus.

For me, that is what an owners’ forum should be about: tell us what you actually see, good or bad, large or small, without trying to establish which camp has the majority.

The most useful consensus is probably no consensus at all—just enough honest owner experiences for the next owner to make up his own mind.

 

[swhmetta]

One thing I hope we can protect here is what makes an owners’ forum genuinely valuable: independent owner experience.

I’m becoming less comfortable with the repeated effort to frame Strato K impressions as a “majority,” “consensus,” or what “most owners” supposedly see.

That matters even more in a community where some of the most influential voices may also have moderator, administrator, industry, or dealer roles. There is nothing inherently wrong with that—we benefit enormously from their knowledge—but those voices naturally carry more weight and can unintentionally shape expectations.

Once “3D pop,” “dramatic improvement,” and “most owners see it” are repeated often enough, a new owner is no longer approaching the comparison with a completely blank slate.

And the newer owner reports are showing exactly why we should leave room for nuance: some see improvements in difficult scenes, some describe them as very small, some cannot reliably identify them every time, and some see essentially no meaningful difference.

None of those owners should need to find themselves on the “wrong side” of a consensus.

For me, that is what an owners’ forum should be about: tell us what you actually see, good or bad, large or small, without trying to establish which camp has the majority.

The most useful consensus is probably no consensus at all—just enough honest owner experiences for the next owner to make up his own mind.

Thank you. I am still waiting on my first experience with Kaleidescape. My K has yet to arrive. Reading many of these comments is becoming a little deflating. Coupled with the long ship times, I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have just popped for a used V or even stuck with my Panasonic UB820? I am hoping that my experience will be a positive one. I will be pairing it with a JVC NZ800 and a Stewart screen. I am not sure about adding a terra server at this point. Hopefully, as mentioned, my experience will be a positive one and maybe I will go that route.

 

[txfeinbergs]

This is probably the most accurate owner report I’ve read so far, and it lines up pretty closely with my own experience.

That makes some of the earlier “3D pop,” “night-and-day,” “dramatic leap”, “Everyone can see the improvement”, “my family can see the improvement”, commentary age rather… cinematically.

So maybe the buying guide is simpler:

If you have $5K burning a hole in your pocket and want the absolute last few percent, go for it.

And if part of the fun is being able to say, “Yes, mine has four times the color data,” while everyone in the room politely admires the Emperor’s new 4:4:4 wardrobe… well, home theater has always had room for that hobby too.

Yeah, I agree with this. I noticed some very small improvements with clarity with the Strato K over my E, but I would not say it was "dramatic". I have however gotten lots of enjoyment out of arguing with people on various forums who say 4K Blu Ray discs are "just as good".... because that statement is no longer true... technically speaking. They usually go feral pretty quickly once the facts are presented.

 

[txfeinbergs]

Thank you. I am still waiting on my first experience with Kaleidescape. My K has yet to arrive. Reading many of these comments is becoming a little deflating. Coupled with the long ship times, I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have just popped for a used V or even stuck with my Panasonic UB820? I am hoping that my experience will be a positive one. I will be pairing it with a JVC NZ800 and a Stewart screen. I am not sure about adding a terra server at this point. Hopefully, as mentioned, my experience will be a positive one and maybe I will go that route.

No need to feel deflated. You will have the best home movie theater experience available on the market. Buy the best, no regrets! Also, I had a UB820 before finally going with Kscape last year. Even if the picture quality isn't that much better, the convenience and user experience is! The writing is on the wall for Blu Ray discs anyway which is the main reason I switched over.

 

[thrillcat]

One thing I hope we can protect here is what makes an owners’ forum genuinely valuable: independent owner experience.

I’m becoming less comfortable with the repeated effort to frame Strato K impressions as a “majority,” “consensus,” or what “most owners” supposedly see.

That matters even more in a community where some of the most influential voices may also have moderator, administrator, industry, or dealer roles. There is nothing inherently wrong with that—we benefit enormously from their knowledge—but those voices naturally carry more weight and can unintentionally shape expectations.

Once “3D pop,” “dramatic improvement,” and “most owners see it” are repeated often enough, a new owner is no longer approaching the comparison with a completely blank slate.

And the newer owner reports are showing exactly why we should leave room for nuance: some see improvements in difficult scenes, some describe them as very small, some cannot reliably identify them every time, and some see essentially no meaningful difference.

None of those owners should need to find themselves on the “wrong side” of a consensus.

For me, that is what an owners’ forum should be about: tell us what you actually see, good or bad, large or small, without trying to establish which camp has the majority.

The most useful consensus is probably no consensus at all—just enough honest owner experiences for the next owner to make up his own mind.

I can see your point with this, but from the other perspective, I spend 0 seconds per month in Sofabaton forums, I haven't sought out a Panasonic group to participate in daily, and I would rather cut off my left pinky toe than go find a Samsung television Facebook Group to join. Yet I've reviewed and own products from each of them.

I spend time in the Kaleidescape Owners Forums because I love films, I use my Kaleidescape daily, and I want to know what's new in terms of content, hardware, etc. It just so happens I'm often able to answer questions about the Kaleidescape on here and on AVS as well. And Kaleidescape users often have questions about other products I've reviewed and own as well, and I can help with those questions as well.

I love the StormAudio equipment I have in my rack. The AppleTV is a great device for streaming. My NextLevel Acoustics speakers perform at incredible levels (one might say NEXT level), and not only do I love having motorized masking on my SeymourAV screen, but I'm a very good friend of Chris Seymour - he's the one who enabled me to go from having a surround system to a Home Theater. I will honestly answer any question you have about these or any other product I have experience with. I decline answering questions about equipment I've not experienced firsthand, though.

The difference is Kaleidescape is something that is the centerpiece of my home theater, and it plays a huge part in what I watch, when I watch it, and how enjoyable that experience is. So I'm much more likely to spend time here and answer questions here.

By the way, I don't have a Strato K yet and I have yet to experience any flavor of 4K Cinematic content, so don't ask. I just bought a new camera and a new set of anamorphic lenses, so the K will likely have to wait until next year unless y'all start becoming paying members and giving out those superchats and using any affiliate links I might have.

 

[Nathan28]

Thank you. I am still waiting on my first experience with Kaleidescape. My K has yet to arrive. Reading many of these comments is becoming a little deflating. Coupled with the long ship times, I am beginning to wonder if I shouldn't have just popped for a used V or even stuck with my Panasonic UB820? I am hoping that my experience will be a positive one. I will be pairing it with a JVC NZ800 and a Stewart screen. I am not sure about adding a terra server at this point. Hopefully, as mentioned, my experience will be a positive one and maybe I will go that route.

It’s the best.. don’t be deflated, just have realistic expectations… 4k UHD, standard k 4k, cinematic 4k…. All on a title like top gun Maverick look great… the transfer of the movie will be much more important … Star Wars episode 1 will look like shit on all of the above… lol but absolutely I do notice better details on cinematic… I watched ready player one race scene again… the individual coins he collects during the race when a foe crashes, the coins are More defined.. but if I wasn’t looking.. would I see it? Those details I’m noticing..
It is better..it’s a more stable, solid image…
If I screen shot and went back and forth … I may see a difference in colors… but I don’t have access to that, so just watching with no comparisons…
I will get more “scientific” and compare and flip back and forth between the discs.