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Strato S 12TB or Compact Terra 12Tb + Strato C

J

jollyguy23

Well-known member
Hello Kaleidescapeians,

Thank you first to the admins for letting me in to the forums. Have been following on the kaleidoscope system for the last couple of weeks and been having my moments of "just get it" to look at other options like zappiti etc.

I am almost convinced that I want to jump into this platform but now trying to figure out what the config for me is. As the title suggests, trying to figure out if the extra $$ to move to the player and Terra will be worth it.

1. The download speed seems to be the biggest difference. Anything else obvious that I am missing?
2. In terms of the player inside each is there a difference that will be missed choosing one over the other?
3. In the Player + terra combo, does both the have to be connected to ethernet ?

I will not need the system for multi room , will not be rack mounting it, and dont have a huge collection of movies. about 50-60 movies. In terms of the storage the seems to be a very good start for me for attest a couple more years.

Any help/guidance the choices would be very much appreciated and will help in decision making for me. Thank you!

(Apologies if this was already in a thread. I tried searching for one and could not find one.)
 
There are lots of great people on the forum, many of them Kaleidescape dealers and advice is good, not sure where you are but try to find a dealer to talk to in your area where you can see the systems. With my Terra I get downloads in the 900Mbs range and to a Strato 250Mbs so there is a real difference for me but only because I have a 1Gb fibre to the house connection. Personally if finance allows I would go for the Terra plus separate player as the most flexible approach (Terra certainly needs a wired connection) and my systems are all wired. I started with Premier line hardware as have had a K system for many years and when the Encore 4K (STrato / Terra) components came I added a Strato with storage and a Co-Star switch and then another and now I have my second Terra server on order and a very large collection of music, films & TV series (>10,000 titles). Note music cd's are only compatible on Premier (old) hardware and not Terra / Strato hardware. You will be surprised how quickly your content will grow as you get 'hooked' on the Kaleidescape system.
 
The only real effective difference between the Strato S alone and the C/Terra combo at the same storage size is:

1. Having one box vs. two (although the one box is about the same footprint as the two boxes sitting side-by-side).
2. The C/Terra will download movies ~4x faster than the S alone (10 minutes vs. 40 minutes for a 4k film).
3. The C/Terra can play to more simultaneous zones.

I have essentially the same setup/conditions you have. Just a Kaleidescape in my theater, one zone with no multi zone need. I have just an S 6TB currently.

I do miss the much faster downloads of the Terra setup though, honestly, and am finding 6TB is actually a bit small, even with 100 movies.

I don't think the cost difference that much in the case, but still, it boils down to paying a few thousand more dollars for fast downloads. That's your call to make on the value of it. It's a pain to wait 40 minutes for a movie at the moment we are ready to watch it and didn't already have it ready to go ahead of time. 10 minutes is about how long it takes to make popcorn and get everyone together in a room.
 
Thank you @Mark H and @TrackZ for calling out the differences and other details that I did not think about. Its clear that the difference in the download speed is certainly an advantage and there are no other differences atleast until I ever think about multi zones etc. This is a hard one to decide especially the cost is significant to jump to get the download speeds. I have to make a call :). Thank you for the posts once again.

Couple of other questions. I do see some opportunities come up in the market place.

1. IF I get a device that is still under warranty does this transfer automatically?
2. What happens (this is buying from a dealer or on the marketplace) IF a drive fails for example and the device has past warranty? Is it end game for the device and the investment in the system?
3. Lastly, if I get a combo S12TB, can I later add only a player C to another room and feed off the S12TB?

Thanks once again for engaging on this thread and helping answer my questions. It certainly is overwhelming to make the decision but at the same time I understand it is one of the best source out there to enjoy :).
 
To what the others said, I would also add the separate Terra adds flexibility. While 12T can feed you for now, at some point you may get tired of having to cycle content. (It's a great interface, so why have all those extra steps versus being able to access your whole collection at any time?) When that time comes, what are your options? Either way you have to add another Strato or a Terra, but I think you would be in a position of keeping the existing Strato more than if you were looking to go to a larger Terra, because it is also your playback device (not that you can't, but there would be more to it.)

To your new questions...
  1. Yes, the warranty transfers.
  2. I would expect it could be replaced.
  3. Yes, but the Strato-as-a-server limitations will apply, whether going to another Strato-S or C.
 
Thank you, @Transepoch for the post and the answers. I am not a huge collector of movies per say (relatively) speaking. The new 18TB seems a bit of future proofing in terms of space for me.
Couple of other questions if I may from a movie /rental perspective. I know this is a hardware but wanted to ask here ( can move it to the other group is need be).
I am currently a Redbox/GameFly 4K rental guy. Like to rent a lot of movies and buy only when something is really good for the collection. I am trying to understand rentals in K.
1. Does it become available for rental (not purchase) when other business like Redbox get the movie for rental?
2. I understand studios control what K can and cannot do but some of the movies available for quite some time on other platforms are not yet available in K in my search for rental. . Like Monster hunter for example. Do we know of restrictions for rental here in K store?
 
I will offer up just my thoughts as a recent purchaser. I purchased a Strato 12 TB about 7 months ago and it is already full. The storage goes fast when you're purchasing 4K HDR movies. I don't know about your family situation, but there have been a few times that having the separate C / Terra would have saved family movie night. There have been times where either my wife or kids changed their mind about the movie they wanted to watch and had to kick off a new 40 minute download. That has been too long for them to wait, but as TrackZ mentioned, 10 minutes is about how long it takes to get everyone ready for the movie anyways. I'm already saving up for a Terra purchase. I really do enjoy the K ecosystem.

To answer your other questions:
1. Sometimes the movies are available for rental well before RedBox or anyone else seems to have them, but others it lags behind. I think this entirely has to do with the various contracts and agreements they have in place. In my opinion, the rental fees are too high for most movies, especially the ones where for a little bit more you could buy it. However, some newer movies are only available as a premium rental and charge a higher fee accordingly.
2. As you said it is all about their contracts and agreements. I'm sure K would rather have everything available for purchase and rental but they can only do what they are allowed to do.
 
Thank you @CPickler for sharing your experience. At this time I strongly want to consider the compact terra 12 and the player exactly for the faster download even though that combo is more expensive. At this time anything likely above the 12 terra and the player will put me out of getting into the ecosystem. I will have to get this in and then see how quickly I fill it up and manage it until I can really expand.
Thank you for answering the rentals questions too.
hopefully I can get into the ecosystem soon.
 
As to Monster Hunter specifically, it had previously been a premium rental, and thought I had seen it offered for regular rental before. If I had to guess why it is purchase-only this far after release, the purchase price was probably discounted at-or-below the rental price, and they updated the interface to not offer rentals in that situation (since what would be the point.)
 
“Monster Hunter” isn’t available for rental on any of the streaming services I checked. So this is definitely due to studio restrictions and not price. Also, ”normal” rental pricing for Sony titles is $7.95 (normal does not include New release premium rental titles).

John
 
Let me add one additional dimension that has not been mentioned yet. On the Strato S, if you are playing a movie, all download activity is stopped. If you are navigating around the OSD, maybe browsing your library, download activity will continue, but it will be limited to relatively low speed. These measures are necessary in order to ensure that the downloads don’t interrupt the “foreground” activity, either by causing playback issues or by causing the OSD to perform poorly.

With the compact Terra server, because the server has a dedicated, server-class processor, you can continue to download movies while watching or interacting with the onscreen display.
 
A new wrinkle in the answer to your original question. The Strato-12TB is no longer for sale new from K. Going forward the 12TB option will be the Terra with Strato-C.

Jim
 
I think I Strato C + Terra 12TB is really the sweet spot of the platform now, assuming the extra cost from a Strato S is doable for someone.

The devices are small. Single hard drive. Plenty of space for local storage with cloud library. Fast downloads. Better multi-zone preparation/support if you might need it.
 
Thank you @JohnJ for pointing out monster hunter is not available for rental. So used to subscribing to GameFly for 4K that is “assume” it is available for rental. Now realize that is a different rental model from GameFly.
Thanks @MikeKobb for the additional detail of the simultaneous download and play. Did not think of it that way.
Thanks Jim on the 12TB non availability. The new 18TB seems to be of interest to me.
Just got the gig sped at home , ran Cat6 cables to the theater etc in preparation for a K. Now have to just have to make the decision to go for it 😃. The initial investment fear is still lingering 😃.
 
Can you field replace the drive in a 12/18 TB Terra? Can’t tell from the pictures. I’ve had to replace one bad drive in my larger Terra and this was very easy. SJ
 
No, it is not field replaceable. That wasn't possible within the small form factor. In the case of a drive failure on a compact Terra, the server needs to be returned for replacement.
 
Wanted to update the thread that I am now finally a kaleidescapeian . Thank you for all the help in answering all my questions.

Special thanks to @BrolicBeast for getting me set up with this and many more gear for my theater. Looking forward to the d2d option to get my modest collection cataloged.

Still can’t believe the initial investment price but super excited about setting this all up.

139CAB02-CD29-4D9C-9758-E33E9EEDCDAC.jpeg
 
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