Strato V HD Compatibility Analysis

[rafaelsmith]

I recently added the Strato V as my main player because of the addition of Dolby Vision. I thought I would just need to upgrade my individual movies that have Dolby Vision available. I was not expecting the hornets nest I have encountered with all the hd format conversions. This is hundreds of titles for me. AND it seems to be eating up storage space! I thought this hd conversion would be a one-for-one exchange and not affect my Terra server at all. Can someone please explain…?

I agree this whole HD compatibility thing has been a mess and moving at a snails pace. And I have a TINY TINY library...I can only imagine what those with hundreds of incompatible titles and mixed player environment are dealing with.

 

[tinboski]

I recently added the Strato V as my main player because of the addition of Dolby Vision. I thought I would just need to upgrade my individual movies that have Dolby Vision available. I was not expecting the hornets nest I have encountered with all the hd format conversions. This is hundreds of titles for me. AND it seems to be eating up storage space! I thought this hd conversion would be a one-for-one exchange and not affect my Terra server at all. Can someone please explain…?

Look lets call it what it is... they F'd Up and released the V too early. I have hundreds of dollars worth of HD purchases I made that are basically virtual paper weights (I'll just be damned if I watch a movie I paid HD prices for in SD). That being said we are fortunate that we have a few insiders updating us on the conversion process Kobb and Green are our lifelines as we wouldn't be told $hit about what's going on if it weren't for them on this forum. Imagine being an owner of a V and not being here to get SOME answers!

 

[PatekGirl]

Yes, that's basically what K-Scape is trying to do with the possible exception of the first 400 movies you cite (since this is a HD compatibly report and not a report regarding compatibility with all available resolutions). However, it appears that, when you purchase a 4K title (which includes the HD version), the Compatibility report includes those associated HD versions that you effectively did not care to purchase and download (even though it is included in the 4K purchase). This seems completely misleading because you own a compatible 4K version (and could care less--generally--about the HD version). This may account for the crazy numbers that I cited in this thread. This may be the major anomaly but there may be others.

This has been my question, if you already own the movie in 4k but the HD version has the compatibility issue do you still need to update the HD if you’re only going to watch the movie in 4k?

 

[Techthusiasm]

You have 570 HD movies purchased, of which 316 are fully compatible with Strato V.
Of the remaining 254 movies which do not have a compatible HD version:

• 191 are available in SD only
• 63 are not available at this time

That's my stats from the dashboard. A bit more than 50% of the HD titles in my library are viewable. I would never download or watch the SD copy. I'll go stream it on iTunes instead if I need to watch it.

Between this and the UI thing, I probably would have been fine just keeping the C in my system vs. swapping over to the V; however, I also did it for the content for YouTube and such. My one player is also back in the theater room, so DV doesn't matter to me any more. I'll feel good if some future kOS has sweet, new UI features that need the V horsepower or memory to run. I did the experiment of using the V stand-alone for a while there as well, but just added a Terra back into my setup.

 

[tinboski]

You have 570 HD movies purchased, of which 316 are fully compatible with Strato V.
Of the remaining 254 movies which do not have a compatible HD version:

• 191 are available in SD only
• 63 are not available at this time

That's my stats from the dashboard. A bit more than 50% of the HD titles in my library are viewable. I would never download or watch the SD copy. I'll go stream it on iTunes instead if I need to watch it.

Between this and the UI thing, I probably would have been fine just keeping the C in my system vs. swapping over to the V; however, I also did it for the content for YouTube and such. My one player is also back in the theater room, so DV doesn't matter to me any more. I'll feel good if some future kOS has sweet, new UI features that need the V horsepower or memory to run. I did the experiment of using the V stand-alone for a while there as well, but just added a Terra back into my setup.

J I think that's the nail on the head... We know the C is going the way of the dinosaur but as early adopters I feel like had I known us original OG's were gonna be reamed for months+ on end without being able to watch the HD content we paid for I would have taken the stance of you can pry my C from my cold dead hands instead of selling it off for pennies on the dollar after I got the V like a dumbass.

 

[StanfieldNC]

J I think that's the nail on the head... We know the C is going the way of the dinosaur but as early adopters I feel like had I known us original OG's were gonna be reamed for months+ on end without being able to watch the HD content we paid for I would have taken the stance of you can pry my C from my cold dead hands instead of selling it off for pennies on the dollar after I got the V like a dumbass.

Relatable.

 

[MikeKobb]

I recently added the Strato V as my main player because of the addition of Dolby Vision. I thought I would just need to upgrade my individual movies that have Dolby Vision available. I was not expecting the hornets nest I have encountered with all the hd format conversions. This is hundreds of titles for me. AND it seems to be eating up storage space! I thought this hd conversion would be a one-for-one exchange and not affect my Terra server at all. Can someone please explain…?

You shouldn't be seeing a significant impact on storage space. Updating the HD versions for Strato V compatibility replaces the old version with a new version that should be approximately the same size.

This has been my question, if you already own the movie in 4k but the HD version has the compatibility issue do you still need to update the HD if you’re only going to watch the movie in 4k?

No. If you're only watching 4K, there's no reason to update the HD, and indeed there's no reason to keep it on your system if you're not going to watch it.

 

[MikeKobb]

Howdy folks,

I want to address a couple of things here.

First of all, regarding the Strato V Compatibility page, we've actually released an additional update to this page today. The change is that the "All My Movies" part of the page will not show HD compatibility information for movies that you already own in 4K. This was causing a lot of confusion, understandably. Most of the time, people who own a movie in 4K don't care about the HD version, so this should significantly clarify the compatibility status of your movies.

We also understand, though, that there are some situations where someone might choose to have the HD version of a movie on their system even though they own it in 4K. For example, the HD version sometimes contains additional cuts of the movie. So, the "Downloaded Movies" section of the page will continue to show information about the compatibility of HD versions that are on your system, even if you own the movie in 4K.

I think this strikes a better balance in terms of showing what is important to different audiences.

Second, I'd like to address the perception that updates are moving slowly. It can certainly seem like it, if it happens that the particular titles that you own are not getting many updates. But updates are happening pretty much every day, and in fact we have another batch of several hundred entering processing this week. To make this progress more transparent, we're going to do a couple of things:

1. John and I are going to begin posting weekly lists in this thread of all the movies that have received HD updates in the past week. This should let anybody who is interested see the rate of updates and also provide a convenient place to check to see what has been recently updated.
2. We're planning to add a new row on the Movie Store landing page showing movies that are newly available for Strato V. This should address some feedback that Strato V owners have shared here that they don't have an easy way to know when a movie they're interested in becomes compatible. This will be sorted in recency order, so you can look right at the front of the list to see the most recent additions.
3. We realized that, due to an oversight, mobile app users were not being sent notifications when HD versions of movies on their system are updated to support Strato V. (Web store users see the notification of new updates at the bottom of the page when visiting the store.) We're fixing that so that mobile users will be notified.

One thing that I should mention -- I suspect that at least some folks who have a number of HD titles that still require updates may have a lot of concerts. It turns out that many concerts fall into the same category in terms of what is needed to be able to update them to the new format, and that's because many of them are actually 1080i (interlaced) rather than 1080p. This requires special handling by the conversion tools. That work is scheduled, but there's some complexity to it and this is why it is not yet complete. They are coming.

I hope this is helpful!

 

[LoveCinema]

I hope this is helpful!

Thanks for the continued updates.

I have a quick question about Extras, using this as an example:
Movie has HD Extras and is incompatible.
Movie gets HD compatibility update.
Movie now has SD Extras available.

Is that job done from a K perspective? Or, is the intention to restore HD Extras?

 

[MarvinTheAndroid]

Is that job done from a K perspective? Or, is the intention to restore HD Extras?

If someone paid for HD extras then depending on which store they purchased it from and where they were located at the time of that purchase then the job might not be done until those HD extras have been restored.

 

[Broncowrangler]

Man I’m dying to add: Gravity, Den of thieves, The Family man, The Butterfly effect and Heartbreak Ridge. The digital offers are on standby but currently useless, since all of them are incompatible with the V.

 

[LoveCinema]

Man I’m dying to add: Gravity, Den of thieves, The Family man, The butterfly effect and Heartbreak Ridge. The digital offers are on standby but currently useless, since all of them are incompatible with the V.

I believe Gravity's HD compatibility update is in a race with the (looming) 4K release. I'd imagine if the HD conversion keeps proving itself difficult, then making a new HD from 4K UHD assets may become more feasible.

The Butterfly Effect's HD compatibility update worries me, given what just happened to Bad Santa. Currently, only the theatrical version is available on other digital stores. If K has to go back to the source for new assets, we're almost certain to lose the alternate cut.

 

[Techthusiasm]

I wanted to download Gravity for my GTG this month because of the Atmos demo quality. Hope it comes in the next batch!

 

[MarvinTheAndroid]

Man I’m dying to add: Gravity, Den of thieves, The Family man, The Butterfly effect and Heartbreak Ridge. The digital offers are on standby but currently useless, since all of them are incompatible with the V.

The reality as I understand is there is a possibility that they may never actually be compatible so folks just have to wait and see what happens. I did query this but was told it has somethjng to do with Laserdiscs so I didn't bother labouring the point as it was clear K have no real idea what can actually be updated until they try and aren't interested in giving a serious answer.

i hope your stuff does eventually get updated.

 

[gadgetman]

Howdy folks,

I want to address a couple of things here.

First of all, regarding the Strato V Compatibility page, we've actually released an additional update to this page today. The change is that the "All My Movies" part of the page will not show HD compatibility information for movies that you already own in 4K. This was causing a lot of confusion, understandably. Most of the time, people who own a movie in 4K don't care about the HD version, so this should significantly clarify the compatibility status of your movies.

We also understand, though, that there are some situations where someone might choose to have the HD version of a movie on their system even though they own it in 4K. For example, the HD version sometimes contains additional cuts of the movie. So, the "Downloaded Movies" section of the page will continue to show information about the compatibility of HD versions that are on your system, even if you own the movie in 4K.

I think this strikes a better balance in terms of showing what is important to different audiences.

Second, I'd like to address the perception that updates are moving slowly. It can certainly seem like it, if it happens that the particular titles that you own are not getting many updates. But updates are happening pretty much every day, and in fact we have another batch of several hundred entering processing this week. To make this progress more transparent, we're going to do a couple of things:

1. John and I are going to begin posting weekly lists in this thread of all the movies that have received HD updates in the past week. This should let anybody who is interested see the rate of updates and also provide a convenient place to check to see what has been recently updated.
2. We're planning to add a new row on the Movie Store landing page showing movies that are newly available for Strato V. This should address some feedback that Strato V owners have shared here that they don't have an easy way to know when a movie they're interested in becomes compatible. This will be sorted in recency order, so you can look right at the front of the list to see the most recent additions.
3. We realized that, due to an oversight, mobile app users were not being sent notifications when HD versions of movies on their system are updated to support Strato V. (Web store users see the notification of new updates at the bottom of the page when visiting the store.) We're fixing that so that mobile users will be notified.

One thing that I should mention -- I suspect that at least some folks who have a number of HD titles that still require updates may have a lot of concerts. It turns out that many concerts fall into the same category in terms of what is needed to be able to update them to the new format, and that's because many of them are actually 1080i (interlaced) rather than 1080p. This requires special handling by the conversion tools. That work is scheduled, but there's some complexity to it and this is why it is not yet complete. They are coming.

I hope this is helpful!

I wanted to extend my thanks to you and John for your continued support and transparency. The new Compatibility Report methodology makes a lot of sense. And your weekly lists of updates and the new row on the landing page are greatly appreciated.

 

[MikeKobb]

Thanks for the continued updates.

I have a quick question about Extras, using this as an example:
Movie has HD Extras and is incompatible.
Movie gets HD compatibility update.
Movie now has SD Extras available.

Is that job done from a K perspective? Or, is the intention to restore HD Extras?

The intention is to restore HD extras. I think I mentioned this somewhere at some point, but from a prioritization standpoint, we prioritized getting the feature online as soon as possible, rather than holding it until we could convert extras, which sometimes have different conversion requirements.

 

[PatekGirl]

You shouldn't be seeing a significant impact on storage space. Updating the HD versions for Strato V compatibility replaces the old version with a new version that should be approximately the same size.


No. If you're only watching 4K, there's no reason to update the HD, and indeed there's no reason to keep it on your system if you're not going to watch it.

Can you provide brief instructions on how to remove the hd (and probably sd) versions from movies so that only the 4k remains? I would imagine the same steps would be used to get the HDR-10 files off the movies and only have Dolby Vision remaining. Thanks!

 

[MikeKobb]

The reality as I understand is there is a possibility that they may never actually be compatible so folks just have to wait and see what happens. I did query this but was told it has somethjng to do with Laserdiscs so I didn't bother labouring the point as it was clear K have no real idea what can actually be updated until they try and aren't interested in giving a serious answer.

i hope your stuff does eventually get updated.

As previously stated, our goal is to convert everything, but it's possible that some small number of titles will not be able to be converted. This situation would arise if the assets that we have in hand already just can't be converted using our tools, and if we are unable to source new mezzanine assets to do a new encode. We expect this to be a very small number of titles overall.

I take exception to your characterization that we are "not interested in giving a serious answer". I've done my level best to answer every question on this topic and many others.

I wanted to download Gravity for my GTG this month because of the Atmos demo quality. Hope it comes in the next batch!

Gravity has proven to be a bit of a problem child. We expected it to be done by now, but unfortunately there was a problem with the conversion process. We're working hard on it.

 

[MikeKobb]

Can you provide brief instructions on how to remove the hd (and probably sd) versions from movies so that only the 4k remains? I would imagine the same steps would be used to get the HDR-10 files off the movies and only have Dolby Vision remaining. Thanks!

Sure. The most direct way is to go to the movie list on your system's browser interface. One of the columns in that list is "Type". If you look for movies where the type is "Multiple", those are movies where you have more than one format downloaded. Check the box to the left of the titles of movies where you want to delete the HD version, and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the button that says "Select versions to delete...". This will open a popup where you can check and un-check boxes to delete specific versions of the movies.

I suggest doing these maybe a dozen at a time rather than trying to do them all in one big push. The system will respond more quickly to smaller requests, and also if you happen to accidentally close the window or something you won't lose a bunch of effort.

 

[MarvinTheAndroid]

I take exception to your characterization that we are "not interested in giving a serious answer". I've done my level best to answer every question on this topic and many others.

So comparing K to Laserdisc was actually what you call a serious answer. Ok. Understood.....