Unpopular opinion from us loyal Kaleidescape supporters

[tinboski]

@MikeKobb etc. I have been in the family for a few years now and feel like I have a great suggestion as well as an honest admission from someone that has now spent close to 20k between hardware and movie purchases:
Every Tuesday we log into K excited to see what new treasures we have available: Lord knows there must be millions of Kscape loyalists that were waiting with baited breath for Hoppers and Guarding Tess to drop but maybe on the slow weeks maybe concentrate on catalog titles (there are TONS missing from the store). I have personally not used my K player in almost 2 months because I feel like the Razzle Dazzle that made me/us buy in is being squandered by pissing away resources into HD only players, 12 million dollar servers, Yacht/private plane only systems etc. We're starving for give a damn content we want to pay for and your company that we all love is letting us down. Roast Away KK

 

[LoveCinema]

We're starving for give a damn content we want to pay for and your company that we all love is letting us down. Roast Away KK

I'm sure I feel much the same as you, but care to give any guidance on the content you want that's missing? Important missing releases? Latest missed new releases?

 

[tinboski]

I'm sure I feel much the same as you, but care to give any guidance on the content you want that's missing? Important missing releases? Latest missed new releases?

The Devils Advocate is the most recent 4k disc I bought that comes to mind because it wasn’t on 4K. American Pie is another… I started my journey with Kscape thinking we’d be on the leading edge of 4k availability and other than sweet ass titles like Hoppers that hasn’t been much of the story

 

[matth22]

Isn't American Pie available in 4K?

 

[tinboski]

It is now I meant for context that the day those titles were available in 4K they could have been offered on K

 

[LoveCinema]

The Devils Advocate is the most recent 4k disc I bought that comes to mind because it wasn’t on 4K. American Pie is another… I started my journey with Kscape thinking we’d be on the leading edge of 4k availability and other than sweet ass titles like Hoppers that hasn’t been much of the story

Yup, this is where disc vs. digital and K’s choices meet. Devil’s Advocate is digital HD only, K can’t do anything about that. 4K Catalog Upgrades are a lower priority for K, so sometimes we get them and sometimes we don’t. For Universal we get them (yay!) but they’re running almost exactly one month late.

 

[cardsdoc]

Yeah definitely a frustration with K. When I got my Strato V over a year ago my intent was to maintain my Plex server and only buy new titles on K. But over the year I have added quite a bit of content on K and it became difficult to keep track of where everything is. So I decided to catalogue all discs and purchase all the $5 titles and everything else as it goes on sale or had good content set prices to get everything over to K. I’m mostly there but still have a bunch on the wishlist waiting for better pricing. But as you note if you want the best quality version of everything (which is what many of us are after) you just can’t do it with K alone unfortunately. Catalogue titles are the biggest issue. Very rarely a title isn’t available at all but more commonly not available in 4K or available in 4K but not object based audio. I have come across a few titles where the DTS:X track is available on the HD version but not the 4K version strangely enough. So I now have playlists on Plex to keep track of these titles that are better on disc. I know some of this is studio dependent and some is K decisions. I don’t really know the details of the behind the scenes. But it does seem K must have a unique relationship with studios that’s a little different than all the other streaming providers so I wish there was a way for them to negotiate deals that are more suited for the goals of K - the highest quality video and audio available. And then there are the smaller studios that K has no relationship with. So there seems to be work that needs to be done especially as K is seemingly trying to increase its user base recently.

Separate from this issue I do wish they would revamp their playback controls so you can scrub through movies or quickly skip ahead and back like many other players do including those that handle UHD rips. The scanning through at various speeds like a disc player seems rather old school. At least there is the replay command. My other gripe is that there should be a way to sort (not just view a random poster wall) all owned titles (not just dowloaded) however you want so you can peruse on the big screen with friends and family. Yes a laptop or iPad works too but not sure why this can't be easily implemented in the player UI.

Obviously K has many great attributes and remains a unique platform. No regrets buying my Strato V. But these issues are holding it back from being even better IMO.

 

[4K Guy]

My other gripe is that there should be a way to sort (not just view a random poster wall) all owned titles (not just dowloaded) however you want so you can peruse on the big screen with friends and family. Yes a laptop or iPad works too but not sure why this can't be easily implemented in the player UI.

This

 

[Balthazar2k4]

This right here is why I ultimately abandoned K. I was $30K deep and found I was buying substantially more on disc than digital. I had hoped with time we might see a shift, but years later... same ol' story. I am glad to see they are making strides on improving video quality in both their encodes and hardware, but until I can see myself making a full shift to digital, well, my hundreds of K purchased movies will just collect dust in the cloud.

 

[thrillcat]

My other gripe is that there should be a way to sort (not just view a random poster wall) all owned titles (not just dowloaded) however you want so you can peruse on the big screen with friends and family.

Not sure on the V, but on the C you go to the Store interface and navigate to the "My Movies" row.

 

[cardsdoc]

This right here is why I ultimately abandoned K. I was $30K deep and found I was buying substantially more on disc than digital. I had hoped with time we might see a shift, but years later... same ol' story. I am glad to see they are making strides on improving video quality in both their encodes and hardware, but until I can see myself making a full shift to digital, well, my hundreds of K purchased movies will just collect dust in the cloud.

Yikes. I'm not ready to dump K. I hope it remains one of the best options and improves going forward given how much I recently invested in movies. But I will occasionally get nauseated thinking what if I need to switch to a different option or platform. One other thing I wish was on par with disc purchases is a digital code so we can have on the go access to movies when travelling. I guess that would deter people from buying Strato players in secondary rooms so I doubt they would let that happen but it is an issue. I have said before that if someone like Apple created a higher level AV tier with lossless audio at a higher price I would probably move away from K. Even if they left video as is and had a lossless audio tier I would consider as the video is much harder to differentiate. For now it looks like there is just not a single solution for movie lovers who want the best quality, convenience, and early access and we will continue to need multiple solutions. I have a Strato V (no server), Plex Unraid server with Ugoos AM6B+ running Corelec for DV FEL support, and an Apple TV to cover all bases.

 

[cardsdoc]

Not sure on the V, but on the C you go to the Store interface and navigate to the "My Movies" row.

Yes you can do that and I will use it BUT it's in random order with no way to sort unlike the app or web UI. My understanding is that it's the same on the C or V/E/M with a server. I know with a server you can sort your movies but only downloaded movies. Just seems odd to me. On any other platform or Plex like software you can view all your movies in their on screen UI and sort at a minimum by title name. My only guess as to why they restrict sorting to downloaded movies is to encourage server purchases and add more as collection grows. The app and web UI are very good. I don't see many complain about this so maybe I'm just old school and like to browse on the big screen, but it is easier when choosing a movie with multiple people.

 

[rafaelsmith]

Sadly, I have to agree.

I am only a single Strato V + about 100 or so titles invested...most of those were disc to digital so nowhere near the investments others here have.

Over a year now with the Strato V and i am finding myself using it less and less. Several of my most favorite movies are either not even available on K or only available in a lesser quality.

I should have done my research I admit, given the cost...I foolishly expected it would be the only platform I need. That is not even close to being the case. I had expected by now I would have been tempted to buy some storage to along with the standalone V but nope...not even a thought anymore.

I understand they have limitations with studio licensing and such but In the end...I think they really need to figure something out....because the availability of content or lack of on the so called "world’s only high-fidelity movie library with lossless audio and full reference video quality" will catch up with them.

 

[rafaelsmith]

Yikes. I'm not ready to dump K. I hope it remains one of the best options and improves going forward given how much I recently invested in movies. But I will occasionally get nauseated thinking what if I need to switch to a different option or platform. One other thing I wish was on par with disc purchases is a digital code so we can have on the go access to movies when travelling. I guess that would deter people from buying Strato players in secondary rooms so I doubt they would let that happen but it is an issue. I have said before that if someone like Apple created a higher level AV tier with lossless audio at a higher price I would probably move away from K. Even if they left video as is and had a lossless audio tier I would consider as the video is much harder to differentiate. For now it looks like there is just not a single solution for movie lovers who want the best quality, convenience, and early access and we will continue to need multiple solutions. I have a Strato V (no server), Plex Unraid server with Ugoos AM6B+ running Corelec for DV FEL support, and an Apple TV to cover all bases.

If Apple created higher tier service with lossless audio....K would be cooked, and we all know Apple could do it at any point. The market just has to be there....the fact that majority of the world is content with watching their movies on phones or TVs with soundbars is the only thing stopping them.

 

[Surge]

If Apple created higher tier service with lossless audio....K would be cooked, and we all know Apple could do it at any point. The market just has to be there....the fact that majority of the world is content with watching their movies on phones or TVs with soundbars is the only thing stopping them.

In fact the Apple TV “X” has better image and audio quality than any Kaleidoscape server. This is because K-scape doesn’t understand the value of low noise power supplies and low jitter digital noise.
K-scape is in fact cooked as it’s far more convenient to stream and there is Way more content on ATV.

Look, I own both and have now upgraded the K-scape POS PSU with a Farad Super 10 and the A/V quality is now slightly better than my ATVX, yet I still rarely use the K-scape.

 

[Daveh]

This is a great thread - I'm a new Strato V owner, but while thrilled with the audio resolution for my HT, I'm shocked at the dearth of live concert movies and artist docs. The "See All" page is a quick one to go through.
I'm happy with the player, but the available content catalog overall is really surprisingly thin. Hope at some point they'll make that a priority and fill in the empty spaces.

 

[KDeering]

In fact the Apple TV “X” has better image and audio quality than any Kaleidoscape server. This is because K-scape doesn’t understand the value of low noise power supplies and low jitter digital noise.
K-scape is in fact cooked as it’s far more convenient to stream and there is Way more content on ATV.

Look, I own both and have now upgraded the K-scape POS PSU with a Farad Super 10 and the A/V quality is now slightly better than my ATVX, yet I still rarely use the K-scape.

Can't say I agree with this at all. The ATV X doesn't magically make lossless audio files from Apple now lossless quality. I have an X here and I did a LOT of direct A/B between it and another standard ATV where I could switch on the fly within about 2-3 seconds with a ton of content and couldn't tell the difference with just about anything. Certainly not enough that in a totally blind comparison there was a chance in hell that I could tell you which was which. Streaming content like Apple is always going to be limited based on the bandwidth available, the compression they use and the files they use (lossy vs lossless audio). Nothing the X does changes that at all. The X definitely uses better electronics for a cleaner electrical signal, but how much that translates to a better image/sound is extremely debatable and at least in my testing I didn't see/hear any difference worth noting.

 

[cardsdoc]

Can't say I agree with this at all. The ATV X doesn't magically make lossless audio files from Apple now lossless quality. I have an X here and I did a LOT of direct A/B between it and another standard ATV where I could switch on the fly within about 2-3 seconds with a ton of content and couldn't tell the difference with just about anything. Certainly not enough that in a totally blind comparison there was a chance in hell that I could tell you which was which. Streaming content like Apple is always going to be limited based on the bandwidth available, the compression they use and the files they use (lossy vs lossless audio). Nothing the X does changes that at all. The X definitely uses better electronics for a cleaner electrical signal, but how much that translates to a better image/sound is extremely debatable and at least in my testing I didn't see/hear any difference worth noting.

Glad you have some experience with it to comment. I was going to say it looks a little snake oily to me.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

Sadly, I have to agree.

I am only a single Strato V + about 100 or so titles invested...most of those were disc to digital so nowhere near the investments others here have.

Over a year now with the Strato V and i am finding myself using it less and less. Several of my most favorite movies are either not even available on K or only available in a lesser quality.

I should have done my research I admit, given the cost...I foolishly expected it would be the only platform I need. That is not even close to being the case. I had expected by now I would have been tempted to buy some storage to along with the standalone V but nope...not even a thought anymore.

I understand they have limitations with studio licensing and such but In the end...I think they really need to figure something out....because the availability of content or lack of on the so called "world’s only high-fidelity movie library with lossless audio and full reference video quality" will catch up with them.

I don’t really understand the desire to get older movies in 4K HDR myself when they weren’t originally like that or movies which really don’t benefit from it but certainly understand if that’s your main drive for getting KScape then no digital platform is going to give you what you want with all the boutique stuff out there. Although I do still keep buying the 4K upgrades on KScape when they appear even in films I don’t think need it.

For new releases though which is the main reason I got it, I think it’s great, it might not get absolutely everything but I don’t have enough time to watch every movie I’ve currently bought to worry about missing some. Someone mentioned it being like consoles and needing to buy them all but I got rid of consoles and switched to PC and now have even more games I don’t have time to play and see it as they same sort of thing. Consolidate to one platform, costs more upfront but cheaper content prices and generally best quality, miss some exclusives but in the grand scheme of things not an issue.

I’ll be up to 2 years of ownership come Autumn and by then will be up to 1000 movies with only 4 left currently to transfer from disc and 6 not available so it has served me well but would fully understand being bothered if it was a lot more than 6 not available.

Personally I will never go back to disc unless they bring back 3D and KScape don’t support it. I think UHD discs will go long before KScape but we shall see.

 

[thrillcat]

I know with a server you can sort your movies but only downloaded movies. Just seems odd to me. On any other platform or Plex like software you can view all your movies in their on screen UI and sort at a minimum by title name. My only guess as to why they restrict sorting to downloaded movies is to encourage server purchases and add more as collection grows.

It's definitely not just you. And with a server there are only two ways to sort your movies - with the shuffle feature grouping similar titles or alphabetically. You can create collections as well, which is decent.

You're not alone, though. I had similar complaints before I purchased a larger server that can hold everything. I'm dreading the need to go even larger, probably next year, but I do appreciate the benefits of the server.

I also have a PLEX server, which was much more expansive before buying into Kaleidescape, and I definitely used the "Sort Title" editing option a lot, but didn't use collections much. I liked the ability to sort by Watched/Unwatched. This would definitely be nice to add to Kaleidescape.