Unpopular opinion from us loyal Kaleidescape supporters

[cardsdoc]

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.

I disagree on this. 35mm film or better has equivalent resolution of at least 4K and fairly high dynamic range. The information is there and now we have the ability to restore them digitally viewing them at home as good and better than their commercial theater presentation. Depending on how it was filmed, the state of the original film and the work put into the restoration process some catalogue titles can look absolutely amazing.

 

[KDeering]

I disagree on this. 35mm film or better has equivalent resolution of at least 4K and fairly high dynamic range. The information is there and now we have the ability to restore them digitally viewing them at home as good and better than their commercial theater presentation. Depending on how it was filmed, the state of the original film and the work put into the restoration process some catalogue titles can look absolutely amazing.

Agree with all points BUT, an argument could be made that those films were never color graded by the director/DP for HDR. So going back and doing a new restoration/scan and bringing a title back in 4K HDR can be a revelation when it comes to the quality of the detail and condition of the film, but depending on how the grading is done both for the HDR side and the color side, it would be easy to qualify this as a revisionist type of thing which doesn't always sit well with everyone. There are PLENTY of examples of catalog titles getting the HDR treatment that IMHO look like crap when the format was just getting started. I'm always hoping some of these titles get revisited at some point because I think if they were released with modern tools they would look much better.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

I disagree on this. 35mm film or better has equivalent resolution of at least 4K and fairly high dynamic range. The information is there and now we have the ability to restore them digitally viewing them at home as good and better than their commercial theater presentation. Depending on how it was filmed, the state of the original film and the work put into the restoration process some catalogue titles can look absolutely amazing.

Wide colour gamut sure, to be closer to DCI, although most films still don’t go beyond Rec709 but that’s another conversation. I was talking about HDR specifically for the added highlights which weren’t there before. I mean it’s all moot anyway since home standards don’t follow the original cinema master in brightness or colour gamut anyway.

I’m not disputing they look great but so do blurays which is what I’m comparing to and the resolution bump from HD movies to 4K movies I personally think isn’t a big difference on my 150” screen. Videogames on the other hand where it’s changing the rendering resolution then the difference is huge.

I bought the updates for American Pie and Meet the Parents, two comedy films which sure the 4K might look better but they aren’t visual or audio spectacles so do they need it? Not really as far as I’m concerned anyway. I care far more about Universal giving us the DTSX Gladiator track from the disc on digital stores!

Anyway I certainly understand the desire for the best but I still enjoy new films as much as older films so it’s not as important for me to get older stuff when I’m still watching all the new films coming out.

 

[artur9]

Having moved away for a DIY kaleidescape-lite, my only complaint is that K should be more aggressive in software updates, esp. on the UI.

 

[Edgar]

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.

Expectations are a big factor. I may have over-researched K before jumping in, to the extent that I made spreadsheets comparing the number of 4K HDR disc exclusives to 4K HDR K exclusives. At the time it was 3:1 for all my required films in 4K between K and disc, and has even gotten worse, maybe 4:1 or 5:1 for new releases. I understood this and still jumped in. I basically decided that there's no single silver bullet for what I want, so stopped hoping for it. In fact, if anything, using K fully brought me over to the convenience of full digital, and playing whatever I want without getting up. K fully cured me of playing discs, and I ended up vastly expanding my Plex library to compensate for the holes in the K catalog. I find that K still enjoys several advantages that keep it my first choice player:

• I'm not messing up anything with the manual rip encode, that I later discover when I get around to watching it – a professional team is handling it all instead
• It has a much cleaner and more luxurious UI
• It has a Still in Theaters program that gets us full-fat 4K HDR versions of currently playing films plus digital schedule home releases of Top Gun Maverick, Dune Part 2, F1 The Movie, and hopefully Project Hail Mary, many months before the disc comes out
• Film quality updates are passed through to the consumer
• I don't have to retail dumpster dive to buy things
• K movies are generally cheaper than discs and has frequent steep and well-communicated sales and bundles
• K has a credits trigger I like for lighting automation
• K's UI accommodates the 2.35:1 aspect ratio at the menu level
• K's consumers are my generation, and I can discover other films through the community that fit perfectly with my tastes
• I like startups
• I like responsive companies
• I like the company's new slogan: "escape beyond cinema"
• I like this forum
• I like the people on this forum
• I like the coasters I won on this forum
• "I like griping" – Lambert

And I'm sure there's more. But basically, I'm not going back to discs or the hacky Plex schlep exclusively. Plex is fine for patching holes, and that's all I'm bothering to rip.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I love the scripts capability, despite how clunky it is. But connected to that, having all my movies on server makes all the scenes of all my movies much more accessible. More so than on Plex. My entire catalog has come to life much more than when all those discs were sitting in crates.

 

[Balthazar2k4]

I am almost a petabyte deep in my non-K storage with thousands of movies stored in ISO (backup) and MKV (playback) formats. Despite the several hundred movies I acquired on the K platform, I became dissatisfied with the selection and availability of content at HD or 4K. If I were a latest release guy I would say K would probably do it for me, but I also like a lot of older, more obscure content which becomes more of a challenge on K. Even when I tried using a K-first methodology I found myself chasing discs more often than not. Maybe one day, but for now I will go back to my absurd physical collection. Not to mention, I was in $30K and could only store 700-800 movies and running low on space.

 

[Broncowrangler]

Moral of the story; don’t put all eggs in one basket.

For me personally (speaking exclusively from my perspective), the primary benefit of owning the K is the ability to experience new releases in lossless form, especially the audio component (being an audio centric/ biased person). You invariably shell out equivalent or more $$ for new titles, on streaming platforms with lossy audio. That was unacceptable to me. I used to capitulate to the temptation of buying streaming versions, as discs always took forever to release. This is where K is the undisputed King, if you’re not willing to wait for the discs to be released, which takes eternity and the novelty dies out invariably.

Besides the K I have a plethora of movies stored in non K storage. I also have players like the UB-9000, UB-820, Sony 800 ii (including region free players like LG and the Magnetar 900 which also doubles up as my media player). Physical media will always be an integral part of my life, especially since I love all immersive formats which unfortunately are not available on K.

I love movies with DtS:X (including some 10-13 imax enhanced titles based upon DtS:X) and Auro-3d. I have every title which has been released for both formats including some euro/Asian titles which support some bad ass immersive audio. Sourcing them is a pita, but the juice is worth the squeeze.