Why K?

[ht guy]

I posted this on another site, and realizing that others here might have an interest, am re-posting.

I'd be interested in hearing what brought others to K if anyone wishes to share.

Thanks.


Personally, I didn't move to K for better quality than I get with physical media (or 1:1 copies with something like a Zappiti.) Quality was a given. It had to be 1:1 (or better) compared to physical media. fwiw, we have a six seat dedicated theater with a 140" 235:1 screen.

My top reasons were:

1) Time. Eliminate the time and energy required to create/keep two collections - physical and local server. So no more searching sites for the best prices, waiting for delivery, going to the mailbox and no more storage (no more racks!)

Plus, no ripping. It may be easy, but it takes time and attention to do mindless tasks. Too much time, imo.

With every other 1:1 alternative, I had to maintain two collections. With K, I could buy the titles and get rid of the physical collection.

2) Cost of media. With sales, and not counting new releases, cost of ~$12 per title. I couldn't touch that with physical media. Let alone considering the cost of maintaining a separate physical library. Yes, the gear is expensive, but you only have to make the investment once. Also, if you have a big library, every title doesn't have to be local. With Terra download speeds, having 300+ UHD's local (12TB Terra) is enough for most of us.

3) More 4K. 640+ titles in HDR/UHD otherwise unavailable. 'nuff said.

4) New releases. On (or frequently well before) the streaming and/or physical media release date. With physical media quality (or better.) This is a cool feature, imo. It's very "theater-like" to invite company to an experience that is close-to, or better than, going to a real theater, and seeing a movie that otherwise, can only be seen in a real theater.

5) Ads. I don't like advertising - especially if I just want to browse our library and pick a movie. I don't know about the others, but Zappiti requires that you experience a constant barrage of ads/"tips." With K, I see the logo at startup (sometimes, if the other gear is on,) and that's it. Otherwise, it behaves like a personal server I paid to have programmed (if such a service were available.) I like the ATV interface, but if we're just wanting to watch something in our library, the K interface is much cleaner (i.e.: not a huge hassle, but you don't need to navigate to your library or even see what's for sale unless you choose to go to the store.)

6) Apps. The K apps are super functional. Both have a remote page. You can run them from an M1 Mac, adding even more convenience. Rotten Tomatoes and Common Sense media ratings are built-in. I use them all the time.

7) Reliability. We've never had to stop a movie and pull out/clean the physical media due to issues. My tolerance for that when watching with company is zero.

8) Fun. The bottom line is K is just a lot more fun. For me this all adds up to a lot more enjoyment. Like x100. I've only had the system since the first of the year, but I'd never go back.

No solution is perfect. K doesn't have every title so you may still want to maintain a small local solution.

When we have company and are going down to the theater, the K system has delivered, in spades, every time.

 

[Rengozu]

I'd always been a physical collector, but it got to the point the retailers around me never had the new movies I wanted anymore at launch, not to mention diminishing selections overall. Figured if I was going to have to start ordering online anyway I was open to a new system.
Now that I've used it, I like the convenience.
Getting the best quality possible long before the disc even releases is huge for me. The convenience of being lazy and just randomly picking scenes and selecting movies I might not have ever popped a disc in for is nice. I end up watching more random titles.
Being able to select directors/actors from the movie info and instantly see all their other works with Tomato scores makes me instantly impulse buy stuff I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
While it still has things to work on getting better, I can't imagine going back without it now. It completes me, or at least my movie room.

 

[Transepoch]

Also, if you have a big library, every title doesn't have to be local.

Wait, what, did I miss that memo?

Seriously, while media walls can be impressive, having everything in the collection available at the fingertips, searchable, and playable at a moment's whim was one of my main reasons. Being practically bullet-proof and not something that needs to be shepherded through the intake, storage, and playback cycles was the other. (Okay, and the third headliner was being completely 100% above-board on licensing/content protection.)

 

[Mike_S]

I decided on K when I first constituted my theater, and had not yet amassed movies in any meaningful quantities. I had to choose a direction/format for what I intended to be a lot of new movie and concert purchases.

I engaged @KDeering before making theater equipment decisions and he demonstrated K to me; that was all it took. I promptly bought a K system, 140” ST130 G4 scope screen, DCR lens, and a Lumagen Radiance Pro.

I’m quite happy with K, and for the few exceptions (like lack of ATMOS in Saving Private Ryan), I’ll buy the disc if I care enough. I’m never disappointed when I use K as my source, it’s just too luxurious

 

[TrackZ]

Great thread! Hope to see more stories.

 

[blackgold9]

I'd add integration to this list as well.
I use Home Assistant to control lights based on K's metadata (Lights down for playback, up for pausing or end credits etc).
I also track my projector's state, and pause KScape playback when the lens memory changes, or when color space changes, so playback begins when the projector is settled and ready to display.

having so much fun with that.

I really should write a blog.

 

[Substance]

I started buying movies in mid to late 90s. Over the years, my collection grew to over 3000 individual titles in 6 or 7 different physical formats. The actual number of titles including the duplicates is probably over 5000. I admit I am a slow learner in this as it took me 25 years to realize the following points.

1- These movies take up a lot of space. I had a dedicated room just for the movies alone.
2- No one other than me cared to browse the walls of movies to pick something to watch. I often found my family and friends browsing Netflix to end up picking a movie which we already own on physical media in much better quality. This was convenient for them and my physical library wasn’t.
3- I had way too many duplicates. Same movie on Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD Blu-ray, HD-DVD and so on.
4- There is a phenomena called “Disc Rot”. Although I maintain my physical media collection in meticulous condition, I have discovered 100s of my discs were rotters.
5- I deal with all this because I love watching movies and I don’t want to give up on video and sound quality.

When I wanted to address these points, I found Kaleidescape as the solution.