Movie Server - Kaleidescape is Shutting Down
- Thread starter NorthStar
- Start date
To bad, such a phenomenal product in every possible avenue.
So easy to use, gorgeous to view and listen.
Drop a disc in and watch it and it rips it, strips all the crap out and when done you have a movie that starts almost instantly when you select it on the easy to use GUI.
Lost his butt fighting Hollywood over copyright issues.
Ripping a dvd onto your own personal server for your personal use inside your home is hardly hurting sales and distribution.
I think I read the DVD small print somewhere once and in black and white terms the person that buys the DVD is the only person allowed to watch it, you are not even allowed to let your wife/husband/partner/aunts/uncles/grandparents/friends watch it. You must lock yourself in a room and watch it alone.
Anybody remember the big Cassette tape scare that was supposed to ruin the music sales industry.
So easy to use, gorgeous to view and listen.
Drop a disc in and watch it and it rips it, strips all the crap out and when done you have a movie that starts almost instantly when you select it on the easy to use GUI.
Lost his butt fighting Hollywood over copyright issues.
Ripping a dvd onto your own personal server for your personal use inside your home is hardly hurting sales and distribution.
I think I read the DVD small print somewhere once and in black and white terms the person that buys the DVD is the only person allowed to watch it, you are not even allowed to let your wife/husband/partner/aunts/uncles/grandparents/friends watch it. You must lock yourself in a room and watch it alone.
Anybody remember the big Cassette tape scare that was supposed to ruin the music sales industry.
Yup, we live in a "material world" - Madonna.
Yes, it was an expensive machine, and some people loved it. I remember requesting about it and learning about its operation and features and quick access.
It wasn't for the masses, but more for the people who like its convenience of having their movie collection in one movie server.
I'm a little surprised by not many replies; only one so far, Mike.
Yes, it was an expensive machine, and some people loved it. I remember requesting about it and learning about its operation and features and quick access.
It wasn't for the masses, but more for the people who like its convenience of having their movie collection in one movie server.
I'm a little surprised by not many replies; only one so far, Mike.
It wasn't for the masses purely on cost alone, as he had to pay off the Hollywood Mafia quite regularly.
Two entities you are not going to win against in court, Hollywood and the Government and they lie in the same bed.
They had a strong marketing push at one point to try and make it your one stop source for all your entertainment needs, 2 channel, streaming services and such and that's where it got weird.
It did one thing better than anything else on the market by far, be a movie server. In todays climate that is not good enough.
My experience in using it was nothing short of amazing, it is a phenomenal product and it pisses me off that Hollywood made such a big stink of it.
If that hadn't happened they would have been infinitely more affordable for the masses, 30K not so much!
Two entities you are not going to win against in court, Hollywood and the Government and they lie in the same bed.
They had a strong marketing push at one point to try and make it your one stop source for all your entertainment needs, 2 channel, streaming services and such and that's where it got weird.
It did one thing better than anything else on the market by far, be a movie server. In todays climate that is not good enough.
My experience in using it was nothing short of amazing, it is a phenomenal product and it pisses me off that Hollywood made such a big stink of it.
If that hadn't happened they would have been infinitely more affordable for the masses, 30K not so much!
Hollywood is fighting the wrong guy... It seems that every adolescent in the world is watching pirated movies. Yet they're fought and manage to bring down a company whose customers were at ease with paying the fees they wanted... Wow.. Such shortsightness!!
I liked what they K but never enough to purchase any of their wares. Perhaps the price was too high?
Saddened by this though. It was a great product.
I liked what they K but never enough to purchase any of their wares. Perhaps the price was too high?
Saddened by this though. It was a great product.
Unfortunately, I just jumped in to the K products with both feet. Necessary product? Maybe.
While I never did any direct comparison [I plan to], many of the users believed (I being one of them) that the image from the Kaleidescape product was superior to the same image off the disc. The current version of their products does not rip your movie to the server but rather downloads a digital copy from the Kaleidescape store. If you already own a BluRay for example, you can get the downloaded copy for a $1.99 unless you have a digital certificate for that movie, in which case the download was free. This did not apply to all movies, Disney being a prime example. I LOVE the interface, and it has an iPad app that is excellent so you can search by actor or genre, etc.
I paid for the last two components (directly to Kaleidescape) the day before they shut the doors. They have been shipped but when the K-store closes, they are VERY expensive paper weights.
Massive Hollywood greed and corruption once again hurts many business and consumers --- and they could care less.
While I never did any direct comparison [I plan to], many of the users believed (I being one of them) that the image from the Kaleidescape product was superior to the same image off the disc. The current version of their products does not rip your movie to the server but rather downloads a digital copy from the Kaleidescape store. If you already own a BluRay for example, you can get the downloaded copy for a $1.99 unless you have a digital certificate for that movie, in which case the download was free. This did not apply to all movies, Disney being a prime example. I LOVE the interface, and it has an iPad app that is excellent so you can search by actor or genre, etc.
I paid for the last two components (directly to Kaleidescape) the day before they shut the doors. They have been shipped but when the K-store closes, they are VERY expensive paper weights.
Massive Hollywood greed and corruption once again hurts many business and consumers --- and they could care less.
I never understood the need for movie servers. It isn't like audio where users often skip tracks and move quickly from disc to disc. With a movie you might load one per night and it plays for a couple of hours. There is no skipping around.
There is "no need" and up until AFTER I purchased my first unit, totally agreed. Things I like: it removes all previews and goes directly to the film; easy way to catalog every movie you own; easy way to search your library (I have over 700 movies) by any category; improved (yet to be proven) perceived image quality; cool interface and lots of fun.
NEED? Never. But then again, who NEEDS speakers that cost thousands of dollars each or turntables that cost $50,000 or amps that cost $150,000! This is NOT a need hobby. While many (most) would never admit it, high end audio (and video) is just one more addiction.
What has the "relative" price of any product have to do with my post? My response would have been the same whether I own 100 or 10,000 movies. I see no tangible benefit to your solution when compared to walking up to a movie library and choosing something to watch, opening the player drawer and hitting play. That may add 2 minutes to a two hour movie.
I still have to store and retain the disc so the only benefit you gain is your storage can be a basement shelf or a box in the garage. If I collected movies I am sure I would store them similar to CD's, by genre and title. Therefore part of the 2-minutes I noted above.
I don't know, maybe the same reason we have music servers....
So you're sitting there with friends in your video watching environment trying to figure out what to watch, do you;
A: Hand them several 10lb binders with your Dvd's in them, thumb through them, pick one and fire up the player and load.
B: Same scenario but go into another room and try to read the narrow edges of the cases, OR
C: do you just hand them the tablet let them, on the brilliant GUI, select the movie and just push play and the movie starts.
I don't know about you but at my place when friends are over 9 times out of 10 we end up scanning VUDU or Netflix and picking something rather than combing my collection. A lot of the time the same movie is in my binders.
It just the way we think these days.
Like everything else convenience costs money.
I have started building my own servers a couple times and it's a huge time consuming pain in the butt and the GUI's while getting closer are not as good, all though Plex is getting there.
Ripping dvd's the way you want them takes a lot of time.
P.S. I was unaware they had gone to a fee per movie system to conform to the Mafia Billy Club. It's been a couple years since I used it.
So you're sitting there with friends in your video watching environment trying to figure out what to watch, do you;
A: Hand them several 10lb binders with your Dvd's in them, thumb through them, pick one and fire up the player and load.
B: Same scenario but go into another room and try to read the narrow edges of the cases, OR
C: do you just hand them the tablet let them, on the brilliant GUI, select the movie and just push play and the movie starts.
I don't know about you but at my place when friends are over 9 times out of 10 we end up scanning VUDU or Netflix and picking something rather than combing my collection. A lot of the time the same movie is in my binders.
It just the way we think these days.
Like everything else convenience costs money.
I have started building my own servers a couple times and it's a huge time consuming pain in the butt and the GUI's while getting closer are not as good, all though Plex is getting there.
Ripping dvd's the way you want them takes a lot of time.
P.S. I was unaware they had gone to a fee per movie system to conform to the Mafia Billy Club. It's been a couple years since I used it.
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Very different from a music server. With a music server I almost never listen to the crappy tracks on a release. Skip, skip, skip. As I am listening to one CD I will be updating the playlist for what will follow.
You have a good point Jim. I discussed that point with some Kaleidescape owners, and other points too...like the content of the movie library...the studios.
I was interested because I own close to 10,000 movies on Blu-ray and DVD. The top Kaleidescape unit was roughly thirty grands ($27,000 USD I believe, not 100% sure), and I also wanted to know about their lesser expensive products (around six grands), plus!...how many films could be entered in one Kaleidescape machine.
And yes, no previews, no bonus/extra features, just the movies (it'a a movie server, not a Hollywood advertising publicity company).
But it was important to have the support of all main Hollywood movie studios. That point was important to me.
I was also highly interested in 3D movies. ...And now UHD. ...And Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio.
I know few people who are going to be disappointed with this latest news.
This was the first post of a thread started last year (November 2015) from another forum:
{One of their less expensive products.}
Kaleidescape Strato Movie Player 4K HDR $4,500
K05090006
Strato 4K Ultra HD Movie Player 6
TB 4,495.00
The award-winning Kaleidescape Strato is the world's first and only 4K Ultra HD high-dynamic-range movie player. Strato plays movies in true 4K Ultra HD at up to 60 frames per second, without startup delays, buffering messages, or quality drops that are so common with streaming services. Strato supports lossless multichannel audio including Dolby Atmos, and bit-stream pass-through of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The Strato onscreen user interface is also displayed in 4K Ultra HD, at 60 frames per second, resulting in fluid animation and a stunning visual impact.
Strato can be purchased with or without an internal 6 TB hard drive that can store up to 100 4K Ultra HD movies, 150 Blu-ray quality movies, or 900 DVD quality movies. Strato equipped with internal movie storage can be used standalone or in a system with other Encore components. Strato without internal storage plays movies from any movie server or disc server in its Encore system.
________
Near the end of the thread, when the sad news came up, it made few owners unhappy...obviously. I think 4K did it for Hollywood movie studios...their support started falling off a cliff.
{One of their less expensive products.}
Kaleidescape Strato Movie Player 4K HDR $4,500
K05090006
Strato 4K Ultra HD Movie Player 6
TB 4,495.00
The award-winning Kaleidescape Strato is the world's first and only 4K Ultra HD high-dynamic-range movie player. Strato plays movies in true 4K Ultra HD at up to 60 frames per second, without startup delays, buffering messages, or quality drops that are so common with streaming services. Strato supports lossless multichannel audio including Dolby Atmos, and bit-stream pass-through of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The Strato onscreen user interface is also displayed in 4K Ultra HD, at 60 frames per second, resulting in fluid animation and a stunning visual impact.
Strato can be purchased with or without an internal 6 TB hard drive that can store up to 100 4K Ultra HD movies, 150 Blu-ray quality movies, or 900 DVD quality movies. Strato equipped with internal movie storage can be used standalone or in a system with other Encore components. Strato without internal storage plays movies from any movie server or disc server in its Encore system.
________
Near the end of the thread, when the sad news came up, it made few owners unhappy...obviously. I think 4K did it for Hollywood movie studios...their support started falling off a cliff.
With that many movies you could get the stack reader, load a bunch of discs and walk away for a day or two I loved that features of KScape
I am at work but will look tonight.
Essentially you plugged it into the server and set I think 50 disc's at time and it would rip them automatically, when done load up the next stack.
Takes a bit longer to rip bluray discs.
I will get the name and model for you
Essentially you plugged it into the server and set I think 50 disc's at time and it would rip them automatically, when done load up the next stack.
Takes a bit longer to rip bluray discs.
I will get the name and model for you
Thanks Mike; if I can stack roughly 5,000 Blu-rays into one movie server @ full definition and resolution, it'll give me space to start a new collection. ...Like gold coins. :b
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