(July 16, 2024) Kaleidescape truly is the industry's ultimate movie playback system. From its extensive movie store and on-screen interfaces to bit-perfect encodes, catered movie scenes, and lightning-fast download times, the company has captured everything enthusiasts love about disc-quality playback and packaged it with the modern conveniences we've come to expect with streaming and on-demand platforms.
It's practically perfect, if you can stomach the cost of entry.
Until today, Kaleidescape had two major warts from a buyer's perspective: upfront cost and a lack of Dolby Vision functionality. Entry-level buyers needed to purchase a Strato C player, which decodes and distributes a movie, and a separate Terra movie server for file storage, both of which will set you back a minimum of $9,000 if you select the smallest amount of available storage (the 8TB Terra Prime Server). That entry price is leaps and bounds more than the most expensive disc player and other movie player and storage systems on the market.
Then there's Dolby Vision, which had been put on the back burner, largely because the vast majority of Kaleidescape buyers are projector-focused. Most projectors lack the brightness to make Dolby Vision work as intended, so it was less of a priority.
With today's announcement, the all-new Strato V (where "V" stands for Vision) heals those warts and gives customers what they've been wanting: A more affordable starting price and Dolby Vision compatibility.
“Kaleidescape has delivered on what customers have been asking for with the new Strato V movie player, now offering Dolby Vision with lossless audio at a lower cost of entry,” said Tayloe Stansbury, chairman & CEO of Kaleidescape. “It’s a testament to our commitment to continued innovation as the Strato V integrates new electronics and playback capabilities while maintaining the high level of performance we’re renowned for.”
Looking very similar to its current Strato C player and slim-line Terra Prime servers, the clad-in-all-black Strato V offers standalone storage and playback for a single display. On its own, it can store roughly ten 4K movies on an internal, solid-state drive and is expandable by pairing it with a Terra Prime movie server. Those can give you an additional 8 to 96TB of storage.
Out of the box, the Strato V offers owners access to a new streamlined interface that's optimized for navigating a small movie library. Both HD and 4K movie titles can be downloaded in as little as ten minutes over Gigabit Ethernet. And downloads can be designated for automatic deletion 48 hours after playback, making room for more movies.
For those owners choosing to increase storage, a Terra Prime server will return Strato V’s interface to the traditional Kaleidescape experience. Multiple Strato V movie players can be grouped with one or more new or existing Terra movie servers, scaling to the needs of the installation.
Kaleidescape says Strato V integrates new electronics and grounding topology. The addition of player-side decoding for high-bitrate audio codecs provides flexibility to maximize sound quality with a range of downstream components. And then there's its slick physical appearance; Strato V is housed in a modern black anodized aluminum and glass chassis, giving it an aggressive, if not menacing, technological design appeal.
At launch, the Kaleidescape movie store will have more than 100 Dolby Vision titles available. To take full advantage of Strato V’s Dolby Vision playback capabilities, the Kaleidescape store will automatically detect a Strato V player and download Dolby Vision versions of a film (if available). When configured to minimize display mode changes, Strato V will convert HDR10 content to the Dolby Vision format for playback on a Dolby Vision display. If a Strato V player is connected to a display that only supports HDR10, then the player will play back in HDR10 on that display.
If you currently own any titles that become available in Dolby Vision, your movie file will be upgraded at no extra cost.
The Strato V has an MSRP of $3,995 and is available for purchase now. To learn more, watch Travis Ballstadt's video (below) or visit Kaleidescape.com.
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