If your company is anything like mine, you haven’t sold a 1080p TV in quite some time. (Well, except for projectors; you probably haven’t converted every new projector sale into a 4K model…yet.) With the price of entry-level 4K sets now carrying only a slight premium over 1080 sets, and featuring demonstrably better picture quality due to High Dynamic Range and Wide Color Gamut, upselling folks to the new 4K TVs is now just a given.
However, even though people are buying 4K sets by the millions, the first question most people inevitably still ask is, “Can I watch TV in 4K?”
And, unfortunately, outside of just a few pay-per-view movies on DirecTV and DISH, or the occasional special broadcast (Amen Corner at The Masters, or all-Judo-all-the-time at the 2016 Olympics), the answer remains “no” when it comes to 4K broadcasting.
But you know what you and your customers can watch right now on those new 4K TVs? Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs! These discs deliver reference, studio master-quality images that look and sound absolutely fantastic. Further, every UHD title (at least that I’m aware of) also comes with a regular Blu-ray disc and a digital download code for viewing on the go.
With nearly 150 titles out now (with more than 200 expected by the end of the year) and support from all the major studios (save Disney), Ultra HD Blu-ray discs cover the genre gamut from kid-friendly animation, to action, to sci-fi, to drama, meaning there’s tons of content to choose from.
But you know what another new disc format has brought back into our customer’s lives…?
Disc bloat.
The other day I decided to round up all of the 4K discs that I’ve accumulated, so and was shocked to see that I was already up to 37 titles! That’s a lot of discs to track down and flip through to find what I want to watch.
Fortunately, Kaleidescape is available to help rein in these growing UHD disc collections:.
Yep, even though Kaleidescape has moved away from disc importing, the company has been steadily signing studio agreements and adding content to its movie download store and now offers a whopping 219 titles in Ultra HD resolution, with 105 of them in full HDR glory.
If you look at the picture of all my discs, you’ll notice the colored arrows. The green arrows are movies available in full UHD/HDR from Kaleidescape’s download store right now. The yellow arrows are movies available in full Blu-ray (1080p) quality. And those three sad red arrows (thanks for nothing Paramount and MGM!) are the titles in my 37 discs that aren’t currently available for download.
The beauty of the Kaleidescape Strato is that it gives me instant access to 91.2 percent of my UHD movie library without having to rummage through any cases or even needing to remember what I have. I also have the same access to hallmark Kaleidescape features like pre-bookmarked scenes, meaning I can jump straight to moments like “Mighty Eagle and the Lake of Wisdom” (Angry Birds), “That was a hell of a landing, sir!” (Sully), “Max vs. Furiosa” (Mad Max), or “Metropolis in Chaos” (Batman v Superman) at the touch of a button. You also jump past menus and straight into the feature. These downloaded titles include the same action-packed Dolby Atmos audio soundtrack as the disc, meaning that there isn’t a single bit of sweet-sweet audio (or video) data lost in the download.
While I could have purchased these titles directly from the Kaleidescape store and cut out the physical disc altogether, since every one of those physical titles came with a digital download code, I also get the digital rights. Once I linked my Ultra Violet library to my Kaleidescape account, it allows me to download the movie to my Strato for FREE! And as Kaleidescape continues adding 4K agreements with studios, I’ll be able to simply download the new 4K version as it becomes available.
If you haven’t considered Kaleidescape lately because you thought disc library management was no longer important, you owe it to yourself and your clients to give Strato another look. It offers everything the company is known for, like an incredible GUI and user experience, and full integration with virtually every control system on the market, plus a few new tricks that make it the perfect bridge to the next-generation entertainment experience!
