Kudos: Kaleidescape’s unparalleled experience; Dolby Vision support; opens Kaleidescape to more projects
Concerns: No Wi-Fi
Back in 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore came up with something that has come to be known as “Moore’s Law.” This was his prediction that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every two years with minimal cost, thus leading to constant increases in computing power, speed, and capabilities, while keeping costs similar.
In our industry, we could have something called “CE’s Law,” where almost every year the components get both better and cheaper.
Case in point, I sold my first plasma TV back in 1998. It was a 42-inch Fujitsu that was about 6 inches thick, had 480p resolution, and put off about the same amount of heat as a hair dryer. That TV sold for $12,000. Today, you can stroll into Costco and buy a 100-inch TV that’s about 2 inches thick with 4K HDR resolution, and it would be under $2000 out the door.
Another example: The first Kaleidescape system I reviewed had an MSRP of $32,000. It consisted of two large components — a server and player — and only held about 180 DVDs and was limited to 480p resolution.
Today, I’m reviewing the company’s new Strato E 4K movie player, which is a standalone player that is small enough to nearly fit into the palm of your hand, capable of holding up to six 4K movies, sells for under $3000, and delivers the full Kaleidescape experience.
Kaleidescape Overview
Before diving into the product, it’s helpful to have a quick refresh of what Kaleidescape is and what makes its systems unique.
Kaleidescape manufactures components — servers and players — that connect across a standard residential Gigabit-speed network to play content (movies, concerts, TV series, etc.) that has been purchased/rented and downloaded from the company’s movie store. Other than movie trailers, all content is downloaded in its entirety and stored locally before playback, never streamed.
Kaleidescape has consistently innovated and improved its system over the years, managing to stay relevant and cutting-edge through regular software updates to its proprietary kOS (Kaleidescape Operating System). A new kOS update rolled out while I had the Strato E that added on-screen details like Rotten Tomatoes and Common Sense Media ratings to movies, as well as a Collections Menu update that added new rows for Discover, Rentals, and Scripts, as well as other fixes and improvements.
Further, the company just added a new feature to its online movie store called kAI, which uses the power of generative AI to help customers search for movies using natural-language prompts. (More on this later.)
There are several major differences between watching on Kaleidescape and streaming.
- Kaleidescape is purpose-built with enterprise-grade hardware and bespoke software designed from the ground up for the sole purpose of delivering the highest-quality audio/video playback. The hardware’s reliability, uptime, and integration with third-party systems are unparalleled.
- All content is stored locally, so the experience is always consistent and never impacted by internet speeds, outages, or other demands in the home.
- Kaleidescape titles play in video bitrates up to ten times higher than typical streaming rates, with file sizes comparable — and in some cases larger — to what is found on a physical disc. Kaleidescape downloads are in lossless Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master audio, many of which include Dolby Atmos and DTS-X immersive audio.
- The Kaleidescape movie store is the only digital retailer to provide titles with lossless audio and reference-quality video, featuring hundreds of 4K titles not available on disc, frequently offering “premium” titles that are available while still playing in theaters.
- The overall “Kaleidescape Experience” features tons of touches and flourishes akin to having a virtual projectionist that makes for a superior overall user experience. From its iconic cover art view to bookmarking the best scenes/songs in a film/musical, to being able to create customized scripts, to sending automation cues for lighting, shading, seating, lens position, and screen masking, to jumping straight to the film’s beginning, Kaleidescape offers an unmatched user experience.
Regardless of the system purchased, the Kaleidescape experience is consistent throughout.
The Strato Family
Kaleidescape has used the Strato name dating back to its original 4K movie player, and there are currently four components in the Strato family.
There is the Strato C movie player (“Compact”), which dates back to 2016. There is the V (“Vision,” the company’s first product to support Dolby Vision), which was introduced last year. New this year is the Strato E (Kaleidescape’s “Entry” 4K player) reviewed here, and Strato M, which company CEO Tayloe Stansbury said “is akin to Mercedes premier M-class, in that it’s the best 2K player anywhere.”
Which Strato is right for your project will depend on a few things. The Strato C has no internal storage and will only work when paired with a Kaleidescape Terra server. The Strato C offers dual HDMI outputs — one AV and one audio only — as well as coax and Toslink digital, features a true 4K on-screen user interface, will play all HD content purchased from the Kaleidescape store, and supports Co-Star pairing with an existing legacy Kaleidescape Premiere system. However, the Strato C will not play any Dolby Vision encoded content.
The Strato V, E, and M can all work as standalone players in that they have internal storage and don’t require being paired with a Terra server. The Strato V has a 960 GB SSD drive, and the E and M both have 480 GB drives. All three players will play Dolby Vision content; however, the M’s output resolution is limited to 2K 4:2:2. The Strato V and E also have a 2K OSD that is upscaled to 4K. They also have more limited audio output options, with the V having Toslink and coaxial digital, and the E and M only having HDMI. Of the three, only the Strato V offers a rear-panel IR mini-jack input if needed.
Any of the new V, E, or M players can be paired with a Terra server, which then unlocks the full user interface and the ability to add an unlimited number of player zones. The Strato V can support Co-Star pairing when connected to a Terra, while the E and M cannot. It’s also worth noting that when paired with a Terra server, all of the player’s internal storage is no longer used.
Cosmetically, the Strato C and V have a much more substantial and luxurious fit-and-finish, being housed in a milled, compact aluminum chassis. The E and M are both much smaller and come in a black perforated steel case.
Assuming you don’t need the extra audio outputs, the Strato E makes a compelling case to be the go-to player for new customers. When standalone, it holds five to six movies, which is enough for most non-collectors in this watch-and-move-on day and age. (If someone wanted to double that, the V is the obvious go-to at $1500 more.) When the E is paired with a Terra, that extra on-board storage is unused, and audio and video performance between the E and V becomes identical. When paired with a Terra, it gets full system functionality, supports as large a movie library as the customer needs, and can have unlimited playback zones. While the M offers a $1000-less expensive option, it is 2K only, so I’d still specify the E as 4K displays are now de facto.
Of course, that’s just my two cents.
All four Strato players include a USB 3.0 connector that can be used to connect a BD-ROM drive to catalog one’s disc collection. Doing so informs the movie store that you own a disc-based movie license, allowing you to purchase the digital download at a discounted price.
First Impressions
Unboxing the Strato E, my first thought was, “Wow, this thing’s small.” It’s roughly the size of three CD jewel cases stacked on each other. And it is light, weighing just over 1.5 pounds.
When you see the exploded view of the system’s architecture, there really is not much there short of the 480 GB SSD, a board holding the system-on-a-chip, and gold-plated HDMI contacts. It’s cool looking, with cut wedges making a mosaic vent pattern evocative of the Kaleidescape K-logo for passive ventilation in the steel chassis, but it’s not a lot.
Justified or not, I fear customers may see this and their first thoughts would be, “I paid three grand for that?!”
Remember, what the Strato E — and all Kaleidescape components — offer is a gateway to the full Kaleidescape experience. With Kaleidescape, you’re not buying “hardware,” you’re buying into the experience.
At its size, the Strato E would tuck in nicely behind a flat panel display, and Kaleidescape offers a wall mount for this. (There are also custom faceplates available for rack-mounting either a single or dual Strato E.)
The Strato E powers via an external 12 VDC/5-amp power brick. At its form-factor, and since it only uses a maximum 13 watts, I thought the E would have been a perfect candidate for powering via PoE, which would have cleaned up and simplified the connection, however, Stansbury commented that this wasn’t implemented due to “increased time to market and to keep costs down to bring a lower cost of entry to the consumer.”
The E also feels like a perfect candidate for Wi-Fi inclusion, but that is also a no. While a hardwired Gigabit connection is required when streaming from a Terra server, with Wi-Fi speeds capable of well over 500 Mbps, that would certainly be enough for connection to the movie store to download movies in standalone mode. This would also open up more install possibilities in existing rooms with no hardwired network connection.
Included in the box are a Pixelgen Design 1.5-meter, THX-certified HDMI cable and a 10-foot Ethernet cable. Kaleidescape offers an IR remote control for purchase if needed.
There is also a two-sided setup sheet included to get you started. On one side are the steps for connecting and activating your system — both in standalone and grouped installs. There are also a couple of QR codes to take you to a variety of guides. The reverse side has seven “Installation Tips for Best Signal Quality.”
Something that will only affect existing Kaleidescape owners, the Strato V, E, and M players play a different HD movie format than earlier Kaleidescape players, and most, but not all, HD content in the store has been transcoded to be playable on these players.
There is a readiness report on the web-based Movie Store that indicates movies that require an update to be playable on a new Strato and movies that are not yet playable, and it is impressive how far Kaleidescape has come in transcoding content over the past year. When I reviewed the Strato V last year, of my roughly 330 movies, 211 HD movies were not compatible, and I could either upgrade to 4K (51 titles) or downgrade to an SD (DVD quality) version (64 titles). Of all of my films, eight titles were unplayable/not yet compatible.
Now, I only have 10 movies that aren’t playable in HD, and of those, nine have 4K upgrade versions available, and only one — The Age of Adaline — would require a downgrade to SD to watch.
Back then, there were around 150 titles available for viewing in Dolby Vision, but now the store offers more than 530 titles in DV. So, the Kaleidescape team is definitely hard at work!
Setup
As mentioned, the Strato E can operate in two ways: standalone and grouped with a Terra server. I intended to first go with a standalone setup, but Kaleidescape does such a great job of doing what would be intuitive 99% of the time, I scanned the on-screen QR code and then overlooked a step in the mobile app that said my system detected a new component and did I want to add it to my system, which then immediately paired it with my 12 TB Terra, and it was ready to go, displaying the full library of content on my Terra.
Great, but not what I meant to do. No problem. I just went into the server and then unpaired the Strato E, pressed the reset pinhole on the back, and then it came back up in its original, out-of-box state.
The activation process is quick and simple, with on-screen prompts and a QR code that walks you through the steps of downloading the mobile app, which is required to control the player in lieu of an IR remote control. You then need to register and confirm an email address to activate the system. The whole process takes just a few minutes.
Out of the box, the Strato E is a blank slate and doesn’t come pre-loaded with any content. This seems like a perfect opportunity to have a brief “Welcome to Kaleidescape” demo video as a kind of kick-off, but the only option is a link to the Movie Store, where you can start browsing and downloading content.
Fortunately, my store library is filled with tons of movies, so it was just a matter of selecting what to watch. With my roughly 700 Mbps connection, movies took about 15 minutes to download, though Kaleidescape claims sub-10-minute downloads are possible with full Gig speeds. (And downloads in the 4- to 8-minute range when paired with a Terra Prime server.) Thanks to the faster processing on board the Strato E, you can download a movie while watching another movie without any drop in speed or performance.
Pairing (or more accurately, re-pairing) it with a Terra server was also a simple process that involved opening a web browser and logging into the Terra, clicking on the “Add a Component” button, which then displayed the Strato E, and hitting “Add.” If this is a new system install that will include a Terra, Kaleidescape recommends setting the Terra up first.
As mentioned, once grouped with a Terra, the Strato E’s internal storage is no longer used, so anything that you had downloaded would have to be re-downloaded to the Terra to be viewable.
As with all Kaleidescape systems, the Strato E — in standalone or grouped mode — supports integration with a host of third-party control systems, including Control4, Crestron, Josh.ai, RTI, Savant, and URC. The Control4 integration is simple and quick to integrate and works perfectly, with a huge library of available commands.
The system can also communicate directly with Lutron HomeWorks and RadioRA3 systems for shade/lighting control based on triggers embedded into films by the Kaleidescape movie team, such as movie playing, credits starting, intermission, etc. This is done via a “Lighting & Shades” tab where you simply select the Lutron processor to pair with and assign virtual switches with preset cues to each playback event (playing movie, intermission pause, credits roll).
Performance
After downloading an initial batch of five movies, which included Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Thunderbolts (The New Avengers), The Abyss: Special Edition, and the recent 4K/Dolby Atmos remaster of Master and Commander, I was ready to get to watching.
Movies begin playing in just a couple of seconds after hitting “Play Movie” and then look and sound fantastic. All the bookmarked scene options are available, making it easy to find the most iconic moments from films and give great demos. Using the web interface, you can also create “Scripts” that string multiple scenes together into a presentation.
I watched several movies, and then one afternoon, I started getting some really bad dropouts, which is completely unheard of with Kaleidescape. I logged into my system and checked the HDMI HDCP EDID info, and that all looked good. I reached out to Kaleidescape’s engineering and asked if they could check my system logs for some clue. Then I logged into my Terra server and saw there was a network bandwidth warning. Sure enough, the Ethernet switch in my other room was failing. I swapped it out with a new one, and perfect operation was restored. Moral of the story? If you are having playback issues, it is highly unlikely to be a Kaleidescape issue and far more likely to be something with the network.
This actually brings up a terrific use case for the Strato E. Once a movie is downloaded to its internal drive, there is no need for an internet connection. Since it is so small, you could easily toss it into a bag or backpack and take it on the road for portable viewing.
In standalone mode, the Strato E sports a new streamlined interface termed “Row Collections” that has been optimized for navigating a small movie library. This view is broken into Movie Store, which highlights new releases and is a quick portal into the store; New, which are films that have been downloaded and not watched; Paused; Played, which are movies that have been played through and will become candidates for deletion 48 hours after you finish watching to make room for more downloads; and Favorites. Why a Favorites when there are only five or six movies? A favorited movie won’t be marked for deletion after it’s watched. Once a movie has been purchased from the Kaleidescape store, you can download, watch, delete, and redownload it as many times as you like at no added cost.
When it is paired with a Terra, you can either have the traditional, “full” Kaleidescape on-screen display, or you can use the Row Collections view, which is expanded to include Discover, which suggests random, changing content from your stored collection, and Collections tab(s), which display any user-created collections.
Generally, when I’m watching Kaleidescape content, it is on my Sony 4K laser projector, which doesn’t support DV, but it was great that I could download the DV version of the movie and then have the Strato V convert it to a compatible HDR10 version my projector could play. That makes it really easy to always just download the best version of the film. (Note: The DV version will not play on a non-4K HDR display.) Also nice is that the on-screen details screen that pops up displays a badge to show the film’s download quality.
Of course, once you have a movie collection, or a family movie night, finding what to watch can be a challenge, and now is a good time to mention the new kAI browsing feature on the online store. This is a terrific tool that lets you ask questions like, “What’s the movie where the guy falls in love with the machine?” with a follow-up like, “Are any of these appropriate for teens?”
I asked it, “What are the most realistic movies about Navy SEALS?” and the results were spot on. The top three recs were Act of Valor (“a unique film that features actual U.S. Navy SEALs active-duty operatives, bringing an authentic touch to the action and tactical sequences”), Lone Survivor (“another highly realistic portrayal, based on a true story of a failed mission in Afghanistan. It effectively captures the bravery and camaraderie of SEALs”), and Zero Dark Thirty (“a gripping narrative centered around the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the film meticulously details the intelligence and dedication behind the historic mission”). There are links to jump straight to the movie to see a trailer, learn more, or purchase/download.
The kAI is not perfect, though. I asked it for the top movies with a DTS:X soundtrack, and it gave me five solid movie recommendations; however, none of them actually had DTS:X. But it’s a great tool that will certainly improve over time!
One difference between the original Strato and the Strato C is that the new V and E use a 2K on-screen display upscaled to 4K instead of a native 4K interface. I was able to A/B this, and the E is a bit softer and less detailed on the cover art images, especially noticeable on my 115-inch screen compared to my 65-inch OLED. However, it certainly looks plenty good enough to browse your collection and select a title, and in practice, most users likely wouldn’t notice.
TL/DR: The Strato E delivers the same outstanding Kaleidescape experience and stellar audio/video performance I’ve come to expect from all of the company’s products. With the new Strato E movie player, Kaleidescape now has a system that can be spec’d into nearly every project. If you’ve hesitated about selling or specifying Kaleidescape into projects, or even bringing one into your showroom, the Strato E is designed to change your mind.
650-625-6100; KALEIDESCAPE.COM
Product Specs:
- 480 GB SSD Drive stores approximately six 4K movies in standalone mode
- Playback of 4K Dolby Vision, 4K HDR10, 4K SDR, HD, and SD Quality
- Supports Dolby (Atmos, TrueHD, Digital/Plus, MAT PCM), DTS (X, HD Master, HD High Resolution, Digital), and PCM (up to 7.1 ch, 96/24)
- All content securely downloaded from Kaleidescape movie store
- Can download full 4K movie in appx. 10 minutes over Gigabit network
- Can be grouped with Terra server to enable additional storage
- Integrates with Kaleidescape mobile app (iOS and Android) and third-party control system support, including Crestron, RTI, Savant, Control4, URC, Josh.ai, and Lutron
- Connections: Inputs: Gigabit Ethernet, USB (for disc cataloging), chassis ground; Outputs: HDMI 2.1/HDCP 2.3, 12-volt power
Dimensions: 1.1 x 6.4 x 6.4 inches (HxWxD)
Weight: 1.6 pounds
