This article is an overview of the incredible Kaleidescape ultimate movie platform. Their products include the Strato C and Strato V players along with their Terra movie storage systems. We will say this up front, Kaleidescape systems are not inexpensive. However we feel if you have a home theater system you are proud of, you should seriously consider Kaleidescape. We hope this article will help you understand why we love Kaleidescape and how it can take your theater experience to a whole new level. And better yet, with the introduction of their new entry level Strato V, it’s less expensive than ever to give your home theater the best possible movie source.

Kaleidescape Quality

With a Kaleidescape system, you download a bit-perfect copy of the movie or other content to their system. This copy comes from the same file the studios use to produce Blu-ray discs. The key word is download as opposed to stream.

At Audio Advice we are installing high-performance home theaters all over the United States every week. Most people putting in their dream home theater have done their homework and know they need a Kaleidescape and will start out with one. But, we still have some who tell us their Apple TV, Roku, or Shield will be fine as they can stream or buy all the movies they want on that platform. Then, at some point, they will ask to try out a Kaleidescape. The comments are always the same; they just can not believe how much better the experience is from not only both a sound and picture standpoint but also the whole Kaleidescape experience.

Why Is Kaleidescape Better?

Why is that and how can Kaleidescape be so much better than streaming? It all comes down to compression. Streaming services must compress their content to make it work across a wide variety of internet connections. You can’t tell the Netflix app you have gigabit internet so they can send you a less compressed feed than the person in a rural location who is limited to a speed of 25 down. It just does not work in their model, so they all have to compress the signal enough to successfully deliver it all over the world. The only thing they do that is variable is change the stream to a super-compressed feed that looks like an old VHS tape if their service sees a very slow connection. Well, just how much do they compress it and what gets lost? As it turns out, quite a bit.

The average movie streaming to you in 4K is encoded at an average of around 8 megabits per second. Kaleidescape’s 4K movies are encoded at an average of 65 megabits per second. That is over 8 times as much video data being supplied to your great projector or large-screen flat pane.

The audio side is even more noticeable. The typical audio encoding for streaming is at .5 megabits per second, and that is half a megabit, not 5. Kaleidescape gives you a bit-perfect copy in either DTS:X or Dolby Atmos at 6 megabits per second. The audio has more than 10 times as much data than the compressed stream

In both cases, what you are seeing and hearing, is exactly what was on the master file the producer signed off on. Nothing missing, just every single bit of data that exists. Plus, there is never any buffering or dropouts due to your internet connection. As a matter of fact, once you have downloaded the movie, you do not even need to have internet access to play it back!

The difference your eyes and ears perceive is easily noticeable on a higher-performance home theater system. The picture has more detail and it's almost like a film was cleaned off, while the audio difference to Kaleidescape owners is even greater. Your awesome surround sound system comes to life like you have never heard before on streaming.

Kaleidescape vs BluRay

Now, we have to say, you can get extremely close to the Kaleidescape picture and sound with a brand new 4K Blu-ray disc with no scratches and a higher-end Blu-ray player. But even if you have a nice Blu-ray player and a collection of discs, there are still some great reasons to consider Kaleidescape.

Owners of Blu-ray players know how painful it is to sit through all the previews and warnings you get with a Blu-ray disc. With Kaleidescape, the movie starts playing instantly.

Now, picture this, you have some friends over for movie night to show off your incredible theater you spent so much time putting together. Someone in the crowd really wants to see a movie you do not have in your collection. Your choices are to say no, but that usually does not go over well, or open up your streaming device and pay $5-$15 to rent it depending on its time in theaters. And as someone who owns a Blu-ray player with a decent collection, you already know how bad streaming looks and sounds compared to disc. So you’ll probably cringe and rent it and be thinking, dang, they are not really experiencing what my theater can do! But with Kaleidescape, there are two other options.

You can find the movie in their online store and either rent it for what is usually around $8 or purchase it for about the same price the 4K Blu-ray would be. And with their new components and a fast internet connection, by the time you have made the popcorn and gotten everyone a drink, it is ready to play a bit-perfect copy that will show off your theater to its full potential.

Kaleidescape Library

And there is more. If you have a decent library of titles on your Kaleidescape system, the browsing experience is just out of this world and both you and your friends will love it. But the really cool part is the scripting feature. If you have a lot of discs, you’ve probably dreamed of putting together a collage of scenes that really show off your system. Well, Kaleidescape will be your dream come true there. You can choose any section you wish from 1 second to the whole movie and make it a scene. Then you can make a playlist of those scenes. In most movies, Kaleidescape has already tagged several of the really great scenes you can find on the main page to use. This is just fantastic for entertaining or having a collection of your favorite scenes playing before the movie starts.

If you are still interested in learning more, we will now dive into the components you need for a Kaleidescape system.

Kaleidescape Components

The basic concept is you have a Kaleidescape server, called a Terra, that stores your downloaded content. Terra servers vary in size and you can have more than one server in your system if one fills up. But let’s talk about things filling up. Another very nice thing about the Kaleidescape ecosystem is that you can offload movies you have purchased to their cloud and then bring them back again with the click of a mouse. So you can limit the server space you need if you are clever in managing your collection.

To play the files stored on your Terra servers, you need a Strato C player. You can have multiple Strato C players using one Terra server which will vary from 5 to 25 depending on the size of the Terra server. This means you can access your movies not only in your theater but other locations in your home. The Terra servers come in both solid state which downloads faster but costs more and normal hard drives. The disk-based units come in 8, 22,48,72, and 96 terabytes and can store 130, 350, 800, 1200, or 1600 4K movies. The solid state units currently come in 8,31, and 123 terabytes storing 125, 500, or 2000 4K movies. The Terra servers are all enterprise-grade like your bank would use and are just flat-out built like tanks.

The newest edition is the Strato V player. We have a complete video on it as we thought it was so cool. This is a really interesting piece. It is the least expensive way ever to get into the Kaleidescape ecosystem. It only stores 10 4K movies, but remember how easy it is to offload and re-download. This means downloading to rent or owning a bit perfect copy of that hot new movie and showing off your theater to its full potential just got a whole lot easier. The Strato V is also the first player to support Dolby Vision. And even this lower-priced product from Kaleidescape, like all of their models, is made in their solar-powered factory right here in the USA.

Should you want to expand into any of the Kaleidescape Terra servers, the Strato V becomes your player.

Download speeds for a full 4K movie or movie rental with the new Terra servers or Strato V are very impressive. With gigabit internet, you can expect only about 10 minutes. If you have 2.5 gig service and one of the SSD Terra servers the time drops to about 4 minutes.

Old DVD & BluRay Collections

There are two other things worth talking about. A lot of home theater buffs already have a large collection of Blu-ray discs and from the way back days, stacks of DVDs. You might even have a lot of DVDs you liked but never got around to getting a new 4K version for your theater and never play the old DVDs because they look so bad on a large home theater screen. Kaleidescape has an arrangement with the movie studios that enables a great upgrade program. You simply connect up a cheap Blu-ray reader to your Kaleidescape. Then you drop in any of your discs and in about 20 seconds, your player knows you own that disc. You can then go into the Kaleidescape movie store and see the cost to upgrade from your old disc to the latest and greatest 4K with the best surround format the movie has been upgraded to. The cost for this can vary from a low of around $5, which for an old DVD is the deal of the century, to as high as around $25. We find most are between $5 to $10 except for Disney content which is always much higher than anything else. You pick the ones you want to upgrade and then you’ll soon have bit-perfect 4K copies in your collection. And trust us, something like the Hunt for Red October you had on DVD is amazing in 4K in your theater!

The other thing notable is for those of you with a vacation home. Kaleidescape will allow up to 5 systems in different locations to have the same content. This means you simply register your new system under your account and do not have to repurchase your content.

If you are intrigued it is as easy as reaching out to our team of home theater experts at Audio Advice to help you select the best components for your system and future needs. Audio Advice has been a Kaleidescape dealer since their first units came out almost 25 years ago. The company has stood the test of time and negotiated with the movie studios to allow home theater enthusiasts to have the best possible home theater experience. The only drawback is the cost. But if you have a high-performance home theater, you likely already have far more invested in it than their entry-level Strato V, so why not give yourself and friends and family the best possible picture and sound? You bought all that great gear, don’t hold it back and put low octane in your sports car!

We’re here to help!

If you have further questions, contact our experts via chat, phone, or email. Or simply visit one of our world-class showrooms to experience speakers, projectors, TVs, and everything in between for yourself before you make a purchase!

If you’re planning your home theater or media room, check out our Home Theater Design page, where we have everything Home Theater related, including our FREE Home Theater Design Tool.

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