Kaleidescape Alternative? - Zidoo Z9X 8K

Zidoo Z9X 8K
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Zidoo Z30 Pro 8K
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Zidoo Z3000 Pro 8K
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Seagate 22TB HDD
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** affiliate links - I earn from purchases
Kaleidescape is expensive, no doubt about it. Their new, and most affordable, option is the Kaleidescape Strato V. And it retails at $3,995.
But is there a cheaper option for those who prefer to spend less $$$ on streaming hardware? Enter Zidoo, a streaming platform capable of streaming essentially any video format out there (.MKV, ISO, MP4 etc). I tested the new Zidoo Z9X Pro 8K and compare it to the equivalent Kaleidescape.

[@Whitegravy95]

Imagine putting $14k back into physical media, owning a bad a$$ player and hundreds of 4k movies and keeping physical media alive

[@brucecarter6205]

Physical media’s days are numbered. Accept it, embrace it, and start saving for a Kaleidescape.

[@JayTheComputerGuy]

@@brucecarter6205 How about you do both! that's what I do

[@AGILISFPV]

You wish lol​@@brucecarter6205

[@tcamm9812]

@@brucecarter6205 Such a stupid comment. Same thing could be said for Kscape. Their entire business would crumble overnight the day that a streaming service starts offering lossless and it will happen, it’s only a matter of time.

[@DrawTheLine35]

⁠@@brucecarter6205 once Kaleidescape or a similar product/service launches at the 1k price point, that’s when physical media guys will start jumping. I could see Apple entering the space with a “Pro” Apple TV device. They have an eye on the premium market and already have an established digital store front

[@blindplayer1]

I have had my Zidoo UHD8000 for a few weeks now having never had a Zidoo product before. Loving it. I will be receiving a Synology Nas tomorrow as I have already filled a 16TB drive and Still have over 600 disks to rip. It will cost me $1.5K for 48tb of storage not $10K for 22tb. Works perfect for me as I sit at desk all day and can swap out the disks while I am working. I had always drooled over the Kaleidscape but two things that kept me from getting one 1. Wife and I watch a lot of old movies, mainly film Noir,and Kaleidscape has almost zero in their catalog. 2. Once you pay over 10K you still have to pay the same price for the movie as you would for the disk.

[@Linnjazzy-93]

You should do a video on KZbin and share ur experiences with it.

[@m4nc1n1]

Great choices! More people need to get a NAS. You will love it. Just make sure you throw in two m.2 drives for cache, even if they are 256GB (1TB drives if you can), so you get the full benefit.

[@techsamurai11]

Wait, Kaleidescape doesn't allow you to rip your own catalog of movies and you still have to pay for the ones you own? Talk about digital media frenzy. You essentially own nothing and can't even use the version you own. Can you imagine that happening with video games? Unfortunately your solution is also a PITA but at least you get a RAID but you have to run your own NAS server. How crazy is that?

[@GIGyards]

Embrace physical media, reject digital & streaming. The shift to digital/streaming killed large studio's from greenlighting passion projects. It's almost exclusively an analytical numbers game now, art and expression come last if it enters into it all outside of indies. All that can change if more people embrace the disc!

[@brucecarter6205]

Too late for all of that now. Physical media’s days are numbered. Subscription services are cheaper and far more convenient. The fact is, 99% of people are happy with the quality of streaming. For the remaining 1% of us, there is Kaleidescape.🤷‍♂️

[@techsamurai11]

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that digital media is just a hoax to increase the revenues of companies since you can't buy a used movie or video game or rent it from a library.

[@hatoraidcowboy]

Good video George. Welcome to the Zidoo family! There’s no turning back 😀

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Thanks Jordan, glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for introducing me to Zidoo. I’m lovin’ it!

[@hatoraidcowboy]

@@GeorgeTheaterAtHome Of course! I knew you would!

[@stephenphillips1660]

Don't you also have Kaleidescape?

[@hatoraidcowboy]

@@stephenphillips1660 Me? Yes I do

[@joelgonzalez8289]

​@@stephenphillips1660I was going to ask the same thing.

[@eldondoucet2847]

I'm on my 2nd Zidoo player. Started with the Z1000Pro and now own the Z3000Pro. These are fantastic players! Being in the computer business, I've built a Synology Raid5 server using 6x10Tb hard drives and have ripped my entire library (and a bunch of my brother-in-law's) to the NAS. It is fantastic! The quality, I think, is better than playing a disc on my Panasonic DP-UB820PCK. The sound is every bit as good, and with MakeMKV you can choose just to rip the highest soundtrack (and merge in subtitles too). Kaleidescape? Wow, what a price! $10K for a 22TB hard drive? WTF? Not even close. I'll take Zidoo EVERY day! P.S. The total cost $CDN for the entire system - Zidoo, NAS, hard drives - came out to ~$3500. And tons of time to rip & organize. (As well as the cost of buying all the disc)

[@techsamurai11]

Does it work the same way over wifi? Still expensive at $3,500 and not taking into account all the time and effort. You also need space and plugs for 2 devices and one has to be in your living room which is premium real estate as opposed to basement storage.

[@br1ella129]

You are missing the main point of Kaleidescape; they claim to provide higher quality audio and video directly from the studios and at an earlier date than physical media, that's what you're paying for.

[@tommysshinebox1661]

That’s a very good point. But I don’t think that Kaleidescape feature changes anything. Because I have the same method that the video depicts, a PC and multiple HDs. My media library is all REMUXED, full size videos of titles I personally own. No compression whatsoever ripped right from the physical media. And I still paid less than 1K for the HD, Plex life time license and laptop to run it. Womp womp. But hey, each to their own. I get that not everyone will want to do the technical steps to setup a much cheaper media method like that.

[@Leulogy]

Zidoo seems like a great alternative to Kaleidescape. Fortunately I use a home theater PC (extremely budget friendly). I rip the disc and save it on my 10tb hard drive and use MPC-HC video player w/ LAV audio filter for surround sound decoding. Benefits include: All video and audio formats are supported, madVR filter can be added to MPC which can be tweaked to work just like the Envy (and its FREE). The man who originally created madVR (madshi) releases updates frequently. Everything is processed on RTX 3070 Graphics card so I have the horsepower to go crazy with madVR. Additionally I use SVP (smooth video project) for a little motion judder smoothening. All programs and filters I listed are free. I really don't know how people spend thousands of dollars for Kaleidescape when there are so many other options like Zidoo or going the htpc route. $10,000 for a 22tb hard drive is beyond outrageous. Different tax bracket I guess. 😅

[@Leulogy]

Also, going the htpc route freed up my budget to focus on other things like, speakers, couch, acoustic panels etc. and still get the benefit of amazing audio processing video processing and I'm able to really tweak my audio using amazing program like Equalizer APO for each. Once you become an advanced user of both Equalizer APO and REW, you'll be truly amazed at what your speakers can actually do.

[@krisr3883]

The Zidoo X9 Pro isn't even really an alternative to the Kaleidescape. The Zidoo x9 is a media streamer - a good quality one with good specs even if it is a couple years old (they do have some nicer and newer models), but it is not the same thing as Kaleidescape. A better comparison would actually be the Nvidia Shield Pro. Kaleidescape is more about the access and services it gives you access to - they have some new movies while still in the theatre for example. Everything is lossless (which yes you can get by ripping 4k blurays, but not from normal streaming). Without access to a similar service, it's just another streaming box and not an alternative. Saying that, for 99% of the population, a good Android streaming box is all that most people need. Unless you have the audio/video equipment that can actually take advantage of the higher qualities that the Kaleidescape offers you aren't going to benifit anyways (even then the differences may be minimal or unnoticeable to some people). Not a knock on the Zidoo players at all, just a very clickbaity video with an invalid comparison.

[@Leulogy]

​@@krisr3883If your objective is to store lossless movie content while having a satisfying user interface, the Zidoo is an alternative option. And correct, you will not have the feature of getting blu-ray level quality immediately on home release which was very obviously not be point of the video. This also does not justify the high prices of Kaleiscape products while also still having to pay for and download the movie. He is very clearly talking about the option of storing content on your own server and/or hard drive in conjunction with Zidoo that features a fluent UI which is most of the conveniences Kaleiscape provides. This isn't clickbait. You just missed the point.

[@Leulogy]

​@@krisr3883If your objective is to store lossless movie content while having a satisfying user interface, the Zidoo is an alternative option. And correct, you will not have the feature of getting blu-ray level quality immediately on home release which was very obviously not be point of the video. This also does not justify the high prices of Kaleiscape products while also still having to pay for and download the movie. He is very clearly talking about the option of storing content on your own server and/or hard drive in conjunction with Zidoo that features a fluent UI to provide a user experience that is most of what Kaleiscape provides at a significantly lower cost. This isn't clickbait. You just missed the point.

[@techsamurai11]

@@krisr3883out of curiosity, how much do the movies cost and also is there a surcharge for movies at the theater?

[@techsamurai11]

Wow, I've read all the comments and I just realized the true cost of building a dedicated home theater. I've had 2 home theaters in my home and I had no idea all this while how lucky I was. I always thought it was the use of the space in the basement but now I realize the storage of the media is the REAL cost. You either double pay for Kaleidescape if you have 8-9 digit balances or you do it yourself. I'm so lucky I went with living room style theaters in the basement and living room and dodged a bullet🙂If anybody asks me about a home theater, I'm probably pointing to a soundbar that can never play files from a Zidoo or Kaleidescape.

[@anthonykeith8174]

As an Apple TV user the Infuse App is what you want it plays MKV plus a ton more, provides support for DV, HDR10 & HDR10+, uses SMB so any NAS or network Drive works, I have an older version of this Zidoo and love it, but I like options so I use both.

[@FrostyDog9186]

Came here to say this! Plus Infuse is super affordable!

[@wojtek-33]

Yeah but DTS and True HD... You get no height channels with an apple TV.

[@stepalex]

Apple TV complements a Zidoo - or even better, a Dune HD - just perfectly.

[@BryanLydia]

Thanks for touching on this topic. Been using a UHD3000 in my dedicated cinema room for a couple years now and looking to upgrade to UHD8000 shortly. Longtime PLEX user since 2008 but for dedicated space with high end equipment, the quality with dedicated media player like those from Zidoo is top notch. FYI - when doing home cinema demos on the Zidoo, create a playlist utilizing the Digital Signage Mode. It even allows you to select specific timestamps within the movie clips and once the clip is played, it goes to the next clip in the playlist. It works great.

[@wrthomas69]

I do not own a kaleidoscope. Even if I won the lottery, I would not buy one as I would not want to start all over again and having already collected more than 5000 video titles. I’m not starting over. But there are several advantages of the kscape. You talk about demos, kscape can do this automatically by stitching together scenes of different films into one movie reel, It is done in seconds. Also, you have access to hundreds of movies on the Kaleidoscope store that have never come to 4K disc. And There are kaleidoscope titles with both the DTSX and the Atmos soundtrack. No disc has both.

[@busterbrown1686]

My Denon 3800 can upmix DTS X and Auro 3D

[@htenthusiast2897]

Zidoo could create a device with integrated disc reader ready to rip and offer various sizes HDs that can be plugged in like a NAS, and maybe also offer movie downloads. In that way would offer the perfect product for HT enthusiasts with lots of discs to rip, like me and together with online movies build the dream high quality collection in one place.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

I love that idea!

[@jameshastings6538]

I think this is what I was asking in my question. Can you on this player or the Z9X Pro, Dune Premier 4k Pro, or the UGOOS use the attached external hard drive as a NAS server? Allow other devices on your network to access its hard drive to play your digital media? This would be a better option than buying a NAS server case for the hard drive.

[@geoemm]

I was thinking the same. But maybe with a 3 or 6 CD changer. You could batch load the disk and it could so everything

[@Luke-qs2cg]

The kaliedascape store and product is why people pay for it. Ive got one. Its great. Ive also got a plex server. Love that too. They serve very different functions though. I get public use licenses and play these movies for events. Usually same day as theater. You dont get that anywhere else

[@krisr3883]

I just replied to another post with something similar. The video is not a good comparison since the Zidoo isn't able to offer what the Kaleidescape does, so it can't really be considered an alternative. It's an alternative to the Shield Pro or other Android streamers/Apple TV.

[@dropzone7]

I love my Zidoo player. I have the Z9X Pro and will likely upgrade to the 8k version at some point. I agree, those of us with more time than money or simply more passion for the journey actually enjoy the process of backing up our movies and collecting. I have a laptop setup and usually copy a few movies while I'm doing other things, no big deal. With that said, I do waver a bit on totally discounting Kalediescape from consideration. The lower cost player is intriguing even though storage is limited. I had halfway considered getting the Strato V just to have a dedicated demo player. The Zidoo will do something similar though it's digital signage mode but it's not nearly as seamless as the K. Oh well, it's nice to know we can get 80 or 90% of that experience for at an affordable price point. I have (2) 18TB drives in Raid connected as local storage so I have less than $1k in this whole setup.

[@bric7244]

I am still collecting physical media. Streaming is just not as good as a disk, especially for audio. As a home theater owner, I want the best sound in audio possible. This would be a happy medium, though.

[@techsamurai11]

Yeah, these devices are commercials for physical discs 😀You can just collect physical discs or pay a bazillion dollars for 2 mammoth devices along with waiting years to download the movie after it releases or create your own NAS server solution with 2 devices and rip everything you buy.

[@jimpatrick264]

Great description of the difference. Kaleidescape is for the .001 % PLEX is amazing and the Zidoo takes it to a higher level ( quality )

[@jsclayton]

$10K for a hard drive? That had better be NVMe for that price! 🤯 There’s also the cost of the content. Even if the player and storage cost $1k, that still leaves you $13k for content. And you’d actually OWN it. I can’t imagine Kolidescape gives you unencrypted files, making them essentially long term rentals.

[@Lewis-jn8ry]

They're selling you an enterprise level hdd. Although I think the new servers are enterprise level ssds. I don't know whether they're nvme or sata.

[@v0ldy54]

@@Lewis-jn8ry bruh a 22Tb enterprise level HDD is 500$, I'm not aware of any 22Tb SSd on the market, but even if it existed a 30Tb Kioxia Enterprise/Datacenter grade SSD won't go above 7000$, adjusted for disk size that's still a 5000$ markup.

[@onisama9589]

I do the same thing with my Apple TV. All you need is either, Emby, VLC, Plex or my favorite infuse. They all allow you to stream your video files from your computer over the network. I have a 118tb unraid NAS filled with Blu-ray rips that I have ripped from movies I own. I don’t see a reason to buy this device since you already had the Apple TV.

[@AGILISFPV]

​@@onisama9589 Holy crap that's a lot of storage. What nas did you buy? Or did you build one yourself? Trying to figure this out myself currently and it's so daunting.

[@v0ldy54]

@@AGILISFPV cheapest way to do it is with refurbished datacenter hard drives, they gave the best $/Tb ratio, although reliability is not on par with newer drives, but that shouldn't be much of an issue since you can use parity drives and we're talking about movies that you can either rip/download again in case you have multiple simultaneous disk failures.

[@josh200505]

Ziddo is an amazing player. I have one.

[@jastorino]

In my theater room, I started with Apple TV and Plex, then Infuse Pro hooked into Plex. Quickly grew tired of not having bitstreamed audio especially for Atmos, and other problems, so got me a Zidoo z2000 pro. It’s been a game changer for me. Not without some issues, but I really enjoy it. I ripped my entire library of about 700 movies on dvd, bd, and 4k and store them on a Synology NAS. It’s fantastic

[@pyrocrew13]

You do realize that you can build a demo movie of multiple clips of multiple movies on Kscape right? Then you have access to movies that are still in the theater on Kscape. You have to wait for the disk to come out so you can rip it. Then you only have the file size that was available on the disk. Not the full uncompressed file that Kscape gets from the studio. In a lot of cases it’s night and day visually and audibly.

[@byrons8956]

Thanks for the Trinnov demo material tip. I've always been looking for demo material. I've been doing the stream disc media via my ShieldTVs for a while. Instead of upgrading my DVD Disc Changers to Bluray units, I just started ripping my discs to ISO format and save to network storage systems and either browse directly, using my automation systems UI, or one of the many Media Servers like Emby to select via its thumbnail UI.

[@FTGTapGod]

I had a pretty luke warm time with my Z9X Pro. Ended up swapping to the Dune HD Pro One 8k Plus and have been extremely happy. Less info out there about it, but I'm glad I tried it out. Much faster operation, less handshake problems, more HDR output options, and a better handling overall of different media types.

[@mulyant0]

what plus benefits compare zidoo and dune one 8K Plus

[@stepalex]

@@mulyant0Zidoo’s UI is slightly better. Dune has better specs (8Gb of RAM for all models), better playback of full UHD images with menus, decodes TrueHD/DTS-HD MA to 7.1 LPCM and has better firmware support. Very expensive R_volution players are essentially Dunes with a different skin on top.

[@mulyant0]

@@stepalex Dune has 8Gb Ram because it is running hybrid OS ( DuneOs+Android) of course must need more RAM.

[@FTGTapGod]

@@mulyant0 true, but even with the hybrid OS it is significantly faster to navigate than the zidoo. the difference is quite noticeable navigating menus. The end of my original comment lists the main benefits I have seen.

[@mulyant0]

@@FTGTapGod posterwall from zidoo has more beautiful for me than dune

[@josh200505]

For me, the software is very nice. Movies are affordable, but the price for the hard drive is not acceptable. No hard drive costs $10k or more.

[@CryptoQuest1]

great comparison for someone like me, a beginner to this hobby

[@dandonna852]

I have a Sony BDP-960 400 disc Blu-ray player just broke down It took long time to play a movie had to fetch the movie then go though all coming attractions then the movie would start,😡 I found what was looking right here this help me 100% Thank you

[@techsamurai11]

Wait, Kaleidescape charges $10k for a 22TB drive? So $14,000 so you don't have to install a disc for the Kaleidescape and all the effort of ripping the disc on the Zidoo so you can play it. Suddenly discs sound so cool! I'm glad PS5 and Xbox are not headed that way - if you want to store a digital copy of the game you can never sell or download anywhere else, we'll let you do it for $14,000 with these 2 extra mammoth boxes - Playstation boxes sold separately from Xbox. What about music? Why aren't people carrying kaleidescapes to listen to music? Why allow folks to stream music?

[@busterbrown1686]

I'll stick with physical media. I recently spent good money upgrading my receiver, blu ray player, 4k movies, speakers and wires for Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D. Looking into upgrading to a 4k projector as well. If I tell my wife I spent more money for that, it would be my last testament.

[@nickdiba7512]

If you bought the Zidoo, and then asked someone to buy you a 1000 $ pc, install a 400 $ hard disk, a blu-ray player, put it on your network and rip 100 movies for you, and he charged 13.200 $ for the whole operation, would you object? Free lunch exists: it's the lunch money the guys at kaledascape take from you that buys them a free lunch (and dinner).

[@portugee76]

Counter productive

[@GaryCruzDotCom]

Plex on a QNAP NAS is also a great option.

[@stevenmichael7770]

I'm in the wrong business. I need to become a magic hard drive salesman. That's quite a profit margin.

[@guillermomartin8248]

You also need to be an amazing software engineer and innovative business mind which I’m assuming your lacking😅

[@stevenmichael7770]

@@guillermomartin8248 I'm assuming you're not very bright, given that you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're". You must be an "amazing" software engineer though!

[@MrUtpow]

K is expensive, because it doesn't push illegal DRM circumvention onto it's customers.

[@abefroman.]

Nice video. I started with a Zidoo Z9X, but have moved onto Ugoos AMB6+ with CoreELEC and Kodi. Plays everything including being the only DoVi player to correctly render FEL layer. I know most PJ people think there is no advantage, but I disagree and feed my system LLDV. Anyway, Kodi/Ugoos and all its skins and customization won me over the Zidoo.

[@enigmascv]

I love the idea of K scape but it's cost for HD space is nuts! I can run multiple zidoo devices and run a NAS! It's little bit of work ripping but it's worth it in the end. Keep up the good work and get the word out!

[@brucecarter6205]

HD space is not required anymore. Why would you need it when you can download a movie in 9 minutes?🤷‍♂️

[@ballstadt]

It’s apples to oranges. Kaleidescape is more than a player/server hardware combo. It’s okay to not have a Kaleidescape just stop making false equivalencies.

[@FadriqueFM]

Zidoo is great, I’ve been using mine for over a year and everything is so easy and neat.

[@billtyson9926]

Kaleidescape? No way! I have both the Nvidia Sheild and the older Zidoo9x 4k. All my content is on a NAS with 48TB of storage and I am almost half of that capacity currently. I can easily add more drives if needed. I started with a small Synology 4 bay NAS and now I have a QNAP 8 bay setup. I'm loving it!

[@ROCKETKNIGHT-ph7xp]

Zidoo can kick rocks with Scooby Doo.

[@antonioh567]

Kudos on the video. I will say that I think that you're comparing apples to oranges. I own a Kaleidescape. With the Zidoo you need to own a particular movie disk and then rip to a NAS in order to stream on the Zidoo. Zidoo is not a digital streamer in the sense that Kaleidescape or Apple TV is where you can purchase or rent a movie and stream the movie when it has finished downloading. Kaleidescape you can rent or purchase movies. I tend to rent the majority of the movies I watch. Also, Kaleidescape has the majority of available newer movies versus disk where some of the studios don't release their newer movies on 4k blu ray. I'm looking Disney, 20th Century, etc. The $4,000 Kaleidescape Strato V doesn't require a hard drive. If you purchase the Strato V you don't have to purchase an additional Kaleidescape hard drive if you don't need the additional space. The Strato V has an SSD inside of it that allows you to download 10 movies. If you need to make space for another movie, you can delete a movie and download the new movie. If you purchased the movies you deleted, it is stlll available for you to download again if you want.

[@eferronato]

Great video! I also have a Zidoo and I love it, it's my main media player. My next plan is to buy a Synology NAS to organize my movie collection. Keep up the good work 👍🏻👏🏻

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Good luck with the NAS. That’s an excellent way to store your media.

[@stephenphillips1660]

Very well done. I have the Z9X and love it. I will never understand the cost of Kaleidescape.

[@jasonw2786]

Would have been better to do a comparison to Plex or Jellyfin.

[@thehal991]

I decided going down this route a couple of months ago: Zidoo X9 Pro NAS drive Desktop Mac My JVC took a dump and died a couple of weeks ago so I’m prioritising that. Looking into repairing it once I get a step ladder to take it down, (or if I come across an ebay bargain before then) whichever happens first. Don’t think I’ll ever use anything but a JVC from now onwards.

[@techsamurai11]

Because it died? Is that what made you stick with the JVC? I usually steer away from dead products. 🙂

[@kapooranuj]

Seems like you are filtering out a lot of comments. Otherwise there's no way all comments are all praises for zidoo. Welcome to the world of media players that have been around for 20 years. Anyedia player like a stupid amazon fire tv has been doing this for years.

[@paulm7267]

I have been thinking of using an older system as a dedicated Plex server. What I didn’t get from this video review is what the Zidoo does that Plex doesn’t already do. To me, they both appear to offer the same type of interface and access to the same stored ripped movies. The act of ripping the movies is upstream of both of them, so that’s not a differentiator. I already have Rokus on all of my TV’s which can run Plex. Am I missing some advantage with the Zidoo box?

[@17chris18]

Anyone realize that 22 TB is HUGE?!?! Like, MASSIVE! How do you even fill up 22 TB man? My music folder is only 82GB and I've been downloading music since I was 13, and I'm 31. Guys. Like, OMG. I get 4K files are big, but sheesh! 1000GB is a TB. How many files you got?

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

A single 4k movie is anywhere from 60 GB to 80 GB.

[@Music.Movies.67]

I got a Zidoo 9X Pro and it's a cool player, plays all my files I have a small collection of my real favourite movies and it's convenient having them at hand on a external hdd

[@Johnsormani]

You are paying for copyright fees for the videos that get stored on it. Kaleidescape is legal, zaadoogst isn’t

[@RandallStevenson]

I have my entire DVD and Blu-ray and CD Library streaming from my PC through Jellyfin to my Onn 4K Pro

[@28cjohns]

Good vid, should really be titled time versus money :). For what the Zidoo can do, excellent product. And if you want to spend time ripping things, because you want to show people clips, it's great. But what this really is about is audio. K-scape audio is a level above a disc IF your home theater has the capability to reproduce every ounce of sound the file can produce. Frankly, if you sat in my home theater and we stream TG Maverick thru Apple TV, you'd love it. Then if I put in the disc in my stupidly expensive disc player, you'll love it. Then we do K-scape, yep.....you'll love it, even more. Now if we toggle back and forth the source, what happens is the sound goes from amazing to off the chart amazing. So what you get with K-scape is audio detail one step beyond the disc and if anyone has a good blu-ray disc player, they can attest to the gap between sound from the disc, versus outright streamed. The gap is about the same again from disc to K-scape. Height channels are more pronounced, sides and rear, it's just better. But better doesn't mean best. If we drive in a city to the grocery store, speed limit is 25 mph and traffic is hell, does a Ferrari do it better than a Chevy? Prob not if the goal is to just get to the store and back. There are two issues you didn't bring up which should be noted. First, you don't need 22TB extra drive. In fact, you don't really need an extra drive at all. You can store it all in the K-scape cloud, bring in the movie, push it back out. It might hamper clips along the way per se, but my system is about watching a movie, not creating clips. I have a 6TB drive with the player, holds 300+ movies, and I have about another 100 in the cloud. It's plenty good, and it was half of the $14k, so the gap here, not anywhere near as it seems......but I understand the comparison, there is clearly a gap. Second issue, with K-scape, I can transport my library to my next location by virtue of the app. I don't have to disconnect a drive and a player, to haul it to my next location. So there is value to this, relative to a ripped file on a drive, versus me calling the cloud to fill my player with my next watch. I do believe Zidoo can do cloud storage, I haven't deep dived that end of it, but if file portability is an issue for anyone, I would dig into this to see if it's a pivot point to the product. At any rate, great vid, we'll done. Just wanted to offer a perspective on my journey here from streaming to disc to k-scape, audio is the gap one gets if you can play in the K-scape arena.

[@frommatorav1]

I understand your frustration that he didn't mention the lower TB options but to someone on a small budget, $7000 over $680, is still a huge difference. I think the person in this video did convey that Kaleidescape is way better but if you don't mind putting in the extra work for not quite the user experience and UI, you can still have a great experience and save a lot of money.

[@28cjohns]

@@frommatorav1 Vid was well done, no frustration here. But the gap is not as presented, not a big deal, I simply wanted to share the perspective from an actual K-scape user. I also think the cost of Zidoo is more than $700. You also need a NAS or computer near the device, and if not, now you need a port switch too. So unless somebody already has all that as well, Zidoo seems to be closing in on $1500. And then you need the skill to play component to component IT, and while I would think most movie buffs that know how to rip a DVD do, if you don't, it's going to get complicated. K-scape, if you know how to plug two lines in, you are pretty much up and running short of dedicating it a static IP address on your home network. There is another way here too, and I think the gap, if one hunts around a bit, is only $2k. Find a good used Strato S, last I saw one, $3500. It'll get the job done well, and in the end, if audio is your focus, budget aside, K-scape wins every time. But if one is just video person, and audio is secondary, K-scape may not be the play, and for that matter, I don't even think Zidoo is. Just stream the movie, and your library goes with you everywhere. Otherwise, time and money aside, it's 7 years of streaming versus all the time spent ripping DVD's.

[@frommatorav1]

@28cjohns I hear you. The NAS or HTPC isn't free. I spent $2200 on my computer that's connected to my LR TV. It's way overkill and would cost less to build today. Prices were crazy in early 2022 for computer parts, particularly GPUs. Still a lot less than a Strato S, though. It has a Ryzen 5900X, 32 GB DDR4, RTX3070 and 14TB HDD. Also has 1TB nvme and 2TB SSD.

[@28cjohns]

@@frommatorav1 Might be cheaper than even I thought. Found one for $2800 on Ebay. But I like your setup, and if one has a way to set it all up, the computer becomes the drive, and you still have a computer that can act as the DVD player, plus a computer to boot. Can't browse the web with a Zidoo. Don't get me wrong, the Zidoo is incredibly appealing at a very budget friendly price. But there are other sneaky costs to it, and if one wants to toil in the used electronics market, higher end options do exist and the time spent hunting around, might make it more affordable than people realize. The cool thing about either or, or any way, there is a match to almost every budget.

[@VIctorCarruyo]

My Plex server and Nvidia shield does that. And I can keep upgrading my storage over time.

[@thebkg]

Did I see Masters of the Universe within your collection?! 😂 Great review! I've tinkered with the idea of setting up a Plex or Jellyfish, and have poked around at options for Players. That's a great option!

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Haha sharp eye! However, it’s not actually the He-Man movie. It’s the Dolby Atmos demo clip ‘Universe.’ And the Zidoo matched it up to Masters of the Universe lol. Glad you enjoyed the review! I highly recommend you give it a try if you’re interested. Fun project and a cool product. Thanks for watching!

[@trevorjames1]

One thing you completely over-simplified is that Kaleidescape is not simply a 4K disc equivalent. Their encodes are unique to the system, unavailable anywhere else, and often noticeably improved over disc. KScape's encodes are held consistent at roughly 65 Mbps on the video side vs discs that are highly variable (30-100 Mbps & ~60 Mbps on avg) depending on run time, platter size, special features, & audio tracks. This is not just conjecture but my personal findings after data diving 1100+ 4K discs in my collection (yes, you can own both physical media & KScape - GASP!). Some discs are actually better but most of the time it's KScape that offers a better video experience. Unfortunately, KScape's offerings are often missing immersive audio tracks from disc. Total bummer when they tout it as being the "ultimate movie platform" but they say the studios don't always provide the same lossless assets as the physical media team received.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

I wasn’t aware Kscape sometimes doesn’t get the full immersive audio track as what is on the disc. That’s good to know. Thanks.

[@wrthomas69]

What titles are you talking about in particular. Kaleidoscope offers some movies with both dtsx and Dolby Atmos soundtrack. I am not aware of any discs that have that. Also there are many 4K titles in kscape library that have never been released on disk.

[@trevorjames1]

@@wrthomas69 All of these have immersive audio on disc or vanilla digital but not on KScape: 1776 4K 2 Fast 2 Furious 4K 2 Guns 4K 2012 4K 21 Jump Street 4K 22 Jump Street 4K 47 Ronin 4K 8 Mile 4K A Man Called Otto Abominable 4K Adaptation. 4K Addams Family (Animated) American Gangster 4K American Made 4K Apollo 13 4K Atomic Blonde 4K Backdraft 4K Bad Boys 4K Bad Boys II 4K Battleship 4K Belle 4K Belly 4K Billy Joel: Live at Yankee Stadium BlacKkKlansman 4K Bloodsport 4K Body Double Bourne Identity Bourne Legacy Bourne Supremacy Bourne Ultimatum Boy Kills World 4K Bringing Out the Dead Candyman 4K (1992) Candyman 4K (2021) Can't Hardly Wait Captain Phillips 4K Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie 4K Carlito's Way 4K Casino 4K Child's Play 2 4K Child's Play 3 4K Child's Play 4K Clerks III 4K Conan the Barbarian 4K (2011) Coraline 4K Crank 4K Creepshow 4K Daddy's Home 4K Darkest Hour 4K Daylight Despicable Me 2 4K Despicable Me 3 4K Despicable Me 4K Dirty Dancing 4K District 9 4K Divergent 4K Do the Right Thing 4K Dolittle 4K Doom 4K Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas 4K Dr. Seuss' The Grinch 4K Dracula Untold 4K Dragonheart Drive 4K Drive 4K E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial 4K Everest 4K Fall 4K Fast & Furious 4K Fast & Furious 6 4K Fast Five 4K Field of Dreams 4K Fifty Shades Darker 4K Fifty Shades Freed 4K Fifty Shades of Grey 4K Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete 4K Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 4K First Man 4K Furious 7 4K Fury 4K Get Out 4K Gladiator 4K Glass 4K Godzilla 4K (1998) Green Book 4K Halloween 4K Halloween 4K (1978) Hardcore Henry Heavy Metal 4K Hell or High Water 4K Hellboy II: The Golden Army 4K Hercules (2014) Hocus Pocus 4K Hot Fuzz 4K How to Train Your Dragon 2 4K How to Train Your Dragon 4K How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 4K Howard the Duck 4K Hulk 4K Hypnotic 4K I Know What You Did Last Summer 4K Independence Day 4K Insidious 4K Ip Man 2 4K Ip Man 4K It Follows 4K Jason Bourne Johnny Mnemonic - Vernetzt Journey to Space 4K + 3D Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World 4K Jurassic Park 3 4K Jurassic Park 4K Jurassic World 4K King Kong 4K Knights of the Zodiac Krampus 4K Kubo and the Two Strings 4K Léon: The Professional 4K Les Misérables 4K Let Him Go Lone Survivor 4K Looper 4K Mamma Mia! 4K Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again 4K Man on a Ledge 4K Marrowbone 4K Mary Queen of Scots 4K Master Gardener Matilda 4K Matinee 4K Men in Black 3 4K Men in Black 4K Midsommar Minions 4K Missing Link Money Monster Monty Python's The Meaning of Life 4K Moonshot Mortal Engines 4K My Best Friend's Wedding 4K Napoleon National Lampoon's Animal House 4K National Parks Adventure 4K + 3D National Treasure National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets News of the World 4K Night School 4K Oblivion 4K Ordinary Angels Pacific Rim: Uprising 4K Paddington 2 4K Paprika 4K ParaNorman 4K Parasite 4K Phantasm 5 Movie Collection Phantom Thread 4K Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 4K Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl 4K Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 4K Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 4K Pitch Black 4K - Director's Cut Pitch Perfect 2 4K Pitch Perfect 3 4K Pitch Perfect 4K Pixels 3D Prey for the Devil 4K Prince of Darkness 4K Psycho Puss in Boots 4K R.I.P.D. 4K Resident Evil: 4K Resident Evil: Death Island 4K Robin Hood 4K (2010) RoboCop 4K Rocky IV Rocky vs Drago 4K Rocky Mountain Express 4K Roger Waters: Us + Them Samsara Scarface 4K Schindler's List 4K Serenity 4K Shaun of the Dead 4K Sherlock: The Abominable Bride Shrek 2 4K Shrek 4K Shrek the Third 4K Significant Other Sing 4K Skyscraper 4K Smokey and the Bandit 4K Smokin' Aces 4K Snow White and the Huntsman 4K Stand by Me 4K Star Trek: The Motion Picture 4K Straight Outta Compton 4K Streets of Fire 4K Superman: The Movie 4K Suspiria Talk to Me 4K Thanksgiving The 355 4K The Big Lebowski 4K The Blackening 4K The Blues Brothers 4K The Boss Baby 4K The Boxtrolls 4K The Boy The Conan Chronicles 4K The Croods 4K The Da Vinci Code 4K The Fast and the Furious 4K The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift 4K The Fate of the Furious 4K The First Purge 4K The Forever Purge 4K The Frighteners 4K The Girl on the Train 4K The Great Wall 4K The Guns of Navarone 4K The House with a Clock in Its Walls 4K The Huntsman: Winter's War 4K The Karate Kid 3 4K The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D The Legend of Zorro 4K The Martian Extended 4K The Mask of Zorro 4K The Mist 4K The Mummy 4K The Mummy 4K (2017) The Mummy Returns 4K The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 4K The One and Only Ivan The Outfit 4K The Patriot 4K The Pope's Exorcist The Prince of Egypt 4K The Purge 4K The Purge: Anarchy 4K The Purge: Election Year 4K The Quake The Raid: Redemption 4K The Remains of the Day 4K The Scorpion King 4K The Secret Life of Pets 2 4K The Secret Life of Pets 4K The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 4K The Thing 4K The Truman Show 4K The Wolfman The World's End 4K They Live 4K Ticket to Paradise 4K Trolls 4K Turtle Odyssey 4K Underworld: Evolution 4K Us 4K Van Helsing 4K Vertigo Warcraft 4K Waterworld 4K Wendy Who Framed Roger Rabbit 4K Wind River Wrath of Man 4K Yesterday 4K Young Guns 4K Zoolander No. 2

[@MrDragonorp]

Coreelec machine with the right supported device for DV 7 fel. thats the best solution

[@Anakin-dl6eb]

In short: Kaleidescape is for DAUs (and millionaires/billionaires,) Zidoo and similiar players for anyone alse...😂😂😂

[@jjchmiel78]

Good points about the Kaleidescape sweat price tag. Her are my problems. First was for such a premium player, up until a couple month ago and the release of the Strao V, they did not offer premium features for TV users such as Dolby Vision. Cost, but let me elaborate. $4,000 is now the entry point and $8,000 before that. Ok expensive player and the developers are purely making their money on the hardware. Fine. It's the expanded storage cost that really grinds on my nerves. As you pointed out 22TB drive is $10,000! Ok maybe they have two drives in raid 1 for Data redundancy. So a $1000 in hard drive retail costs. Then there is the hardware cost and they go with premium materials so another $1000. So now with retail prices you throw on a 100% markup for that sweat and you are still only at $4000. Why so over the top expensive for expanded storage? Fine you don't really need the expanded storage as once you purchase you can re download anytime you want to watch and it only takes 10 minutes. Loss of internet connection and you only have what is on your drive. What if they go bankrupt? They have already done so once. Again stuck only with what you have on your drive. Since it is on a server what happens if the studio decides to replace the film you purchased with a censored version. Take French Connection as an example. It is now censored on all streaming including Criterion network. What if the studios decide to change rights for Kaleidescape? I haven't seen the small print to guarantee that won't happen. Physical media is still king! Disc players that will play those downloaded MKV demo clip files. LG UBK90 (I have and know), I think the Son's will. Reavon (I have and know) and I assume the Magnetar will as well. One of the reasons I never bought a Panasonic. I had a Zappiti before they went under and then got the previous model Zidoo Z9X Pro. I LOVE IT! Overall much better experience than the Zappiti. One thing to be aware of. It does not like hard drives directly connected to it via SATA or USB to be more than 16TB. Limitation of the base OS being Google Android 11. Work around is to split larger hard drive into two partitions. I have a 90TB NAS setup and a 10-bay USB enclosure hooked up to mine that currently has 6 drives totaling 120TB (2-16TB, 6-22TB), so a total of 210TB of storage connected. Close to 4000 titles on it with lots of TV series rips. Handles it great and I love the music player as well since it will do for your music rip library what it does for your movie collection. Lot of work (all those disc rips) setting it up, but now it is easy to add and enjoy.

[@pinballdan]

The Nvidia Shield Pro still the one to get since you can hook a hard drive up directly to it also and it upscales really well.. I own two of them and plan to buy another you need to pick one of these up and thank me later !!!

[@FranklyPeetoons]

Whut. I have a $70 refurb i7 Dell PC and a $250 18TB mechanical drive. That's all I need to stream 4K movies and all the music in my collection all over the house. I skip the physical media part, though. I grab all the ripped movies and TV shows from the internet.

[@jjnelsonfox]

I’m certainly no home theater guru, but if I have to buy the Zidoo, and the disk, AND a 4k drive that can rip it, AND a hard drive, why wouldn’t I just buy the disk and a good 4k Blu-ray player and call it a day?

[@mfkhometheater7742]

I've been playing with a Dune player and so far I like it. I tried the Zidoo quite awhile back but I was trying to figure out how to put Plex on it so it didn't go well. Let's just say my problems with it were due to an ID ten T error🙂 I'll try it again when I have time but both it and the Dune are older 4K versions and I've heard the newer 8K versions are more stable so I might need to replace both. Dune just came out with a new HD Max 8K for $799 so I might get it. Zidoo has the Z3000 PRO-8K so I might also try it.

[@geoemm]

Klidoscape is a bad idea. If that company goes under, all those movies you sunk your money on is gone. And who knows if that hardware would even run in that scenario

[@EverythingHomeTheater]

I may have to look into the Zidoo player but at the current time I'm quite happy with my Shield Pro and Plex

[@Gshiznit74]

I think we need to remember that Kalidescape is able to and has available movies with lesser compression and higher bit rates, which is more its advantage. I'm surprised that purchasing a Shield isn't something you've explored. Atmos, dtsX, Auro3D, it can do it all. DoVi, HDR10+ if you use your NAS as the server and the Shield as the client, it can be seemless. Web interface is easy to choose your own posters and so on.. Plex won't do iso, though, but there are alternatives to this.. just saying other than Shields capabilities, ai processing, and plethora of apps and streamers for less than a Zidoo. I'm interested in why this pathway is the better option. Thanks for the video.

[@paulc5389]

The shield doesn't do disc based Dolby Vision (profile 7 I believe?). It will still play but you get messed up colours etc. It also doesn't do automatic hardware based frame rate matching such as the Apple TV 4K does. Unfortunately the Apple doesn't do uncompressed audio pass through. Unfortunately there isn't a single external device that does everything well that I'm aware of. Although some smart TVs can using their Plex or Jellyfin apps. But the Zidoo is the best value choice for both full Dolby Vision support, uncompressed audio and iso playback and it's very cheap so the only annoyance is having to switch devices.

[@larryhazelwood5491]

Why not just watch the disc on your 4k player?

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

That seems kinda boring, don’t you think? 😁

[@ChristopherHarris-fk1iz]

Bingo. I also enjoy the tactile feeling of going through a movie library to find a movie much like I prefer a book to an e-reader. I'm old I guess.

[@paulc5389]

The politically correct answer is it's more convenient once it's in your digital library. The actual correct answer is because sometimes when you're sailing you don't have a disc.

[@johnwaugh8633]

I have a Zidoo Z20 pro, cheapest option with an internal hard drive bay. I have a subscription to gamefly that still does 4k and bluray physical media like Netflix did. I'm able to trip 4-7 movies a month for I think $14. I have very few complaints about the Zidoo there's a lot of good videos out there now that show the ins and outs. There weren't though a year or two ago. There's also a cool feature where you can make a playlist of movies with timestamps to do a demo reel. That's probably my favorite part honestly.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Nice! I didn’t know about the demo clip feature. I’ll check it out. Thanks!

[@johnwaugh8633]

@@GeorgeTheaterAtHome it's under a setting called "signage" I think. There's videos on KZbin that show how to do it pretty well.

[@michaelfoster3441]

Great video and good player , I bought a Kaleidescape a few years ago just to compare it to my moded oppo 205 I had cinemike in Germany mod it for 2 grand , it smoke the kaliedoscape as far as audio and image , had some friends come over to compare the 2 I my theater , i put on the greatest showman movie one scene people were in the restaurant on the moded oppo 205 you could feel the room silverware clinging , the kaliedoscape couldn't Here no of that , cinemike even modifies trinov altitude processors oleds amps , I plan on having my Marantz proccesor modified by him to even get better audio and image , sent kaliedoscape back to were it came from.

[@gl1176]

I like this as a hardware option, but have been getting by just using a Firestick 4k Max with apps like Nova Media Player/Just player. I just set my smb/ssh/sftp media location on a local networked PC and Nova does all the data scrapping for metadata, poster art and subs. It's so simple. I have read you can install Nova on Zidoo hardware as well since it's android based. If running non-android hardware like Apple TV, something similar to Nova is Infuse. I have thrown around the idea of setting up a plex/jellyfin server, but it's too involved for my use case, just having an organized list of mkvs to share for playback.

[@Eurica76]

I got the Zidoo Z9X Pro 8K plus Lumagen just added the Dolby Vision LLDV update. This pair here I don't want for anything. Plus this combo I can play Dolby Profile 7 which is awesome.

[@leighagnello7993]

Kaleidoscope is like APPLE and zidoo is ANDROID. I can't be f'ked with setting up a zidoo with a PC and going through the ripping which at any day you can loose the software or even hardware capability to rip via forced updates.

[@frommatorav1]

I don't know of any updates that can bork your whole HTPC. The flash that's needed on the disk drive, to read 4k UHD discs, disables updates.

[@Lior1973]

At last some sense in this Kscap madness .. but Kscap is not the problem. it's a result of a dying hobby/ Buy a 25,000$ JVC projector. the best thing ever, tone mapping which will blow you away .. and then buy a MadVr (15,000$) since it has a "better" tone mapping. This hobby is dying because new people look at the prices, turn around , buy a Tesla and with the change, a nice TV and a soundbar. Without new blood there will be no one to sell to. Today, It is almost impossible to purchase a reasonable projector for less than 5000$-6000$

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

My brother just purchased a refurbished Epson 6050 with a full 3 year warranty for $2,800. Fortunately there are still some deals out there.

[@Paranimal86]

It’s perfect for people that have expendable money… it’s the Apple TV of UHD but your better off to set up a media server and rip your UHD collections to it and get basically the same results for a fraction of the price.

[@jerryrobinson278]

What about those who don't have a collection of DVDs? And what's the cost of owning that many..500 to 800 Blu-ray movies costs tons of money

[@goffe2282]

In what universe is a 22 terabyte hard drive ten thousand dollars? This seems to be a walled garden taken to the extreme. I got the Zidoo. I wish the UI was more snappy, but I have access to my entire collection that I store on my NAS. The best part, for me, is that it does ISO files with menus both for all disc formats. I know those who don't want that, but I do, I want the discs as a whole, especially for these discs that have this copy protection where you have to choose the right track out of hundreds to rip to get the scenes in the right order.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Which Zidoo version do you have? I have the Zidoo Z9X 8K and it is very snappy and responsive.

[@gsanchez922]

$10k for 22TB 😵‍💫

[@Anakin-dl6eb]

That is just completely insane!!!

[@tcamm9812]

its not even SSD storge either, it's a spinning NAS grade HDD lol The 8TB SSD version is $10k and the 31TB SSD version is $25K absolute joke.

[@gsanchez922]

@@tcamm9812 😂😂😂😂 definitely HiFi and Home Theater is fully of company overpricing products and saying it because quality and I bet you they are using same drivers as everyone else

[@chriscooper21914]

Don't get me wrong I would never buy a kaleidoscape but blue ray is not the same quality

[@bendeco]

I don't know why I'm not understanding this. Are you saying that there's a benefit to network streaming in your home as compared to having the physical disc, not ripping it, putting it in your Xbox or your PlayStation and watching it in your home that way? Are you talking about remote streaming, where you're accessing your network from another network, when you're not at home, or if you're on an airplane through the web? I used to be big into ripping CDs and movies, but I don't believe in any of that anymore, so I'm not sure the value of either of these devices. To have a massive movie collection and a home theater to play the disc in is already winning the game. Why would you need to rip it to a network streamer to then have another device to watch it on? Yes, I'm ignorant.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

But it saves you all that hassle of opening your disc player, putting in the disc, closing your disc player, walking back to your chair etc. Think of the convenience!

[@annebokma4637]

I would say that kaleidescape isnt a streaming service, it is a download service. Why else would you need storage? I use a mini pc to play files, including mkv 😂 and the zidoo made what was commonly available for music into a device which does the same for video. Well done, I like it. Just wish it had the drive and ripper build in, like a lot of audio solutions do. How is this for audio streaming from nas?

[@paulc5389]

Kaleidoscape is a great product. Especially because of how quickly the movies are available after cinema release. It's just unfortunately disgustingly overpriced. Its basic player is probably worth about $500 with a very good profit margin. The markup they actually charge is just pure and utter greed. Yeah it's great. So is a Miata but it's not priced like a Ferrari. I'd go as far as saying it's not even greed it's being intentionally niche and arrogant. I believe there's an option somewhere in Zidoo's settings to boot directly to your video wall by the way.

[@AGILISFPV]

Thank you for this informative video. Quick question, does dolby vision work after you rip it and play it back on the zidoo? Also if you have infuse on the apple tv would that make this product redundant?

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the Zidoo does do Dolby Vision. I tried the Infuse app a while ago and was unable to make it work. Admittedly, I didn’t spend a lot of time troubleshooting it but it was not cooperative so I gave up. Though it may work if someone knows what they’re doing.

[@jameshastings6538]

Can you set up the external hard drive connected to the Zidoo Z9X like a NAS server? Allow other devices on your network access it and play your digital media off of it? I’m trying to see if this is possible with this one or the Dune Premier 4k or the UGOOS.

[@mpitogo1978]

I’m neutral on Kaleidescape. I think its cool but do some of us need it? I use my AppleTV 4k (3gen) with Infuse and a nas with mkv backups. I also have a Zidoo Z9X but rarely use it since I’m quite happy with Infuse, I don’t get pass-through audio and instead get 7.1 LPCM audio and I just let my processor decode with Auromatic 13.1 (9.7.6).

[@christofg9710]

There are people who love Kscape and there are people who can’t afford it 😉

[@chris.fitzgerald]

Cant I already do this with Plex? If I rip my BR and place them on a server for Plex, can I not play them through the Plex app on my Roku device?

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Are you able to stream the Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound tracks thru your Roku from Plex?

[@constantinoskatodrytis542]

yeah man well said I own a zidoo myslef.....only thing that I would ask is, does kal give you also exclusivity in the sense that you get disc quality movies that will not be available in disc but only in kal?

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Kaleidescape does offer movies that are still in the theater and have not been released on disc yet. However, I don’t believe movies with no disc release planned are available on Kal. For example, none of the back catalog of Disney movies with no 4k release are available on Kal.

[@grandfinish2364]

I don’t hate this product I just can’t afford to toss money at something like that when Apple TV gives really decent picture and audio quality. Yeah it’s not 4k disc quality but it’s still impressive. 😂🎉

[@paulc5389]

Audio is the main thing if you have even a reasonable budget set up. There's a massive difference between full uncompressed audio and streaming quality audio. Streaming video is also terrible on dark scenes.

[@Chris-hr2uj]

What happens if/when kaleidascape goes out of business? Do you only have access to movies that you have on your hard drive at that time, and you lose access to all files on the cloud? I dont know a lot about k scape. But if that is the case, it doesnt really sound like physical media to me. Great video though, maybe i will upgrade from raspberry pi plex to Ziddoo once i figure out the upgrade from blu ray to 4k.

[@paulc5389]

I'd imagine the hardware authenticates with their servers so you likely lose everything and have a very expensive door stop.

[@Chris-hr2uj]

Then in my opinion, this type of technology isnt a lasting purchase.

[@normrubio]

Price is debatable??? Its outrageously expensive.

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

Well ‘expensive’ is a relative term. Hence the debate 😁

[@v0ldy54]

@@GeorgeTheaterAtHome whether 1.000.000$ is considered expensive for an hypercar is debatable, 10.000$ for an HDD that's normally sold for 500$ is not... and it's not expensive, that's a scam. Let's have the gut to call things with the right name and properly inform people when needed.

[@aryan19187]

Does the zidoo z9x pro 8k model play movies over 80 GB smoothly through local hard disk ? I heard they lag a bit and stutter sometimes . Can you please check and confirm ? My purchase will be based on your feed back

[@Donly1pt]

The concept of Kaleidescape is based on exclusivity. It's not really about the hardware, it's a service that provides early access to content with almost theater like quality. The hardware cost is an entrance fee for the exclusive service. No other service that I know of can offer movies before Blu-ray comes out at (better than) Blu-ray quality (but please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not an expert). Comparing to any other hardware doesn't really make sense because they can't offer this service. Is Kaleidescape expensive? Yes, very. But complaining about the price doesn't make sense either. Either you can afford it or you can't. Just like an expensive watch, or an expensive car, or a stay at an expensive hotel, or an expensive anything. It's the price of exclusivity.

[@jerryrobinson278]

What's the price or cost to owning 1000s of Blu-rays or uhd physical disc?

[@Donly1pt]

@@jerryrobinson278 If you don't mind having to wait for the physical discs to come out, then you are not the target consumer for Kaleidescape. That's the point.

[@jerryrobinson278]

@Donly1pt I'm down for it. I'm gonna purchase the strato v.i don't own any physical disc..purchasing 4k or Blu-rays can cost easy more than any Kaleidoscape system

[@chriscooper21914]

Look at the file sizes

[@housbinpharteen7445]

If you want to get into a Zidoo player i am sure your kinda tech savy and should know how to rip disks and stuff , the MAJOR difference with the Zidoo is, your in control of your movies and backups ... unlike Kaleidescape , you have to buy the movies and they stay on their server , if in the future Kaleidescape goes under, you can say bye bye to all the movies you bought .. unlike physical media you have them at home and the movies you ripped to HD.... Kaleidescape is geared to the people that have too much money and want the next level of toys ....

[@vignesht8117]

Hi bro can u please tell me how the plex and jellyfin sound output does it sound good or bad can u make video on this zidoo plex and jellyfin?

[@isak6626]

Can you add subtitles that are not included in the MKV? For us that aren't native English speakers, subtitles are important and a big hassle at the moment since many releases don't have them.

[@techsamurai11]

Great question, does it rip the full disc with all the audio formats, subtitles, extra scenes etc? What about multiple discs? How does it handle that?

[@MAMDAVEM]

How is The Zidoo different from putting your media on a NAS and streaming it using an Nvidia Shield using Plex?

[@paulc5389]

Full Dolby Vision profile 7 support. Hopefully Nvidia use some of their billions to make a shield 2 which includes it at some point but that doesn't seem to be happening.

[@soledeala]

Infuse does this. I’m trying to find the utility for additional hardware here

[@donmorton7282]

Agree 100%.

[@jerryrobinson278]

What's the cost of obtaining/ owning 1000s of Blu-rays??🤔

[@dempsey3]

Apple TV for sure plays MKVs

[@paulc5389]

He was referring to mkvs with audio formats the Apple TV doesn't support. I wish Apple would just fix that, audio pass through ain't much to ask for.

[@7renewurmind]

I saw that you purchased a 22TB HD but on the Website it states "Supports connecting external 16TB large capacity SATA hard drive" is it safe to assume you can go as high as your willing on the HD space with no issues. Just wanted a little clarity before I decide to buy. Thanks...

[@GeorgeTheaterAtHome]

If you connect the hard drive directly to the Zidoo using a SATA cable, the max drive you can use is 16 TB. However, I installed a 22 TB drive in a PC and the Zidoo connects to it over my local network. Hope this helps. Good luck!

[@jerryrobinson278]

What about those of us that don't have DVD collect or content? Someone mentioned over 700 DVDs.. what's the cost of purchasing 700 DVDs

[@frommatorav1]

Your library can be small or large, whether you use Zidoo or Kaleidescape. If I had a smaller collection or no collection, then Kaleidescape's upfront cost would make no sense. If you buy DVDs, they are very inexpensive but poor quality. It's common to find them used for $1 a piece. Blurays and 4k discs cost more. Kaleidescape tends to charge as much or more than the price of the physical media.

[@Samzep]

None of them shield and full rips and use vlc or plex and don’t waste your money on klid and zoodo

[@xp0isionz]

is this any different than creating a plex server?