Kaleidescape Review: The Kaleidescape Movie Store

[@enburst]

This is exactly the review I was looking for. I was curious about the experience of buying movies on the store and you did a great job of showing that.

[@av_nirvana]

Glad I could help! Thanks for the comment!

[@explet1ve]

Thanks for this video, this series of videos may be the best introduction and explanation of Kaleidesacpe for someone considering it. One question I have is when you say you "own" the movies, what does that really mean compared to a streaming service where you only buy a license? If Kaleidoscope goes out of business and shuts down operations, how does the ownership help you for anything you dont have downloaded to your server? Sorry if I am missing something obvious, just want to understand what the ownership means in practical terms. Thanks again!

[@av_nirvana]

If K loses access to sell a title, those who’ve previously purchased and downloaded can redownload as if nothing is different. If K goes out of business, download content can be viewed without a connection to K servers. Obviously downloads are dependent on the servers being online. If K were to go out of business, it’s my guess they’d do their best to at the very least get their customers a Movies Anywhere license to the content they’ve purchased. But I choose to not worry about that. Because honestly what if they stop making disc players and your player dies? It’s no different.

[@darinlasater6250]

Thanks for the information. I was considering Kaleidoscope, but the absence of Dolby Vision is a deal breaker for me.

[@av_nirvana]

For some it will be, for others it won’t. It still might be worth your time to find a local dealer and get an in-person demo.

[@Keithwithfever]

@@av_nirvana so HDR10 only? or HDR10+ as well?

[@apogeedetail]

Great Video

[@av_nirvana]

Thanks!

[@bryantcarter5382]

Fair and honest assessment. I'm a new owner as well and I mirror most of your thoughts. Good work.

[@av_nirvana]

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback!

[@jjdizz1l]

If Kaleidescape partners with MoviesAnywhere and honor my purchase of films that I already own, I would highly consider adapting it.

[@av_nirvana]

That would be fantastic. They were part of UltraViolet when that existed.

[@mikelieber1]

Great review series and I have thinking about this system for awhile however what happens if they go out of businesses again what happens to all of your purchases? You have the ones on your system still right? But what about others you purchased but still on there servers? Thanks.

[@av_nirvana]

Kaleidescape does not need to be connected to the internet to work, so anything on your system is yours to keep and view regardless (our internet was out for over a week while working on this series, so I can confirm it works without connection). Access to their servers for future downloads would obviously be dependent on the servers existing and remaining online. I don't have concerns at this point of the company going out of business.

[@demohce3369]

Hi and thanks for the great review on the K's Store. Few questions though: 1. If the server dies, or internal HDD eventually got bad sectors overtime as with all physical hard drives, do I loose my rights to redownload what I have previosuly purchased on the K Store? I am afraid the purchase is bound to any kind of static HDD/machine ID on the broken device. 2. Can I move the purchased and downloaded file that is on the K Server into my own 3rd party NAS for backup purpose? Even if I can backup my purchased movie files, can I play them on a 3rd party player? If it's proprietaryily encoded and I can't afford to buy a new K server, I lost everything and doesn't feel like I am actually owning the purchased movies.. more like a rented for lifetime scheme as long as you still own a K server. 3. Btw, I got difficulties registering on AV nirvana as the confirmation email never get to my mailbox so can't activate my AV nirvana account, it has been several weeks now.. What should I do? Thanks and regards.

[@av_nirvana]

1. No. You can download content and delete as many times as you like. The limitation is that you can only connect 5 systems to a single store account. Also, you can even re-download content you have already purchased from K even if there has been a change of ownership of the title. If you bought it you can download it. 2. No. Kaleidescape content can only be downloaded to a Kaleidescape hardware and cannot be (and does not need to be) backed up on other hardware. As mentioned before, it can be redownloaded if deleted. If you purchase a new server from Kaleidescape, or receive a warranty replacement, they can download your content to the server before shipping upon request. There is no need for third party hardware. 3. I’m not sure. Try scrolling to the bottom of the page and using the “Contact Us” link for assistance.

[@av_nirvana]

I would also add that you definitely own the content you purchase on Kaleidescape. Like I mentioned it can be downloaded again and again even if Kaleidescape no longer has the rights to sell it. Also, the server/player does not need to confirm ownership prior to playback, so if your internet goes out, you can still watch downloaded content without concern (my internet went out for a week last summer and could still watch everything). The only requirement, again, is that it can only be played back with Kaleidescape hardware.

[@demohce3369]

Thank you as you have cleared my doubts 🙂

[@bkervaski]

Great review! Thanks :)

[@Techthusiasm]

I probably don't use rentals enough. I'm still a "collector", but not that far behind you in age. The bundle offers on K lately have been insane. Hope they keep it up.

[@av_nirvana]

At $20+ it's easy to say "I'll just rent it", but at $10-15 or even less, it's a harder decision - is it work an extra $2 to buy it? Even at $15, if you watch it one more time in the future, you've saved money.

[@tdrabik77]

Loved all 3 parts I just wish it wasn't so expensive. Maybe when I win the lottery :)

[@av_nirvana]

It’s definitely not inexpensive, but it’s the best option I’ve found.

[@welderfixer]

@AV Nirvana, Sir, Thank you for the info on the Kscape system. I want one, but of course the price. Since you've told us about the great benefits of this luxury system the desire to own one is greater. Just the early access to movies is awesome! However, with all of the expenses put into building even a low budget A/V system like mine; I'm wondering of I wouldn't have been much better off pulling the kids outside to play in the yard or have left all of the digital at home and gone tent camping. All the very best to you and yours, Kevin

[@av_nirvana]

Thank you so much for watching. We all start somewhere - I’ve been at it for awhile, constantly upgrading and finding great used deals. My first projector was a 720p Epson that I bought off Craigslist. My 2-channel setup is a used $100 B&K tuner that’s old but brilliant for 2ch, running a pair of Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 8000 powered speakers that I bought last winter for pennies compared to what they were new (30 years ago). Keep your eyes open, it doesn’t need to be as expensive as it can seem at times.

[@welderfixer]

@@av_nirvana Nice to hear I'm not alone. Bargain hunting can be/is fun. Must be boring for the ultra rich that can simply buy anything and have it. If you are familiar with Youthman and the Cheapaudioman those are two of the other bargain hunting guys I follow that are working their way up in the gear prices. Thank you for the reply and please have a great day.

[@jameshollingsworth6891]

Thanks for the informative video. Can you tell me about K’s disc to digital program. I have 4-500 Blu ray movies / concerts. Can I upload them to Kaleidescape, and then buy it at a reduce rate? How much does this cost per disc and how long does it take to upload? Also is this available on all my movies or does K limited which movies can be traded for digital format. This is one main concern I have before taking the leap to Kaleidescape, the other is rental. I can rent via mail BR discs from Netflix, say 12 a month for $16. That price would only get me two movie rentals on K. Why don’t they offer a monthly rental fee? Thanks in advance,

[@av_nirvana]

I have not used this program, but I'm going to try and answer your questions... You need a special K system to catalog your disc collection - it's no longer available for purchase from K, but there are a couple users who are literally loaning theirs out, if you look at the K user forums. Cost per disc varies based on the studio and title - unfortunately it's not just a flat rate like it is on VUDU (where I did a bunch of D2D years ago for my SD DVD collection). Some upgrades to digital are a great deal, others are a very small discount - it's all up to the studios. There's not really an upload involved - you put your disc into the machine, it adds it as a disc-based title to your library (doesn't rip it, just notes you own the disc), and then you can look for the D2D price. As for rentals, I don't know why they don't offer a monthly rental program, but I can say that their system is much more convenient than Netflix - plus it's often 4K quality. You don't have to plan out a month in advance what titles you'll want to watch when and arrange your queue and hope they ship in order and titles are available. You can decide to watch something and about 10 minutes later you are watching (depending on your download speed). K will also give you a credit toward purchase if you rent a title and decide to buy.

[@jameshollingsworth6891]

@@av_nirvana Thanks for taking the time to give me some answers to my many questions on this platform. Just a shame that I would have to start all over again in developing my collection and the no monthly rental rate means cost adds up fast.

[@av_nirvana]

It's true. I turned 50 this year and decided I probably don't need to buy all my movies again. I still have a bunch on PLEX that I've ripped the discs, and I still have a ton on Movies Anywhere from when I converted and upgraded a few hundred of my SD DVDs to HD digital versions. I'm just not sure how may more times I'll watch some of them, so I'm evaluating each movie on a case by case basis, renting more, and moving new purchases to the Kaleidescape ecosystem.

[@CafeinaPlus4k]

Any chances kaleidescape Works outside USA? Just wondering ...

[@av_nirvana]

Some countries. Not all. Title availability differs per region as well. Best to locate a dealer and inquire.

[@CafeinaPlus4k]

thank you for taking your time and answering my question

[@CLKAMG]

So if kaleidoscope goes out of business, would you still be able to watch the downloaded movies?

[@av_nirvana]

Yes

[@9latinumStudioz]

Can you expand the storage?

[@av_nirvana]

You can add additional servers but you can’t add additional hard drives to the servers yourself.

[@Quicksilver1934]

I’m still a little confused ( baby steps, I’m older than you.🤣). Okay so you pay the upfront cost for kaleidoscape, say $4k. Does it come with any movies bundles or are you starting from scratch with purchases? And second, are the movies encoded for Kalidascape use only? Meaning what if in a doomsday scenario, the company goes out of business and your Kalidascape hard drive starts to fail, are you able to movie your files to your own hard drive? Just curious.

[@av_nirvana]

There are movie bundles available as deeply discounted add-ons with purchase, I believe 3 different bundles. The movies are encoded for Kaleidescape only. I don’t spend my time worrying about doomsday scenarios, but if they did go away and your server dies, there’s no way to use the content or back it up as of today. If they were going out of business I trust they would do whatever they could to make content still available, most likely in the form of a Movies Anywhere port. Again, I’m not one to worry about doomsday scenarios. What if they stop making optical disc players and your Blu-ray player dies? Or what if your discs start to rot a la Laserdisc? There’s a doomsday scenario for every single format if you want to worry about that stuff. Might as well stay home and draw pictures on your wall, until your wall burns down, that is.

[@chrichtonsworld1]

​@@av_nirvanaYour statement screams ignorance. You put a lot of trust into a company that will do nothing to preserve your content. Once a licence expires they aren't obligated to provide you with your RENTED content. You haven't purchased it. Just recently Sony had cut content for people for this reason. Only because of the backlash they reversed their devision. What you call a doom scenario is reality and to just ignore and dismiss like it's nothing is nonsensical. Also your arguments concerning players and discs are illogical. If a player breaks down you can repair it or buy a new one. And if they really stop making players you will always be able to get digital content or go to the cinema. And I mean content I own which I can watch on every device I throw it at. Like I do now. I don't want to be mean but you seem to have this elitist attitude on the topic while disregarding and dismissing the most obvious. SImply to justify this super expensive system that basically is a glorified netflix.

[@HotOneRecordz]

I'll keep watching my blurry torrents 😭😭😭

[@dibcrayron]

😂 this is dumb... I watch 15 movies a day for free a year ( websites) or pay $600 a year in 4k dolby vision streaming services..😂😂😂 if someone bought this they would be spending $100k a year in just trying to watch the same movies as me 💯 im walking away with a WIN 😎

[@av_nirvana]

Apples and oranges. Those streaming sites - even the illegal ones you’re using - are not giving you near the same quality.