Kaleidescape to Offer 4K Movies for New Strato 4K Movie Player

For a while now, we’ve been hearing that 4K Blu-ray is on the way. However, instead of cluttering your home with more discs, Kaleidescape wants to deliver that 4K movie collection digitally.

The company just announced the Kaleidescape Strato 4K Movie Player, which can deliver: movies in full 4K Ultra HD, at up to 60 frames per second. It also features: support for high dynamic range (HDR) and lossless multichannel audio.

As part of the Encore line, the Strato is the type of machine that was designed to match or surpass the experience: of commercial theaters. Movies can be stored directly on the Strato or on a Terra Movie Server. The Terra also works with the Kaleidescape Alto Movie Player—but that’s not for 4K.

The Terra Movie Server can simultaneously stream 4K movies to up to seven Strato players, or Blu-ray quality movies to up to 15 players (Strato or Alto). Kaleidescape promises a: smooth viewing experience with the Strato, using any 4K television or projector that supports HDMI 2.0 or 2.0a.

The company also announced two new models of the Kaleidescape Alto Movie Player, which can play movies from the Kaleidescape Movie Store, Blu-rays, and DVDs. One model comes with a 6TB internal hard drive, which can store 100 4K Ultra HD movies, 150 Blu-ray quality movies, or 900 DVD quality movies. The second model has no internal movie storage, and is made to be paired with the Terra Movie Server.

If you’re looking for content, know that Kaleidescape just entered into a licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to offer 4K movies through the Kaleidescape Movie Store. As part of the deal, each Strato 4K Movie Player will come with five downloadable titles from the studio. There’s no word on what those titles will be, but users will get to choose from a list of available 4K movies. Additional 4K movies can be purchased for around $30 each.

Speaking of buying movies, Kaleidescape also just announced plans to launch the third generation of the Kaleidescape Movie Store, which will include over 11,000 movies and 1,500 TV seasons—with over 100 4K titles. The company also plans to add HDR titles, as they become available.

“I’ve long argued that streaming offers immediacy and convenience, but the Internet can’t deliver a reliable high-bitrate content stream, such as 4K, unless it is heavily compressed,” says Dan Rayburn, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Kaleidescape’s model of downloading and playing back from a local hard drive is the only way to get Internet-delivered content to match a 4K disc experience. Many of the service providers touting 4K content are capping their streaming bitrates at 16 Mbps. So, naturally, Strato’s local playback—with bitrates up to 100 Mbps—will deliver better picture and sound quality.”

The Kaleidescape Strato 4K Movie Player will start selling sometime in the first quarter of 2016. The model with the: internal 6TB hard drive has an MSRP of $4,495 or you can opt for no storage and drop that price down to $3,495.

The Kaleidescape Alto and the Kaleidescape Disc Server are available now, with the Kaleidescape Terra coming sometime in November.