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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 10 Feb 2020, 03:36 
Young Padawan
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I have been looking into streaming and download options for a few months now.

Kaleidescape is the only download service. Video and audio quality matches 4K UHD discs and sometimes surpasses them. Kaleidescape uses bit to bit exact copies but some longer movies are slightly more compressed to fit on to 100GB 4K UHD discs, Kaleidescape does not have this limitation. Although rarely, sometimes you get larger file size in these situations. They have a larger 4K selection than all 4K releases world wide. Each title is $20-35 to buy which is competitive. The Kaleidescape Strato S is like $4500-6500 (6TB-12TB) comes with $500 movie credit. It is very expensive in today’s market but compared to a $2000 Pioneer CLD-97 in the early 90s it is justifiable. You actually don’t need a large built in storage as all your purchases are stored in their unlimited cloud. The built in storage is for instant access. You can always delete a few from the local storage and download other (previously purchases films ) from the cloud.

Why would someone even consider this service? $4,500 to get you started then you pay for each film you want to watch at full prices. Well, if you are running out of space like me. That’s about the only thing I can think of. (Or you have mad money to blow obviously). Why should you not get this? Even if you can justify the money and all other things, you should still not consider this because of one thing. Kaleidescape have come close to many times in the past and still can bankrupt/close down any moment. Then you have a very expensive boat anchor.

How about any alternatives? Yes there are a few. They are all “build it yourself” media servers. A good one is Plex. You can turn your old PC into a Plex server or build a killer one if you use a $4,500 (or even half of this) budget. This approach needs knowledge to build and setup up such a thing. Also, needs a lot of time to rip all your films into hard drives. Plex app is not as fancy as the Kaleidescape interface and Plex doesn’t offer video pass through for best picture. For me lack of a great videophile oriented playback interface is the deal killer. I don’t want Plex to upscale my lower resolution videos. This could be a good option to share my movies with family and friends who care less about the video quality.

Let’s talk about more practical options. I think an Apple TV 4K is the best streamer in the market now. It supports 4K24/50/60 in HDR and Dolby Vision. It also supports all audio formats including Dolby Atmos. The interface is really nice and all streaming apps are available in their best versions. As a bonus, you get Apple TV+ Streaming service as well. (Also Samsung TVs have this app). Some of the worthwhile streaming services are below.

Netflix: Stranger Things, Lost in Space and a couple other interesting TV shows.
Amazon Prime: Expanse, Man in the High Castle. Probably has more older (90s-80s) films than others.
Hulu: I got a $1.99/mo deal on cyber Monday, otherwise don’t know if worth it. Orville is on here.
Disney plus: Mandolorian, that’s it.
Apple TV +: For all Mankind is maybe ok. Apple gives this service for 12 months for free for a reason.
Hulu: You can purchase films here. HDX versions have good video quality. There are some free to watch films too.
Youtube Premier: Kobra Kai, some free to watch films.
HBO Go: GoT.

Roku and Nvidia Shield are also great streamers. Nvidia Shield is probably the best Plex streamer.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 10 Feb 2020, 06:09 
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+1 to the Nshield, the thing is also a great emulation machine for older games, if you're into that.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 10 Feb 2020, 09:36 
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That Kaleidascape thing would be a huge risk. If the company folded you would loose all your purchases except the few on your machine and you would have a $6000 useless box to show for it.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s dead for good
PostPosted: 13 Feb 2020, 08:59 
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substance wrote:
-Kaleidescape is the only online film service with really high quality downloads. You need to buy their hardware. Strato S is their current model and it's $4500. If you don't care for 4K, their older models can be purchased on the used market for a few hundred $. Films are downloaded on to the player or server in order to view. They are uncompressed and 1:1 copies of Blu-ray and/or UHD discs with lossless audio and extra features. Any film you own is also stored on their cloud. If you run out of space on your player, you can delete some films you don't view often but later download again from the cloud anytime. The store accepts Online download codes found on Blu-ray/ dvd copies. You don't have to re buy those films that already came with digital version included. They have an older model, Cinema One, which had a built in Blu-ray Disc player. All their players have source direct output for pure video quality. If you can move past the price sticker, this is the only option that offers the best video and sound quality along with all the extra content.

That non 4K avenue sounds enticing. The #1 question being whether they operate under always-online DRM so access to movies would be lost when internet was out or if the company folded. I skimmed several reviews and notices without finding an answer. My inference leans to no, as in purchases are owned and will play offline etc.

Question #2 across all services is server-side processing. E.g. sometimes on Starz you'll see a LD exclusive title that's been brute-forced to 1080p with the results you'd get from a $10 composite -> HDMI converter, where all the scanlines pop out whenever a character moves.
Darbee like sharpening is common too. Other times a title will seem to have been encoded for RGB, so if your display doesn't switch between RGB and YUV there will be heavy black crush.
Kaleidescape must have all this covered, it's more a question for other providers.
  
 
 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2020, 05:58 
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Related to this topic: die hard physical media lovers

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/in-defense-of-the-disc/

Julien
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2020, 06:16 
Young Padawan
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I decided to go with Apple TV 4K 32GB for all online content. I dumped both my TiVo boxes and no more subscribed to any cable tv or satellite tv service.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2020, 08:58 
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admin wrote:
Related to this topic: die hard physical media lovers

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/in-defense-of-the-disc/

Julien


Nice read Julien :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 26 Feb 2020, 14:43 
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admin wrote:
Related to this topic: die hard physical media lovers

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/in-defense-of-the-disc/

Julien


Thanks for that :thumbup: .

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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 27 Feb 2020, 22:38 
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Torrenting like there is no tomorrow.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 28 Feb 2020, 10:04 
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therussian wrote:
Torrenting like there is no tomorrow.


me too, for content that isn't on LD. f**k paying for s**t I'm going to watch once and delete. TV used to be free, why should I pay now?
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 28 Feb 2020, 13:03 
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Is over the air tv not free in Australia?
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 28 Feb 2020, 13:10 
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gypsy wrote:
Is over the air tv not free in Australia?


Yeah but it's pretty s**t and not as many channels as some other countries tbh.
Even streaming services aren't as good here, eg netflix has less stuff than the US.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 28 Feb 2020, 23:15 
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yeah haven't had TV hooked up for a decade. Don't even have a box that can decode the new digital signals. It is literally a waiting room for death, free to air TV became the most pointless unentertaining b******t I have ever witnessed. I grew up addicted to TV, back then it had a higher standard, series got aired weekly in the same timeslot from beginning to end. Ads were reasonable, they didn't cut huge chunks out of episodes to fit in more ads. By 2000 some episodes of the Simpsons no longer made any sense because important story elements had been cut to fit in more ads. They actually speed up playback of shows to fit in more ads too.

Back in the good ol days when the ratings dropped slightly they didn't instantly replace it with something random that might be a hit. You built up affection for shows, so many shows. This is until probably 2000. Basically by that stage I felt I was being treated like a complete tool zombie who would watch anything, in any order and in any form by TV networks. f**k them.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 28 Feb 2020, 23:44 
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Last night I learned that the official BT client now operates in browser and can play files not yet fully downloaded. It’s pretty insane how easy and popular piracy is. Normal people must think we are idiots for sitting through copyright warnings...
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 29 Feb 2020, 00:24 
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forper wrote:
yeah haven't had TV hooked up for a decade. Don't even have a box that can decode the new digital signals. It is literally a waiting room for death, free to air TV became the most pointless unentertaining b******t I have ever witnessed. I grew up addicted to TV, back then it had a higher standard, series got aired weekly in the same timeslot from beginning to end. Ads were reasonable, they didn't cut huge chunks out of episodes to fit in more ads. By 2000 some episodes of the Simpsons no longer made any sense because important story elements had been cut to fit in more ads. They actually speed up playback of shows to fit in more ads too.

Back in the good ol days when the ratings dropped slightly they didn't instantly replace it with something random that might be a hit. You built up affection for shows, so many shows. This is until probably 2000. Basically by that stage I felt I was being treated like a complete tool zombie who would watch anything, in any order and in any form by TV networks. f**k them.


Agree with this mostly. I don't quite love old tv shows as much as it sounds like you do but there are some I enjoyed. Some in the mid 00s but those were not on network tv, they were on cable (I don't have cable, so I bought dvds of them after pirating). The commercial inflation really is start even when you watch something from the late 90s you will see 48-50 minute episodes in an hour block, nowadays I believe stuff is pushed down to 40-42.

Very much agree with the cancellation aspect. Many shows that got cancelled back then at least got many more episodes than things do now.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 29 Oct 2020, 21:49 
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After going back and forward a few times and asking myself the question “are you crazy?”, I am finally able to answer this. Yes I am crazy, I am going digital with Kaleidescape. To summarize it quickly, Kaleidescape offers digital downloads bit to bit identical to 4K UHD Blu-ray masters, but only at their dedicated hardware at a very premium cost. Space has become an issue since my move to California. I am an avid 4K UHD Blu-ray collector. Many of the new 4K releases skips physical media and gets released only on digital. Kaleidescape now has close to 300 exclusive titles available in lossless 4K HDR.

I will still buy some physical media and keep a big portion of my existing library. Kaleidescape will reduce my physical library footprint significantly and also give me access to broader 4K content. It is indeed very expensive and has shortcomings due to copy right reasons but I paid similar money to my HLD-X0 and other antiquated gear that I barely use now.

For these reasons, I am moving all my DVDs, TV series on Blu-rays and wife’s chick flicks to digital. I often find her watching something on lossy streaming because it is more convenient for her. As a matter of fact, I am the only one among my family and friends who cares to browse my physical media rack. Kaleidescape allows you to catalog your physical media and browse it on TV. This way I can keep a physical and digital hybrid library and everyone would be taking advantage of it.

I decided to reduce my LD hardware to HLD-X0 only (and one Muse decoder). I barely watch any LDs nowadays and when I do, I watch it only on X0. I will spend the next few months to catalog my library and electronics, study the market and slowly offer them for sale.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 29 Oct 2020, 23:00 
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While the above is very sad I totally understand.
I've been going over my collection and have to thin it down a lot, not moving anytime soon but need to focus.

Sometimes we as human creatures sit in one place too long and accumulate too much stuff.
In the past year or so I was trying to hoard anime on LD and DVD but now I have so much that I'm looking at some going do I really like this.

The one thing that hurts the most are the silent films I own, if I want to change to DVD or just thin the collection I can't since so few really want these
types of films so I just keep them and enjoy.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 30 Oct 2020, 00:18 
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Your problem is that you think about this crap too much. If having a huge collection makes you crazy, get rid of it. DON’T BUY IT AGAIN. Bleep or get off the pot, as the saying goes.

I’ve known so many bulimic collectors like you it’s exhausting. I also feel for you because I’ve never had this issue ever. I think it’s maybe because I never go too crazy too fast into anything...or maybe I just know what I want...your LDs.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 30 Oct 2020, 01:14 
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My main focus to get rid of on LDs are the discs I don't watch or I can still enjoy them on DVD or another format to keep my LD players for
the rare stuff that hasn't been ripped from LDs as masters.

Just always changing my focus of this collection.
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 Post subject: Re: Alternatives for physical media when it’s no longer prod
PostPosted: 30 Oct 2020, 03:52 
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signofzeta wrote:
Your problem is that you think about this crap too much. If having a huge collection makes you crazy, get rid of it. DON’T BUY IT AGAIN. Bleep or get off the pot, as the saying goes.

I’ve known so many bulimic collectors like you it’s exhausting. I also feel for you because I’ve never had this issue ever. I think it’s maybe because I never go too crazy too fast into anything...or maybe I just know what I want...your LDs.



I have been in this hobby since 12 years old or so. I am older now. My lifestyle, standards and view have changed over the years. Perfectionist in me doesn’t allow me to half a** list my for sale items. I don’t have the energy and time to list hundreds of items at the moment. I have done it many times in the past and I will again take care of friends when I am ready to sell. Just bare with me on this.
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