Kaleidescape unveils UHD HDR player
October 16, 2015
Premium movie player and server specialist Kaleidescape has launched a new product line – Encore – the centrepiece of which is the Kaleidescape Strato Movie Player, which the company says is the world’s first 4K Ultra HD high-dynamic-range movie player for the home.
The Encore line also includes the Kaleidescape Alto Movie Player, a new movie server named Terra, and a disc server that makes it easy to select and play DVDs and Blu-ray discs on a Strato or Alto movie player.
Strato is designed to provide an immersive home-cinema experience, with playback quality that Kaleidescape claims matches or surpasses that of commercial theatres. Each movie is downloaded and stored on a local hard drive—either on a Strato, or on a Terra Movie Server. Strato plays back the movie in full 4K Ultra HD, at up to 60 frames per second, without the start-up delays, buffering messages, or quality drops that are so common with streaming services. Strato supports lossless multichannel audio, and is capable of playing HDR content on televisions and projectors that can process open standard 10-bit HDMI 2.0a HDR. The Strato onscreen user interface is also displayed in full 4K Ultra HD, at 60 frames per second.
Strato can be purchased with or without an internal 6 TB hard drive that can store up to 100 4K Ultra HD movies, 150 Blu-ray quality movies, or 900 DVD quality movies. Strato equipped with an internal hard drive can be used standalone or in a system comprised of other Encore components. The Strato without internal storage plays back from a movie server.
“We are very proud to introduce our new Encore line of movie players and servers, which provides the industry’s finest sound and picture quality, and the most entertaining and convenient way to experience your movies at home,” said Cheena Srinivasan, Kaleidescape co-founder and CEO. “Our new Strato movie player provides the most authentic home-cinema experience. Our new Terra product is Kaleidescape’s third-generation movie server; it incorporates everything we learned from the first two generations. These new products are supported by the release of our new movie store, which is more attractive and easier to navigate than ever before. To date, Kaleidescape has licensed over 11,000 movies and 1,500 television seasons for our movie store. We also provide a way for you to seamlessly integrate your DVDs and Blu-ray discs with the content you download from our movie store.”
Kaleidescape Alto and the Kaleidescape Disc Server are available now. Kaleidescape Terra will be available in November. Kaleidescape Strato will be available in the United States, Canada, and U.K. in early Q1, 2016. In the United States and Canada, the Strato MSRP will be $4,495 (€3,955) for the model with an internal 6 TB hard drive, and $3,495 for the model with no internal movie storage.