- Kaleidescape Launches First 8K Movie Player Certified by the 8K Association
- But the new 4K Cinematic format for higher 4K quality is the coolest part
- $4,995 (around £3,777 / AU$7,180)
Kaleidescape has some truly spectacular 4K video players, and now there’s an 8K version. It is “the highest fidelity movie player in the world,” says Tayloe Stansbury, president and CEO. “It brings moviegoers closer to the filmmaker’s intention, with sharper detail, truer-to-life colors, and a more natural presentation that dramatically enhances the viewing experience on any screen.”
It is also a world first. The Kaleidescape Strato K is the first 8K movie player certified for 8K by the 8K Association.
That’s good, but the fact that this is the first such accreditation highlights the problem with 8K. Buying 8K hardware now is a bit like being the first person in the world to buy a fax machine: who are you going to send faxes to? Likewise, with 8K movie players and 8K TVs, which 8K movies can you actually watch?
This means that the Strato K, while impressive, is a bit of a gamble: You’re buying gear in the hopes that 8K film will turn into a flood, and I’m just not sure rain will ever come.
So perhaps the most important new feature isn’t 8K support, but rather a new format that Kaleidescape calls “4K Cinematic.”
Kaleidescape Strato K: main features and price
Kaleidescape’s 4K Cinematic is a format designed to deliver even better 4K picture quality, and it does so using less compression. Movies are encoded at around 110 Mbps using the HEVC codec. Kaleidescape says that’s compared to around 60 Mbps for 4K Blu-Ray and around 17 Mbps for standard 4K streaming services.
It should be noted that these figures do not correspond to the maximum bitrates for formats, for example Blu-Ray. can going up to 144 Mbps, although 80 Mbps is a more standard cap – but these are the speeds typically used in commercial versions.
In addition to the higher bitrate, 4K Cinematic uses 4:4:4 chroma sampling rather than the 4:2:0 of most commercial films, which means more accurate colors and fewer “banding” or other color artifacts.
The downside to these higher bitrates is that you’ll need a lot of storage: as FlatpanelsHD notes, the player only has 1TB of storage, which equates to about seven 4K cinematic titles, since they’re 1.5 times the size of normal 4K movies. Like other Strato players, it’s really intended to be paired with the company’s Terra servers.
Kaleidescape will label premium movies as 4K Cinematic in its movie store and on the Stratos K interface to differentiate them from standard 4K releases. Prices will range from approximately $10 to $30, and the first round of titles includes Top Gun: Maverick, F1: The movie, Superman, Hail Mary Project, Dune: part two; Sinners, Predator: Badlands, Mortal Kombat II, Avatar, Tron: Ares, Love at first sightand others.
4K Cinematic supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X, but Dolby Vision is not supported by the Stratos K player in 8K movies, which are SDR or HDR10. The maximum frame rate for 8K is 30fps via HDMI 2.1.
The Strato K has a recommended retail price of $4,995, which is $1,000 more than the five-star Strato V 4K. Really I can’t wait to see what the new film format will look like…
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