If you are pressed for time to read this full review, let me get right to the point and say the Kaleidescape Strato V is my hands-down winner for Product-of-the-Year, which truly are fighting words considering its only February, and our gift guides and favourite product lists don’t come out for another ten months!
Let me also share a confession; I have not given Kaleidescape much attention in the past; unfairly concluding that their product offerings of high-end movie players were somewhat niche and targeted to the well-heeled 1% and not for regular movie buffs like me. To a degree such an assessment was fairly accurate, with Kaleidescape players selling for north of ten grand, which is why the Kaleidescape Strato V is a gamer-changer, not only costing half of other Kaleidescape players at around $3,900 US, but it is also feature-rich and supports Dolby Vision, HDR10 and lossless audio including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Kaleidescape is a California-based company that was founded in 2001 with a mandate of allowing customers to enjoy movies at the highest available quality, with a simple user-friendly interface from any room in your home. 25 years ago, when the company began, users of Kaleidescape would feed their personal DVDs into their Kaleidescape player where a bit-perfect digital copy would be stored, and an onscreen interface would allow you to “pull” up a movie from your collection. This is how Kaleidescape continued to be used through the introduction of Blu-ray discs.
However, the company founders knew the day would arrive where, rather than users physically “burning” their Blu-ray discs onto their Kaleidescape players, the internet would become fast enough that movies could be downloaded at the highest possible resolution directly to the Kaleidescape player, therefore removing the need of owning a physical hard copy of a movie. That’s when the company started building their movie store that’s been fine-tuned and enhanced for over a decade.
By around 2015, Kaleidescape introduced their first Strato product line, capable of downloading and playing back full resolution 4K Ultra HD movies. By working with virtually every movie studio, Kaleidescape was soon boasting that their movie store had surpassed the number of titles for purchase that were available on physical industry-standard 4K discs!
The latest company offering is the Kaleidescape Strato V with 960GB storage (about 24 hours of 4K content) and the first to support Dolby Vision. The Strato V is a stand-alone player that can store approximately ten uncompressed 4K movies with HDR and immersive audio. Of course, by adding the company’s Terra Server, storage increases, but now we are again talking big bucks, so let’s just be happy with the Stato V, that the company even calls an ‘entry-level system’.
The Strato V is approximately 8” wide X 2” high X 10” deep and weighs just over 4lbs. From unboxing to ready for play, it took about ten minutes including downloading the Kaleidescape app, registering the product and setting up an account at the Kaleidescape movie store. For the Strato V to download full resolution movies it requires being ethernet hard-wired to your home network, which was a bit tricky for me as my main theatre TV is on a lower level while my modem is a story above. My work around was to plug the Strato V into my modem with the included Cat-6 cable and then attach the Strato V with the also supplied THX-certified HDMI cable, to a TV that I pulled from the bedroom. I managed to scroll the movie store, pick my movies and see content loading. On average, it took about 15 minutes to download 4K movies and slightly longer for films such as Gladiator and Baby Driver. Once content was loaded on to the Strato V, I attached it to my lower-level home theatre. In a perfect world, my modem would be on the lower level and the Strato V would be permanently hardwired so I’d always have access to the store. That said, the compact footprint of the Strato V makes it easy to move, and that could mean bringing it to the cottage for a weekend even if that rural property is internet compromised.
One pro tip: I found it easier to search movies, download and delete content from the movie store on a laptop than on the TV. I found the TV interface was best for scrolling content that’s on the Strato V, and using my laptop for discovering and choosing content. To say “easier” is marginal since nothing about the set-up, interface or accessing content is in anyway difficult.
Another super nifty add-on through the mobile app is that your phone becomes the remote and since it is functioning via wifi, it’s lightning fast. The app also has deep dive menus where it pulls up cast and crew with linkable names to other movies where the actors appear. There’s actually tons of nifty features including the company’s alignment with Lutron Lighting where the lights in your home theatre will automatically adjust lighter as the credits play or dim down as the movie begins. Pause the movie for a bathroom break or to refill glasses and the lights will adjust. The same customization can work for blinds and curtains!
While the Strato V player is incredibly impressive, even more so is the detail and work that has gone into the movie store that is scrollable not only by genre, but also by resolution size and audio options. While the player holds about ten movies, you could still own a collection that could be hundreds of movies. All purchased movies stay in your “my movies” folder and can be swapped and traded to your Strato V for playback.
The cost of movies ranged based on movie studio with some new releases, still in theatre costing about $40 where older releases can be had for a low as $14. There is a rental option, and all trailers are streamed from the studio servers and not downloadable.
So, who would buy a Kaleidescape Strato V in an age of Netflix and Apple TV streaming? The quick answer is the same customer who buys vinyl in an age of Spotify streaming. Kaleidescape products offer the very best viewing experience in the highest definition with no lag or latency. Audio is uncompressed and perfectly synced and the High Dynamic Range picture quality is perfect and nothing short of spectacular.
Kaleidescape already holds a best-in-class reputation for video playback but as I said earlier, that has always come with a high price tag making it a big cost of entry for most. But just like with most things in life, once you experience the best, whether it be travel, food, clothing or entertainment, it’s really tough going back. I am dreading the day where my Strato V review sample gets boxed up and sent back to California, leaving me with my streaming Netflix. I wonder how many review samples actually get sent back? This one will be difficult to part with.
Kaleidescape is exclusively distributed in Canada by The Watershed Group.
Wifi Hifi: Five Stars
Pros
Easy set up and intuitive interface
Best in class video and audio quality supporting Dolby Vision
Extensive movie store broken down by genre
Can be used as a stand-alone unit or enhanced with a Kaleidescape Terra Server
While still expensive, it’s still in-line with the price of comparable videophile players
Downloads can be programmable so there is never wait time to watch a movie
All high-end cables (Cat-6, THX-Certified HDMI) are included.
Cons
While almost half the price of what it used to cost to join the Kaleidescape ecosystem, its still close to $4,000 US
Not a negative since the ability to download high resolution depends on it, but just make sure you are able to hard-wire connect the Strato V to your modem so you don’t have to do an end-around like me.