With the upgrade of the video to 4K and the potential addition of Atmos at that time, I felt it was time to take a serious look at my source for movies. A friend and fellow FM (
svvikram) was kind enough to lend me his Sony X700 UHD player and some 4K discs for testing.
Think it is safe to say the missus and I were blown away by the UHD disc version of Passengers. Either rented/purchased the same movie on iTunes and, subjectively, there seemed to be a clear difference between disc vs streaming. The visceral impact in the LF was much more with the lossless audio on the disc. Even with the significant dip in my subwoofers' response in-room between 26-42 Hz at that time. Standard disclaimers re. blind testing and level matching apply, so I'm not going to hold this up as objective evidence of any sort as to the difference between streaming audio vs lossless audio from disc. There are visible video artifacts with streaming as well, especially when the internet is not up to speed
. One can really get taken out of the movie at times like this. First-world problems clearly, but it is what it is.
So, I was sold on making the move up to lossless sources via a UHD player instead of the far more expensive, but only other alternative for licensed access to downloadable content.
I ended up with the Sony UBP X800M2 along with a dozen or so UHD discs. A short time after, the additional subs and the overheads got here. When we first watched the original Jurassic Park in 4K in this setup, the missus commented (for the first time in the time we've had the HT) that she felt like she was in the middle of the action. Seminal moments like that are what make building a HT so worthwhile.
However, as we ran through the discs, an uncomfortable problem began to emerge. Sourcing discs. For a variety of reasons, I was hung up on discs from the US. I'd figured this might be an issue, but I thought there were a couple of options (a contact in India who was offering UHD discs at 1700 per or have folks traveling here bring them).
Unfortunately, when push came to shove, I couldn't bring myself to pay up for the discs here and the latter option just didn't seem to be a workable option in the long-term. Not to mention the hassle of managing a physical disc collection, especially when I didn't think we'd end up watching the same movie twice, let alone multiple times. On the other hand, it seemed clear that we would be leaving a lot of the setup's potential on the table if we stuck to iTunes for movies. Damn this hobby sometimes. Double damn.
So, it was back to considering the only other alternative that I'd dismissed as being too expensive the first time around. Licensed, downloadable content. Not streaming. Quality at least as good as disc. While the hardware price hadn't changed since the first time I'd looked at it, there had been one fundamental change: It was now possible to rent titles from their movie store! This made it a far more appealing proposition in the long-term for me as opposed to having to always buy titles at UHD disc prices (or more) in order to get lossless quality.
So, after a lot of hand(head)wringing, I made the decision to buy into the
Kaleidescape ecosystem. Will be going with the entry-level
Strato S 6 TB player. IMO, this is not a move without risk. I'd feel a whole lot better about Kaleidescape's future if they were somehow able to get Netflix and Apple TV+ original programming on to their platform. This would effectively secure their long-term future, along with the introduction of a significantly cheaper rental-only player. There are no guarantees in life though, so you make your decisions in the now and here and accept the future consequences.
Really look forward to receiving the Strato and finding out just why the ones who own one rave about the Kaleidescape experience. Should be fun, which is what in the end this hobby is all about!
It is even more special as it is part of the missus' gift for my upcoming 45th!
This is the other part of the missus' gift. This concludes the major equipment purchases for my HT. At least, it ought to, if I were interested in maximizing my chances of having a 46th...
