Kaleidescape 3U Server Price - Page 2

You just proved my point "big predictor" ...

You're wasting your time trying to explain K's rational for their drive prices to people that don't own the system (I guess in fairness, there are some owner's that don't get it either). You will always have people that just cannot get their heads around paying those numbers for drives, and that's fine.

Those that "get it" understand that K's drive pricing is not an attempt to gouge owner's in a captive market and is ALL about maintaining the quality of the K System. This includes constantly trying to improve their components and the K experience for owners. This takes people, people that require a paycheck. Whether that be in R & D, or K Support (best in the biz, IMO), or the folks that answer admin calls, the reason they are all there, and K is still here when others have struggled and failed, is because of solid business practices, including pricing the only ongoing sales item once a system is in place, the drives, at a level that keeps people employed and us owner's supported.


Jim

Is 3D coming? I'm looking at the M700 vault, but can't afford the server with it. Can one mix and match the older BR vaults with the new ones? The need for both the M700 and a server makes for a very steep entry into a starter system. Do the servers come up used, I can't find much. Do they have any b stock or refurbs available? Thanks guys.

No 3D for awhile. You must have a Server with the M700, either a 1U or a 3U. Regarding used gear, I've sent you a PM.


Jim

In the notices I get from there is usually some amount of refurbished gear available.

As noted, there is no 3-D support. So we augment our system with an Oppo player for that use. I have to tell you, it seems like true suffering to go from K to the Oppo. You get so used to the convenience that it is like walking backward to work to use a stand-alone player, even one as "fast" as Oppo! We actually have two Oppos stacked to get faster ability to play 3-D content than waiting for the whole sequence of putting a disc in, waiting, selecting the part to watch, etc.

I have pushed them hard on supporting 3-D. Not sure when they will have it but I will continue to harp on it .

Thanks for the responses, they're very helpful. Amir, do you have a showroom? I'm about 300 miles away, and get over to the Seattle area a few times a year.

Yes, we have a beautiful showroom with a state-of-the-art theater being driven by the Kaleidescape. You can read more about it here and our contact info is above the page: http://www.madronadigital.com/Showroom/HomeTheater.html

Please don't hesitate to contact me when you do make it up here. It would be my pleasure to give you a personal tour.

This is an awesome thread, I am in the middle of our HT build right now and for the last month have been contemplating a K system since is is Anamorphic friendly now. I could not find any recent threads on Kaleidescape until I saw this one. I am considering a M700 vault and 3U Server as a"starter."

My problem is that counting up all by BR's (including BR discs with extras and supplements) I am up to about 340 discs. I am now at the point of "rationing" what I put into the vault to get under 320 discs. I am very happy to see that they increased the capacity of the HD's in the 3U at least.

I could not find any information on warranties esp. for the HD's in 3U. I am happy to pay for the hand selected HD's but failure is inevitable. I hate to be 3 months into use and have to pay another $1K for a new HD cartridge.

Thanks for this great info on K systems - I think you guys have sold me on it.

2 year warranty is standard, and you can purchase extended warranties (from Kscape) for all devices (drives, servers, zone players, etc.) through your dealer.

Keep an eye out on ebay, I found one of the older K-vault 100 s online that we bought to get started loading movies into our demo server (the M700s were backordered after CEDIA).

Dan

I just wanted to say the help in this forum has been great, and very much appreciated. One of the members here hooked me up with a demo system for a price I could stretch to, so I'll have a great starter system here in about a week. I'm not sure if my seller wants public recognition, or not, but thanks. I'm excited to join you guys, and give up the headaches of constantly tweaking a HTPC setup, or wading through endless studio warnings.

Congrats deepsky, I hope your system included a M700,I heard it's msrp is going up by a grand next week.

It's amazing how much more enjoyable just watching a movie becomes with a Kaleidescape. K has always had its critics- they always focus on the price of the system or the cost of upgrades. For a while, people were attacking K for not having a Blu ray system, then for thinking that the system was going to be sued out of existence for supporting Blu Ray... but eventually everyone comes around to admiring the system for what it is- simply the finest, easiest-to-use media server available, and for what it does- makes movie watching enjoyable.

I predict that you will purchase more media because you have a Kaleidescape...

Mozaex Solo 2 has 3D Support

Yup, but personally, I have a problem with the company given the way in which it was founded.


Jim

Not on 7.1 titles without changing the video card. That being said I think Mr. Malcolm is showing a lack of vision for digging his heels against 3D. It is not that difficult to do 3D, and considering that 3D conveys information not possible to convey in 2D (ie activating a fresh set of areas in the brain) it is completely counter-progressive to drag this important feature of HIGH CULTURE.

And a while ago, the exact same thing could have been said about his reluctance to support HD-DVD. I imagine they would not have recouped their development costs if they did support it, however. I also wonder about the cost and recouping of those costs should they support Blu-Ray 3D given that we don't know yet if it is here to stay.

Perhaps if they supported it 3d WOULD HAVE INCREASED chances. The question is should a company decide development of new products solely based on the quickness of it becoming profitable or should a market leader like kaleidescape take the high road and lead by example. If Blu-ray 3d is an effective instrument of superior literacy, the way I say it is then they could certainly entertain a high end m-700 that plays 3d and with the teranex inside. at 25,000 a player they would not need to sell many of them to make a tidy profit while addressing a crucial social responsibility obligation for a player in their market leader position. Your comment comparing hd-dvd to the paradigm shift in intelligent visual communication is indicative of west cost miopia (a philosophical disdain for sensibilities old world exhibited by certain high tech west coast individuals that often results from a time zone related communication chasm ie. you can't pick up the phone and call london or paris during your 9 to 5 ). I invite K to take the long view and embark in 3D at once.

I predict that your wife will use your video system more then you do if you get Kaleidescape.

We find its easier to "convince the wife and hand the man the bill" sales approach when selling a Kaleidscape system.

I hope to be a K customer in the not too distant future.

For those of you with a DIY interest you can build your own K server for under $5K.

Now it's a lot of work, a lot, and you must be able to struggle with free software apps that are not well supported.

But if you like tinkering with this kind of stuff.....

Absolutely, you can build a movie and music storage and playback system for a lot less than K's cost. As you note, a lot of work, but can be done.

BUT...it will not be a "K" system.


Jim

No it won't. But it could actually be superior to a "K". It all depends on your needs and how much work you put into it.

That's fair. I love the system, but internal decoding of the HD codecs should have been planned for, and now arguably 3D support as well. Other than those two issues, I've not found anything that creates the user experience of a K system. I've tried two other wannabe's, and my own setup. None gave me the same satisfaction, and certainly not the support they provide. Six million unique lines of code goes a long way in keeping them separated from the others. (Disclosure: I own a business that sells K, but I owned the system before they were added to our lines.)



Jim

I was at a customer's house who was using an inexpensive HiMedia server to store his entire Bluray collection with almost instant access to every Bluray and to any frame.

I think the total hardware needed was under a $1000 for the HiMedia server, 3 Terabytes of storage to add at the Himedia, a Bluray burner, and a lap top, lap top price not included. Of course one needed to subscribe to some computer program for about $150 per year that would allow one to rip a bluray illegally and store it for transfer to the storage in the HiMedia.

The program guys are offshore and the only one that could be come aftered here would be the end user but I wonder why considering the end user would be buying every bluray to be ripped and just be using the ststem for storage and private playback. Hard to see the damage to the content owners.

I also wonder what prevents a friends disk or even a NetFlix disk from being loaded into one of these servers - licensed or not? Specifically how does Kalidescape prevent that?

Or is it assumed people who can afford a Kalidescape don't steal

For bluray the physical disc must be present in the system

My wife's father bought a system when the salesman handed his son- who has Downe's Syndrome- a remote and told him to pick out his movie. He fired up Harry Potter, and the system sold itself based on the time saved inserting Harry Potter disks alone.

If your needs include "wife not irritated and can use system," you want a Kaleidescape!

Excellent point!

Nothing. However, many disc maker's are now encoding rental only discs with a code that indicates "rental" to the K system. When this happens, and assuming the owner has elected "import" disc (or is trying to import the disk), a message will appear on the screen indicating the disc is being reported as a rental and cannot be imported. The owner is given the option of declaring the disc to their own and sending it to Kaleidescape for verification and the ability to import. (They do this because some companies (i.e. Blockbuster) will eventually sell some of their used discs and once purchased they become the legal property of the K owner and can then be imported.)

Yup, that's about it, there is a trust factor with some discs.

Jim