Jordan O'BrienKaleidescape Strato users will soon receive support for 4K HDR and high-bitrate Dolby Atmos, which will ship as part of the kOS 7.3 software update.
Landing on Kaleidescape Strato movie players later this month, the kOS 7.3 update brings 4K HDR video playback, support for high-bitrate Dolby Atmos soundtracks in 4K titles and the ability to configure a large number of Strato players in a single system. Along with new features the update promises to bring a number of improvements to the overall performance of the player, as well as the robustness of playback.
Strato can now play 4K HDR movies using the HDR10 open standard, including support for SMPTE 2084 EOTF (PQ) and the BT.2020 colour space with 10-bit colour depth. For HDR playback, Strato must be connected to an HDR TV or projector that can process open standard 10-bit HDMI 2.0a HDR.
Given the addition of HDR support, Kaleidescape is also adding new titles to its online movie store. The new additions include:
- 2012
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2*
- The Angry Birds Movie
- Concussion*
- Elysium*
- Fury
- Men in Black 3
- Risen*
- Rocky Mountain Express
- The Shallows
Alongside support for 4K HDR, Strato can now play 4K movies with high-bitrate Dolby Atmos soundtracks based on Dolby TrueHD. The titles added to the Kaleidescape Movie Store supporting Dolby Atmos are denoted above with an asterisk.
kOS 7.3 also improves the onscreen user interface when users have multiple versions of the same movie (4K HDR, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray quality) on their system. Users no longer need to decide which version of a movie to play because the onscreen user interface presents only the best quality movie that can be played, taking into account both the type of player they are using (Strato or Alto), and the capability of the display device. The highest-quality version will be played by default; other versions are accessible from the details page. Because different versions of a movie may come with different extras, the movie details page combines the extras from all playable versions of the movie into a single list for easy access.
Until now, Kaleidescape Encore systems have been limited to four players. With kOS 7.3, an Encore system with one or more Terra movie servers can be configured with as many non-storage Strato players as the home or yacht requires.
kOS 7.3 also includes many bug fixes, as well as software platform improvements that are said to make it easier to deliver new features in the future.