American home cinema brand Kaleidescape has announced its latest 4K player in the form of the Strato V, and it looks like a revolutionary step over the Strato C we recently reviewed. This new player crams in new features aplenty while also being a cheaper way of getting into the Kaleidescape ecosystem, as this player doesn't require an additional server to play movies.
That's right, while the Strato C required an additional server component to store movies on, the Strato V includes a built-in SSD drive. It's not quite as large as the 8TB SSD we tested in the Terra Prime server, however, Kaleidescape says it can store roughly ten 4K Blu-ray quality movies on its internal drive. It also retains the high-speed downloading feature, with the capability to download a 4K reference movie in just 10 minutes over Gigabit Ethernet. Kaleidoscope has also added a feature which allows you to automatically delete movies 48 hours after you've watched them to ensure there is always storage available on the internal SSD.
While the Strato V can be considered an independent playback zone, it can also be incorporated into a wider Kaleidescape system with other Strato C or V players. You can also expand the storage by linking the Strato V to a Terra Prime server, making for a more traditional Kaleidescape set-up.
Another big upgrade coming to Kaleidescape via the Strato V is the inclusion of Dolby Vision HDR. This was a notable omission on the Strato C, and something we're very pleased to see on the new player. Kaleidescape has also integrated "new electronics and grounding topology" into the Strato V, with the addition of player-side decoding for high bitrate audio codecs, meaning the Strato V can handle high-quality audio signals like its Strato C counterpart. Movies bought via the Kaleidescape store will support lossless audio, as well as object-based immersive formats including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
Despite being crammed with new features, the Strato V costs £5394 / $3995, which is an almost identical price to the Strato C, which we reviewed at £5382 / $3995. Kaleidescape is positioning the V for new customers taking their first steps into the high-quality streaming platform, as well as those who plan on using their device primarily with a TV. The Kaleidescape Strato V is available to order from major retailers in the US and specialist AV retailers in the UK now, with no word on Australian availability yet.
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