AV Companies that Died or Survived Obsolescence

[lovinthehd]

But those items haven't killed the K-scape. K-scape business has only been growing. Lot's of people have left the ripping/plex world and joined K-scape. Convenience is key.

It's the same with MadVR. MadVR software is free. You just need to know how to setup up properly to integrate into your setup. 90% of people don't' want to do that. They want something to just plug in, go through some quick setup and BAM! ready to go. They are willing to pay the extra money to have it that easy.

Curious, any idea of total number of kscape users?

 

[Movie2099]

Kaleidescapes main strength is the quality of the files it plays. Better than anything commercially available.
Which are available only if you have a Kaleidescape.
Of course, their player is top notch also.....and, their files have never been pirated.

They are the only thing comparable to physical disc. The only time you can count them "better" is when they release a more uncompressed version. For example, Marvel movies. Disney is stupid and puts their movies on 66gig discs. On K-scape most of the Marvel movies are well over 80gigs. The Avenger movies are over 100gigs. The people I have talked with said you can see and hear a difference between the disc and K-scape version but it's not a massive difference. But noticeable.

 

[Movie2099]

Curious, any idea of total number of kscape users?

That would be awesome to know, but they keep their numbers close to the chest. Since their product is only sold through dealers and Best Buy. It's hard to gauge how many people have them. Since the product is global, well over a million units is a rough estimation. Which is pretty good considering entry point is around $6-$8k.

 

[isolar8001]

They are the only thing comparable to physical disc. The only time you can count them "better" is when they release a more uncompressed version. For example, Marvel movies. Disney is stupid and puts their movies on 66gig discs. On K-scape most of the Marvel movies are well over 80gigs. The Avenger movies are over 100gigs. The people I have talked with said you can see and hear a difference between the disc and K-scape version but it's not a massive difference. But noticeable.

Thanks...I know all that.
A file is better than a disc any day....this makes them better than anything commercially available, even if it is the same as what's on disc.
Just try to get a file from one of the major studios....I'll wait right here.

 

[Hobbit]

Some AV products were game changing at their release date, but quickly faded into obscurity. Here are a couple of Jerry Del Colliano's top picks for the worst AV components ever.

View attachment 62760

Read: What is the Worst AV Component Ever?

While thinking about the worst AV component ever, we recommend revisiting our article on the Biggest Failures in Consumer AV.

So what are your votes for products that were fantastic at one point in the history of AV and now are barely worthy of using as a doorstop?

As others mentioned, the cost/benefit is severely negative on these products. These types of technologies were moving so fast it was hard to keep up. Which always made me think a consumer version at a reasonable price will come out soon. But I'm one to always wait for the new products to become household items.

But following the same theme, I can say my old B&K Ref 20. There was nothing wrong with it at the time functional wise. I had the beautiful Champagne Gold edition. It was a solid chunk of metal too.

It was sold as a future proof upgradable system. You could go through a routine, plug your lan line phone jack in it, and it would update the FPGA to newer standards. It also had replaceable cards.

Sounded great on paper, but in practice not so much.

 

[mono-bloc]

You also have to remember that K-scope was alive and working 25 -30 odd years ago. It's only now that technology has caught up with it.and in some cases has improved it. For now. It's debatable if all these clone services will still be round in 20 years

 

[Movie2099]

That's a BIG NEGATIVE!!!!

We QUIT AVS like we quit Cable. We only like Audioholics here!

Haha, I hate uttering the big bad curse word , but sometimes it needs to be used!

 

[gene]

OK there was some history with the author and Kaleidescape I was unaware of. We did a rewrite accordingly. Sorry for this but I want this to be a fair article for all involved.

 

[squared80]

You get the very BEST resolution, about 40% better or more than UHD Blu-ray. -Don Dunn - Contributing writer, Audioholics

This statement is objectively false, and Don loses some credibility in my book for saying it. The only time a movie on Kaleidescape may have a measurable (not necessarily noticeable) difference in picture quality vs. a UHD disc is in a very long, large movie file that need to be compressed to fit a UHD disc. Those are few and far between. Look, I would buy Kaleidescape if I had the disposable income for it's main feature: convenience. But to insinuate that its picture quality is 40% - or even 1% - better than all or even most UHD discs is simply not accurate.

 

[everettT]

You get the very BEST resolution, about 40% better or more than UHD Blu-ray. -Don Dunn - Contributing writer, Audioholics

This statement is objectively false, and Don loses some credibility in my book for saying it. The only time a movie on Kaleidescape may have a measurable (not necessarily noticeable) difference in picture quality vs. a UHD disc is in a very long, large movie file that need to be compressed to fit a UHD disc. Those are few and far between. Look, I would buy Kaleidescape if I had the disposable income for it's main feature: convenience. But to insinuate that its picture quality is 40% - or even 1% - better than all or even most UHD discs is simply not accurate.

That additional compression occurs more then many know. At one point it was only about 50 movies or so but that number has grown in the last 5 years and it's nice to know if you have a media/theater room and are running the best audio/video processors that you're getting the best video container available. Obviously you're still potentially limited by streaming service subscriptions but many want the best available and for UHD in the home kaleidoscope offers that and a great interface.

 

[-Jim-]

Becoming obsolete does not make a product bad. My Phase Linear 1000 Autocorrelator was a necessity back in the days of tape, but not needed in later digital times.

Now this post got the old memory bank a twirling.

In the peak of my Vinyl days, I would buy and immediately record albums on a 10.5 inch TEAC A-3300SR (? - I should ask my brother about the model as he bought this from me and he's still got it) Auto-Reverse Tape Deck via my Marantz 2325 receiver (sometimes using the 2325's Dolby section). I was always searching for ways to improve the recordings and playback. I was convinced by a salesman in a local audio store (long gone A&B Sound) to buy a Phase Linear 1000 Autocorrelator. I did bring it home, but it didn't really impress us much, so I returned it within the 10 days (or a week - whatever was allowed back then).

I actually bought a DBX 3BX in the same period and it too made the round trip back to A&B. I really wasn't the type to buy and return stuff, but money was tight as I was a starving student (with an expensive hobby) and only wanted to add equipment that gave real value to my system.

I was able to avoid the wrong side of the Beta - VHS wars, but my brother made the wrong move and had 2 very expensive Betamax machines (I bet he still has them!) Similarly the Blu-ray => HD-DVD decision was easy, as we bought a Sony PlayStation (for the games for the kids) and couldn't afford a separate machine for Movies; especially when it played Blu-rays. By the time we could, that war was over and Toshiba's HD-DVD had lost. (One of the few wins Sony had as I remember.)

I really don't know why but I was into 3D TVs and because they were about the same cost as a regular TV, I bought a couple when we needed a new TV. One of my sons liked to watch movies in that format once in a while. Those Samsung TVs still function but we haven't used the 3D Glasses in ages.

I guess we all make a poor choice from time to time, but I keep trying to limit mine.

 

[fmw]

I still have an HD-DVD player. LOL. There is a Nakamichi cassette deck in my closet as well.