[Editorial] Pioneer exits the optical media market. Kaleidescape is coming!

After Oppo, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, and Sony have all left the optical media market, it's Pioneer's turn. The company recently said it has sold all remaining shares of its subsidiary Pioneer Digital Design and Manufacturing to a Chinese company called Shanxi Lightchain Technology Industrial Development Co., Ltd., which is owned and operated by the Shanxi Group.

That company was responsible for manufacturing Pioneer-branded optical disc drives, which are used in Blu-ray, DVD, and CD players. As a result of the sale, the company plans to stop selling products related to that business, including Blu-ray drives. Sales of Blu-ray discs and DVDs have been in sharp decline for years, due to the global success of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which offer a cheaper, easier, and more immediate way to access video content. Sure, the quality is not the same, but convenience and affordability win over everything.

The decline of the Blu-ray physical media market has indeed been a blow to home entertainment enthusiasts who appreciate high-quality content. There is a possible alternative, for lovers of both high-quality audio and video, and that is Kaleidescape, an emerging company that claims to offer the only platform for reference-quality video with lossless audio, at a level even higher than Blu-ray media. In the table below, Kaleidescape compares the audio and video quality of the different systems available today.

In fact, Kaleidescape offers movies, TV series and concerts in lossless audio formats, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. With an audio bitrate 10 times higher than typical streaming services, Kaleidescape promises high quality in both audio and video. The system is quite expensive, since you need to buy a hardware player such as their Strato C, Strato V or the basic Strato M model (which manages 2K resolution only), and of course pay to download the audio/video content. TMovies and concerts are not downloaded while the user watches them, as is the case with traditional streaming services, but all at once. This eliminates any potential problems due to the bandwidth available at the time.

Summarizing, while the mass market is satisfied with low quality and low price products/services, users who want to have the best will always have an alternative. For now, the service is not available everywhere but it is likely that if it proves to be successful it will also spread worldwide.

DISCLAIMER. TNT-Audio is neither a shop, nor a HiFi company or a repair laboratory for HiFi components. We don't sell anything. It is a 100% independent magazine that neither accepts advertising from companies nor requires readers to register or pay for subscriptions. If you wish, you can support our independent reviews via a PayPal donation. After publication of reviews, the authors do not retain samples other than on long-term loan for further evaluation or comparison with later-received gear. Hence, all contents are written free of any “editorial” or “advertising” influence, and all reviews in this publication, positive or negative, reflect the independent opinions of their respective authors. TNT-Audio will publish all manufacturer responses, subject to the reviewer's right to reply in turn.

June 2025 Editorial

Pioneer exits the optical media market. Kaleidescape is coming!