Apple TVX vs Kaleidescape

Hey all - breaking ground on a home in April and we’re going to have a dedicated theater room within it. The home build will be wrapped in 2026. We’ve started talking with a bunch of home theater people and they’ve mostly recommended Kaleidescape.

I have some issues with the recommendation and I’ll explain further and see if I need to bite the bullet or if there’s alternatives. I think these are valid questions and might have been brought up in other forms. Also I’ve only researched what I could over the past month so if I’ve missed something feel free to comment. Here are my reasons against it.

To me, it feels like Kaleidescape is one Apple move away from being obsolete. I have over 500+ movies on my Apple TV and feel like if you’re buying digital, Apple is 100% the most future-proof way to go. I know there will be disagreements because it’s digital, not really owned, with some recommending physical ownership of DVDs, 4ks, Blu-Ray, but owning physical is behind me now. My Dad who loves movies hasn’t touched his DVD player in over 5 years as well. The only argument I’ve heard of Apple not nuking Kaleidescape is internet speeds, which genuinely feels incredibly overblown and outdated. Not only does everyone in the city get 1gig minimum internet, with up to 5gigs, but my own parents in the boonies get over 200mbps minimum as well. I’ve asked around in my home state and in the cities and it seems like that’s standard now. The other is audio passthrough, which I believe the Apple TVX fixed. Would that mean that with just more storage and some updates on their TV box Apple could rival Kaleidescape if they wanted to?

I’d just hate to sink in all that, buy all those Kaleidescape movies, then have Apple drop an Apple TV that can do everything Kaleidescape can and just makes me revert back to Apple.

That’s where I found Apple TVX (https://appletvx.com). If Apple were to not go down that route would that be a good alternative or still not provide what Kaleidescape does? Wondering if they’re comparable or if anyone knows.