I tried to search for a thread on this but came up with nothing.

Does anyone use it?
If so, pros / cons please.

What dvd changer is being used with them?
My local dealer says he doesn't think I'd be happy with the changers it supports.

Does anyone else offer something comparable to this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Here's an excerpt from the DVDM-100's sell sheet:

"Supported DVD/CD Changers (one brand supported per DVDM-100):
Up to 3 Sony DVP-CX777ES DVD changers
Up to 3 Kenwood DV-5900M or DV-5050M DVD changers (3 daisy-chained off one port, no more than 3 changers supported on one DVDM-100)
Up to 3 Pioneer DV-F07 changers available with future software upgrades (one changer per RS-232 port)
Up to 3 Sony CDP Series CD only changers"

As of today (I called Escient this morning as I too am interested in the DVDM-100) the unit has not yet started shipping. The sales rep I spoke with said they expected it to ship any day now (although on a call I placed to them last Monday, I was told they expected the units to ship by last Wednesday so we'll see). The manual, which should answer a lot of more questions about the unit's capabilities and functions, will be posted to Escient's site on the day the units start shipping.

As far as I can tell from the sell sheet and quick setup guide, the unit should offer some cool functions. Beyond providing a single database for a movie collection spread across several changers, it will also offer movie info and synopses from a database that has been built up for several years now via Escient's PowerPlay product. What remains to be seen is how seemlessly the unit functions and how good the GUI is. I have an original FireBall and I've never been too impressed with the speed of the GUI. It's a little sluggish for my taste. However, that may be less of an issue for a movie server since you probably won't be changing movie titles as frequently as music titles. Of course, one of the built-in delays will be the load time of the changers while they load a specific disc.

As for alternatives, ReQuest Multimedia is about to release their own unit very similar to the DVDM-100. That unit is called the VRQ 1 and is set to be released sometime in Q1 2004. There are fewer details available about this unit as some of the specs are still being finalized (told to me by a tech support rep at ReQuest) but it will also interface with DVD changers. So far, the only changer it is said to support is the Sony DVP-CX777ES. The VRQ 1 will support 4 changers compared to 3 for the DVDM-100 and the VRQ 1 will stream music from ReQuest's own music server like the DVDM-100 can stream music from a FireBall unit.

One thing to note is that if you are looking to integrate a unit like this into a Crestron or AMX setup, I've read on the web that Escient doesn't support those as well as ReQuest units. Additionally, ReQuest offers web-based control interfaces for their units and even interfaces you can use on a handheld PocketPC with wifi.

Hopefully, we'll start to see reviews soon. One AVS member I know of has a DVDM-100 on order and will be posting his thoughts and reviews in the following thread as soon as he takes delivery and has a chance to play with it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=329135

Hope all this helps.

Jeff

rgbyhkr,

This is one time when the quality, not the quantity, of replies has proved to be the most helpful. I appreciate you taking the time.


Like I mentioned in my post above, my local dealer made the remark that I wouldn't be happy with the picture quality of the DVD changers that are supported by the DVDM. I'm currently using a Denon-1600 and plan to put this into my home theater system(not started yet). Looks like I'll probably end up with a Runco RP, if I decide on DLP, maybe something simple like the Sanyo PLV-70 if I go LCD(mainly for the size of picture I'm interested in).

Have you considered this? Have you ever seen the picture on the supported changers? If so, what are you using and how do they compare?

I really want to use this unit to feed the 3 major TV's in the house, and keep everything clean, but I don't want to spend a fortune on a HT and then compromise the picture for flexibility.

Any and all thoughts, ideas, suggestions welcome.

Danny

Danny,

I have the Pioneer DV-F07 and while it's a descent unit, it's antiquated by today's standards as it doesn't have progressive outputs. The Kenwood and Sony changers listed do. While I haven't used either of those, there are lots of posts about each unit here in the DVD section of the forum. My feeling is that any changer option will not be as good as its top-end, single-disc brethren. You'll have to decide for yourself if the tradeoff is worth it. Personally, for me, it is as these days I watch very few DVDs due to a combination of Tivo, having an infant under the age of 1, and my theater located in an inconvenient part of the house (in terms of looking after my son). So, putting together a system like this for primary use in my family room with a 50" Fuji plasma is well worth any slight picture quality loss.

There are alternatives, but the ones I know of are damn expensive. If you haven't heard of it, a company called Kaleidescape offers a DVD server solution where DVDs are copied to a server and can then be streamed to up to 7 different players in your house via cat-5. Each player can watch a different movie or the same movie (even the same movie at different points) all at the same time. From what I've seen playing with it at my dealer's showroom, picture quality is excellent. Downside is the cost which is upwards of $30K. See my post on it here for more info:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=319486

Of course, you could build a DIY system without the slick GUI yourself for much cheaper but who has that kind of time? ;)

Originally posted by rgbyhkr


I have an original FireBall and I've never been too impressed with the speed of the GUI. It's a little sluggish for my taste.

Jeff,

I noticed the same problem with my Fireball, but when I consolidated my remote controls with an MX-700 the unit really came alive. I have near instantaneous response from remote signals and the GUI is very fast. I suspect that their included remote control isn't sending a "clean" signal to the Fireball unit.

Off topic, but relevant :)

Originally posted by Jgabrius
Jeff,

I noticed the same problem with my Fireball, but when I consolidated my remote controls with an MX-700 the unit really came alive. I have near instantaneous response from remote signals and the GUI is very fast. I suspect that their included remote control isn't sending a "clean" signal to the Fireball unit.

Off topic, but relevant :)

Interesting. I have an MX-700 as well and just used the FireBall's remote to teach the MX-700. Did you download the remote layout for the FireBall from Remote Central or a similar site? Thanks in advance.

Jeff

By the way, I called Escient today and was told the DVDM-100 would start shipping next Wednesday.

Jeff,

I downloaded the set from Remote Central.

Have you managed to find a discreet on/off code for your Fireball?

Thanks,

Justin

Update from Escient. No, the DVDM-100 will not ship out today but hopefully tomorrow or Friday. Christ, I hate incremental pushbacks in product release dates. If you need more time, just push things out a month then if it ships earlier everyone will be pleasantly surprised.

I hope the Escient folks know that some of us here are itching to see if this will finally solve a problem we've had. Hell, I'm chomping at the bit to see the manual as that will give me a lot more info into the features and functions as well as a hint as to possible limitations. Real world interaction will be required of course before buying given my rocky start with the original FireBall. If it works well, however, the product could be a real winner.

Well, the DVDM-100 began shipping today as per Escient. No manual on the website yet but I'm told it should be up by Monday (don't worry, I'll be sure to pester them about it if it isn't ;) ).

Keep us informed!!

Just to let everyone know I have been using the DVDM-100 for several weeks now and it is an incredible machine. As far as PQ is concerned, the Sony ES DVD changer looks as good as any DVD player I have ever seen. You will not at all be disappointed with this unit. The GUI is very responsive and I had absolutely no problem learning any of the IR commands. Jgabrius - Did you download the MX700 File I created for the Fireball? I too had much better responce when I abandoned the original remote and created a file for the mx700. I will post an IR file for the DVDM-100 when they begin shipping for all of you that would like it.

As many of us here are eager to play with the DVDM-100, can you provide any additional details of its operation? Here are a few questions I have:

- How quickly can it read all the discs off a full 777ES and retrieve their info from the onlone database?

- Have you found any movies it did not recognize? How does the unit handle an unrecognized disc? Is cover art always available for recognized discs (seems to be hit or miss with CDDB)?

- Does it support any kind of movie playlist function (eg. a playlist of my favorite action chapters from various DVDs)?

- How does it handle the removal of a disc from a changer? If I choose to remove a disc, will it show the disc as part of the collection but currently not in the changer?

- Any search functions (actor, title, etc)?

- On the FireBall's cover art view display, 2 rows of 4 covers are displayed, is the layout used for the DVDM-100?

- Anything that doesn't seem to work too well?

Jeff

Originally posted by chadly25
Just to let everyone know I have been using the DVDM-100 for several weeks now and it is an incredible machine. As far as PQ is concerned, the Sony ES DVD changer looks as good as any DVD player I have ever seen. You will not at all be disappointed with this unit. The GUI is very responsive and I had absolutely no problem learning any of the IR commands. Jgabrius - Did you download the MX700 File I created for the Fireball? I too had much better responce when I abandoned the original remote and created a file for the mx700. I will post an IR file for the DVDM-100 when they begin shipping for all of you that would like it.

- How quickly can it read all the discs off a full 777ES and retrieve their info from the onlone database?

To do a full autobuild it will still take you a couple of hours. This is not a function of the Fireball but a function of how long it takes the DVD changer to read the dvd's TOC (table of contents)

- Have you found any movies it did not recognize? How does the unit handle an unrecognized disc? Is cover art always available for recognized discs (seems to be hit or miss with CDDB)?

I had very few DVD's it did not recognize. One such DVD was my wife's Fit Mama workout. Actually kind of glad it didn't find that one so my friends didn't see it :) When a DVD isn't recognized it simply titles it Unknown DVD and gives generic coverart. You can go in and modify the title and info manually. The difference between CD and DVD recognition is that Escient maintains and builds their library of DVD content so once you get a hit it will include coverart.

- Does it support any kind of movie playlist function (eg. a playlist of my favorite action chapters from various DVDs)?

Never even thought about doing that. I will give it a try tonight and let you know.

- How does it handle the removal of a disc from a changer? If I choose to remove a disc, will it show the disc as part of the collection but currently not in the changer?

It will remove the DVD info from the screen but keep it in memory so when you put DVD back in it will instantly recognize it.

- Any search functions (actor, title, etc)?

Again, something I have not tried but will let you know. As with the Fireball line you can sort by genre but will check if you can sort by actor.

- On the FireBall's cover art view display, 2 rows of 4 covers are displayed, is the layout used for the DVDM-100?

I believe so, but it could be 5 covers per row.

- Anything that doesn't seem to work too well?

In short, No. I wouldn't trade mine in for anything.

Chad,

Thanks for the quick reply. Since it appears you work for Escient (given your e-mail address on RC), can you nudge the powers that be to post the pdf manual ASAP? I've asked tech support and sales about it and they both seemed surprised that it wasn't already up. Thanks in advance for any help on this as I am itching to see it.

Jeff

Actually, I used to work for Esceint Solutions which was the consumer installation division under the Escient umbrella, but I no longer work there. I did have the manual when it was first given to me but I gave it back. I never read them and they were in short supply for their other beta testers. If you have any other questions on functionallity though I will do my best to help.

Chad,

Thanks for the clarification. I sent an e-mail to Abbie Ansburg as the folks in tech support said marketing would handle the manual posting. Anyways, I was also wondering about a few other things:

- I'm guessing you would use the 777's GUI for initial changer setup but I think that after connecting the changer to the DVDM, the FireBall GUI is all you use even for disc navigation, etc. Is this true?

- The sell sheet mentions advanced parental controls, can you elaborate on this? Is it something like restricting viewing of movies with a particular rating and above via a password?

- How does the guide handle multi-disc box sets? Are they grouped together or listed sequentially? What about single features spread across 2-discs (like the LOTR special editions)? Is the system smart enough to go from the first disc to the next?

- Since the 777 doesn't have the dual-sided play feature (I think I saw that somewhere) that Sony's previous changers did, how are dual-sided DVDs handled?

Jeff

To me this sounds like a Kenwood Entre with a few minor, insignificant changes, with basically the same software and limited functionality. I would not be surprised if the Media Manager software is also the same poor program we have had for the Entre over the last couple of years, with not even the option of editing DVD cover arts.

I hope I am wrong, but so far I have not heard about any significant improvements over the good ol' Entre (based on these posts and the setup instruction on the Escient home page)...

What's new (vs the 2 year old Kenwood Entre)?
- Support of non-Kenwood DVD changers
- A new look of the GUI
- Anything else ?

I was hoping for a significant improvements with at a minimum:
- Native 16:9 GUI support
- Improved cover/DVD search function in cases the auto lookup does not identify the disc. In case of multiple hits during a search there should be a list returned from which you can select the desired DVD
- Much faster operation
- Totally improved Media Manager software with support of DVD cover art management

Unfortunately, your assertion that the Escient GUI or O/S is a rebadged product from anyone else is definitely incorrect. Escient's interface has been used for quite a few of their products going back to the old TuneBase and PowerPlay systems that pre-date the Entre. The PowerPlay was Escient's original DVD management solution that included a proprietary DVD changer with a firewire connection to the box running the interface. The database behind the DVD lookups is their own and has been in use for years via PowerPlay.

The key here is how well the GUI works. Hopefully, with years of experience on both the GUI side and the DVD database side, the lessons learned from mistakes made will make the product a good one from the get go. We'll have to wait and see but hopefully, there won't be a thread on the DVDM-100 as long as the one for the Kenwood changer/Enre products.


Originally posted by Lars158
To me this sounds like a Kenwood Entre with a few minor, insignificant changes, with basically the same software and limited functionality. I would not be surprised if the Media Manager software is also the same poor program we have had for the Entre over the last couple of years, with not even the option of editing DVD cover arts.

I hope I am wrong, but so far I have not heard about any significant improvements over the good ol' Entre (based on these posts and the setup instruction on the Escient home page)...

What's new (vs the 2 year old Kenwood Entre)?
- Support of non-Kenwood DVD changers
- A new look of the GUI
- Anything else ?

I was hoping for a significant improvements with at a minimum:
- Native 16:9 GUI support
- Improved cover/DVD search function in cases the auto lookup does not identify the disc. In case of multiple hits during a search there should be a list returned from which you can select the desired DVD
- Much faster operation
- Totally improved Media Manager software with support of DVD cover art management

has anyone tried the new LCD Touchscreen for the DVDM-100?

I am told it is S Video 15" and MSRP $2000.00

I am eagerly awaiting my DVDM-100:)

To set up the DVD player, you simply select a disc in the DVD changer that you want to adjust. Then with the original DVD remote you hit stop and go into the DVD's menu to make changes. Very simple to do this.

The parental codes are very nice. It allows you to lock down any movies that you don't want others to see unless they have your password to unlock them.

If you have a movie that is double sided, you will either have to flip the disc or purchase two movies and enter both sides in different slots.

In the question of will the changer automatically go to disc 2 of a movie in a multi disc collection, i don't think so. Although it is very easy to hit the guide button and return to the exact spot where disc one was the just highlight disc two and you are on your way.

Lars- Your suspecions aren't even close with this product. You can modify coverart, it has a vastly improved gui, and it operates very quickly. I for one don't need a 16:9 gui since I only use the dvdm-100 to select movies to watch in multiple aspect ratio's.

On the earlier questions: It is 8 pictures of coverart and not 10 like I was thinking. And I don't think that with the first release of firmware you can search by director.

Chad,

Thanks again for the help. Just to clarify how the guide displays multi-disc movies or box sets:

- Let's say we're talking about the 2-disc "Gangs of New York" where the actual movie spans 2 discs. Will the guide show it as "Gangs of New York - Disc 1" and "Gangs of New York - Disc 2" or something like that?

- How about the 2-disc special edition "Catch Me If You Can" where disc 1 is the movie and disc 2 is the bonus features? How will those appear?

- What about a mini-series or TV show box set like the 4-disc "The West Wing - The Complete First Season"? How does the guide display those 4?

On a separate note, does the guide include chapter titles or names of separate titles (in cases of multiple episodes on a single disc, they are often split up as separate titles (DVD nomenclature) rather than separate chapters) on each disc?

Thanks again.

Jeff

Mark,

At $2K, it's not worth it. When I bought my FireBall last year and the 12" VGA ETP-1000 was being sold for $2K, I looked elswhere. There are substitue touchpanels that you can use which work just fine. Mine is an Elo Touchsystems 1224L that I got from Dell for less than $600. When the specs for the new 15" panel are out, I'm sure you'll be able to find a much less expensive but compatible alternative.

Originally posted by markrubin
has anyone tried the new LCD Touchscreen for the DVDM-100?

I am told it is S Video 15" and MSRP $2000.00

I am eagerly awaiting my DVDM-100:)

Jeff

It will show them as seperate disc's in the changer and it will call them disc one or disc 2, or in the case of a bonus disc it will say bonus disc. The Fireball does not list out all of the titles on a disc for all of the episodes on a "first season disc". However, when you chose that disc you can then go into the main menu of that disc and search for the episode that you want to watch.

Thanks again Chad. By the way, for anyone who has been eagerly awaiting the manual like I have, Escient has posted it here:

http://www.escient.com/manuals/FBDVDMManual.pdf

Chad's responses actually answered more questions than the manual did but, then again, some of my questions were pretty specific.

Jeff

Mark,

After checking out the description of the new ETP-1500 and seeing a picture of it in the DVDM-100 manual, it looks like it is an Escient rebadge of this monitor:

http://www.touchscreens.com/lcdsa151v-5rs-dvd-b.html

That site is selling that product for $1119.00. If you look hard enough, you may be able to find it elsewhere for less.

Originally posted by rgbyhkr
Mark,

At $2K, it's not worth it. When I bought my FireBall last year and the 12" VGA ETP-1000 was being sold for $2K, I looked elswhere. There are substitue touchpanels that you can use which work just fine. Mine is an Elo Touchsystems 1224L that I got from Dell for less than $600. When the specs for the new 15" panel are out, I'm sure you'll be able to find a much less expensive but compatible alternative.

Good find Jeff- Thank you

Escient told me they had evaluated several touchscreens but they were vague about the final selection

my dealer has gone silent on me: avoiding my "where is my Escient? calls"

Mark,

No problem at all. Some of the good folks here were kind enough to help me find the Elo panel I bought when I was looking this time last year. Sorry to hear about your dealer's lack of response. I hate that kind of thing especially when you are eagerly awaiting a new toy.

As a side note, unfortunately, good salesmanship is hard to find these days. I come across bad salespeople all the time and, being a salesman myself, it irritates the hell out of me. It doesn't really take any extra effort to provide your customers with updates these days given all the various means of communication we have at our disposal. Between telephones, faxes, cell phones, pagers, e-mail, text messaging, etc, you can certainly find an easy method to drop a customer a quick line when you know they are waiting on a product and the promised delivery day has come and gone. We all get busy, but a good salesperson makes time for customers when needed.

I have found that in situations like these, salespeople sometimes put off contacting a customer because they don't have new information. Unfortunately, they seem to forget having told a customer something like "I'll give you a call tomorrow with an update." Sometimes they figure that they'll just wait to call until they have more info meanwhile, you were expecting their call on a given day, didn't get it, and are now annoyed. From a purely personal point of view, when I'm the customer and I have to continuously track down a salesperson to get information rather than the other way around, I start looking elsewhere.

Hopefully, your DVDM will arrive shortly and the wait will be over. :)

Jeff

All I can tell you guys in your time of need is that your wait will be worth it. Especially if you have a Fireball now. Adding in a DVDM-100 will expand your zones of outputs for your mp3's. Have fun and let me know if you have any questions on setup.

What's the MSRP on the 100M? Thanks!

2K

just so you know, the Entre still hasn't found Sopranos Season 4 and the Looney Tunes Golden Collection as of yesterday. Since this product most likely is using the same Open Globe Database, a lot of people are going to be disappointed by the number of new releases that end up being unknown.

How many weeks has it been since Sopranos Season 4 was released? That gives you an idea.

are you sure about that? i thought Escient and Openglobe where owned by the same company.

Why would a company have two datbases with duplicate information?

Originally posted by rgbyhkr
Once again, the Escient movie database is their own. They've been using and updating it for years since they first introduced the PowerPlay product in 1999.

Well, according to their press release it sounds as if they indeed are using the OG Database for DVD information...

"Best of all, by tapping into Escient?s world-renowned OpenGlobe Entertainment Services and Internet DVD database, as well as Gracenote?s䠒 music service, the DVDM-100 provides users with an integrated movie guide and player that displays movie titles, cast biographies, ratings, release years, cover art ? as well as the physical location for all DVDs in the external changers. "

In addition I am also quite confident that the source code being used as base for the the DVDM-100 is the same as was used in the old Powerball and Entre units - layout and functionality is basically the same on all these units... It's probably OG that provide the code base for these units (my speculation).

Just to clarify, Escient Convergence and Openglobe, two of the five Escient companies, became one company know as "Escient". That is indeed where their Movie database is built and stored. The CD information is still being retrieved from Gracenote, a former company under the Escient umbrella.

Lars, when you talk about the source code are you referring to the operating system, or how it identifies DVD's?

Chad,

You said earlier that "And I don't think that with the first release of firmware you can search by director." After looking through the old PowerPlay manual, I noticed that it allowed you to search by title, actor or director. In the newer GUI of the DVDM, searching by title isn't really necessary as you can enter letters to skip to that part of the alphabet in the titles view of the guide. However, searching by the other 2 might be nice. Have you heard anything on whether this may be added later?

Also, I was thinking about the chapter listing and I was theorizing why this would have been left out when it was a feature of the old PowerPlay. In the PowerPlay setup, the changer was proprietary and connected via firewire. While I never used it much, I'm guessing that because it was a closed system, initial DVD menus could be bypassed by the system to go straight to a particular chapter. In the case of the DVDM, with external, 3rd party changers, maybe you can't bypass those initial menus. So, if the discs spin up to those initial menus anyway, then having chapter listings in the DVDM's library would be of little use. Any knowledge if this could be true Chad?

Jeff

For the first part of the question, I will find out if that will be implemented in future firmware updates. For the second part I believe that you are correct in your 3rd party changer assumptions. I do know that the DVDM-100 uses a form of the old stop-stop-play command to begin the movie and bypass the main menu when you select a movie.

Chad,

If you do make an inquiry and find out about any other planned future features, let us know. Thanks again.

Jeff

Originally posted by chadly25
Just to clarify, Escient Convergence and Openglobe, two of the five Escient companies, became one company know as "Escient". That is indeed where their Movie database is built and stored. The CD information is still being retrieved from Gracenote, a former company under the Escient umbrella.

Lars, when you talk about the source code are you referring to the operating system, or how it identifies DVD's?

I am not referring to the OS but rather the menu selections and functionality for creating new groups, modifying DVD information, search for DVD cover etc.

Another question, is there any kind of Media Manager software (PC application) so that you can use to modify and edit information on the DVDM-100 from your PC? I also think you mentioned at one point that the DVDM-100 does not have a hard drive... what kind of memory does it have to store all the DVD information (cover art etc)? Thanks!

Lars- There will be PC interaction with the DVDM-100. It will probably be in some form of Fireballs current pipeline software. Not exactly sure what form of storage the media information resides on, but it is not a hard drive.

Originally posted by chadly25
Lars- There will be PC interaction with the DVDM-100. It will probably be in some form of Fireballs current pipeline software. Not exactly sure what form of storage the media information resides on, but it is not a hard drive.

the Pipeline software shows the contents/covers of all CD's in the Fireball: including WAV files, MP3's and contents of changer: assume the software will show the contents of the DVD changers for the DVDM

I don't understand the connectivity between the DVDM and my E-120: it seems to me they are essentially standalone devices?

Mark,

Pipeline won't work with DVDM-100, I was only stating that they are developing software that will act similarly to it.

As for the connectivity between the two units, you can listen to any mp3's that reside on your E-120 through your DVDM-100. There is a network link between them that you enable in the setup of the DVDM-100 that allows it access to your E-120's mp3's So in essence you have two zones of audio. This is a great feature to have if you are installing them into multi source, multi room house A/V distribution systems.

Originally posted by markrubin
I don't understand the connectivity between the DVDM and my E-120: it seems to me they are essentially standalone devices?

Mark,

If you want them to act as standalone devices, they can. Of course, you won't be able to listen to any MP3 music on the DVDM as it can only stream it from the FireBall rather than play it by itself. For iRadio, OpenGlobe CE Commerce, external CD/DVD changer control and playback, CD/DVD metadata lookup, and system software updates, the DVDM operates on its own without requiring any interaction with a FireBall music server. Only in the case of MP3 streaming from the FireBall server must you connect the 2 to the same ethernet network. Keep in mind that you can not stream lossless .wav files from the E-120 or audio from CDs on external changers connected to the E-120 to the DVDM.

One a separate note, I did talk to Escient tech support today with a couple of questions. I found out as Chad said that yes, there will be a Pipeline like interface app for the DVDM. Additionally, tech support claims that if you come across a DVD title that is not found in the database, you can e-mail them the details and they will get it updated (unsure about time frame and exactly what details would be necessary - I may try and contact the woman responsible for updating the database directly to ask her).

Jeff

please do find out. my emails to the email group setup to handle missing titles doesnt seem to do anything. i emailed them about sopranos weeks ago and as of today, still no dvd info for those dvds. season 1-3 were found with no problems, but season 4 is taking a very very long time. Finding Nemo and Lion King took 3-4 weeks to show up.

To add insult to injury, searching for the title comes up empty. It's possible that it's in the database, but the keywords they assigned to trigger the download were put incorrectly or may be missing.

To give you and idea of how bad this problem is, an entre owner has developed an application from scratch that does what Pipeline does for cds and does it for DVDs. So at least now I can enter the information easily and transfer cover art over.

Chad,

One other thing that the tech mentioned was that due to some improvements made under the hood from the FB to the DVDM, the DVDM's GUI is noticeably faster. He mentioned as an example switching sources from movies to iradio or music was much quicker in the DVDM then with the FB. Have you found this to be the case? How about the speed of paging through the cover art? On my HPNA FB, there's a slight delay refreshing the CD cover art. The tech seemed to indicate this would be quicker on the DVDM as well. What's your opinion?

Jeff

Jeff,

Like you I also have an HPNA FB. When I do an A-B comparison, the DVDM is a lot quicker and smoother. I am not sure if it is a hardware or a software improvement, but it is much better. I kind of hope it is a software improvement, something that can be implemented into our HPNA FB's.

Chad,

Do you ever have any IP problems with your HPNA FB? Sometimes mine doesn't want to pull down an IP address from my router. I am using an HPNA to ethernet bridge (would have preferred to just use a USB ethernet adapter but I had only limited success with one).

Jeff

In the HPNA days I always used a smart NIC2 Ethernet dongle. I found it to be a much better way to get on the network. I would only use the HPNA in retro fit applications where getting a Cat5 to the FB wasn't an option. If you tried hooking up a USB dongle prior to 1.2.0.7 you wouldn't have had any luck. It was something that wasn't supported in the very early days of FB. I will tell you that my FB (Ethernet dongle equiped) has never had a problem pulling an IP address. I would run into a rare occasion in a clients home where I would have to set up the FB static and assign it an IP address to avoid the DHCP on their router. I would try that first and see if that helps.

One other thing, when you change from dynamic to static make sure you do a reboot after you fill in the IP information.

Chad,

I had an unused Belkin USB to ethernet network adapter lying around and tried it just like you said with a static IP. Works like a charm. You know, oddly enough, I had never tried using static IP at the same time as DHCP on the router. I didn't even realize that you that my router didn't require any settings changes. I just had to be sure to choose a static IP that was outside of the range of IPs earmarked for DHCP. Here's proof once again that sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective to solve a problem. Thanks again.

Jeff

Glad it helped.

Originally posted by chadly25
Jgabrius - Did you download the MX700 File I created for the Fireball? I too had much better responce when I abandoned the original remote and created a file for the mx700.

I don't know if was yours, but there was only two available codesets for the MX700 at RC when I downloaded it.

Now, do you happen to have a discreet on/off for the "old" Fireball?

On topic, I'd ditch the old Fireball for the DVDM but I'm trying to upgrade the HD so I can store all of my CDs as MP3s. Too bad the new box doesn't have the disk. I guess that I'll have both in the rack! Oh well!

Thanks!

In the file I created on RC I did have the discrete on command, but after several hours wrestling with the off command I gave up. This however was before the browser was available in the mx700 software. Now you can simply get the codes by downloading the ccf from escient.com's support page on the fireball and convert them over. It is a pretty rock solid method. Let me know if you have difficulty in doing this and I can assist.

One other thing on having both in the rack. Entre owners will tell you that the biggest problem with an all in one unit is that someone in the house can't listen to music while someone else watches a movie. I have both and have no plans on downsizing my system. Just one guy's thought.

technically that is not true :D The entre supports up to four Axcess units which stream mp3s from the entre, regardless of what state the entre is in. the axcess is really nice unit for a bedroom or den. nice stop gap for those that don't have a whole house distibution system and don't mind mp3s or internet radio.

That is true slocko. I was making a reference to entre owners that don't own axcess units. It related better to Jgabrius's current situation since that is not an option for the DVDM. And lets remember that the axcess was created because simultanious DVD-CD/MP3 entertainment wasn't possible.

i know i know. just being a smartass :D

i know :) its all good

Jgabrius,

Any luck getting those codes to work?

can anyone update me on shipping status of the DVDM-100?

the Escient site says now shipping

was hoping to have mine by now:(

Mark,

Just a thought but if your dealer is a little lax on getting back to you with info on when your DVDM will ship, give the Escient sales folks a call and have them check on the order your dealer placed with them. If they ask why you're doing it instead of the delaer, just say you know the guy is slammed right now trying to get last minute jobs done before XMAS. Hope you get yours soon.

Jeff

spoke with Kristin at Escient: good thing I called

she said they just started shipping and had 350 on backorder: they can only ship 50 per day

she looked up my dealer and confirmed the order: said she would ship it today or tomorrow for next day delivery: so maybe I will see it this week

Escient customer service has always been excellent:)

Sounds like you are going to be a happy guy for Christmas (hopefully). Do you already have a 777ES changer or do you plan on getting one with the DVDM?

Originally posted by chadly25
Sounds like you are going to be a happy guy for Christmas (hopefully). Do you already have a 777ES changer or do you plan on getting one with the DVDM?

the 777ES is sitting by the door at the dealers waiting for the DVDM which will hopefully arrive tomorrow

Originally posted by chadly25
Jgabrius,

Any luck getting those codes to work?

Haven't tried the remote codes yet....Busy trying to put a larger drive in my Fireball H :)

Check your PMs.

I got your PM. I will find out and get back with you on that. Just to let you all know, I found out today that there won't be a search by actor or director incorporated into the DVDM. If you are wanting to sort all of your "Arnold Schwarzenegger" movies together you can create an Arnold Group and add all of the movies in there manually. Requires a little bit of leg work unfortunately.

Escient DVDM-100/Sony CX777ES in house!!

the gear just arrived: perfect timing as I start my holiday vacation- will have time to set it up and post some results

Happy Holidays!

:)

Have fun Mark. Sure wish my Sony DA9000ES would come in before the holidays :( Oh well, maybe they will ship sometime soon.

Originally posted by markrubin
Escient DVDM-100/Sony CX777ES in house!!

the gear just arrived: perfect timing as I start my holiday vacation- will have time to set it up and post some results

Happy Holidays!

:)

Great news Mark. Hope all goes well with the setup. Keep us informed.

Jeff

Does the 777ES plug into a serial port on the Escient 100M? Thanks.

Yes, there are actually 4 ports. They are for changers and external control. Just an FYI for everyone, Escient just did a complete update on their website and there are pleanty of support documents for DVDM.

Mark,

You should be hooking up the 777ES with the serial ports and not the slink. The slink is only there to incorporate cd changers in the future and not for DVD control.

Originally posted by chadly25
Mark,

You should be hooking up the 777ES with the serial ports and not the slink. The slink is only there to incorporate cd changers in the future and not for DVD control.

what a timely post!

Sounds like you figured that out on your own. Also just an FYI, that is a crossover RS232. If you incorporated a 2nd changer get a crossover cable or a null modem.

Originally posted by rgbyhkr
Mark,

After checking out the description of the new ETP-1500 and seeing a picture of it in the DVDM-100 manual, it looks like it is an Escient rebadge of this monitor:

http://www.touchscreens.com/lcdsa151v-5rs-dvd-b.html

That site is selling that product for $1119.00. If you look hard enough, you may be able to find it elsewhere for less.

I took a look at the ETP-1500's newly posted sell sheet and, yes, it does look like the same panel as the one I posted the link to.

Originally posted by chadly25
Sounds like you figured that out on your own. Also just an FYI, that is a crossover RS232. If you incorporated a 2nd changer get a crossover cable or a null modem.

yes- I missed this point and was just about to open the instruction book and read your post- thank you

the changer is recognized : so far- so good

everything else was easy:)

the DVDM-100

- found the DVD changer
-connected to DHCP router
-found the Fireball E120 (via Ethernet network connection)

on the first try after it was connected properly!


interesting I can use the DVDM to call up MP-3's which are on the E-120 independently: so the E-120 acts as a server : I can still select and play other files from the E-120 at the same time: all independent of one another

the instructions say the DVDM-100 can Autobuild 3 FULL Sony DVD changers in about 2 hours

I only had 2 DVD's in the changer: it identified both including cover art

navigating through Escient on screen menus is faster when the Sony changer is set for 480i output: when set at 480p, there is a delay going in and out of Escient menus via component video (due to the display switching from interlaced to progressive and back)

lots of connections on the rear panel (68) :

provisions for 3 changers each with:

-inputs for 5.1 analog, stereo, coax and optical
digital audio

-inputs for composite, S, and component video

-RS232 ports, S Link ports

and one set of outputs of all the above

oh- and no fan in the DVDM; nice and quiet/runs cool (this unit has no hard drive or disc drawer)

Mark,

One thing I guess I am not sure about is setting the DVD player to 480i and 480p. You said that navigating throught the escient menus are slower during 480p...do you mean going from escient gui to dvd is slower? I didn't think that 480p would effect escient gui since they are only providing a pass through for video. I didn't notice this with my unit so I was wondering where you are seeing this so that I can check mine.

Originally posted by chadly25
Mark,

One thing I guess I am not sure about is setting the DVD player to 480i and 480p. You said that navigating throught the escient menus are slower during 480p...do you mean going from escient gui to dvd is slower? I didn't think that 480p would effect escient gui since they are only providing a pass through for video. I didn't notice this with my unit so I was wondering where you are seeing this so that I can check mine.

what I think I am seeing is the delay of my display switching from the Escient GUI which is interlaced to the Sony DVD if it is set for progressive: if the Sony is set for interlaced then the display does not have to switch modes and the GUI/DVD change appears quicker

I got you. So it is a delay in your TV switching from interlaced to progressive. I see a small delay in switching too. It probably depends on the tv, but this delay is probably longer or shorted depending on what tv you are using and how it does its video processing. I thought that may be what you were refering to.

I was confused about what you guys were saying but I think I have it now. You're saying that the Escient's GUI output via the component cables is interlaced only. After choosing a movie, the output display changes from the Escient's GUI interupt to a true progressive pass through of the progressive output from the Sony changer. Seemingly, this wouldn't be so bad when choosing a new disc to play as there would be a normal delay associated with loading the disc. However, I can see it being more noticeable when watching a movie and in the middle of it bringing up the Escient GUI which would make the TV's switching more noticeable.

It really isn't an issue with my tv, it only takes about a second (at most) to switch to progressive. I have a Sony 36XBR800

Originally posted by chadly25
I got you. So it is a delay in your TV switching from interlaced to progressive.

right-

I am using a Sharp LC-30 and it is slow in switching: not the fault of the Escient -

I'd imagine that this could be an issue with some older tv's that don't support both 480i and 480p on the same input. It's a good thing that Sony makes a hard switch on the back so that you can change output without having to see an onscreen display.

Mark,

The one thing that has been a little weird with mine, and it could be that I have one of the first production releases, is that sometimes when I watch a movie subtitles come on. I have the subtitles turned off in the Sony's setup menu, but they still seem to appear in about 5% of the movies I watch. Have you experienced anything like this? Escient said that I was the only one that reported this so far.

I will look for subtitle issue- no problem so far

am I correct that only the null modem cable needs to be connected to the Sony changer or do I also need the S-Link cable?

I have a touch screen coming in next week

You only need the 232 cable. I don't even have a touch screen :( Let me know how you like using it. I was going to get one for my HPNA Fireball but haven't yet.

I have been using a touchpanel for my HPNA unit since the beginning. It's pretty cool. I like to use the panel to choose music while watching something on the TV. For instance, at my son's birthday party last weekend, I had the TV showing a football game and then later a photo slideshow while I could still control the FB via the panel.

the touchscreen is a big plus for me: I find it is most efficient to use it in conjuction with the IR keyboard for the E-120

I am looking at the DVDM-100/E-120 combo as opposed to my old PowerPlay system: a big step forward!

Mark,

Isn't that more like 4 steps :) Since I don't have a touch screen, let me know how you like using it with the DVDM. I'd imagine that like the Fireball you can navigate throught the guide while watching a movie, but I would be interested in finding out for sure.

Originally posted by chadly25
I do know that the DVDM-100 uses a form of the old stop-stop-play command to begin the movie and bypass the main menu when you select a movie.

Would this bypass FBI warnings, etc as well? I ask this because Mario from Cinemar (the makers of DVDLobby) posetd the following in the 777ES review thread:

"We are working on a driver to control the 777ES via serial port. Which means you'll be able to select a movie and automatically start it up. Users have the option to use a touch screen (airpanel), pocket pc or even the TV as a way for selecting movies. Sorting genres, etc. DVDLobby will also display overview, ratings, and other useful information when search 400 movies.

Initial beta testing of the driver has shown that we'll even be able to skip movie trailers, fbi warnings and menu options for most movies. Which I think is a really neat feature"

I'm referring of course to his point at the very end. Is this what the DVDM does now?

Jeff

Yes the DVDM already does this now. It really is nothing more than the old stop-stop-play trick that can be performed on most dvd players. If you are not familiar with this, turn on your dvd player and press stop-stop-play right in a row and the movie should automatically start. I know this works for many dvd players including the Sonys.

so that trick only works if the unit is off? what about if it's on already?

I have noticed that if you start playing a dvd and if it allows you to stop it, the next time you press play, it will start automatically. but a lot of dvds these days are disabling all controls as soon as you start the movie, including stop.

i have seen that subtitle bug on my kenwood dvd player. i also noticed that even though I have dts setup as a preference, and doesn't always pick dts. so now i just go into the dvd menus and select the sound track and turn subtitles off, so the bug is moot.

If the DVD player is already on then just press stop twice, then press stop-stop-play. This usually works, that is why they claim that it works on "most" discs. Some do not enable you to bypass advertisments and FBI warnings, but there aren't too many that do that.

i keep my dvd player on all the time. so i need a macro that does stop 4 times and then play?

never mind, the point is moot since the entre is what fires off the dvd player. i don't feel like hitting stop after a movie has started and then hitting play again.

post edited- issue resolved below

Mark,

I had the same problem with hit information at first but thought it would be resolved by release. There is an issue with the Sony that reads the TOC of a disc a little different than the Kenwood and Pioneer do resulting in a number of discs to be unknown even though they exist in their database. If you go to the disc and go to options you can manually enter the dvd and it will get the dvd information and coverart for you. Out of almost 350 dvd's mine only missed 25. I found all but a couple by manually searching for the dvd by title name. Hopefully they will have this resolved very soon.

On the issues of DVD Audio and SACD, I didn't know that the Sony played DVD Audio. Does it play in your machine even though it doesn't read out properly? I would be curious to know this.

Mark,

For searching for discs manually like "the client", only type in "client". Database doesn't recognize the, a, and a few others at the beginning of a title.

I would be a leary of the Pioneer, I know they have had MPEG decoder issues. I am not a huge supporter of Sony, but it does have a few nice features that others don't such as simultaneous output of composite, s, and progressive component video. Hopefully this sony issue will be resolved soon so we won't have to worry about it.

Originally posted by chadly25
Mark,

For searching for discs manually like "the client", only type in "client". Database doesn't recognize the, a, and a few others at the beginning of a title.

I would be a leary of the Pioneer, I know they have had MPEG decoder issues. I am not a huge supporter of Sony, but it does have a few nice features that others don't such as simultaneous output of composite, s, and progressive component video. Hopefully this sony issue will be resolved soon so we won't have to worry about it.

Also the Kenwood 5900M have simultaneous output of s-vidoe and component (my 5900's are feeding progressive out on the component to my DLP projector and regular 480i on the s-vidoe to my CRT tube). The Kenwood 5900M is a great player and I think the best between the 3 supported payers. You can buy new Kenwood 5900 players for less than $800 these days.

Mark,

I just entered "client" and it found it. Just to make sure we are doing the same process...highlight disc, hit options on remote, type in "client" into title box, highlight and select "search for movie", highlight and select "search" This got it for me first try so I would be interested in knowing if yours doesn't do this.

success!

so let me see if I understand this: for unidentified DVD's, I type in the title then follow this same procedure?

ps what I was doing was hitting 'lookup this disc'- now I see the correct procedure

I just put the rest of the unidentifieds back in and will retry this

Thank you

100% identified

Thank you so much- this was my only issue which is now resolved

much appreciated:)

put in 26 more: 2 needed the manual entry and they came right up

Glad all is well now. Now that you have all your startup issues resolved, how do you like the system? Have you seen any of the subtitles appear on any dvd's?

Originally posted by chadly25
Glad all is well now. Now that you have all your startup issues resolved, how do you like the system? Have you seen any of the subtitles appear on any dvd's?

no subtitles seen so far

I see a couple of things I was doing wrong: after I closed the changer door, I was not waiting for autobuild to start by itself: I was manually starting quick lookup: now I wait for it to start autobuild itself:

also I make a list of what DVD's go into which slot so if I have to do a manual search, it is easier to ID. If I get unidentified DVD's- I first go back in to 'get movie info/unknown info/covers ' and as a last resort type in the name for search: I did a third batch of 25 and had only one to do manually

I like the DVDM : seems to work very nicely: my dealer is coming over tomorrow to see it in action: he has several to put in.

I would not have had such quick success without you help: especially since Escient is closed for the holidays- Thanks again

I give it 2 thumbs up!

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with. I don't have it down 100% but I am a good 98% :)

loaded 16 SACD's into the Sony changer and the DVDM recognized them as SACD's but failed to identify any of them: the only way you can get info on them is if the Gracenotes database has the standard CD version of it- and manually enter the artist and title and do a search ( still all you get is the cover and no track titles so far) not sure if this is going to work out for SACD's unless the database is upgraded

my only other issue is: would like to be able to continous play DVD's- but I don't see any way to do that?

I didn't think that the DVDM would recognize SACD's to be honest but I wasn't sure. Escient provides all of the DVD information for DVD lookup and they use Gracenote CDDB for CD lookup. Gracenote CDDB is a database that gets all of its information from computer users that manually enter CD information. That information is then sent to Gracenote along with the CD's TOC (table of contents) for future recognition. That sometimes explains why things aren't spelled right and why it can't find coverart for a particular CD. I am not aware of any computers out there, although I am sure there are some, that are playing SACD's. And if there are any, is Gracenote compiling those stats into their database? I will have to check into this because I am curious now that you bring this up.

heard from Escient dealer that the LCD touchscreens for the DVDM are not shipping ( 2 weeks ago they said they were in stock): my dealer said they had received 20 that were damaged: no recovery date given

my only issue with the DVDM is there is no way to continuous play DVD's: this is one feature that seems essential

got the 15" touchscreen for the DVDM : looks very much like the Fireball 12" LCD - it has the Escient logo on the front

it requires the use of one serial com port for X-Y and composite or S Video (there are dedicated connections) for video on the back of the DVDM

the 15" LCD has a resolution of 1024x768 and the interface seems very quick and responsive: much faster than the response of the Fireball LCD: there are some neat touchscreen menus that automatically come up (to view the movie: hit Video)

the DVDM found the touchscreen on the first try

PQ looks very good

Escient customer service told me that continuous play of DVD's is not possible

by any chance do you own sopranos season 4? my entre went a month after release of the season 4 without recognizing the discs. i finally gave up and entered them using a 3rd party app. i haven't recently checked to see if they are finally in the database.

Originally posted by slocko
by any chance do you own sopranos season 4? my entre went a month after release of the season 4 without recognizing the discs. i finally gave up and entered them using a 3rd party app. i haven't recently checked to see if they are finally in the database.

Yes season 4 is in the database- it worked fine for me

Are discrete on/off codes available for remote control?

i don't know about the escient products, but the entre does and it's modeled after the escient product.

Originally posted by BizarroTerl
Are discrete on/off codes available for remote control?

Yes-there is a Pronto Pro integration document that has on/off discrete commands and the external (RS232) control protocol has discrete on/off and power status change communications

but the included remote and keyboard only gives you a toggle

Well, the keyboard does give you discrete on and off, you just need to know how to get to it. For instance, try pushing shift+music on your keyboard ;)

:)

is it true the dvdm-100 doesn't have a hard drive?

where does it store the cover art? flash drive?

Not sure of the exact type of memory chip they are using, but it is not a hard drive. Too bad it isn't a 5 terabyte hard drive and you could burn all of your DVDs's to it. I am sure we are only a year or so away from this being an affordable reality.

Mark, did you have fun playing with your keyboard??? LOL

Originally posted by chadly25


Mark, did you have fun playing with your keyboard??? LOL

now I need the keyboard discrete for OFF!

my only issue now is sometimes the touchpanel looses communications with the DVDM (have also seen this on E-120): turning the unit on/off usually restores it but I hope there is a fix for this

next I have to integrate this into my remote control- an RTI T2- will use RS232 commands

shift+iradio

I did pick up some user tips for the DVDM-100 to pass on:

-I put a cover over the Sony changer IR eye on its front panel : I noticed it was responding to other commands and affecting operation

-Touchscreen should be left on so it automatically shuts off/powers on after the DVDM is powered off or on : this prevents loss of communications

-you must hit 'stop' when playing a DVD before you hit 'guide' to select another DVD

that's strange, on the entre, bringing up the guide stops the current dvd playing automatically. if you select the same movie, it picks up from where it left off.

Originally posted by slocko
that's strange, on the entre, bringing up the guide stops the current dvd playing automatically. if you select the same movie, it picks up from where it left off.

yes but with the touchscreen connected it acts differently: may be a software bug: if I hit guide on the touchscreen and select another title- it says it has loaded the new title when in fact it is still playing the DVD that was ruining

ahhhhhhhhhh. no touch screen for us poorer cousins :D

Looks like there was a lot of activity here for a while.... Hopefully there are still some readers out there.

I have had a Kenwood DV-5900 for quite a while and recently got the unit upgraded.

I have decided to mate it with an Escient DVDM-100 and was wondering if there were any suggestions regarding first time setup, etc.? Any setup option suggestions or gotchas you've run into?

I will also be running an E-120 off of the DVDM-100.

Sounds like most people on this forum are pretty pleased with their units!

BJBBJB

Setup should be pretty easy for you. Nothing I can think of that would cause you any grief. When you say you are running an E120 off of the DVDM did you mean you were going to network them together to share music? I did this and it works very nicely. Now my wife and I can listen to our music independently in different zones. Go ahead and setup your system and if you run into any snags I am sure I can give you a hand figuring it out.

Thanks,
As far as the E-120 and DVDM, I am using both in a theatre system and whole-house A/V distribution system. So for the whole house, I was thinking that they would give me separate zones as you mentioned.

However in the dedicated theatre, I was thinking the DVDM would be an all-in-one GUI front-end and control for both the DVD-changer collection and the E-120 hard-disk-stored music collection.

Am I correct in this assumption?

BJBBJB

You are! The only thing that sometimes people get confused with is that you cannot control the E120 CD changers through the DVDM100. You can only access the MP3's as you eluded to.

Just out of curiosity what type of house distributed audio system are you using?

Hello

I notice audio dropouts (at the beginning of each song) listening to Sirius Radio from the DVDM: when I listen to the same Sirius channel on the E-120 there are no dropouts

The DVDM audio is digital to an MC-12; the E120 is analog

any ideas?

Yes,

A lot of pre/pro's out there (as well as receivers) drop audio at the beginning of audio. As the sirius radio goes from song to song there is a moment of silence and your pre/pro is probably losing contact with the digital stream. Try looking at your pre/pro when you see this drop and see if the digital stream seems to disappear. If you want to read more on this there is quite a write up on it in the amp/receiver forum. Hope this helps, let me know if that is the problem.

That is what I thought

Here is another for you:

The DVDM does not see the CD changer connected to the E-120

Can I connect the Sony CX455 CD changer to the DVDM? it has the Sony 777 DVD changer connected plus the Touchscreen

The DVDM will only see the harddrive of the E120, not the changer. So if you burn your favorite songs to the harddrive then you can stream them over to the DVDM.

As of now you cannot control a CD changer and a DVD changer with the DVDM100. They are working on a firmware update so that you can in the future have one of each connected. So the immediate answer is no.

Originally posted by chadly25
The DVDM will only see the harddrive of the E120, not the changer. So if you burn your favorite songs to the harddrive then you can stream them over to the DVDM.

As of now you cannot control a CD changer and a DVD changer with the DVDM100. They are working on a firmware update so that you can in the future have one of each connected. So the immediate answer is no.

I sent an email to Escient support regarding the 777 & 455 and received the following response from Tony Montgomery.

"I would like to know if a Sony DVP-CX777ES and Sony
CDP-CX455 can be hooked to the DVDM-100 at the same time."


- No, they can not. If you have the Sony 777, you can only add Sony 777's. If you have the 455 attached, you can only add CD changers, thus no DVD management. Same goes for the Kenwood changer (if one Kenwood, you can only add Kenwood.) You can, of course, put CD's into the DVD changers and the DVDM will do the sorting.

Like I said, as of now this option is not available to DVDM owners. I think within the next 8-10 months we will see this available.

Thanks for the info Chadly25. I believe this makes perfect sense and hope they get it done too and it makes economical sense. I should have my Escient and CX777ES tomorrow or Wednesday. Mark has already provided a great deal of info to me. After it is all setup, I will report back.

Have fun! Let me know what you think once it is up and running.

Mark- Have you had any issues with your DVDM activating subtitles yet? Mine is turning it on with some DVD's but not all. Funny thing is once I change it to NO in the menu, it never comes back. Not too sure why it is doing that, but I still have a beta unit.

no problem with subtitles

The only thing I see is the chapter display pops up on the screen sometimes and I can't figure out why: I put tape over the Sony changer IR eye but it still happens

Phil: enjoy your DVDM

Mark

We have two different DVDM's with unique traits :) I have never seen that happen. Does it pop up out of the blue or is it during a sequence? What kind of control system are you using? The only difference between ours (that I can think of) is that you are using a touchscreen. If you can replicate the display regularly, you could unplug your touchscreen and see if it goes away. If that doesn't do it, get me a little more info on the problem and I'll see what I can come up with.

Just out of curiosity what type of house distributed audio system are you using?

I am adding it to an AMX Netlinx system. I am curious, do you leave your DVM100, changer, and E-120 on all the time??? I am not real concerned about power consumption, more about heat, wear/tear. Problem is if you turn the changer off, and "someone" in the house chooses the wrong option on the 100 if it is still on, you can blow away your stored titles!


BJBBJB

I don't think I am familiar with how you can blow away your stored titles. But just realize that you should NEVER turn on or off your changers, NEVER. You should always turn on your escient system and let it turn the changers on and off. You run the risk of having your media get out of sync. Once this happens you will have to run a long and lengthy "look up all" which can take up to 4 hours.

The answer to your original question is no. But realize your DVDM and E120 are still on for the most part. When you put them into standby it really just turns off the audio and the video. For instance, if you turned off your E120, you can still streams MP3's to your DVDM from your E120.

I don't think I am familiar with how you can blow away your stored titles.

Good advice on the changer. If you turn off the changer, the DVM100 asks if you want to retry, ignore, or..... remove or something like that. The last choice I believe removes all of the title info from that changer.

Getting the hang of the system and liking it. Only problem I have had is that there is a disc that the player won't read, and if you tell it to "stop trying", the whole system freezes up (have to power down and up). If you let it keep trying for 5 minutes and wait till it is done trying, then it is okay.

Now I have to figure out how to FTP cover art. I saw a PDF on that!

BJBBJB

Moving coverart isn't a problem at all as long as you are connecting your DVDM to your local network. If you have any problems just let me know. I use WS_FTP just to let you know and it works very well.

Has anyone else noticed a degraded signal from the DVD ouput of the DVDM-100? I am noticing noise and a change in black level. When taking the Escient out of the loop the problems disappear. I returned the first unit because the effect was so bad, looked liked electrical interference or like a waterfall in front of glass. The replacment unit is much less pronounced, but the problem is still there, so much so that when taking the Escient out of the loop, the immprovement is immediately noticable. I spoke to technical support and they said they never heard anything like this. I thought it might be the cables or interference from something else in the system, but because I can eliminate the problem taking the DVDM-100 out of the loop, I believe it is signal loss occuring in the Escient. Any ideas?

How are you running your video? Component, composite or S? Are you running video progressive? Have you switched to interlaced if you are running progressive?

Phil

I have not seen this

I am running progressive component video from the Sony 777 via the DVDM

I haven't seen this either. I am running mine progressive component to the main room and composite to the second zone.

I have went even so far as to pull the green cable to and from the DVDM and barreled them through to see if I could notice a video quality difference.

You may want to check your cables. You may have a good cable going to your TV (which you use when you are going straight to the TV from the changer) but you could have a bad cable going from the changer to the DVDM.

The first thing I did was to check and swap out the cables. No change. Using any of the cables either going direct to the display or even routing through the receiver relieves the problem. On the first unit it was extremely noticable and almost like I was watching VHS instead of DVD. Taking the cable out of the 777 to the DVDM-100 and replacing it with the one going out of the DVDM to the Display fixed the problem. Used a different cable and went directly to the display and the picture is fine. The output of the Escient menu system itself is fine. The problem with the second unit is much the same except it is much less pronounced, but there is definately signal degradation. All the cables are all brand new from Blue Jeans Cable that I bought when I ordered the Escient. On the second unit also, there is a problem with the IR. It is very slow to respond. Typing with the KB is almost impossible even sitting right in front of the unit. I spoke with Tony in Tech support before changing out the system and he had me change inputs to #2 and had the same results. I am stumped.

RE: Sony DVP-CX777ES

It is a fine player all on it's own. I have issues with some older DTS discs that I posted about in the Sony DVP-CX777ES Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3697861#post3697861) and would appreciate it if either of you have any of these titles and are experiencing the same problems if you could let me know.

I am going to try the DVDM-100 again tonight and if it is not right, it is going back, and I am going back to the drawing board. Thanks in advance.

We still need to know how you are running your video. Composite, S, Component i, Component p? Can't help you troubleshoot unless I know more.

Sorry, Chadly. Component Progressive.

Have you tried running it interlaced? I would first try running it in this mode. The escient gui is in interlaced and you said it looked good. Doesn't explain why you are having a problem but maybe we can narrow it down a bit.

Chadly,

My brain is just not working lately. Trying to do too much. I thought I said it above, but when running in interlaced the problem is less pronounced, but still visible. The second unit is not as bad as the first unit, but the problem still exists in both progressive and interlaced (a lot less noticable in interlaced, but overal picture quality is still best running 480p direct to the display). The thing that bothers me now with the second unit is how sluggish the IR is. It is very frustrating to say the least. Again, I apologize for lack of earlier details... Getting frustrated.

what kind of remote or control device are you using?

I haven't even got to the point of programming the Pronto yet. I am using the Escient Remote as I am just re-setting up the system. Also, the KB response is horrid. As I said above, last night just trying things out I was sitting right in fornt of the unit and it still wasn't responding. I changed the batteries, restarted the system, still the same tonight. I am going to take everything apart again and see what happens.

Sort of at a loss. I have never heard of problems like this as long as I have been selling these systems.

Just grabbing at straws here, but are you using any components that use two way IR control?

No two way IR in the system.

Taking the DVDM-100 out of the system solves all problems even the DTS one. With the player hooked directly to the Display and receiver everything works fine. As a matter of fact I can't believe how good the Sony looks. I'm stumped. I will talk to tech support again tomorrow and the dealer and make a decision. Thanks for everything Chadly.

pciav,

I have had my share of IR gremlins in the past, but my DVDM-100 responds well to both the escient and pronto remotes. Am using a xantech repeater. I'm sure you've tried checking sunlight, flourescent lights, etc... Does the keyboard remote respond slowly also???

I am pretty picky about video quality and do not notice any degradation in picture.

This might be a bizarre suggestion but have the dealer try your DVDM-100 with another Sony changer and see if you notice it??

BJBBJB

I am totally stumped as I have never heard the complaints you are speaking of. I would really like to know how things turn out though.

Tell Tony that chad said hi.

BTW If Tony doesn't get things working properly let me know. I would like to talk you through a few things. I just can't imagine it is a DVDM problem as I have yet to see on. But hey, anything is possible.

I just got my DVDM-100 this weekend and I have it hooked up to three Kenwood changers the picture quality is fine but I am having exactly the same kind of problem with the keyboard, the response is horrid, it is really difficult to type, very frustrating, my unit is in a darkened room with no fluorescent lighting and I am not having any IR problems with my other equipment, since it failed to identify a little over 200 disks (out of 900) I have a lot of typing ahead of me, I haven't called tech support yet because I am not finished setting everything up and I wanted to wait to see if anything else is a problem so I can work with them all at once.


Tom

Tom

You may not have do any typing: I had the same problem at first but learned the workaround: see this post (post 96):

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3106792#post3106792

try this first: it worked for me

Thanks Mark, I sure will try this first, I am a really poor typer to start with and don't need any more "help" from the keyboard.

Tom

OK, I took the entire thing apart last night and used the Sony for about an hour or so by itself with no problems. I hooked the DVDM-100 back up checking everything over twice, used a different set of cables, and no change. Even though the Sony read and played the DTS discs in question without the Escient as soon as the Escient is hooked up it totally bypasses the DTS soundtrack on these discs. The IR issue remains extremely slow. I do not have any problems with any of my other devices, nor using the Sony remote with the player by itself. The Escient KB just does not want to respond typing characters other than what I type and an extremely long response time. I've taken it apart and it is back in the box. I am returning it to the dealer and will try to do a test at his place. If we get different results with a different player, then I am really stumped as the 777 by itself has performed extremely well. I will let you know how I make out, but it may not be for a couple of days as my schedule is extremely crunched right now. Again, thanks for all the help and suggestions.

One obvious question, did you take off the film covering the IR window on the DVDM? I thought back to when I first got mine and I remembered that film would cause IR issues.

As far as the DTS goes. The DVDM automatically starts playing a DVD when you select it. Bypassing the DTS track is actually the Sony changer and not a function of the DVDM. This is a nice feature though because it bypasses all of the intro sales and adds on a DVD. The drawback is it will start to play the DVD with the default audio on the DVD itself. Since not all DVD players and not all receivers are DTS capable, this will not change and become the default audio. It is an extra step, but if you go to the menu of a DVD once it begins playing, you can select DTS as your audio and resume playing.

BTW-Does any DVD player begin playing the DTS audio without having to go through the menu and select it? I don't think I have ever seen one that does this.

Wow you know I never checked to see if there was a film over the eye....boy am I gonna feel like an a$$hole if thats the problem....so much for 12 years experience with HT.



Tom

Well it's stuck on there pretty good. You really have to look at it to notice it's there.

Thanks for giving me a break, but I still should have checked it, talk about a rookie mistake.................

Tom

Originally posted by chadly25
One obvious question, did you take off the film covering the IR window on the DVDM? I thought back to when I first got mine and I remembered that film would cause IR issues.

As far as the DTS goes. The DVDM automatically starts playing a DVD when you select it. Bypassing the DTS track is actually the Sony changer and not a function of the DVDM. This is a nice feature though because it bypasses all of the intro sales and adds on a DVD. The drawback is it will start to play the DVD with the default audio on the DVD itself. Since not all DVD players and not all receivers are DTS capable, this will not change and become the default audio. It is an extra step, but if you go to the menu of a DVD once it begins playing, you can select DTS as your audio and resume playing.

BTW-Does any DVD player begin playing the DTS audio without having to go through the menu and select it? I don't think I have ever seen one that does this.

Yes, the film was removed. Re: DTS the Sony will actually pick the DTS track if you enable the option for Track Priority. When using the Escient and I stop the DVD and go to audio options it will not let me pick the DTS track. If I disconnect the Escient, some discs with DTS will start with the DTS as the preferred track, the titles in question stop at the DTS - Dolby slection screen and I am able to select DTS and play the disc with the DTS soundtrack without issue.

Well if there is a film on my eye it must be permanently bonded to plastic, I don't see it and I'm afraid I am going to scratch the eye if I keep poking at it. IR seems to be my undoing with this unit, I cannot control my Kenwood changers using the pass-through with the cords plugged into the DVD Control ports, this could be a deal breaker if I cannot get to my OSD while watching a movie, I tried several different cables and all three changers but I get no response, I even tried rebooting the fireball as I didn't have the cables plugged in when I first booted it up, any suggestions.


Tom

My unit was returned to the distributor today. The distributor happens to be closer to me than the Dealer so I dropped the unit off there. They called Escient and we spoke with Tony and explained the problem again and gave all the information. I am stumped, they are stumped, and so is Escient. Apparently, I am the first one to return a unit to them (the distributor, not Escient). Tony is going to try and recreate the problem internally and let me know. In the meantime I am without the DVDM-100. The DVDM-100 is what prompted all my upgrades and now it is not even part of the system, very strange. I hope they find something out and let me know. If not, back to the drawing board. I will update if I here anything.

Boobie,

I was able to get the kenwood OSD to showup by pressing the escient "audio select" button (or whatever it is called) a few times. I know it makes no sense, but it did indeed bring up the Kenwood OSD via IR through the Escient. I actually just expected it to toggle DD and DTS, but it just brings up the DTS menu. To be exact, it is the downloaded Pronto IR CCF code which I assume is the same.

I can tell you though that I still also use my Kenwood IR codes from my pronto directly and they are received and control it....

Does anyone know which "play" command is supposed to bypass the menus? The one I use still stops at the DVD menu...

Thanks,


BJBBJB

BJBBJB

I guess what you are saying is that you CAN control your Kenwood through the FireBall, are your changers modified to version 3 of the software? Mine do not respond to the Pronto at all in the pass-through but work fine with an IR emitter on them. I can't use that as a work around because all three of them respond to the remote at the same time if I put the emitters back on them. I guess I will call Escient tomorrow and see what they have to say. Thanks for the reply.


Tom

B00bie,

Sorry, I only have one changer, that is why I can go direct with my kenwood codes. Of course with three of them you would have a problem :) So forget the emitters...

But DO try that escient "audio" button on the DVDM-100 while a disc is playing.... it definitely brings up my OSD on the Kenwood. There is a delay, you hit it like twice and wait a few secs and the OSD comes up. Hit it again, it goes away. And that is through the Escient so it should only go to the player you are controlling. I expected a direct audio code, but I can only assume they intend for you to use the OSD to pick the audio mode.

With the OSD up, you can either try the 4-way cursor control on the escient to see if it works or use the Kenwood 4 way control, the other players would not be in OSD mode and would ignore it. Again, I am using the code from the downloaded CCF, so if the Escient remote does not do it for you, the CCF would. I thought I had read you had a Pronto a few messages back.

BJBBJB

Sorry I am no help when it comes to the Kenwood changer. I have only had one in my system and it was for an A-B comparison during a beta test. I do find it strange that the audio button would bring up the OSD. I will have to try this and see what happens with my Sony.

One of the funny things though is when I was doing beta tests for the DVDM I pulled the DVD changer's component cables and plugged them into my Sony SAT HD200 to see if it would be compatible with HD DVD in the future and it worked without a hiccup. Picture was just as stunning as it was going directly to my television. You must have a defective unit or even two of them. One thing you said makes me believe this. It was when you said the picture got better with the second one. You shouldn't have been able to tell a difference at all unless there was something wrong with your DVDM. Having a good a-b comparison and seeing different results rules out the possibility of anything else being the problem.

Originally posted by chadly25
... You must have a defective unit or even two of them. One thing you said makes me believe this. It was when you said the picture got better with the second one. You shouldn't have been able to tell a difference at all unless there was something wrong with your DVDM. Having a good a-b comparison and seeing different results rules out the possibility of anything else being the problem.

Chad,

I agree and I spent some time at the Distributor yesterday explaing all of this while we had Tony on the phone again. Like I said, everyone was stumped. The second unit was a definite inprovement over the first, but the problem still existed. Going direct to the display produces excellent results, much better than I was expecting. On the second unit, the weird thing is that IR was all over the place. On the first unit, I had no problems with IR at all. DTS on certain discs was a problem with both units, not sure why since they work fine without the DVDM-100 in the loop. I didn't really check the serial numbers to see if they were in the same mfg. run, but asked Tony to do that. At this point, I will not waste any more resources on it unless they come back to me and ask me to try again. I offered my setup as a testing bed to solve the problem, but was not taken up on the offer. Very disappointed. I really wanted this to work. It is definitely a cool toy, when it works. Tony was going to try and recreate the problem in house. If you should talk to him, see if you can find anything out. Anybody know anything about the Video ReQuest Product?

Chadly25,

I finally have my E-120 hooked up to the network and running. However, the DVM-100 cannot "see" any MP3's burned onto it as the music guide screen is blank. I know it cannot see changers hung off the E-120 (I do not have any), but I thought you could select and stream audio from the E-120? Is there some magic setting on the DVM-100? I did not see anything. I rebooted also and it did not find it.

If I connect directly to the E-120 (i.e. view and listen to the audio and vidoe directly out of the E-120) it is all there and works great.

Would be nice to get at it from the same interface though for those times when you want.

Any ideas? Is there a router setting or something that I need to make?

BJBBJB

Hi

Check page 124 in the manual, from the setup menu select internet configuration and then server connection, you should be able to "see" your e-120 in there and select it.



Tom

Nice catch Tom. I did the same thing when I first hooked up my DVDM. I thought they would just be in the system. Makes more sense when you think about it though. If you and your kids have a fireball, you may not want to see any of their music so you don't select it as a server. Let us know if you have any other issues.

BTW-How are you liking your new setup?

Hi Chad

Overall I am extremely happy with it, I have three Kenwood changers connected to it with about 900 DVD's, I only had to manually input about 30 titles myself, considering the movies that I buy I was really impressed with the results. On the not so good side, I have talked to Tony at Escient about two things I am having a problem with (I need to call him back), the first is disc flip, my Kenwoods are capable of flipping over the discs to play the other side, I have a number of two-sided discs and have now lost the ability to access the back side, I am sure they could implement another IR code in the machine to pass the disc flip command out on the cable to the changers, I use a Pronto to control my system so as far as I'm concerned I wouldn't even need a mapped key on the original remote to do this. The second and not really good one is my IR is terrible, I thought at first it was a problem with the keyboard but I built a keyboard panel in my remote and mapped the codes from the Escient CCF and got the same results, I had to enter all the unknowns using the remote (took forever) and even then sometimes it would work and sometimes not, normal operation is hit and miss also, I often have to hit a button two or three times to get a response from the unit. (this is not an IR gremlin, I have my equipment in a darkened isolated area behind the theater and am having no problems with anything else in the system, it fails with direct input right at the front of the unit as well as using the eye or the IR port). Please tell me there is a way to back up everything I have done so far so that if I must send it back for repair at least I wont lose all my changes. Well I have ranted on long enough but I just wanted to say that I just purchased a 40H to go along with the DVD-M100, I will be moving all of my music out of the PC and into the single interface (WAF).

b00bie,

Your IR problems mirror my experience with the second unit I received. Of course I had other issues with picture degradation and some DTS discs that caused me to ultimately return the unit. The good part is that I have received several calls from Tony and he has been in touch with both the distributor and dealer. If they are able to solve the problems, I would be willing to try again.

Phil

So far I have done a lot of setup and very little watching, I would like to check the DTS problem you are talking about, exactly what was happening in your setup, BTW my video (component, interlaced) is perfect I do not see a difference between the picture switching the Fireball in and out, however this morning I hooked up the s-video into the distribution amp and the picture is really soft, I am going to check the cables later on, hopefully I just have a bad one somewhere.


Tom

I remember when I first hooked up my unit I was a little disappointed with the IR control. When I took off the film covering the IR receiver it helped but was still not without flaw. If you are looking for the BEST IR method to control the DVDM, you will need to purchase an IR repeater system. To do this simply cover the IR window with some black tape. Install an IR receiver and place it anywhere that is line of sight from your remote. Connect your IR receiver to an IR connecting block. Then hook up a 1/8" mono cable from connecting block to IR 1/8" mini plug on the back of the DVDM. If you have a Pronto that is RF capable, simply get the RF base station and plug in a mono cable from RF base station to IR input on back panel of DVDM. This is how I have mine installed and have never had an issue with control.

Remember Tom, DVD's are made to perform best with component video. The picture won't look as good with S-Video, but it shouldn't also look bad. It should look as good as a DSS broadcast connected with S-Video.

Pyramid IR repeaters work well too: my units are in closets and I use the repeaters for the keyboard

The ultimate solution to this is the LCD Touchscreen: not cheap but it makes the UI much better

Chad

I presently use a rather complex Xantech IR system to control my system, I ran a cable directly from one of my zone amps into the IR IN jack on the back of the fireball with no change in results, which prompted me to ask the question about being able to back up my data, as I beleive that I am going to have to send my unit in to get it repaired.


Tom

P.S. I understand that the output would not be as good on S-video, I am judging the picture by what I used to get from the S-video out of the Kenwood when I had them daisey chained together before the Fireball, this is not a new setup for me , I previosly had all of this functional and distributed throughout my home, the only new component is the Fireball and the great interface, and the quality of the picture is much softer than even the SD output of my satellite receiver which is fed to the same amp.

Tom,

The DTS issue was on DTS only releases such as Apollo 13, Dragonheart, The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over, & The Bee Gees: One Night Only. The menu comes up to select DTS only sometimes and other times not. Even when selecting the DTS track it defaults to DD 2.0. Going through the menu or using the audio button was also unsuccessful. Without the Escient I am able to select and play these tracks with no problem. Now, you have the Kenwood player, so oyu may not have this problem at all.

Tom,

Did you cover the front when you had it connected to the rear of the DVDM? That could be causing a problem. I have had devices not operate properly when they see two identical commands simultaneously.

Check page 124 in the manual

Thanks B00bie. I actually am one of those strange people that read manuals. However I only glanced at the internet settings page as that was working.

Anyway, found the setting and it works well. Hope you solve your problems.



Thanks,
BJBBJB

Check page 124 in the manual

Thanks B00bie. I actually am one of those strange people that read manuals. However I only glanced at the internet settings page as that was working.

Anyway, found the setting and it works well. Hope you solve your problems.



Thanks,
BJBBJB

Thinking about dropping my Entre and hooking up my Kenwood changers and Kenwood 5900 receiver to the Escient products, everyone still happy? I want to hook it into a multi-room/multi-source system in a house I am building.

B00bie, what do you think having been a Kenwood man?

Derek


Very happy with mine, I have it hooked up to an Onkyo 989 and I use the zone 2 out into a distribution amp that I send to other rooms in the house, I have IR in those rooms so I can just pick a movie off the list wherever I am and watch it. The DVDM seems to be much more stable than the Entre, and while there is more of a monetary investment to get the same functionality as from an Entre, it is much easier to use and has no down time (so far). You should be able to pick up a used H-40 on ebay, you can use a USB/Ethernet adapter or HNPA to hook it to your network, and I understand it can be upgraded :) If you need any help let me know.


Tom

Derek,

Like the DVM100 a lot. Can't compare to the Entre as I never had one, but it works well. Found about 90% of my discs, first try. Also nice CCF support. Now if I could only keep my Kenwood DV-5900M reading discs and in service!! But that is another story.


BJBBJB

What do you guys think a good price for an H with the 120gb upgrade may run? How about the M100? If I do not need different MP3's playing at the same time, is there any reason to go for the MP-100?

I heard from Escient today that they are doing some type of music server deal in September that will make the migrating of MP3's from the computer to the player much more reliable and easy. They said it would only require a software update.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
What do you guys think a good price for an H with the 120gb upgrade may run? How about the M100? If I do not need different MP3's playing at the same time, is there any reason to go for the MP-100?

I heard from Escient today that they are doing some type of music server deal in September that will make the migrating of MP3's from the computer to the player much more reliable and easy. They said it would only require a software update.

The H units only came as a 40 gig. I wouldn't buy a hacked unit if I were you, that's only asking for problems. The MP-100 won't work with the DVDM-100 because the MP-100 only reads MP3's from an H or E series fireball and the DVDM doesn't have a harddrive to store MP3's.

The software you are speaking of sounds really promising. It allows you to use your computer to not only file share to your fireball, but also control it. Can't wait to take my laptop outside and be able to easily control my music through my outdoor speakers.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Thinking about dropping my Entre and hooking up my Kenwood changers and Kenwood 5900 receiver to the Escient products, everyone still happy?

Still happy with my DVDM-100 & E-120:)

Originally posted by markrubin
Still happy with my DVDM-100 & E-120:)

I sold my Kenwood Entre a few months back due to a lot of frustration... I now have the DVD-M100 system connected to my Kenwood 5900M's, and it works like a charm!! I also bought an old FB and upgraded the HD to a 120 GB. Works great together with the DVDM100! I am now a happy camper (I was not during my Entre days)!

How did you upgrade? Did you use a golden disc or something?

Originally posted by chadly25
How did you upgrade? Did you use a golden disc or something?

Yes, there is a way to reformat a new 120 GB HD using a CD on the classic FB... It will install a fairly old version of the SW with the 120 GB partitions. Once the FB is booted up the FB will download the latest sw version - that's it. I got the CD from someone that got it to work on his FB, so it was easy for me. I got a demo FB for $900 at a local dealer, so with the 120 GB upgrade I got the full system for less than $1200 in total. Pretty good deal! It works very well with the DVDM-100.

Note: to my understanding there is no easy way to upgrade the new 40 GB FB. The upgrade CD I used will only work on the classic FB.

Are there any REAL reasons to get the new fireball instead of the upgradeable old one?

Originally posted by DerekFSU
Are there any REAL reasons to get the new fireball instead of the upgradeable old one?

Not really to my understanding... the main new feature on the new FB is the built in ethernet card. On the classic you need to use a USB to ethernet converter if you have it on a network (e.g. connected with the DVD-M), but that's no big deal. Other than that I don't know about any improvements over the classic FB.

Derek

You also have the flexibility of using HPNA on the classic if you want to.


Tom

The one difference between the two could possibly be the next generation of computer interface software. At this time it is up in the air whether or not it will work on the H units. I sure hope it is. Pipeline is good for what it is, but there could be some definate improvements.

I can't believe that Escient would abandon the H series given the way they currently support thier discontinued products when they introduce this new software. I think given the market that they appeal to this would not do them too much good. I gotta tell you Chadley I do not find the Pipeline software to be good at much, maybe casual editing, but when it comes to transferring files it is really poor at best.........


Tom

Well I have heard both stories. I for one really hope that we get the update too, but to be safe, I would buy an E rather than an H at this point. I'll keep my fingers crossed too.

Greetings,
My DVM-100 and Kenwood 5900 combination is going to the escient "disc image" screen saver while watching a movie.... even though nothing has paused the movie. It appears random, and has happened about 5 or 6 times during a showing of one of the Star Wars flicks.

I wonder if anyone else have seen this behaviour. Of course I immediately suspect the ever-tempramental Kenwood 5900, but don't want to jump to that conclusion.....

BJBBJB

Originally posted by BJBBJB
Greetings,
My DVM-100 and Kenwood 5900 combination is going to the escient "disc image" screen saver while watching a movie.... even though nothing has paused the movie. It appears random, and has happened about 5 or 6 times during a showing of one of the Star Wars flicks.

I wonder if anyone else have seen this behaviour. Of course I immediately suspect the ever-tempramental Kenwood 5900, but don't want to jump to that conclusion.....

BJBBJB

I have never seen that problem (I am using 2 5900M's with my DVDM-100). Sounds strange...

I have never seen this either, I have a 5900 and two 5050's hooked up to mine. There is an option in the setup menu to adjust the amountt of time or even turn off the screen saver, I don't see what bearing it would have on your problem but try changing the timing, if that doesn't do it you can always call tech support they are great.


Tom

Thanks. However now the DVM-100 will not control any transport controls (stop, play, etc.) on the changer, although it will power it up/down, and the dvd menu commands work. I am going to try changing the wires to see if that helps, but I suspect something has gone bad...

If I use the direct changer remote, the transport commands still work.

BJBBJB

The transport control is sent over the 1/8 cable, the other funcions you mentioned are sent through the RS-232, I would check that cable first....Did you try the old standby the reboot you know when all alse fails with a PC power cycle.


Tom

Sratch that last post, I went and did a little test, the DVD menu stuff is sent on the 1/8 cable...can you select a disc from the menu and the changer cues it up to play?


Tom

Sounds like the RS232 controls the transport based on your last post.
Yes it will pick a disc and load it. And the DVD menu works. But no transport response through the escient commands.

I tried replacing the 1/8 inch cable, no difference. Escient said to replace the RS 232 with a null modem cable which I did purchase and try. With THIS cable it would not even communicate with the changer! Is it really a null modem cable or is it a straight pass through (serial cable) you are supposed to use???

The manual does say "serial cable"

The Kenwood is supposed to be on "main" correct?

I rebooted too. No difference.


BJBBJB

I use the cables that came with my Kenwood's I am not sure if they are null modem, and yes I have all three of my changers on main, try a reboot of the DVD payer, unplug it count to 1,000,000 :) I guess 10 would be OK and see if that helps, I had one that all of a sudden wouldn't talk to the Escient at all and the hard reboot fixed it.

Tom

b00bie,

Thanks for your help! I dug out that old Kenwood 232 cable (ah yes those netnamer days) and it did not help. It "worked" the same as my original cable, that is, everything worked except transport control through the escient.

What I had NOT done, and what your post reminded me of was the full "pull the plug on the Kenwood and maybe it will start working right again" trick.
I had turned the switch totally off taking it out of standby, but not pulled the plug.

I left it unplugged for an hour, and plugged it back in and it worked.

However that just cannot be normal behavior. Hopefully it stays working for a while now. I guess that also isolates whatever issue there might be to the Kenwood's RS232 port and not the Escient. Rebooting the escient did nothing.


Anyway, thanks again,

BJBBJB

Great

I only had that happen once so maybe it,s just a fluke, I had one small trouble with my IR on the Fireball and Escient took care of it right away but otherwise I love this thing, I can't see being without it. The wife thinks it's the best piece of gear I have ever bought I also picked up one of their music servers and put all my CD's and MP3's in it and now she has a single interface for everything. Take it easy.


Tom

Sounds like an RS232 problem inside of the changer to me. If you have multiple changers you could always swap cables from a changer that is definately working. If that doesn't help then you could plug your non working changer into your working changers ports and see if that helps. If it does then I would do the opposite with the other changer and narrow down the problem. I really think you will find that it is an RS232 problem with your changer (possibly the FB but not likely from your problems). Reason why is because the screen saver comes on when there is no feedback of video being played which is an RS232 communication from the changer back to the FB. If the changer wasn't sending out this info then the FB would think it was paused or stopped and it would send out the screen saver. Let us know what you find out.

Have anyone else noticed that lately the Esceint movie database is slow to be updated for new titles? I have several titles I have purchased over the last few weeks that still are not recognized (I hope it is just a temporary backlog rather than reduced ambition level to not include some common titles).

On another note - any update on the promised new TCP/IP user GUI to control the DVDM-100?

Has anyone had any luck with Shrek 2? Mine still can't be found and searching by title is not yielding results.

Try again, I think it was added to the db just a couple of days ago. I did a search for movie information (refresh) yesterday and Sherk 2 was identified.

Originally posted by Lars158

On another note - any update on the promised new TCP/IP user GUI to control the DVDM-100? [/B]

this is what I am interested in:

I see the new wireless touchscreen is on the Escient site but I don't know how it will interface to existing DVDM-100's?

On another note - any update on the promised new TCP/IP user GUI to control the DVDM-100?

Lars,

Last I heard it was January for the Fireball and the DVM-100 would follow. I would be interested in hearing how "E2" fireball users like the interface and what the differences are are. I am mainly concerned about being to make a good backup of the burned music in case the hard drive goes (again).

As far as the touchpanel, with tcp/ip control and the web interface, control options certainly expand.

BJBBJB

So after reading all 22 pages of discussions on the Escient DVDM100, I think I know the answer, but will ask anyway.

I have the Sony DVP-CX875P (300 disc) and would like to add or upgrade to the newer Sony DVP-CX985V (the newer 400 disc). But it seems like you can only do one MODEL of any changer. So I have two questions that I would like clarification on....

1) Can I even use these DVP flavored Sony changers? Or am I forced to go with the 777ES?
2) If so, am I correct in assuming that I cannot use 2 different models even if they are both the DVP flavored Sony megachanger family?
3) A bit off topic, but does anyone know if the 777ES is available in black? Sony's site makes it seem as if Silver is the only option. Which is stupid if you ask me, but I digress.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

Happy New Year

I think you are forced to go with the Sony 777ES or a Kenwood changer: the Sony used to be listed in black and silver but I only see silver available now: it is a nice changer!


15" LCD Touchscreen mount question:

I would like to mount the Escient 15" touchscreen (S Video version for DVDM) on an articulating mount but the mounting pattern on the back of the panel seems to be non-standard:

can anyone point me to a mount or a VESA adapter?

Thanks

Hoping to get a more clear answer from anyone....

So after reading all 22 pages of discussions on the Escient DVDM100, I think I know the answer, but will ask anyway.

I have the Sony DVP-CX875P (300 disc) and would like to add or upgrade to the newer Sony DVP-CX985V (the newer 400 disc). But it seems like you can only do one MODEL of any changer. So I have two questions that I would like clarification on....

1) Can I even use these DVP flavored Sony changers? Or am I forced to go with the 777ES?
2) If so, am I correct in assuming that I cannot use 2 different models even if they are both the DVP flavored Sony megachanger family?
3) A bit off topic, but does anyone know if the 777ES is available in black? Sony's site makes it seem as if Silver is the only option. Which is stupid if you ask me, but I digress.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

I can not answer for Sony, but I do know that you can mix models of Kenwood changers. I have two Kenwood DV-5900M's and one DV-5050M in my configuration with the Escient DVDM100, and it all works great!

On another note, are there any news on the new web based interface for Fireball units (and DVDM100)?

LOVE the ability to FTP into the DVDM no more lost cover art for me..Just received the DVDM today and am swapping it out with my Entre which i hated. Will be putting the DVDM through its paces

LOVE the ability to FTP into the DVDM no more lost cover art for me..Just received the DVDM today and am swapping it out with my Entre which i hated. Will be putting the DVDM through its paces

How are you FTP'ing? Is it the 300? I didn't think the software download was available yet.

no its the dvdm-100 and the instructions are up on escients web site go to support, dvdm-100 and its on a pdf file..
heres something strange ..no matter what dvd i put into sony slot 13 it comes up as unreadable.. i take the same dvd and put it in another slot and its fine.

DISC READ ERRORS

Reset factory configuaration. Disc error on 13 gone now comes up under a different slot...

I noticed that there is now an update for the Firebell E-40/120 to get the new web based interface... but unfortunately there is no update for the DVDM-100. Anyone know if the DVDM-100 eventually will get an update also?

http://www.escient.com/eupdate/

I just installed the E-120 update and the touchscreen GUI is much improved:

it adds some 35-40 soft buttons around the perimeter of the display for all the functions: very nice!

:)

This from Michael Fadlevic at Escient a few days ago, "The D (DVDM) doesn't currently have a web interface. That is coming End Q1, Early Q2 2005."

The new Fireball update is incredible. Not only does it allow Fireball control from a web browser and stream it to your computer, but it allows you to "drag & drop" MP3 files to the Fireball in windows explorer. THAT is a HUGE improvement.

I just wish they would also provide this upgrade to those of us with the older Fireball units (the ones released before the E-40/120 models)... any word on this?

Originally posted by Lars158
I just wish they would also provide this upgrade to those of us with the older Fireball units (the ones released before the E-40/120 models)... any word on this?

No idea. I have the E120 so that's all I've heard about.

Originally posted by DerekFSU
No idea. I have the E120 so that's all I've heard about.

I have sent the question to Escient support. I will let you all know what I get back...

Originally posted by Lars158
I just wish they would also provide this upgrade to those of us with the older Fireball units (the ones released before the E-40/120 models)... any word on this?

Last word I received was that they weren't going to support the H units. Hopefully that will change, but I doubt it will.

Originally posted by chadly25
Last word I received was that they weren't going to support the H units. Hopefully that will change, but I doubt it will.

This is the reply I got from Escient:

"There are no plans for the FireBall H-40.
This newer software does not support HPNA or USB.

There will most likely be no more updates for that model."

That's a shame :(

The upgrade to the E-120 does work well.

With the sirius stations gone, I wonder if anyone has tried streaming sat. radio as a registered user? The problem I see is you need to login and I do not think the fireball will support that.

I know how to add direct weblink streaming, but according to XM radio, there is a browser login if you signup for their streaming service.

BJBBJB

Originally posted by BJBBJB
The upgrade to the E-120 does work well.

With the sirius stations gone, I wonder if anyone has tried streaming sat. radio as a registered user? The problem I see is you need to login and I do not think the fireball will support that.

I know how to add direct weblink streaming, but according to XM radio, there is a browser login if you signup for their streaming service.

BJBBJB

That would be cool, very cool.

DVDM-300

anyone seen the DVDM-300? DVD and Music Manager

MSRP $4995.00

Never heard of it. Seems that would be a natural evolution to combine the two pieces like the Entre. It doesn't seem to be on their website.

http://www.escient.com/escientatces.html

Wow that's pricey. I only uses 128 encoding on my MP3's so 120gb will last me a long time and at that price, it'll have to.

I am taking the plunge on the DVDM-300: got hefty discount and dealer says they are available :)

will probably sell my DVDM-100 & E-120/touchpanels

Originally posted by markrubin
I am taking the plunge on the DVDM-300: got hefty discount and dealer says they are available :)

will probably sell my DVDM-100 & E-120/touchpanels

Cool. I don't need the rack room (don't know if this would save any anyways) and I don't need more GB's so I can't find a reason to change. I'm still trying though. Let me know if you can think of a good one I can use as an excuse.

Let me know if you can think of a good one I can use as an excuse.

my excuse is I want to consolidate both the DVDM-100 and the E-120 into one unit and try the wireless touchpanel :)

my dealer claims the first 100 units have just been released and I should have a DVDM-300 by Friday: he has a wireless panel in the showroom I can borrow

Escient DVDM-300 up & operating :)

got the DVDM-300 and the EWP-2000 today

the DVDM is a silver finish and connections are similar to DVDM-100

there is noticeable fan noise but mine is in a closet

It recognized the E-120 (with software upgrade) and the Sony CDP changer connected to it (the 100 would not)

The Web Pad is the best part of this :) :)

it runs Windows XPe and is a cool 8.4" wireless 802b touch screen: press an icon on the desktop and you connect to the DVDM screens with touch control: or you can use it as a web browser: this is Escient's best user interface yet

everything works except the DVD changer : it must run a "quick lookup" before it is recognized

lots of work getting the DVDM-300 set up

-it will not allow a mix of Sony DVD and CD changers to be connected: up to 3 of one kind only: so I am exporting 400 CD's from the CD changer to the DVDM-300 hard drive

-the DVDM-300 will no longer recognize the E-120 as a client directly since it saw the DVD changer: I can see the DVDM-300 and E-120 from a PC and the Web Pad: you select one or the other:the PC interface is excellent

- on a PC, you can map the DVDM-300 and the E-120 as hard drives and drag and drop files to import/export MP3 files: you can do it in batches or one album at a time, and you can select tracks to move as well:

so I am moving 300 addl CD files from the E-120 hard drive to the DVDM-300 : a total of 700 CD's to move

- I can eliminate the DVDM-100,the CD changer and the E-120:
everything will be consolidated onto the DVDM and it's DVD changer(s)

Disc Capacity

on the DVDM-300, in order to see Hard Drive useage:

-go to Options/delete music: this brings you to an info screen

on mine (still migrating/burning CD's) it shows:

3414 local tracks

space for approx 27368 more tracks

approx 1885.4 hours of recording time left

this varies by bitrate settings

Escient : The FireBall Backup Kit

I got the FBK-300 today:

it consists of an instruction manual (available from the Escient site) and a Maxtor OneTouch II external 300gb drive 16mb cache 7200RPM in its original box from Maxtor with "Combo" interface (IEEE 1394& USB) P/N E01G300

fyi:

the HDD inside the DVDM-300 is the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 QuickView 300gb/PATA 133 HDD

the CD-R/RW drive is a Sony CRX230ED (this drive will not handle DVD's)

the nicest thing about the new software is the "disc insert preference" which gives you a choice to automatically burn a CD and eject it once you insert it: saves a bunch of time :)