Official Sony BD Mega-Changer Thread: BDP-CX7000ES & BDP-CX960 - Page 5

Thanks for clearing this up. I'm on my second Escient unit, so the problems with the hardware are understandable. The second unit I have now still has problems, it will change back to the default resolution for no apparent reason. I have ripped a few movies to it, but use it mainly to control two sony megachangers, which it does quite well. Unfortunately, it will occaisonally not output sound on the ripped movies. This seems to happen after watching a changer based movie, and will resolve if the system is rebooted.

I received a similar email

From: Poore, Cory [mailto:cory.poore@escient.com]
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 11:55 AM
To: Rick Tywoniak (rtywonia); Esc Tech Support
Subject: RE: Support of Vision Line

Rick,

That’s correct, the Escient Vision product line including VS-100, VS-200, VC-1, and VX-600 is no longer shipping and has been discontinued. However, our goal remains to provide excellent service to our dealers and end users and as such, we will still honor warranty for existing Vision product including service, support, and future software updates. Existing Vision product owners can also still expect a significant software update planned for Q4 2009. Further software updates also still include adding support for Sony’s BDP-CX7000ES 400-disc Blu-ray changer.

The decision to discontinue Vision is mainly the result of factors such as technical challenges, declining sales, and shifting market trends since Vision product launch. Therefore, we have decided that a shift in strategy is warranted. This includes, but is not limited to, integration of new product capabilities and support for high definition content. In the mean time we will continue to re-evaluate our product strategy and customer trends but we will not be making any new product announcements at CEDIA 2009. We will definitely share our product plans as soon as we are able to.

Nothing official but I believe high definition support for upcoming product to be mainly focused around the Sony BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray changer – so don’t rule it out.

Regards,

Cory Poore
Escient Technical Support
cory.poore@escient.com
(800) 372-4368 Ext. 3

________________________________________
From: Rick Tywoniak (rtywonia) [mailto:rtywonia@cisco.com]
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 3:09 AM
To: Esc Tech Support
Subject: Support of Vision Line
Importance: Low

I noticed you just discontinued your vision line. Do you still have plans to support Sony BluRay players. I own a vision and was hoping to hook it up to Sony’s BluRay changer.


Regards,


Richard Tywoniak

This is the email I received from Escient today:

"Escient is discontinuing the Vision Series and focusing on a new line of products to address a number of evolving technologies.

With that said though, we will continue to support the Vision products already in the market with a number of future upgrades, including the ability to control the new Sony mega BD changers.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,


Kevin"

That is good enough for me.

Do you really think the prices will dramatically drop? I was waiting to buy the VS-200 after the update, but I am now concerned there will not be any available by then. The best I have seen so far is about 25% off, and that was not a major retailer.

So... what happened to the BDP-CX960? It was supposed to be out at the end of August, I thought.

Review of the product just came out - pretty good review. Do any of you think that there will be an appreciable difference between the ES and non ES versions - other than RS232 contol.

I am looking at both as these as well. I would love to know the diffrence as seen bt anybody.

Yes, I saw that review here:http://www.electronichouse.com/artic...y_megachanger/

but I am confused by the following statement towards the end:

So who needs a 400-disc Blu-ray player? Anyone who intends to collect (or already has) 400 Blu-ray discs is a good candidate. It stores DVDs and CDs, as well, so you can feed it those collections. And if you go over that amount, you can link them together and access all the content from one on-screen interface.

As far as I'm aware, there is no way to do this unless A) a fancy remote system is built to know what is in the changers or B) you get something like Escient to handle the front end.

Is my understanding correct? Or what does this person mean as that is a very vague and uninformative comment by the reviewer.

Here's a new article from CEPro, with more clarity from Escient's president...


http://www.cepro.com/article/executi...o_focus_on_hd/

It seems things like the Sony BDP changer will actually be more at the heart of some of their upcoming products, at least in the near term...

I see no way of doing this without the escient - so yes this quote is misleading or at the very least - not helpful. However this publication is not known for its depth of reporting/analysis.

[quote=thrang;17102873]Here's a new article from CEPro, with more clarity from Escient's president...

"Weissburg says D&M will show the controllability of that device (BDP-CX7000ES) in a private suite during CEDIA Expo 2009"

Sounds like they have the interface figured out. Very positive.

"To make a product focused on standard def is a little bit of challenge," Weissburg says. "Clearly, HD is the way everything is going."

Does anyone uderstand the president's comment above? The Vision line does 1080p, will support the megachanger, so what does he infer when he states it does not focus on HD?

Wouldn't it be neat if it was as simple as taking two 7000's and connecting them together with a serial cable and have them act as one giant 800 disc changer. Just configure the first as the host and the second as slave and there you go.

I'll let you know. I'm going the cheap route

Your not the only one!

I've owned two mega CD changers made by Sony. Both started skipping after about 2 years' use. Never again.

R

I own 3 400 CD changers from sony and a DVD changer from sony and never had a problem

Probably true. The question is, will they both have the same upscaler for SD DVDs? Will either approach the new Oppo 83 in upscaling?

$1000 get's you the privilege of hooking up to Escient - so that you can show all your friends the cool interface and the fact that all your ripped DVD and BluRay discs are in one library. That is worth a $1000 - come on - some one tell me it is worth it - aghhh!

The vision line - while supporting 1080P - it only supports it hooking up to the sony changer. You can not send 1080P around the house and you can not rip 1080p. Therefore - in terms of high definition the Escient is only good for front ending the Sony and that product has a pretty good interface. I suspect if Escient was to come out with a new product it would front end an Escient - send the video around the house, connect up to a Vudu service, into YouTube, and Netflix.

It's always worth it if you have the money and/or a colossally understanding "other" (or none at all).

I would simply not live to post another message here if I went back on my $800 proposed changer and bought an $1800 model AND a $2500 "toy" to play with it.

wouldn't be pretty.


James

well to each his/ her own

I am quite pleased with the new ES changer, and intend to use it 'barefoot' and see what options are presented in the future:

I still think a PC based GUI may be a solution to consider

Try searching Google with the following phrase..."Sony changer skipping problem" (no quotes).

I have the 555ES and CX455 changers. Both are sitting on shelves unused as Sony's repair quotes are laughable. Maybe you folks trust that company, but I've never had a Sony product that lasted more than a couple of years.

Roberta

Mark, is there a PC based solution available or coming soon?

nothing available now as far as I know but Barry is the one to ask:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=624

Looking at the extensive RS232 protocols and some comments made by Escient, I think it could happen

I understand many prefer a standalone solution: this would be my choice too

In my case I want to control via an RTI remote system so an IP based [ with serial] solution would be ideal