[highendhome]

OK. I know there is a lot of debate about the legal approaches taken by each company to effect some type of compliance with law. Let's skip that discussion and just focus on the practical and technical side of the comparison for a moment. I want a video and audio server system, tied to Crestron, with the ability to send simultaneous different streams to 10 TVs throughout the house. I also need HD support (even if coming soon in the case of Kaleidescape). And I want to locate most of the equipment in a dedicated room and not near the TV I'm watching. MediaMax seems good but what won't it do? What are the pros and cons of each system? Just pure practical and technical comparison here please.

 

[Dizzman]

First it is axonix. (small thing)


As far as the answer you are looking for, it really needs to hit three areas. and some of those are going to be hard to get answers for here.


1. Control. Robustness of command set, responses, etc. Only a programmer who has lots of experience can answer this for you. i know the answer but i will let you dig up lots of other ppl. i suggest going to the yahoo groups and searching the crestron amx programmers forum. they can let you know their feeling on both.


2. Reliability of the system. remote monitoring, system diagnostics, etc. you are buying a system that if ia drive goes down, you need to (your installer needs to) know about it right away to avoid a total system melt down. preferably before the first drive goes down. you need to know that the mfgr knows IN DEPTH about all the components, and that they are not just reselling somebody elses product.


3. User experience, upgrades for the future. Look at both, get a loaner from dealers of both to play with for a day or two. how does it respond, how accurate is the data, how fast is it. skipping previews, warnings, etc. how much user intervention is needed for adding any content. what to do with missing metadata.


At the end of the day, we can do a feature for feature comparison and depending on how it is all worded... either one could be the outstanding winner.

 

[JlgLaw]

I echo Dizz's comments and would add the following:


One of my businesses is an A/V company that is authorized for K, Axonix, and Xperinet. We now only sell and install K systems. We have replaced two Axonix systems and one Xperinet system with K as well.


Reliability:

It is not my intent to trash the other systems, they do work, and I imagine the problem rate is typical of those types of systems. The problem is, our clients DEMAND simple trouble free operation and at this point, only the K system has shown the reliability required to service our clients at that level (not to mention it has absolutely the best GUI).


Service:

How about a client away from home for several days that comes back to find a drive has failed (email from K to the dealer as well), he calls the dealer to report the issue and while the dealer is on the phone explaining the process, FedEx shows up with a new drive. It had been shipped immediately after the problem was identified by K. (That's the only drive failure we have seen, and the need for that type of speedy replacement has been mitigated by the introduction of the 3U Server with it's hot swap backup drive.)


Functionality:

We have found that on average the K loads movies and CD's faster than Axonix (have not compared the Xperinet).

K's GUI is so user friendly and reliable that I've seen a 4 year old work the system without assistance (and K's parental controls are excellent).


I'm not saying that K is perfect, it isn't (we always want more

), but based on our experience with their systems, we will continue to sell only K.


I should also disclose that I have a K system in my home as well, so I've become somewhat biased in K's favor over the years.


Jim