Escient FireBall DVDM-300 Media Management System

[Clint DeBoer]

<P><A href="http://www.audioholics.com/ces/CESmisc/EscientFireballDVDM300.php"><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><IMG style="WIDTH: 125px; HEIGHT: 85px" alt=[FBDVDM300Plasma1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/FBDVDM300Plasma1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></FONT></A><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Escient recently introduced its <A href="http://www.audioholics.com/ces/CESmisc/EscientFireballDVDM300.php">FireBall DVDM-300 Media Management system</A>. Available in the first quarter of this year with an MSRP of $4,999, the FireBall DVDM-300 merges Escient’s music management system with its DVD movie management system, into a single home media server. Escient demoed the DVDM-300 product during CES this year and we have to say, the ease of use and integration of both audio and video content is very impressive.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>[<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/ces/CESmisc/EscientFireballDVDM300.php">Get More Info</A>]</FONT></P>

[BMXTRIX]

I think Escient, with their Fireball products really are putting out some fairly affordable digital music servers.

Anyone looking to drop 5 grand(ish) on this who may be looking to integrate it with a control system (AMX/Crestron) should avoid it, or be prepared to live with very poor integration. Escient has very good user interfaces and gives you a lot of features for your money, but it's external control protocols for RS-232 are not nearly as solid as the internal GUI controls and protocols.

People may want to look at iMerge or AudioReqest for high-end integration needs if that is where you money is drawing you. The Escient's have been good stand alone pieces though and if it is one room you are in with the remote and screen right in front of you, they work really well.