Niveus Ice Vault 200 DVD-changer
posted October 16th 2005 9:00AM
While true techies are only satisfied by ripping their entire DVD collections to humongous hard drives, the majority
of people just want a simple way to organize and play back their physical discs. With this in mind, high-end
audio/video manufacturer Niveus has just
announced a 200-disc DVD-changer for the (very rich) everyman which allows for on-screen selection of the desired
movie. The Ice Vault 200 (also the name of the safe where we store the Engadget diamond collection), as it's known,
hooks up to any Niveus Media Changer PC (sorry HP fans, not compatible with the
new z556 desktop or any other Media Center PC) through a
FireWire connection and displays its disc selection as a catalog of movie posters in the "my DVD" section of Windows
Media Center Edition. Several Ice Vaults can be daisy-chained together, giving you access to over 1000 titles, and
metadata is automatically updated as new discs are added. Niveus is shooting for a November release date, and although
price has yet to be announced, we are speculating that it will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of a million billion
dollars.
[Via Digital Media Thoughts]
talk about overpriced
Is there any market for such a thing?
Over 1000 titles...Does that mean 1200, or unlimited and 1000 was just picked as a random number.
What about those of us without Media Center PCs? We want this for our theatre rooms, too. I don't have a Media Center PC because I don't need one, so why are they punishing me? Oh, God, why!?
Without sounding like I'm making a market research would anybody be interested in one that doesn't need a media center PC to work?
I love engadget like anyone else, but man, stop using good damn (smirk comments) five times within each sentence.
I enjoy being able to read with out having to go back and forth. And I do enjoy them, but now you're just over doing it!
There are ready are ones that don't require MCE machines to work. Our company installs them quite often. They are made by Escient. (www.escient.com) While pricey and without little plugins like yo uget in MCE these devices are rock solid and very user-proof.
I am in the 'rip dvds to hdd' camp (I recently moved from the UK to the USA for a couple of years and prefered to bring 2 external hard disks rather than a big box of dvds) and was wondering if anyone knew of any software for presenting the iso images in a more friendly fashion than mounting them individually using nero imagedrive?
Rik, have you seen DVD Lobby?
I have DVD lobby, though I wouldn't midn something that didn't require me to use a keyboard. I would be interested in this device if it had half the capacity and was in the $500 ballpark. Chances are neither are going to happen.
I hadn't - but I have now! Much obliged Wes :)
Rik, check out a Xbox with Xbox Media Center (www.xboxmediacenter.com). It can stream ISO/IMG's over a network and you are able to playback the DVD's with menues and all. You can even rar them up too to save alittle more space.
You can get a 400-disc Sony DVD changer for $400. I'm not sure if you can daisy-chain them, but they do offer on-screen navigation.
#12, I've got a 200 DVD Sony jukebox that I got like 6 years ago, and while I only have one, it is easy to link up multiple ones.
Rik, if you use MCE2005 then you want to get http://www.mymovies.name/ for free. It will organize all of your online and offline DVDs for you and integrates directly into MCE.
I need a list of all DVD changers that include: 400 Disc Capacity, Firewire and daisy chain capability. These are my requirements to build up the DVD collection system with Window MC.
Well November has come and gone, and no release. I've e-mailed them twice asking release date, availability, compatibility with non-Niveus systems and these are the replies from Brian Paper:
11/15/2005
"Our website will continue to be updated in the coming weeks with information regarding Ice Vault functionality, specifications, features & availability. Please stay tuned for additional information on this topic."
12/9/2005
"We should have dealers carrying this product in your area after the first of the year. I'm happy to keep you posted when the product becomes available in your area. You will also be able to purchase this product directly from our website at www.niveusmedia.com."
All I wanted for Christmas was an MCE compatible DVD changer!
Well November has come and gone, and no release. I've e-mailed them twice asking release date, availability, compatibility with non-Niveus systems and these are the replies from Brian Paper:
11/15/2005
"Our website will continue to be updated in the coming weeks with information regarding Ice Vault functionality, specifications, features & availability. Please stay tuned for additional information on this topic."
12/9/2005
"We should have dealers carrying this product in your area after the first of the year. I'm happy to keep you posted when the product becomes available in your area. You will also be able to purchase this product directly from our website at www.niveusmedia.com."
All I wanted for Christmas was an MCE compatible DVD changer!
Hrmm seems like a complete rip off of Sony's XL-1 Digital Living System.