Though it may seem expensive, in the world where Escient plays—high-end A/V installations—$1,995 is a reasonable price. If you've got hundreds of DVDs, or if you prefer physical media to digital, the Escient FireBall DVDM-100 provides a simple way to look up disc information and cover art and display it on your TV. Once you've loaded one, two, or even three Kenwood or Sony 400-disc megachangers with a mix of CDs and DVDs, the DVDM-100 looks up the discs online, then lets you browse your music and videos by genre from your TV.

The magic is inside the box. On the outside the DVDM-100 looks like a button-free black VCR. On the back is every kind of analog or digital A/V connector, plus four RS-232 ports used to connect the disc changers or an Escient hard drive jukebox (neither is included). A wireless keyboard and a remote control are included. The keyboard is the way to go.

Between Escient's 18,000-title DVD database, called OpenGlobe Entertainment Services, and the Gracenote CD lookup database, the DVDM-100 can identify virtually every CD and DVD. Discs are sorted into broad categories, so you can search a list of, say, 40 rock albums rather than 10 classic rock, 10 southern rock, and 20 country rock albums. The on-screen display shows cover art, genre, year of release, and company.

Navigation with the keyboard is easy; just press Music or Movies, pick the genre and the media, and the disc plays. You can't currently browse by artist, actor, or director, but Escient says a fix is in the works. And you can find most disc information online, along with such fluff as trivia and ads for more discs to buy through Escient. You can connect the company's digital audio servers ($2,500 for the 120GB Escient FireBall E-120) but not the growing number of Linux servers or repurposed PCs that do the same job for 1/5 the price.

Speed is a nonissue with the DVDM-100; anything that seems slow, such as disc shuffling, takes place outside the box. There are only brief lags when you shift from CDs to DVDs. But annoyingly, when you start browsing DVDs, the CD music stops. We tested with a Sony DVP-CX777ES 400-disc progressive-scan DVD/CD changer ($700 street); the combination worked impeccably. And although CD lookup is commonplace, the DVDM-100 has no competition for DVD lookup and categorization on this scale.

Future competition is likely to come from PC or Linux boxes that offer much the same intelligence for a fraction of the cost. But for now, the DVDM-100 stands alone.