Escient Web User Interface User Manual

WEB User Interface

USER’S MANUAL

THANK YOU
The team at Escient would like to take this
opportunity to thank you for purchasing an Escient
product. Escient is committed to providing our
customers the most technologically advanced, yet
easier-than-ever to use products that converge the
power of the Internet with home entertainment.

To maximize your enjoyment, please take a few
minutes to review this User’s Manual.

If you should need assistance please call our
Customer Support Staff at 800.372.4368

THE ESCIENT TEAM

INTRODUCTION 3

ESCIENT PRIVACY POLICY 3
CONTACT INFORMATION 3
COPYRIGHT 3
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

THE WEB INTERFACE 3

USING THE WEB INTERFACE 3
CONNECTING TO YOUR FIREBALL

FIREBALL WEB INTERFACE 4

LISTENING TO MUSIC

BROWSING YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY 5
SHOW AND HIDE TRACKS 5
PLAYING THE CURRENT TITLE
SELECTING A DIFFERENT SONG
CHANGING THE GUIDE VIEW 6

View By Artist
View By Title 6
View By Song
View By Cover

CHANGING THE CURRENT PLAY MODE
VIEWING BY GENRE

5

LISTENING TO INTERNET RADIO 8

BROWSING INTERNET RADIO STATIONS 8
PLAYING THE CURRENT STATION

GETTING MUSIC INTO FIREBALL 11

RECORDING FROM THE INTERNAL CD 11
RECORDING FROM AN EXTERNAL CHANGER 12

MANAGING YOUR MEDIA 13

CREATING PLAYLISTS 13
CREATING GROUPS 14
ADDING INTERNET RADIO STATIONS 15
UPDATING THE INTERNET RADIO STATIONS LIST 16
EDITING MUSIC INFORMATION 1

Automatically Lookup Information for This Disc 1
Searching for the Original Cover 19
Tips for Searching for Covers 19
Selecting an Existing Cover 20
Editing Track Names 2

EDITING RADIO INFORMATION 2
EDITING PLAYLISTS 22
EDITING GROUPS 23
DELETING MUSIC 24
DELETING PLAYLISTS 2
DELETING GROUPS 2

SETTING USER PREFERENCES 26

SELECTING THE CLIENT MODE 26

3

SETTING THE SCREEN SAVER PREFERENCES 27

Activation Idle Time 27
Mode 27
Retail Demo Mode 27
Photo Screen Saver Mode 27

3

SETTING YOUR TIME ZONE
SETTING YOUR ZIP CODE 28
ENABLING PASSWORD PROTECTION 28

Setting a System Password 28
Removing a System Password 28

CHOOSING YOUR NETWORK CONNECTION 2

Ethernet Settings 2
Dialup Settings 30

SETTING THE FIREBALL SERVER NAME 30

5

SELECTING THE AUDIO ENCODER TYPE 31

6

SETTING THE DISC INSERT PREFERENCES 3
MANAGING EXTERNAL CHANGERS 3

6

Automatically Getting Disc Information 32
Getting Disc Information for a Range of Discs 33

6

Getting Disc Information for All Discs 33

6

RECORDING FROM EXTERNAL CHANGERS 3

7

Automatically Recording CDs 3

7

Recording a Range of CDs 35

FIREBALL UTILITIES 36

Getting Information about Your FireBall 36
Restarting the System 3
Updating the Software 3

8

28

7

8

0

1

5
5

9

9

1
2

4

4

6
6

WATCHING DVD MOVIES 9

BROWSING YOUR MOVIE LIBRARY 9
PLAYING THE CURRENT MOVIE
CONTROLLING THE DVD PLAYER 9
CHANGING THE GUIDE VIEW 9

View By Title
View By Cover

VIEWING BY GENRE 1

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 36

ESCIENT SUPPORT 36

9

9
9

0

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Web UI User’s Manual

INTRODUCTION

ESCIENT PRIVACY POLICY

Escient is committed to providing you with a product that you enjoy and are
confident in using, and are committed to providing services in a private and
secure environment.
We recognize and respect each individual user’s privacy and have created this
Privacy Policy to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy.

We want you to be fully informed about the information that we collect, why
we collect it, and with whom we share it.

It is our hope that, after reading this notice, you will understand our
commitment to privacy and be confident that we will use your information
responsibly. By using the Escient FireBall Web Interface, you are accepting the
practices described in this Privacy Policy.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Escient may be contacted by using the following information. Once you have
worked with your local Escient dealer, we encourage you to contact us if you
are in need of any further assistance.

Escient
6640 Intech Blvd. Suite 250
Indianapolis, Indiana 46278

Phone: [phone] Press “2” for Sales, or “3” for Support
Fax: [phone]
Internet: www.escient.com
Email: [e-mail]

THE WEB INTERFACE

USING THE WEB INTERFACE

The FireBall Web Interface is used to remotely control the FireBall over a local
network using a standard web browser on your PC. The Web Interface provides
an almost identical interface as that of the FireBall TV User Interface. This
commonality among interfaces makes it easy for Escient customers to manage
and control any FireBall product using the same methods, regardless of the
actual interface. More details are provided in the following sections of this
manual.

Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00am - 7pm EST

COPYRIGHT

This manual is copyright ©2006 by Digital Networks North America and
Escient. All rights reserved.

TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Following are terms used throughout this manual.

• Button - refers to a graphic item on the display screen.

• Group – a collection of similar music titles. Standard genre groups are
provided and custom groups can be created by the user.

• Highlight – highlighting is used to indicate the user’s selection on screen.
When the selection moves up, down, left, or right, the highlight moves to
the next nearest item. No action is taken (except that more information
may be displayed on the screen) until the Select key is pressed.

• Info Text Area – the portion of the guide screen used to display
information about the highlighted title.

• Playlist- a collection of one or more music tracks or songs.

• Title- a collection of music tracks commonly referred to as a CD, Album
or Playlist.

• Key - refers to one of the buttons on your remote or keyboard.

• MP3 - a compressed digital audio format. MP3 files are smaller than the
original CD tracks and sound almost identical.

• FLAC - a lossless compressed digital audio format. FLAC files are smaller
than the original CD tracks and are bit for bit duplicates of the original.

• Guide- a grid or list of information, used to browse your media library.

• Player- the screen used to display the currently playing media.

CONNECTING TO YOUR FIREBALL

Each FireBall Media Manager contains a built-in web server capable of serving
web pages specifically designed to control almost every aspect of the FireBall
from a standard web browser such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

CONNECTING TO YOUR FIREBALL

Connect to your FireBall Server from Internet Explorer, if you know the “IP
Address” of your FireBall.

Follow these steps to determine the IP Address:

1. Select the SETUP button to display the Setup menu on your TV.

2. Select the Utilities menu item.

3. Select the System Information menu item.

4. Write down the IP Address of your FireBall’s Ethernet connection.
This number is located in the bottom right of the System Information
screen and consists of four numbers separated by periods. Example:

192.168.1.1

5. Select the SETUP key again to exit Setup

Using the Internet Explorer web browser (or any web browser connected to the
same network as your FireBall) enter the IP address of your FireBall and then
the RETURN command. Your FireBall Server’s Music Guide will appear in the
web browser in a few seconds.

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Web UI User’s Manual

FIREBALL WEB INTERFACE

The FireBall Web Interface is the graphics and control system web pages
that appear in your Internet Explorer browser. From this web page, you can
control almost every aspect of your FireBall, just as you would from the
original IR remote and TV. The familiar FireBall Guide, Player, Options
and Setup mode are all supported from the Web Interface.

You will notice that unlike the TV user interface, there are buttons along the
left and right edges of the web browser. These buttons duplicate the features
found on your remote control.

MUSIC GUIDE SCREENMUSIC PLAYER SCREENMUSIC OPTIONS SCREEN

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LISTENING TO MUSIC

BROWSING YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY

The Music Guide allows you to browse, locate, and play all of your music in
one easy to use on-screen guide.

The Music Guide displays a list of all your Music Titles. Using the Page
buttons on the right edge of the screen, you can scroll up and down the list.

SHOW AND HIDE TRACKS

If you select a Title in the list, you will expand the current Title to reveal a
list of the Title’s Tracks.

Select the Title again to collapse the current Title and hide the track names.

PLAYING THE CURRENT TITLE

Playing the currently highlighted Title is the same as playing a CD in a
conventional CD player. Simply select the PLAY button and it begins to play
from track 1.

Note: If you select a track name, you will start playback from the selected Track.

You’ll notice that a new screen appears with a list of the songs (or tracks) on
the current Title, this is the Music Player screen. The Music Player displays
the artist name, album name, album cover art, and track list for the current
Title.

MUSIC GUIDE SCREENMUSIC PLAYER SCREEN MUSIC GUIDE SHOWING TRACKS

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SELECTING A DIFFERENT SONG

In the Music Player you can scroll up and down the track list using the page
button on the right edge of the screen. Select a different song to play the song.

CHANGING THE GUIDE VIEW

The PLAYER button on the left edge of the screen is used to switch between
the Music Guide and Music Player screens. When you are viewing the Music
Player screen, select the GUIDE button to return to the Music Guide.

The Music Guide provides you with several ways to view the contents of your
Music Library. One of the easiest ways to browse and sort your Music Library
is by using the Music “Views”. There are four Views that you can toggle
through using the MENU/VIEW button on the left edge of the screen:

• View By Artist

• View By Title

• View By Song

• View By Cover

View By Artist

View By Artist is the default
View and displays your Music
Library alphabetically from
A to Z using according to the
Artist Name then the Album
Name.

View By Title

View By Title will order the
list of Titles alphabetically
from A to Z, according to the
Album Name then the Artist
Name.

View By Song

View By Song will order the
list of Titles alphabetically
from A to Z, according to the
Song Name.

View By Cover

View By Cover displays
a graphical 3x3 grid of
album cover art, sorted
alphabetically from A to Z,
according to the Artist Name
then Album Name.

Web UI User’s Manual

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CHANGING THE CURRENT PLAY MODE

The default Play Mode will play the current Title from Track 1 to the last track
in order, then stop. If you want to change the order of how tracks are played,
there are six different Play Modes to choose from:

• Normal – play each track in order in the current Title, then stop.

• Repeat Track – repeat the same track over and over until you select stop.

• Repeat Title – play each track in the current Title in order then repeat the
entire disc until you select stop.

• Repeat Group – play each track in each title in the current group and then
repeat them until you select stop.

• Random Title –randomly select and play a track from within the current
title. Continue until you select stop or every track in the current title is
played.

• Random Group – randomly select and play a track from any title in the
current group. Continue until you select stop or every track in the current
group is played

To change the current Play Mode, select the PLAY MODE key on the left edge
of the screen. Each press of the PLAY MODE key will switch to the next Play
Mode. Stop pressing the PLAY MODE key when you see the desired Play Mode
appear on the screen.

VIEWING BY GENRE

In addition to the current Guide View, the Music Guide automatically organizes
your Music into default “Genres” also called “Groups”. The Group Bar displays
a horizontal scrolling list of Genres corresponding to the music in your library.
Five Genres or Groups are visible at one time. The “All” genre is the default,
which displays all Titles in your Music Library.

LEFT and RIGHT arrow buttons appear on the left and right edges of the
Group Bar when more Groups are available. Pressing these arrows scrolls the
Group Bar horizontally by one or 5 items at a time. Notice that the list of Titles
updates to show only Titles in the selected Genre.

• Scroll all the way to the left to return to the All Genre.

• Genre list will scroll to the right to reveal more Genres.

• Refer to the section “Managing Your Media” for instructions on creating
your own Genres to create custom groupings of your favorite music titles

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LISTENING TO INTERNET RADIO

BROWSING INTERNET RADIO STATIONS

The Radio Guide displays a scrolling list of Internet Radio Stations. Using the
Page buttons on the right edge of the screen, you can scroll up and down the
list. As each Station is highlighted, you will notice that the Information Area
and Cover Art changes to reflect the currently highlighted Station.

PLAYING THE CURRENT STATION

Simply select the PLAY key on the right edge of the screen and the currently
highlighted station will be located, buffered, and then played.

You’ll notice that a new screen appears displaying information about the
selected station. This is the Radio Player screen. The Radio Player displays
the station name, location, genre, genre cover art, and status about the current
Internet Radio station stream. FireBall will attempt to locate the station to
make sure it is currently broadcasting over the Internet, connect to it, buffer
some audio, then begin playing the audio stream. The status of all of this
activity is indicated at the bottom left of the screen.

• Playing Internet Radio requires a valid Internet connection.

• Although some stations will work over a Dialup Internet Connection, a
broadband Internet connection is recommended.

• Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, you may experience periodic
audio drop-outs which could be due to many factors such as Internet
access problems, busy networks, etc...

• Internet Radio Stations are not hosted by Escient and may not be available
at all times. You can update your Internet Radio Stations list by running
Tune Stations. Please refer to the “Managing Your Media” section for
more information.

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WATCHING DVD MOVIES

The Movies source button is only available when you are connected to an
Escient DVDM Media Manger with an external DVD changer. The Movies
source button will be disabled when you are connected to a FireBall Music
Manager.

Please refer to the FireBall DVDM User’s Guide for information about setting
up external DVD changers and loading your DVD movies.

BROWSING YOUR MOVIE LIBRARY

Once you have properly configured your DVDM, loaded your DVDs into the
external changer, and the Quick Lookup feature has acquired information for
your DVD collection, the Movies Guide allows you to browse, locate, and play
all of your DVD movies in one easy to use on-screen guide.

The Movies Guide displays a list of all your Movies Titles. Using the Page
buttons on the right edge of the screen, you can scroll up and down the list.

PLAYING THE CURRENT MOVIE

Playing the currently highlighted Movie is the same as playing a DVD in a
conventional DVD player. Simply select the PLAY button. The appropriate
DVD disc is located in your external changer, loaded into the player and begins
to play.

You’ll notice that a new screen appears with a description of the movie, a large
cover image, and DVD controls. This is the Movies Player screen. The Movies
Player displays information about the current movie and lets you control the
playback of the DVD player using the touch screen.

CHANGING THE GUIDE VIEW

The GUIDE button on the left edge of the screen is used to switch between the
Movies Guide and Movies Player screens. When you are viewing the Movies
Player screen, select the GUIDE button to return to the Movies Guide.

The Movies Guide provides you with several ways to view the contents of your
DVD Library. One of the easiest ways to browse and sort your Movies Library
is by using the Movies “Views”. There are two Views that you can toggle
through using the “MENU/VIEW” button on the left edge of the screen:

• View By Title

• View By Cover

CONTROLLING THE DVD PLAYER

In the Movies Player you can access the DVD’s menu system by using the DVD
Top Menu and the DVD Menu buttons. Use the arrow buttons to navigate up,
down, left, and right within the DVD’s on screen menu.

MOVIES GUIDE SCREEN

View By Title

View By Title
will order the
list of Movies
alphabetically from
A to Z, according
to the movie’s title.

View By Cover

View By Cover
displays a graphical
3x3 grid of movie
cover art, sorted
alphabetically from
A to Z, according
to the movie’s title.

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VIEWING BY GENRE

In addition to the current Guide View, the Movies Guide automatically
organizes your Movies into default “Genres” also called “Groups”. The Group
Bar displays a horizontal scrolling list of Genres corresponding to the Movies in
your library. Five Genres or Groups are visible at one time. The “All” genre is
the default, which displays all DVDs in your Movie Library.

LEFT and RIGHT arrow buttons appear on the left and right edges of the
Group Bar when more Groups are available. Selecting these arrows scrolls the
Group Bar horizontally by one or 5 items at a time. Notice that the list of Titles
updates to show only Titles in the selected Genre.

• Scroll all the way to the left to return to the All Genre.

• Genre list will scroll to the right to reveal more Genres.

• Refer to the section “Managing Your Media” for instructions on creating
your own Genres to create custom groupings of your favorite Movies titles

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GETTING MUSIC INTO FIREBALL

Before you can enjoy the many benefits of your FireBall Music Management
system, you will want to get your music collection into the FireBall. The
process of getting music into FireBall is called “Recording” or sometimes
“Ripping”.

There are several ways to get your music into FireBall:

• Record CDs using the internal CD Drive

• Record CDs using optional external CD changers

• Record from an external source (such as a tape, LP, or other real-time
source)

• Transfer Music files from your PC using a network

You may choose to use any or all of these methods at any time. Here is a brief
description of a few of these methods, however you should refer to the FireBall
User’s Manual for more detailed information about getting music into your
FireBall.

RECORDING FROM THE INTERNAL CD

The easiest and quickest way to get music into your FireBall is to record
CDs using the built-in internal CD drive. This method requires no additional
equipment and is very fast, as the internal CD drive can rip audio at several
times the speed of normal playback. This is known as “fast-ripping”.

Follow these steps to record using the internal CD drive:

1. Select the EJECT key on the front panel of your FireBall.

2. Insert an audio CD (label side up) into the CD tray.

3. Select the EJECT key again to close the CD tray.

4. The CD cover and track names for this CD will appear on your web pad.
(If the disc is not in the FireBall’s local database, FireBall will use your
Internet connection to retrieve the disc information).

5. Select the RECORD button on the right side of the web pad’s screen to
display the Recording Options Menu.

6. Make sure that rip to internal hd is selected, then select the CONTINUE
button.

7. The Record Select Guide will be displayed showing the current CD with
checkmarks to the left of each track name.

8. Select the CONTINUE button to begin recording.

• When recording is complete, FireBall will return to the Music Guide.

• Repeat steps 1-8 for each disc in your music collection.

• Refer to the section “Setting User Preferences” for setting Recording
Preferences and Disc Insert Preferences.

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