FIA On3 Digital Media Player

[Ioman]

The On3 Digital Media Player and Library,is an easy-to-use home entertainment device that lets users view videos and photos on the TV, and listen to MP3 music on personal stereos.

The FIA On3 offers a tremendous feature set, including playback, remote access, an abundant storage library, and easy installation for an amazingly low starting price of $449. The FIA On3 can be purchased through online merchants PC Connection, Tiger Direct, and Zones, and direct from FIA at www.fiaon3.com.

Also today, FIA announced that it will raffle its new On3 digital media player and library, valued at $449 retail price. The raffle is only open to registered Retail Vision attendees and within the premises of the event. Attendees are encouraged to stop by the FIA booth #DV38 in the Desert Vista ballroom, and leave your business card with a FIA representative. The winner will be announced the on the evening of April 28th.

"We are now fully shipping the FIA On3 and expect to build a solid customer base through retailers and online merchants nationwide, said Ben Marchak, vice president of sales at FIA. "The FIA On3 differentiates itself in the marketplace as the first Digital Media Player to provide instant playback in stand-alone mode (without a PC), and the first unit that condenses all digital media from camera, MP3 audio, and videos onto its high-capacity 80 or 120 gigabytes of network-attached-storage, at an unbelievably low price."

Additionally, the FIA On3 condenses all digital media and stores information onto one unit then disperses it in up to 4 rooms throughout the house using an optional FIA On3-xr station. The information is managed remotely and streamed through broadband or a wireless connection. The FIA On3 and On3-xr station come with software features to simplify viewing and audio playing. Simple setup functions let you quickly and easily install the unit in less than five minutes, making your entertainment media instantly accessible. The FIA On3 comes in two models of 80 GB for $449, 120 GB for $599, and the FIA On3-xr (extra room) Station for $249, respectively. With the 80 or 120 GB storage library, users can store thousands of digital files. The portable unit can be used alone or connected to Ethernet LAN.

The low-cost FIA On3 Player is simple to use, and supports industry standard operating system MS Windows. All products are suggested retail price, are listed in US dollars, and are backed by a limited one-year manufacturer's warranty. Retailer pricing will vary, and special discounts are available for quantity purchases. Additional information about the FIA On3 can be found by visiting the company's web site at http://www.fiaon3.com/

[synergicity]

Yes, this one is interesting. I stumbled upon it a while back. and had an email exchange with Ben Marchak and then got grilled mercilessly on the phone by Kevin Roberts of Fia. He had lots of questions about the market and the competition and I forgot to send them a bill for consulting ;-)

They are a NAS company with an idea for a new type of NMD. They big drawback, as far as I could piece together, is it doesn't stream. It should have that capability as I think it uses the sigma chipset that everyone else is using glued together with one of their lower cost Linux based NAS packages.

Interesting but pricy. I tried to get them to send me one for review, but for some reason they didn't??? I referred them to you guys as a good site for a review, but don't know if that ever happened.

[Ioman]

I think the design makes it look like a cheap toy from Toys' R Us. The shiny blue plastic just isn't doing it for me. I also have not heard much about this since I posted it, so maybe they are not following through with it?

[znaps]

Originally Posted by Ioman

I think the design makes it look like a cheap toy from Toys' R Us. The shiny blue plastic just isn't doing it for me. I also have not heard much about this since I posted it, so maybe they are not following through with it?

I don't see what I'm getting for my $449 - looks wise OR feature wise.

[Ioman]

Originally Posted by znaps

I don't see what I'm getting for my $449 - looks wise OR feature wise.

Yeah I am thinking the same thing. It probably will not make it.

[davebytes]

It is a nice system... maybe a little on the pricey side, but there's something to be said for an all-in-one player/drive unit, so you don't need another machine on in the house to stream from (like the Actiontec I'm in the middle of reviewing...).

I'd love people to check out my FIA On3 review, get some feedback. Still getting the site off the ground.

-d

[synergicity]

Nice review David. I enjoyed reading about this device after having thought long and hard about it and talked to the marketing guy.

Not reading ID3 and other music file tags is a major deal breaker for me and others, I'm sure. Not sure what they were thinking. And what about cover art? I didn't catch that you mentioned that, but I may have missed it.

And, let me make sure I understand this perfectly, the only files you can see on your TV are those that are stored on the ON3 device or the attached usb hdd? If I want the ON3 software to stream files stored elsewhere, I have to first copy them to the ON3 hdd? For example, if I keep my music on my PC hdd, can I play them through the ON3 TV interface?

The review was thorough, and I enjoyed reading it. There was some little stuff an editor would have cleaned up, maybe consider that for future reviews.

Thanks for providing this to us!

syn

[jfila]

Yes, looks to be a good review David. I didn't read the whole thing because I don't like to read other reviews before we get the products in. We should be getting an FIA On3 in here soon.

I'm not sure if you guys missed my last review but by far the best NMD I have seen is the ReQuest Multimedia Nitro Pro music server. http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review1785.html
I will probably cry when they ask for it back. It is quite pricey though and out of a reasonable price range for many of us. It's also different in that it has onboard storage and only uses the network/internet for ID3 tags, album art downloads, and synching with other devices (which is really freakin' cool). It also has one huge plus going for it - it has an LCD character display AND can be used through a TV.

[davebytes]

@syn

Thanks for the comments. Would love to know the "little stuff" you thought needed cleaning up. Feel free to drop me a line (you can always use the contact form in the About page of the site).

Yes, the On3 is completely designed around being the one and only device powered on -- all media is stored on it. There are advantages and disadvantages to that, certainly. But I liked not needing my computer on, and if I DID want to play music ON my computer, I could mount the On3 as a shared drive and play off of it.

If you want to play direct from your machine, I'm just finishing up a review of the Actiontec Wireless Media Player, which uses the same Syabas firmware (well, actually, a somewhat different version and features) so overall has same capabilities, but uses a 'server' installed on PC(s) in your home to provide it media. Keep an eye out, hope to have that posted in the next week.

Yes, there are number of products that can handle ID3 tags, the really expensive units are all-in-one servers with drives. I believe the SoundBridge can handle tags, certainly can now search/play by what sounds to be ID3 info (looking to follow up with a SoundBridge review in a month or so, given their new feature set).

-d