FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ESCIENT™ ANNOUNCES FREE FEATURE UPDATE FOR
FIREBALL™ SERIES MUSIC AND MEDIA MANAGERS

-- Award-Winning FireBall Products To Gain Even More Advanced Features, Plus Easier, More Intuitive Operation and More --

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, September 9, 2005 – Escient, the pioneer in advanced digital home entertainment management, today announced a major free feature update for its award-winning E, E2, and DVDM series of FireBall digital home entertainment managers. The software upgrade, which will take effect beginning in September 2005, will enhance and expand the home entertainment experience for Escient’s installed base of FireBall customers, adding both new features and improved functionality. Upgrades will be available to all FireBall E, E2, MP-150, and DVDM owners via Escient’s Software Update process. The company will be demonstrating the new features at its CEDIA 2005 Booth # 383.

Noted Bernie Sepaniak, president of D&M Holdings’ Rio, ReplayTV, Escient and ACT divisions: “As digital home entertainment management becomes an increasingly popular option for discriminating consumers, Escient is continuing to lead the way with innovative new products that provide the ultimate in convenience, flexibility and total system integration. As we design and introduce our new products, we’re also committed to bringing innovation and new features to our installed base of loyal customers as well. With this free software upgrade, we’re delighted to be able to bring even more cutting-edge features and improved functionality to enhance the FireBall experience for all our users.”

New FireBall Features Will Enhance the Total Home Entertainment Experience
Escient’s new feature update will add an exciting roster of new features and enhanced functionality to all currently installed FireBall E, E2, MP-150, and DVDM products. Following is a list of key enhancements:

  • FireBall-to-FireBall Music Sharing – new peer-to-peer file sharing architecture provides ability to browse and play music files between two FireBall music servers adding system storage capacity and multi-user and multi-zone support.

  • DLNA and UPnP Music Server – FireBall will now stream music to any compatible DLNA media receiver on the home network. The DLNA compatible media receivers and hand-held remotes can browse and play music from the FireBall server by genre, artist, album and song.

  • PDA Interface – control a FireBall using a very simple web browser interface on virtually any web enabled PDA, cell phone, or web pad and includes browsing, searching, and playing by genre, artist, album, track, and cover art.

  • WMA Playback – full import, export, and playback support for Windows Media Audio files including full metadata and cover art support.

  • Shoutcast Internet Radio – stream MP3 files from 1000s of Shoutcast Internet radio stations from around the world and includes metadata support by displaying the artist name, song name, and the cover art for the currently playing song. Dozens of high quality Shoutcast format Internet radio stations have been added to Escient’s RadioDB tuning service.

  • Gapless Track Playback – perfects playback of live recordings and classical movements by eliminating any gaps created from storing music data in separate files on the hard drive.

  • Customizable User Interface – new user interface skins and backgrounds can be customized by the end-user.

  • Widescreen User Interface Mode – new 16x9 user interface mode for use on widescreen TVs and displays.

  • Improved Web Interface Performance – the FireBall web interface is now more responsive with faster screen changes, scrolling, and data editing.

  • Improved Data Editing Interface – several enhancements have been added to simplify the data editing process including an automatic unknown group, quickly moving between titles, multiple cover art matches, and location information on the edit screens.

  • Edit the Playing Playlist – the currently playing playlist can now be edited.

    Customers may visit www.escient.com for instructions on how to receive their free upgrades

About Escient
Escient is a division of D&M Holdings U.S., Inc., and is the pioneering leader in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, sales, distribution and support of a groundbreaking category of audio/video products that meld the power of the Internet seamlessly with intuitive home-entertainment devices. Escient’s products and services are designed to enhance the entertainment experience by providing previously unheard-of ways to access music, movies and related content throughout the home. The company possesses a deep portfolio of designs for new products including media servers, DVD systems, remote players and networking and streaming devices, that are brought to market under the Escient brand through a channel of over 800 locations throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico, and in partnership with other leading global consumer electronics brand.

About D&M Holdings Inc.
D&M Holdings Inc. (TSE II: 6735) is based in Tokyo and owns the Denon, Marantz, McIntosh Laboratory, Boston Acoustics, Snell, D&M Professional, ReplayTV®, Rio® and Escient® brands. Denon, Marantz, McIntosh and D&M Professional are global industry leaders in the specialist home theater, audio/video consumer electronics or professional audio markets, with a strong and long-standing heritage of manufacturing and marketing high-performance audio and video components. Boston Acoustics, with its signature Boston Sound,™ is a leader in premium loudspeakers for home and audio markets. Snell is a super premium speaker brand. The ReplayTV, Rio and Escient brands represent award-winning technologies in digital home entertainment. Additional information is available at www.dm-holdings.com.

DISCLAIMER
Statements in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may include forward looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We wish to caution you that such statements are just predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties surrounding competitive and industry conditions, market acceptance for the company's products, risks of litigation, technological changes, developing industry standards and other factors related to the company's businesses.

Escient and the Escient logo are registered trademarks and FireBall is a trademark of Digital Networks North America, Inc.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Media Contact:                            
DBA Public Relations
Michael Raisanen
+1-212-388-1400        
mraisanen@dba-pr.com