CES is coming right up, recently CUBE has used it's releases more as magnets to get people to schedule appointments prior to the meetings.
If this hold true than there should be a news piece early next wk?
Some CES teasers are up
Digital: From a Buzzword to the Standard in 1999
If 1998 seemed like a year of major change in video technology, 1999 should
prove to be even more explosive...and one with much more impact for the
average consumer. While digital has been a buzzword since the middle of the
decade, it is moving from buzzword to a standard in 1999, as virtually every
video technology is poised to be replaced by a digital successor. Television:
High-end sets started to reach the market in 1998, and now a number of the
companies who introduced high-end ($10,000) HDTV sets are focusing on
the sub-$5,000 direct view market. Both the number of sets sold and market
segments should increase dramatically.
One-chip designs for DTV tuners and less expensive 600-line 16x9 screens
could drive DTV prices down rapidly this year. While these sets will offer less
in the way of screen sizes, and in some cases resolution, 28-, 32-, 34- and
38- figure to be the mainstays of the new segment. These sets will include
connections not available in many of the first generation sets.
As the year goes on, more DTV tuners should hit the market, offering
solutions for retrofitting of analog TVs. Expect a Philips EchoStar/DTV tuner
by mid-year. DTV tuner/DVD players are also in the works and may emerge
before year's end. Of course, analog TV will continue to soldier along, with
some digital picture enhancements, such as line doubling and pixel
doubling-along the lines of Sony*s Digital Reality Creation system.
Projection set technology is starting to tap the LCD, with ferroelectric LCDs
and, possibly at CES from Sharp, continuous grain silicon LCDs. The end
goal: brighter, clearer PTV images. Plasma flat-panel display are multiplying,
with increased public awareness driven in no small part by the Philips gen-X
advertisement of its $16,000 panel, DBS. How much high-definition
programming becomes available from DirecTV/USSB and EchoStar will
largely be determined by the size of the installed base of HDTVs, which may
be limited initially. Ultimately, each of the services is going to face a channel
capacity problem if new technologies for compression of HDTV signals are
not worked out. Meanwhile, expect more programming in 16x9 and letterbox
formats, as well as some programming in the higher resolution 480
progressive, as a stopgap to solving the bandwidth problem.
Video. Expect the wide-scale introduction of digital VHS this year. Two
flavors, one for HD format and a less-expensive standard definition version,
will be available. HD decks should arrive at under $1,000, with SD decks in
the $500 range.
DVD should settle in as the major movie format, because of Blockbuster*s
aggressive rental program, as well as the slide of entry-level product through
the magic threshold of $299 seen in late 1998. Add-on features, such as
DTV tuners and the emerging DVD-Audio standard, should provide price
boosts at the upper ends of product lineups.
At least two vendors plan to show prototype recordable DVD-based
camcorders at CES. The analog camcorder begins its march toward oblivion
this year, as digital camcorders, which crashed through the $1,000 price
barrier last year, push further down into camcorder lines. By the end of 1999,
almost all high-end consumer models will be digital, with some of these digital
models creeping down toward the $600 price mark.
CES will also showcase the chip engines that drive current and future video
products. * nDSP Corp., teamed with audio processor manufacturer
MedianiX, will be show a non-linear digital signal processor, the nD3200,
designed to improve a display*s performance handling analog or digital TV
programming, as well as VGA input. * VM Labs will demonstrate its NUON
technology for transforming digital video products such as DVD players,
digital satellite receivers and digital set-top boxes into interactive multimedia
centers for gaming and interactive software applications. Motorola
Semiconductor Products Sector*s Consumer Systems Group will be showing
how the NUON media processor works a PowerPC CPU to support its
BlackBird Interactive MultiMedia Development Platform. Motorola envisions
a Home Media Platform that would support video phones, internet phones,
DVD Video and Data, Home theater, Web access and broadband video
networking.
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