So silly... Canada leads in DIGITAL VCR race
Not Canada, MGI. They bought Zorans biggest headache and added their own sledge hammer to it. Yep even a sledge hammer will compress...
07/05/1999
Inside Multimedia
(c) 1999 Phillips Business Information, Inc.
A highlight of my recent Canadian trip was the visit to fast- growing MGI Software in Toronto, writes John Barker. MGI was formed in 1995 by escapees from the likes of Corel, Alias/Wavefront, and Delrina. It's a dynamic and fast-growing software company whose digital imagery products are having a big impact. With more than 16 million copies shipped, MGI's PhotoSuite and VideoWave are the leading brands in retail and OEM distribution spanning 25 countries.
The Learning Company, now a division of Mattel, has just signed a multi-year software development and licensing agreement to include MGI's award-winning imaging technology in its existing and future products. Last month also saw deals with a clutch of Taiwanese digital camera producers to bundle PhotoSuite II with their products. So the still imaging side is doing well, but it is the moving image side that is capturing the world's attention.
Pure Diva
We first wrote about MGI in IM following the unveiling of their personal video recorder (PVR) solution on Intel's Pentium III stand at Milia last February (see IM 186). Codenamed MaxMedia it essentially turned your PC into a digital VCR by using the tuner card in your PC to record off air onto hard disk for later playback
In May the product was launched at E3 as Pure Diva. It makes it possible for the first time to simultaneously record and playback video in software. MCI fervently believes that it will ship with most 500 MHz Pentium III-based systems this Christmas.
"Pure Diva is a tremendous opportunity for PC manufacturers to boost Pentium III system sales by offering entertainment functionality that would cost four figurers to duplicate in consumer electronics," said Anthony DeCristofaro, president and CEO of MGI. "
Pure Diva is best described as a digital entertainment software suite. It comprises four programs:
* digital VCR
* time-shift digital TV
* DVD Movie Theatre
* CD audio player.
The core of this product is called V3 technology, allowing simultaneous encode/decode of MPEG video streams from the same file in real time. The digital VCR component allows one to digitise the incoming TV signal, store it on the hard disk, and view it and manipulate it on a screen (TV or monitor). The user determines the amount of TV stored on hard disk.
Storage happens in two ways: buffering for instant replay and regular recording for future replay. When the TV program is viewed one can pan and zoom on the image on the screen (still or moving). One can also have instant replay of any portion of the programme. In addition, you can bookmark the video so that it zips past commercials (the next iteration of the software may have a facility to detect the commercials and zap them completely).
Pure Diva uses an electronic programming guide (EPG) to personalise the recording of TV events. The current iteration supports the Web TV feature in Microsoft Windows (not to be confused with WebTV, the consumer box that Microsoft bought). Web TV for Windows is essentially an EPG (think of it as an electronic TV Guide). This is hosted on a web site that needs to be accessed by a modem (cable or telephone). Pure Diva allows up to one week's worth of TV listings so that one doesn't need to do this every day.
EPGs are now being developed for the UK market by third parties. The combination of the EPG with a TV tuner card turns on the PC to record a TV programme at a predetermined time. The selection process is simple pointing and clicking. "Our software is ideal for those who want to manage their TV viewing, whether it be entertainment or information," said DeCristofaro. "With Pure Diva, they may want to time shift to see a replay of a goal while watching hockey, or to write down the URL of an interesting company to invest in while watching the Bloomberg report on CNN."
You need a 500 MHz Pentium III with at least 128 Mb RAM, 8 Gb hard drive, AGP video card with 8 Mb RAM, DVD-Rom drive, 16-bit sound card and speakers, TV tuner, and Windows 98. Those system requirements may seem daunting at the moment, but they will soon be the norm. Why do you need so much firepower? The answer is that you have to handle MPEG-2 encode and decode simultaneously - in software. Think about it. You are watching a football match on television and Pure Diva is recording the match in the background. You decide to replay that last goal again. But Pure Diva is still recording the whole match onto hard disk in the background. That is why you need the P3 and the SIMD stream. But you need neither an MPEG encoder or decode board in your PC.
The magic is that if the programme is already encoded in MPEG-2 then Pure Diva simply stores it on your hard disk. If it is an analogue TV signal then Pure Diva encodes it into MPEG-2. MGI admit that their first iteration cut a few corners and was not a standard MPEG stream; the next version will correct that anomaly. Macrovision and CSS copy protection is built in.
The software decoder is built on the back of their experience with DVD Max, a software-only DVD playback solution that it sells to OEMs. Until now the biggest competitors were Zoran and Mediamatics. Last week half that competition was removed with the announcement of a strategic partnership with Zoran. As a first step, Zoran will transfer to MGI the intellectual property related to SoftDVD, Zoran's DVD software decoder for PCs, along with some of its related software development and support resources in exchange for cash, MGI common stock, and future royalties. MGI has reintroduced SoftDVD as SoftDVD MAX.
Josef Zankowicz, MGI's communications director, told IM: The Zoran deal is very important to MGI and the computer industry. We have acquired the best software-only DVD technology on the market today. Zoran practically invented the category. The PC industry is making the shift to DVD-Rom. CD-Rom is dead. However, the cost differential between the two is substantial. To get costs in line, MGI's SoftDVD solution will be used to eliminate specialised chipset decoders which can cost $10-$50, depending on the volume purchase. DVD-Roms are now being shipped with PCs at a run rate of 1-1.5 million units per month. Next year this run rate is expected to be 10 million per month. DVD is high capacity storage, so expect applications, games, music and movies to ship using this format.
Contact: Jenny Cartwright, marketing manager Europe North Tel 07970 403019, jennyc@mgisoft.com.
IM analysis
In fiscal 99 MGI lost $8m Canadian on sales of $15m but what the hell, in the Internet age that's not a problem - we rate MGI as one of the companies to watch. Shrewd investors should note that $6 million of this loss is represented by expensed R&D on new products that have yet to earn revenue for the company. Intel owns a 5 per cent stake in the company to make sure it gets things right for the industry.
Pure Diva is a true convergence product that marks the beginning of the end of the VCR and ushers in an era of Interactive DVD. You don't even need a DVD disc in your PC. You could simply download the content on to your hard disk! The implications of the digital PVR are thus immense and are thus examined later. |
