death knell for jumpy headache-inducing digital video?
Yeah, because Cube has THE stuff...
Digital video technology on fast forward
Upshot
May 15, 2000
by Matthew Bell
Could this be the death knell for jumpy headache-inducing digital video? If the folks at C-Cube Microsystems have their way, their new chip for digital video recording (DVR) devices will deliver broadcast-quality video capability to the masses. Engineers at the Milpitas, Calif., company have developed the DVxcel -- a chip for PCs, notebooks, DVD machines, camcorders, or any number of consumer devices, representing a quantum leap in digital video for consumers.
The key, according to Patrick Henry, vice president of marketing and corporate development at C-Cube, was creating a single, low-cost chip that can simultaneously encode and decode MPEG-2 compression. "There are many companies with MPEG-2 decoder technology, but few with encoder technology, which takes very complex algorithms," Henry said. The company will start shipping its new DVxcel chip in quantity this summer.
In hard drive-based DVRs, the DVxcel chip enables you to play, pause, rewind, or instantly replay while recording a live TV broadcast. The chip also enables DVD optical and tape-based devices to encode and decode broadcast-quality video.
DVD is already hot. According to Tim McNamara of the Consumer Electronics Association, Americans will buy an estimated 6.5 million players this year, making "DVD the fastest-selling consumer electronics product in history."
But don't hold your breath for an affordable DVD recorder to appear on the market soon. It should take another year or so for the price to come down on those, according to C-Cube's Henry. If the technology meets expectations, watch as bad digital video and the now-ubiquitous analog VCR go the way of the eight-track tape.
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