C-Cube Ziva spotted....
02/07/2000
CONSUMER MULTIMEDIA REPORT
(c) Copyright 2000 Warren Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD hardware sellthrough was holiday hit with 1.1 million players bought by U.S. consumers in Dec. alone, research firm NPD Intelect reported. Retail sales for month brought 1999 total to 3 million, and launch-to-date installed base to 4 million, NPD said. For 2000, NPD forecast sellthrough of 8 million decks, based on reports from key retailers that Jan. sales were running 3 to 4 times ahead of 1999 month, when shortages occurred. CEMA said suppliers shipped 95,269 players to dealers in first 2 weeks of 2000, increase of 201.9% from 31,561 shipped in same 1999 period. NPD noted that VCRs, introduced in 1975, took 12 years to reach 8 million annual sales mark. More than 5,600 movies and other titles already are available in U.S., with DVD titles reaching stores faster than VHS, NPD said. CEA has forecast DVD player sales to retailers at 6 million for 2000. But flood of low-priced decks from China is expected to drive entry level models well below current $159 this year.
------
Sherwood America is narrowing focus to its own and Newcastle brands and will sell or discontinue products sold under Urban and Targa banners, Vp Jeffrey Hipps said. Meanwhile, as part of new focus, Sherwood will ship new DVD/CD processor/player at $799. Deck will have built-in decoding for Dolby Digital, DTS and Circle Surround, 2x and 4x zoom, 3-scene memory, front-panel jog/shuttle. It uses C-Cube Microsystems' Ziva and Crystal Semiconductors' video and audio processing chips, respectively, and Motorola 24-bit 96 kHz D/A convertor for audio. In addition to supplying Newcastle brand, Sherwood parent Haitai Electronics will build DVD player on OEM basis starting this month, Hipps said. "That keeps the quantities up and the costs down." Haitai factory in S. Korea has 400,000-unit monthly capacity, he said.
|
