DVD in Singapore, Creative and an IBM/Sigma style chip with software AC3 highlighted............................
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DVD - Technology Update
SINGAPORE - DVD set to replace CD-ROM lines
DVD's ability to store between 4.7G and 17G of data, the equivalent of 26 CD-ROMs, confirms it as a likely replacement for CDs. DVD is making its way into living rooms and corporate systems and, according to the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, approximately 150,000 DVD players had been sold by mid-August 1997.
Market projections made by Dataquest revealed that 1 million DVD players would be sold by the end of 1997, 8.2 million by 1998 and 10 million by 1999.
This is a great market opportunity for firms in Singapore like Creative, which was the first Singapore maker to release a DVD solution in the form of its DVD Encore. Today, the firm is producing its second-generation product, the DVD Encore DXr2.
However, the DVD line has still to garner support from some CD-ROM drive makers. A few remain sceptical that DVD will ever take off due to the standards issue. But according to Thomas Chua, director at ACS Innovation, the standard for DVD-ROMs in PCs has been accepted and established. "The war is now about the recordable format. The clear winner has yet to be seen." Chua was referring to the two different camps, namely Pioneer's DVD-R/W and Sony's DVD+RW.
According to Yeo Lee Meng, director of business development at IntreSource, major problems include royalties and copyrights. "The standards issue is still a stumbling block and we will not see it resolved in a short period of time," said Yeo. In addition, the lack of a standard will mean, according to Yeo: "slower uptake of DVD, especially in the content area." In spite of this, Intresource will continue to maintain its existing products and solutions. The firm will follow market forces, Yeo added.
Compatibility a key issue
Compatibility is a moot point for DVD makers. While DVD-ROMs today can read CD formats, including CD-Rs and CD-RW formats, there are limitations as to the type of CD-R that can be read. This is due to the different recording dyes implemented. Another compatibility issue is determined by where a DVD is installed, for instance, set-top DVDs at most offer compatibility with DVD-Video, CD Audio and Video CD.
According to Thomas Chua, second-generation DVD-ROMs already have sufficient backward compatibility to be accepted by the market. "The main hindrance to uptake is perhaps the wide price gap between a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-ROM drive," he said.
Though backward compatibility may not be so much of an issue, the subject of future compatibility is opening a whole new can of worms. DVD-ROM drives, for instance, cannot read DVD-RAMs and DVD-Rs, and there are still problems with the DVD-RW format. According to Yeo at Intresource: "It is difficult to ensure future compatibility because there are always new standards evolving and it takes time for standards to become finalized. For example, the standard for DVD-RAM is still pending and standards can be upgraded while others may receive firmware changes."
Intresource's DVD upgrade kit utilizes an ATAPI interface for the drive, and MPEG-1/MPEG-2 decoding is offered on board. The kit features AC-3 software decoding, SPDIF OUT (AC-3), AC-3 2-channel downmix and TV out for Composite and S-Video. "We bundle TeraDeck Navigator software for full control of DVD playback," Yeo said.
However, according to Chua of ACS, the new standards war is an ongoing battle and is part and parcel of the IT revolution. "It will continue to be the driving force of the industry. I think no one will care too much about compatibility with the future standard. As long as there is backward compatibility, we can all move on," he said.
Indeed, the DVD Forum has accepted the diversity of standards including DVD-R and DVD-RAM, and industry pundits will not be surprised if both rewritable formats are passed by the Forum.
Variety of features offered
Creative's second-generation DVD-ROM drive, its DVD Encore DXr2, offers a DVD reading speed of 2.7MBps or 2-speed, and a CD-ROM reading speed of up to 20-speed. The firm has also addressed compatibility issues -- the drive supports the CD-R format on top of others like CD-I, CD-Extra and Video CD.
The drive has an extended UDF driver, which supports a cross-platform data format that allows transparent interchange of data via optical discs or CD-ROMs. In addition, the drive's DXr2 incorporates sophisticated video technology like elimination of blurry lines and flicker caused by 30fps interlaced TV signals. The technology combines two adjacent interlaced fields into one, and into the process doubles the resolution and frame rate to 60fps. The company's product comes bundled with DVD-ROM titles like Claw and Wing Commander
ACS Innovation's second-generation kit, the DVD-8582, features pure hardware decoding for MPEG-2 and Dolby AC-3 decoding. In addition, DVD copy protection is integrated into a single DVD decoder chip. It also supports "Virtual Dolby Digital" using "QSurround" 3D Positional Audio Technology to deliver near-six-speaker surround sound effects using only two speakers. DVD navigational tools are also incorporated to enable fast forward, multiple subtitle tracks and camera angles, and parental control.
Future of DVD sees gradual shift to mainstream
Chua of ACS thought DVD-ROM drives would slowly seep into the mainstream, once the balance between performance and price is achieved: "Current 5-speed DVD-ROM drives are already matching the performance of today's CD-ROM drives. With increased volume production, the price will narrow to close the gap between CD-ROM drives and DVD drives."
Content has been a major gripe, but although DVD-ROM titles were initially slow to hit the shelves due to the low installed base, Chua saw this as a thing of the past: "This is set to change now, with new titles being launched every other day. With increasingly complex and multimedia-rich applications requiring more storage space than a single CD, more publishers will take advantage of the large capacity of DVD-ROMs."
Creative expects to see the proliferation of more varied types of DVD application. For example, in the home market, mid-range to low-end PC users will begin to replace their low-speed CD-ROM drives with DVD-ROM players as an increasing number of interactive titles hit the market.
Intresource on the other hand, sees DVD moving into the gaming market with the launch of new DVD game titles. However, Yeo foresees possible problems due to standardization issues but maintained that his firm's solution will be driven by market forces. "Our R&D efforts will focus on board solutions and applications software like navigation and interactive software, such as video-on-demand," Yeo said.
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