Sigma; This could be significant if the OEM wants to ship DVD with Win98 or NT...
biz.yahoo.com
Sigma Designs Announces Windows NT and DirectShow Support for DVD
REALmagic EM8300 DVD/MPEG-2 Decoder is First to Provide Windows NT and DirectShow Support
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 2, 1998--Sigma Designs Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGM - news), a leader in MPEG decoder solutions for personal computers, today announced the planned release of support for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT - news) Windows NT 4.0 and DirectShow software.
The new software drivers, included in Sigma's EM8300 REALmagic DVD/MPEG-2 decoder chip, are being demonstrated at DVD-Day, an event sponsored by Panasonic Industrial Co. today. The drivers will be released to customers in October.
Kilroy Hughes, Microsoft's DVD Evangelist, will demonstrate the technology during his presentation ''DirectShow, Windows Media Player, & DVD/MPEG-2-The Driving Forces.'' Sigma's customized navigational software, ''DVD Station,'' can play MPEG-2 content, including CSS-protected DVD titles, under Windows NT.
DirectShow is Microsoft's standard for multimedia content under Windows 98, and is comparable to the MCI (Multimedia Content Interface) used under Windows 95. The DirectShow Applications Programming Interface (API) is the industry standard used by designers to develop DVD titles and applications.
Today's announcement means that Sigma Designs now supports both DirectShow and MCI. ''Our EM8300 DVD/MPEG-2 decoder supports any DVD-RAM or DVD-ROM drive (IDE or SCSI),'' stated William Wong, Sigma's vice president of marketing.
''We are excited to announce our Windows NT and DirectShow support at DVD-Day, hosted by Panasonic. Panasonic is one of the first companies to produce an economical, high-performance rewritable, removable drive that is in full compliance with the DVD Forum's DVD-RAM specifications and standards. Combining Panasonic's drive with our low-cost REALmagic silicon for DVD decoding makes digital video archiving and playback more affordable to everyone,'' Wong concluded.
In addition to being approved by the DVD Forum, which has grown to more than 160 members, the DVD-RAM format has been adopted by the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) and the European Computer Manufacturers' Association (ECMA).
The standard has also been endorsed by the Hollywood DVD Advisory Group, more than 20 of the industry's leading PC manufacturers, and leading international content developers. Industry analysts project that by the year 2000, more than 70 million DVD drives and players will be installed and that more than 30 million of these units will be DVD-RAM drives.
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