No Digital video recorders from C-Cube until Q2, 1999. It's only a month away, but the prices and selection will get better by the end of the year. In 2000, they might even have standards to work with...............................................
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C-Cube Delivers DVD Recording and Playback to Consumer PCs
In a striking move to enable industry-wide adoption of DVD-quality video recording at consumer price points, C-Cube Microsystems (Nasdaq: CUBE), today introduced DVxploreTM, the world's first single-chip consumer MPEG-2 and DV codec. Supporting C-Cube in a unified vision for ease-of-use and proliferation of DVD-quality video on the PC and PC/TV platform, leading multimedia and PC product innovators Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Matrox, Creative Labs (Nasdaq: CREAF), and Ulead are endorsing DVxplore.
With DVxplore, C-Cube is the first to enable the consumer market for recordable DVD on the PC. Users of personal content creation, PC/TV and DVD-RAM applications will be the first to leverage DVxplore to record hours of DVD-quality video obtained from any video source whether TV, VCR, DV camcorder or analog camcorder. They will also be the first to edit and playback DVD-quality video on standard PCs and then store to DVD disk, web pages, e-mail, CD-R/W or PC hard disk drives.
"Empowering consumers to easily record and manipulate high-quality video on the PC represents a significant breakthrough for the multimedia industry at large," said Umesh Padval, president of C-Cube's Semiconductor Division. "By offering DVD-quality recording and playback at consumer price points, we are leveraging our expertise in digital video technology to enable a new genre of applications on the PC."
Key Product Features
DVxplore's programmable architecture and integrated PCI interface make it an optimized solution for PC applications. DVxplore enables PC video applications to include:
MPEG-2 and DV25 encoding and decoding;
Frame Accurate Editing of MPEG-2 and DV video;
Realtime DV to MPEG-2 transcoding;
Dual Stream MPEG-2 decoding and Realtime Rendering of Special Effects;
DVD playback with CSS decryption;
Variable Bitrate (VBR) Recording.
"C-Cube's DVxplore has the promise to create exciting new opportunities for DVD-quality video on the PC," notes Alain Legault, vice president of product development for Matrox Video Products Group. "C-Cube's ability to deliver this proven encoding technology at consumer price points will benefit product planning and development across the industry."
"C-Cube's delivery of DVD-quality video recordability will expand the market opportunity for PC-DVD Encore," notes Hock Leow vice president of the Multimedia Division of Creative Labs. "C-Cube's breakthrough technology offers an opportunity to leverage DVD-quality video for higher levels of creativity across multiple applications."
Applications
Video Editing and Personal Content Creation - With DVxplore, users of video editing and personal content creation applications gain simplified video manipulation, improved image quality and interoperability of analog, DV and MPEG video formats. They can also engage in editing capabilities that were previously reserved for professional-level products, including dual-stream MPEG-2 editing, single-stream DV editing and realtime special effects such as fades, wipes and dissolves. DVxplore's Variable Bitrate (VBR) Recording lets these users record hours of DVD-quality video to DVD-RAM, CD-R/W or a PC hard disk drive (one hour of video per gigabyte of hard drive space). DVxplore also enables ultra-low bitrate MPEG-1 encoding for video e-mail applications and web pages.
"C-Cube is helping to expand the market for desktop video with state-of-the-art products affordable for the consumer market," notes Liming Chen, President of Ulead Systems, a leading supplier of video editing and content creation applications. "We are pleased to partner with C-Cube on these exciting new video solutions.
PC/TV: Digital VCR
DVxplore expands the scope of existing video applications while creating an opportunity for entirely new applications and consumer devices. For example, DVxplore's time-shifting capability enables PC users to record a TV show while simultaneously playing back video from any point in the recording. VCR-type controls allow users to rewind to the beginning of TV programs while they are still being recorded, as well as replay instantly. TV shows can be recorded by simply clicking on the on-screen electronic programming guide (EPG).
"The DVxplore chip, with support for MPEG encoding, is likely to deliver profound new capabilities in the way today's analog TV is handled on the PC," said Carl Stork, general manager of PC Hardware Strategy, Microsoft Corporation. "Rather than just displaying
TV in a window, the PC platform will be able to dramatically enhance the TV watching experience, by helping consumers to personalize their TV viewing in a way that suits them."
Comdex Demonstration
DVxplore will be demonstrated at Fall Comdex, November 16 - 20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Meeting Room LS29.
Market Penetration and Pricing
The DVxplore codec is planned to ship to OEMs in Q4 1998. Products based on DVxplore are anticipated to hit the retail market Q2 1999. The codec is priced at $75 in volume.
About C-Cube
C-Cube Microsystems Inc. is an industry leader in the development and delivery of highly integrated digital video silicon solutions that address the communications and consumer electronics markets. C-Cube is headquartered in Milpitas, California with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol CUBE. C-Cube can be reached at +1.408.490.8000 or on the World Wide Web at c-cube.com.
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