Apple, Power to Take DVD Lead
Mac OS-system vendors outline plans for adopting new ultrahigh-capacity digital media.
<Picture>It takes chutzpah to be the first company to embrace a new technology. Sure, many of us early-adopter types will support an aggressive vendor by plunking down our hard-earned equipment-buying dollars for the latest and greatest in Mac peripherals, but more-cautious Mac users often have a wait-and-see attitude. The rewards for being first can be substantial -- but so is the risk.
DVD, the new digital-media standard that's set to explode onto the scene in 1997, offers just this challenge to Mac OS-system vendors -- including Apple. And as the day gets closer when you can pop a DVD disc into your Mac or video player and watch two hours of full-motion, full-screen video, complete with Dolby surround-sound and multiple subtitle tracks, Mac OS-system vendors have begun to release details about whether they'll be leaders or followers in the DVD revolution. At this point, it appears it'll be Apple and Power Computing that first take the DVD plunge, with APS, DayStar Digital, Motorola, and UMAX waiting in the wings.
The time is right for DVD -- finally. First announced in late 1994, the DVD initiative quickly became bogged down in a competition between two rival standards. This dispute was finally settled in late 1995, only to be replaced by another argument, this time about encryption technology. This last hurdle was overcome in late 1996, followed quickly by DVD-drive announcements from Hitachi, Panasonic, Pioneer, and Toshiba.
Although every last wrinkle has yet to be ironed out, one measure of unanimity among DVD-drive manufacturers is that they have finally agreed on what the acronym DVD stands for. Originally it was digital video disc, but as nonvideo uses became apparent, Toshiba suggested digital versatile disc. The new consensus? DVD doesn't stand for anything: DVD = DVD.
No matter how you define it, DVD will have a major impact on the delivery of digital media of all types, be it video, audio, still images, or multimedia. The simple reason for DVD's versatility is its ultrahigh disc capacity: A single-sided, single-layer DVD disc can hold a full 4.7 GB. Add another layer to the same side -- a feature enabled by a new dual-focus hologram laser-lens technology -- and the capacity jumps to 8.5 GB. But wait, there's more: The DVD specification allows data to be pressed into both sides of the disc, for an astounding 9.4-GB single-layer capacity and a 17-GB dual-layer capacity -- all on a disc the size of a standard CD-ROM.
The Future of Digital Video
Using this level of capacity for text-based content makes "overkill" an understatement. DVD's real target is digital video. To that end, the DVD specification mandates MPEG-2 as the video-compression technology of choice. With MPEG-2, a single-sided, single-layer DVD disc can accommodate an average-length Hollywood feature film.
At this point in the Mac's evolution, however, playing an MPEG-2-encoded DVD disc requires special hardware -- namely, an MPEG-2 PCI card. Thus, both Apple and Power Computing are in negotiations with E4, a small but aggressive startup company, to bundle E4's CoolDVD MPEG-2 card and software interface with their systems. Although no one from E4, Apple, or Power Computing was willing to comment on when actual products will be available or how much we'll pay for them, John Chan, E4's director of product marketing, is clear about his company's goal: "We want to own the market -- and we will." Given what we've seen of the CoolDVD's elegant interface and impressive performance, he may get his wish.
In addition to MPEG-2 for video, the DVD standard mandates Dolby AC-3 audio for the U.S. and Asian markets; Europe is lumbered with MPEG audio. The Dolby scheme provides 5.1-channel theater-quality surround-sound audio. (That extra tenth of a channel, by the way, is for a subwoofer.) E4's CoolDVD card will mix this complex audio stream down into a simple stereo signal, or if you're fortunate enough to have an audio system that will accommodate it, you can plug it into the CoolDVD's SPDIF optical-fiber audio connector, for surround-sound output.
Software-only MPEG-2 should be possible on the Mac when Apple ships systems equipped with the TriMedia digital signal processor, as it has announced it will do in mid-1997. CompCore Multimedia, a Wintel developer that plans to provide a software-only MPEG-2 product for Windows systems when Intel releases its multimedia-enhanced MMX microprocessors, says it's talking with Apple about porting its SoftDVD technology to TriMedia-equipped Macs.
Who's on the Bandwagon
So, Apple and Power Computing are in negotiations with E4 and Apple is talking with CompCore Multimedia about future TriMedia-based DVD software. John Cook, Apple's group manager of Global Strategic Alliances, is heading up the new DVD Program Office, which will coordinate all DVD planning companywide. Bill Goins, Power Computing's director of product marketing, is calling DVD "a critically important technology" and promising that Power Computing "absolutely plans on pushing the technology envelope."
So, where does this leave UMAX, Motorola, APS, and DayStar? Simply put, they're waiting to see what happens. Bruce Berkoff, UMAX's director of product marketing, promises, "We won't be the first, but we will be the best" in DVD implementation. Company spokesperson Terri Thorson says that Motorola will get into the DVD business "as soon as Motorola sees enough titles on the market." DayStar's David Methven, product manager, says that his high-end, content-creating customers are more interested in creating multimedia content than merely watching it; he predicts that DayStar will focus on CD-R and CD-RW drives until DVD-R and DVD-RAM drives become available in late 1997 or early 1998.
Among the more cautious Mac OS-system vendors, however, it was APS President Paul Mandel who best explained the reasoning behind a wait-and-see approach: "Pioneers get the arrows. Settlers get the land." / Rik Myslewski |
