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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (43465)	7/30/1999 6:41:00 PM
From: Peter V	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

OT - Calling all propeller-heads! Your local wannabe-techie (that's me!) wants to buy a new computer. I will use it mostly for word processing, internet surfing, trading, and maybe a charting program or two (so I need to have some number-crunching ability). I want it to be upgradeable (or so cheap I can just throw it away), and not too far down the food chain so it won't be obsolete next week, but I don't need the absolutely fastest, newest whizbang deal (because I'm CHEAP!). Anybody have any suggestions as to "must haves" or "don't needs"? Is a pentium 3 a must have for a desktop for future software/internet feeds? What is the major difference with the Celeron v. Pentium? Does the spped of the 7200 rpm drive justify the small ($40) price increase over the 5400 rpm? Can a laptop fulfill my needs, and if so, how fast do I need to go? If I use the laptop with a big monitor (19-inch), will it need mega video ram? Lastly, any thoughts on brands? Dell, Gateway, Mac, etc? My basic equipment list for a desktop (based on a Dell XPS T model) reads sort of like: 400-450 mhz PIII, 128 MB ram (too much?), 13.6 GB HD, DVD with decoder card and TV out, 19-inch monitor, 16 MB Diamond Viper video card, Turtle beach Montego II sound card, and a 100 MB Zip for backing up the important stuff (or storing the stuff the girlfriend should not see . . . ;-) ) Thanks in advance for any thoughts y'all might provide.

To: DiViT who wrote (43465)	7/31/1999 12:50:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

First MPEG-4 codec is H.263 compliant...................... www2.digitalbroadcasting.com{018FD59C-45FA-11D3-9A54-00A0C9C83AFB}&Bucket=HomeFeaturedArticles NEC Reports Advances in MPEG-4 7/30/99 New codec targets low-bitrate advantages of MPEG-4 to further the development of Internet and mobile video devices. NEC Corp. (San Jose, CA) has developed an MPEG-4 coder/decoder codec that enables the transmission and reception of both high-quality audio and video over the Internet and next-generation mobile telephones. The codec conforms with two important international video data compressing standards: MPEG-4/Visual and H.263 ver.2, an ITU standard for compressing a videoconferencing transmission. These ensure no distortions are caused when data is encoded, while maintaining high picture quality through improved filter processing. For audio standards, the device conforms to the international G.723.1 standard for narrow- (4KHz) and wide-band (7KHz) compression. G.723.1 is an ITU standard for speech codecs optimized for modems Another important feature of the codec is its ability to send data in periodic cycles. In the event of data errors, they are replaced by correct data to ensure accurate reproduction. In order to process various audio and video signals, the codec also uses the international H.223 Annex B standard, an ITU standard for audio and video data error-correction in mobile communications. The standard ensures speedy performance even when large volumes of data are being processed through more efficient operation of the internal digital signal processor (DSP) in the unit. Small bitrate, small screen The codec will enable standard QCIF (quarter common intermediate format) screen size (176 x 144 dots) reproduction in video phones at a rate of 10-15 frames per second (approximately twice the compression/decompression performance of previous systems) with a power consumption of 94mW (half the power consumption of contemporary devices) in a single-chip DSP. At the limited data transfer rate of mobile telephones and multimedia terminals of between 64-128kbps, high-quality video and audio transmissions will be possible in a miniaturized package. In addition, the DSP and its two audio and video codecs can be embedded in a microprocessor and mounted on a credit card-sized board for analog-digital, digital-analog interfaces. Codec targets next generation mobile communications The growth of the Internet and mobile communications allow for the incorporation all forms of audio, graphic and video data. From 2001, next generation mobile communications services (IMT-2000) will get underway and working mobile multimedia communications are expected to become available. Current uses for codecs with ISDN television conferencing and videophones are not practical for portable terminals in terms of both power consumption and cost. This opens the way for a growing market for low power consumption, high performance, low cost videophone codecs. These videophones could offer a wide range of multimedia services based on graphical information such as catalogue sales, information on entertainment news such as with movie trailers, traffic and weather conditions. NEC is now moving to miniaturize the device further and enhance its performance before marketing a product based on this codec. Toshiba developed an MPEG-4 chip in 1998 and is marketing chip-enabled devices to the corporate intranet video market in Japan. Edited by Tom Butts