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

To: John Rieman who wrote (44874)	9/16/1999 3:56:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Ah, found it. This is the one I was thinking of... C - Cube codec melds MPEG2 and digital video processing Mark Hachman 11/09/1998 Electronic Buyers' News Page 74 Copyright 1998 CMP Publications Inc. Silicon Valley- C - Cube Microsystems Inc. has developed a low-cost PC codec incorporating both MPEG2 and digital video processing. The DVxplore codec was designed not only to bring digital video capabilities to the low-cost PC or consumer device, but also as a higher-performance extension to C - Cube 's existing line of decoders and codecs. Audio processing is performed by the host processor. The chip encodes and decodes MPEG2, MPEG1, and DV25 data in real time, and can transcode DV25 data to the MPEG2 format in real time. In addition, it can decode two MPEG2 streams simultaneously. Although the DVxplore includes a built-in PCI interface, the chip's purpose is to decode digital video transmitted through a 1394 connection from a consumer digital video camera. A future chip will include a 1394 interface, said William Chien, product line manager for C-Cube , Milpitas, Calif. At their respective hardware conferences, both Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. described the concept of "time shifting," in which a set-top box constantly decodes the video and stores it to a local hard-disk drive as it displays the video on the screen. If a user needs to leave the room, the video will be stored to the hard disk. When the user returns, he or she can resume watching the video that's now stored on the disk even as the "real time" video stream is also decoded and stored. In essence, the "live" video is shifted to the time in which the viewer wishes to see it-but a video codec is also required. A 6-Gbyte hard drive can store 189 minutes of 4-Mbit/s MPEG2 video at 720 x 480 resolution; 129 minutes of 6-Mbit/s MPEG2 video at 720 x 480 resolution; 596 minutes of 1.15-Mbits/s MPEG1 video at 352 x 240 resolution; or 31 minutes of 25-Mbit/s digital video at 720 x 480 resolution, according to Chien. Production of the DVxplore codec will begin this quarter, with pricing set at $75, said Chris Day, C-Cube 's director of marketing. Products based on the codec are expected to be sold in the second quarter of 1999. November 09, 1998