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

To: Peter V who wrote (49597)	6/30/2000 3:08:25 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 50808

SI's working great -- check out RMBS..... RMBS : RAMBUS INC (NASDAQ) 3:03 PM ET Last Trade 10489 Open 102 1/8 EPS Growth Rate N/A Change +10388 1/16 Previous Close 100 15/16 EPS (TTM) -1.68 % Change +10,291.6% Today's High 10489 P/E 0.00 Last Trade 2:21 PM Today's Low 102 1/8 Market Cap 1,004.17 Bil Bid 105 7/16 52 Wk High 135 Shares Outstanding 95.74 Mil Ask 105 1/2 52 Wk Low 14 5/8 Dividend 0.00 Volume 4,676,500 Avg Daily Vol 2,300 Yield 0.00

To: Peter V who wrote (49597)	7/1/2000 10:34:44 AM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Hitachi's DVD camcorder................................... e-town.com DVD-RAM CAMCORDER MAKES ITS DEBUT AT PC EXPO Hitachi plans U.S. rollout by end of year 6/30/2000 By Rob McGee June 29, 2000 -- Hitachi had a bona fide headline grabber on display at PC Expo this year, but it wasn't to be found under the big red logo marking the company's pavilion. No, the world's first DVD-RAM camcorder was sequestered in a claustrophobic conference room downstairs, surrounded by DVD-RAM computer drives, DVD-RAM video recorders and fully-automated DVD-RAM "jukeboxes" for data archiving. Due to hit the Japan market in August followed by a U.S. release at year's end, Hitachi's DZ-MV100 is similar in size and design to a typical VHS-C or Hi8 model. Only the translucent circular window on the side suggests that the recording medium isn't a cassette tape. But the window is round purely for reasons of style. What actually goes into the camcorder is a square plastic cartridge, and inside that is the removable DVD-RAM disc. Like the CD-Rs used in Sony's MVC-CD1000's digital camera, the DVDs used by the DZ-MV100 are smaller, lower-capacity versions of the discs consumers are most familiar with. An 8-centimeter disc stores 1.46GB per side, enough to hold a half hour of MPEG2 footage in high-quality mode, or a full hour at a lower bit rate. (A full-size DVD-RAM disc holds 4.7GB per side.) Once removed from the plastic cartridge, the 8cm discs are just the right size to fit the inner guide ring found on the tray of just about every DVD-ROM drive in the world. Not every DVD-ROM drive in the existing installed base will be able to read the discs, though -- some manufacturers, with an eye to the future emergence of DVD-RAM, built in forward compatibility, but others did not. As a camcorder medium, DVD-RAM has one important feature in common with every tape-based format -- the discs are rewritable, which means that unsuccessful "takes" can be recorded over instantly to save on disc space. Apart from this, the durability of DVD-RAM easily beats all the analog tape formats, while the instantaneous access allowed by disc-based memory will make editing much more convenient than it is with DV tape camcorders. Apart from the unprecedented use of a recordable DVD, the specs for Hitachi's baby will look familiar to anyone who's gone camcorder shopping in the past year or so. It has the usual flip-out LCD viewfinder, 12x optical zoom, and the ability to capture digital still photos in the JPEG format. The expected retail price hasn't been announced, but the Hitachi rep who was showing off the DZ-MV100 predicted a price tag in the neighborhood of $2000.

To: Peter V who wrote (49597)	7/4/2000 3:15:44 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Another divicom problem. They build GTE's wireless cable headends. With the merger with Bell Atlantic, they are exiting the business................................ multichannel.com Weekly Preview for July 3, 2000 GTE Hangs For Sale Sign Out on Cable Systems By MIKE FARRELL July 3, 2000 The exodus of big regional telcos from cable continued last week as GTE Corp. hired an investment bank to look for a buyer for its systems. GTE -- which has about 123,000 cable subscribers in Clearwater, Fla.; Thousand Oaks, Calif.; and Oahu, Hawaii -- hired New York investment banker Goldman, Sachs & Co. to explore the possibility of selling those operations. The move came as GTE approached the close of its $61 billion merger with Bell Atlantic Corp. -- a telco that once tried to buy Tele-Communications Inc., then wanted to overbuild cable systems with digital-wireless technology, finally opting to resell direct-broadcast satellite service. GTE's move follows efforts by big regional telcos -- notably SBC Communications Inc. -- to bail out of cable systems they either built or acquired. GTE spokeswoman Bobbi Hennessey said the telco was exploring a sale of the cable properties, but it would also consider upgrading them. Most industry observers thought the prospect of an upgrade was unlikely, given the additional capital it would require. "Bell Atlantic's been there, and it doesn't like the business," one industry observer said. Hennessey said the decision was unrelated to the pending acquisition by Bell Atlantic, and the cable operations would continue to operate normally until a decision was made. "The technologies involved in delivering the service have really changed and advanced since we initially began offering the service," she said. "We're not sure that this is the technology we want to roll out nationwide in the future. We're looking at the option of potentially selling these systems to buyers that would have more use for that kind of technology on a regional or local basis." The pool of potential buyers may be shrinking, though. Since 1997, telco operators have put up for sale cable systems with roughly 640,000 subscribers. To date, less than one-half of those subscribers have actually changed hands, the biggest being SBC's sale of its 268,000-subscriber Washington, D.C., system to Prime Cable and The Carlyle Group in 1997 for $635 million. That price was $15 million less than what SBC paid for it three years earlier. SBC has been pulling back from cable ever since it scrapped Pacific Telesis Group's nascent cable operations when it bought the Baby Bell in 1997. The company is headed down the same road with another recent acquisition, seeking a buyer for Ameritech Corp.'s cable operations, with 300,000 subscribers. Southern New England Telecommunications Corp., which SBC purchased in 1999, will likely keep its 30,000-subscriber system in Connecticut operational for now, at least partly due to pressure from state regulators. "What we're seeing is that the whole [regional Bell] overbuilding strategy is so local and regional," PaineWebber Inc. vice president of research Thomas Eagan said. "There are pockets of success across the country, but nationally, it is a nonstarter." GTE got its first cable franchise in Thousand Oaks in 1995. It joined one of the two big telco-video consortiums, Americast, along with Ameritech, SBC, BellSouth Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. At one time, GTE claimed that it wanted to "build video networks in 66 U.S. markets, reaching about 7 million households, by the year 2004." The most likely candidates to buy GTE's systems are other regional overbuilders, such as RCN Corp., WideOpenWest LLC and Western Integrated Networks LLC, analysts said. Officials at those competitive cable providers did not return phone calls late last week. RCN was said to be weighing a bid for the Ameritech systems. But sources in the cable-brokering business said RCN has lost interest due to the high price. While other overbuilders have raised vast sums to build out their networks, they may not be willing to spend a lot for the GTE properties. "The fact is that pricingwise, they might have trouble," said one industry source who asked not to be named. "People are not looking aggressively to buy GTE's problems." Cable operators that GTE overbuilt are not likely candidates due to Federal Communications Commission rules that prohibit incumbents from buying out overbuilders in their service territories. Also, finding a single buyer that wants to buy systems in Florida, California and Hawaii -- especially ones facing stiff wired-cable competition -- could be difficult. The GTE systems have penetration rates of about 20 percent in their respective markets, according to some observers. "The Southern California market may be worth it to a lot of people," SG Cowen Securities Corp. analyst Gary Farber said. "Maybe they could step up with a more aggressive marketing push and fine-tune the marketing for digital. Maybe somebody does bid on it, but it's not clear who that is going to be." The industry average for cable-systems sales this year has been about $4,500 to $5,000 per subscriber, which could give the GTE systems a potential value of between $553.5 million and $615 million. But most observers believe the GTE properties would sell for substantially less. The Hawaii system is harder to value because it uses multichannel-multipoint-distribution-system technology, which is mainly being used these days for data distribution. The rest of the GTE systems are coaxial-based.

To: Peter V who wrote (49597)	7/8/2000 11:16:04 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

DV/MPEG transcoding and nonlinear editing, all C-Cube, except, maybe GVG(they could be, but I don't know)...... tvbroadcast.com Cutting The News Faster, Cheaper, Web-Enabled Newsroom Editing Debuts At NAB By Robert M. Goodman "Broadband," "convergence," and "digital" are hot topics. Yet, for broadcasters contemplating the immediate future, what's relevant are new DV and MPEG-based news editing systems that allow producers and reporters to edit stories at their desks. Barriers between producers and editors are vanishing in today's networked, nonlinear newsroom. Finished pieces can be sent to production to be conformed and broadcast, or posted on the Web instantly. Here's a glimpse of the wide range of useful tools on display at last month's NAB convention. Recently acquired by the Grass Valley Group (GVG), Vibrint Technologies Inc.'s Journalist Desktop Suite is a software-only solution for Windows NT workstations using low-resolution MPEG-1 for feed capture, browsing and editing on the desktop. The suite includes NewsBrowse LR, that permits clips and sequences stored at high resolution on the server to be viewed at low-resolution; FeedClip LR, which allows producers to view and create clips from incoming feeds without interrupting high-resolution recording; and NewsEdit LR, which uses the same interface as Vibrint's NewsEdit, gives users the ability to assemble a video package, record the voice-over, and simultaneously view an Avstar or ENPS script. Vibrint NewsLog, a new product, runs on a standard desktop computer, allows journalists to mark in and out points and enter descriptions while the clip is being digitized on the server. Updated versions of Vibrint FeedClip, an interactive capture program; Vibrint NewsEdit, a nonlinear editing program, and, Vibrint NewsQ, a low-cost playback application were on display at NAB. All run on the Vibrint VideoServer, an MPEG-2 based system. Other new features include Vibrint's enhanced integration with GVG's Profile Video Server. The contents of Profile servers can be opened from Vibrint workstations so broadcasters can use the Profile server for feed acquisition and playback and use Vibrint NewsEdit for editing news. Vibrint also introduced a new board that supports MPEG and DV (up to 50 Mbps). And, GVG and Sony announced further integration of Vibrint's NewsEdit and Sony's Newsbase, a server-based production system through an open systems approach and SDI. FAST Multimedia enhanced its existing 601 workstation with a new IEEE 1394 option card. It works with any Silver or FAST601 system and provides DV input, batch capture, and print-to-tape capabilities. The company also demonstrated a new approach to rendering called InTime Processing that renders in the background. Silver and FAST601 system will render even as the timeline plays. Pinnacle Systems introduced the Targa 3000, a new card that handles three streams of uncompressed DV or MPEG-2, or two streams of compressed video. DV and MPEG-2 can be mixed together on the same timeline. The standard breakout box includes DV, component, composite, SVHS, and balanced and unbalanced audio inputs and outputs. SDI/SDTI or AESBU/SPDIF/TDIF breakout boxes are optional. The company's new MediaStream 300 Video Server provides up to three MPEG-2 video channels and 25 hours of storage in a two-rack unit package. Fibre channel networking and Ethernet Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity also come standard. It's designed to handle spot playback, time delay, caching, and WAN content distribution. Capacity can be expanded up to 1,000 hours of storage using RAID striped drives or via fiber channel networking to other MediaStream servers. MPEG-2 (4:2:2 and 4:2:0), HD, and ATSC/DVB MPEG input and output will be available soon. Pinnacle bought the Montage Group, a pioneer in networked nonlinear editing, and Digital Editing Services, a player in real-time video analysis, just days prior to NAB. At the show, Pinnacle announced a broadcast and Internet news solution called Totally Networked News that combines its media server line, Deko character generator, new production switcher, DVE, and still store products. Leveraging the new acquisition, Pinnacle plans to offer an integrated solution to create, store, broadcast, and stream news and sports. The news editing component will be called VorteXNews, and the networked sports video server, Omega. VorteXNews, based on Montage's nonlinear editing technology, has been optimized for news cutting and can simulate a linear editing interface. This year, Avid Technology demonstrated the MPEG-native and DV-native versions of Newscutter the company announced at last year's NAB with Sony. This version of Newscutter allows instant Web publication and easy integration into the Newsroom Computer system. All of Avid's applications will connect to Avid's Unity MediaNet, newly enhanced with support for up to 25 simultaneous clients, 5 terabytes of storage, multiple uncompressed video streams, remote monitoring, and full support for DigiDesign ProTools and Softimage DS. Leitch Technology's BrowseCutter provides desktop access to video stored on Leitch VR300 or VR400 servers. It's a LAN-based system that allows any computer with a sound card, Java-enabled Internet browser, and MPEG media player to view clips on the server. BrowseCutter uses a drop and drag storyboard style approach to build off-lines. The program exports EDL compatible with Leitch's NewsFlash editing software for final completion. Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company exhibited version 3.0 of its NT-based NewsBYTE editing system. NewsBYTE has been overhauled to add 16:9 support, sequential file import with Alpha channel, network-able bins, EDL import and export, timeline redigitizing, storable user settings, storable customized transitions, and audio EQ/reverb. The system features a built-in DVCPRO only recorder/player with SDTI for four times normal speed transfers. NewsBYTE systems can be networked peer-to-peer and version 3.0 adds the ability to share sequences. DVCPRO News Automation (DNA), Panasonic's turnkey editing, network, and playout server system relies on gigabyte ethernet or fiber channel networking and is easily scalable. Finished news packages can be aired from dedicated playout channels and remain in native DVCPRO format. Meahwhile Sony Electronics' Broadcast and Professional Company introduced the DNE-2000 Digital News Editing System. The DNE-2000 is available as a stand-alone system with Sony's MAV-555 video disk recorder or in a workstation configuration linked to the company's news server, NewsBase. The DNE-2000 features a tape-to-tape linear style editing interface. Video from the server or a VTR can be placed directly on the timeline, and preview and other timeline operations are accessible while digitizing or downloading material from the server. Philips Digital Networks demonstrated the DV version (v1.5) of its Edit Stream, Windows NT software running on Matrox's DTV board. The system uses off-the-shelf Fiber Channel SAN hardware, according to Mike Wolschon, director of Marketing for Philips Digital Networks, and interfaces to either Philips Media Pool or GVG's Profile servers. Edit Stream allows users to access footage while it's being captured. Philip's Surf application uses TC/IP protocol to allow anyone on the LAN or via the Internet to search and log footage on the server. Surf uses a low-res representation to allow journalists to mark ins and outs and build an EDL for export to Edit Stream. Stories can be published from any workstation simultaneously to an Internet web server and in high-resolution for broadcast. Philips also showed MPEG-4 output. MPEG-4 is a new codec designed for low data rate streaming of video on the Internet.