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To: John Rieman who wrote (24968)	11/8/1997 9:35:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Interface debates................................. techweb.com techweb.com November 10, 1997, Issue: 980 Section: Design ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kudos for a conference By Richard Doherty Intel and the Software Publishers' Association hosted their second DVD-ROM Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., late last month. The goal: to bring together DVD technology owners and licensors, DVD-ROM publishers, authoring experts and DVD publishers to explore how they can establish the PC-based DVD-ROM systems' hit DVD "player" of 1998. Already, DVD upgrade kits from Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, E4, HiVal and others are becoming the popular home multimedia stocking stuffer this fall. By using dedicated silicon for DVD video decoding and Dolby AC-3 audio sourcing, almost any Pentium-class PC can enjoy the current catalog of titles. Why the PC-industry interest? Well, DVDs can carry the traditional MPEG-2 coding used in consumer players and linear movies, but they can also carry other audio, video and graphics, which can make the PC DVD experience far more powerful and engaging than mere linear DVD movie playback. To show its commitment, Warner Studios said it has invested "nine figures" in making PC content to complement the consumer DVD experience. The first DVD-ROM titles capitalize on the Media Control Interface calls established by IBM and Microsoft in 1990 for authoring CD-ROMs. While these disks work just fine, Microsoft is wooing developers with the beta versions of its forthcoming DirectShow product. Peter Hoddie, QuickTime architect with Apple Computer, closed the conference with a demonstration of how title creators can author DVD now using AVI and MPEG-1 files, and later substitute cross-platform QuickTime tools and MPEG- 2 codecs as they roll out over the next year. Hoddie drew huge applause for a technology which used to be associated only with Macintosh systems. The most stunning DVD-ROM interactive PC titles under development are hybrid titles with interactive performance coming in two ways. Many DVD platters will be playable on both consumer DVD Video players and on personal computers with DVD-ROM drives. Datacasting is starting up using vertical blanking interval technologies from Intel and WavePhore. Their WaveTop datacasting structure is already accessible through Internet Explorer 4.0, but comes into its own with the arrival of the Broadcast PC architecture native to PC '98 systems and Windows 98. Buyers of advanced video TV tuner and display cards, such as ATI's All In Wonder card, can enjoy datacasting services now. Many more graphics card vendors are expected to be announced at Fall Comdex. The phrase "stay tuned" may soon take on a whole new meaning. -Richard Doherty is director of the Envisioneering Group (Seaford, N.Y.). He can be reached at rdoherty@envision-group.com. Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc. [New Search] [Search the Web] You can reach this article directly: techweb.com