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

To: John Rieman who wrote (31)	11/30/1997 1:38:00 PM
From: Maya	Respond to of 324

To: +John Rieman (25738 ) From: +Chromac Sunday, Nov 30 1997 5:59AM EST Reply # of 25897 Sony's new single chip encoder is aimed at BetaCam. It's economy puts it as more of a prosumer chip at current technology (0.4 micron). I spent a lot of time talking to the design engineers and marketing babe at the Sony Fall'97 Comdex booth. The chip was designed in Japan, and will be designed into systems and marketed at the San Jose (Zanker) lab. A prototype DVC camcorder (~$2000) is planned for next year. DVC has little-known extensions for MPEG-2 video bitstream recording (6 and 12 mbit/sec rates), in addition to the familiar 25 mbit/sec DVC-bitstream only mode. This is only 0.4 micron now. Wait until it comes out in 0.25 and 0.18 micron! The shame of the Sony chip was that it could NOT encode/decode DVC bitstreams as well (although 25 mbit/sec I-frame MPEG-2 suits the same editing needs). DVC is a different syntax. Motion estimation search range is almost meaningless. It's how you get your motion vectors and what you do with them that really counts. C-Cube probably has the best image quality given all their man years of research and make up of experts (Wang, Linzer,Wu,Uz,Webb,etc.... even the esteemed M. LeGump), but Sony's comparitively brute force algorithm is not all that bad (plus Sony is programmable in the most important areas such as Decision, so improvements on those corner cases can be made). C-Cube can also decode which is critical for CE. CHROMAC "may you be listed on the NASDAQ under the name 'MPEG'"

To: John Rieman who wrote (31)	11/30/1997 1:46:00 PM
From: Maya	Respond to of 324

To: +John Rieman (25890 ) From: +BillyG Sunday, Nov 30 1997 12:37PM EST Reply # of 25897 Digital TV is a long way off in China.................... chinadaily.net China far from digital TV era CHINA'S first home-made digital television is rolling off the production line later this month, but industry experts still claim that given its current economic strength, the country is far away from embracing a real digital TV era. West Lake Electronics Group, based in Zhejiang Province's Hangzhou city, announced that it had by itself developed China's first-generation of digital TVs adopting digital 3000 series integrated circuits. The products will be available on the market soon. West Lake said the new TVs can receive the analogue signals from the television broadcasting stations and then transmit the analogue signals into digital ones. The company promised to do further research on developing TVs that can directly receive digital signals. "Although it can be defined as a digital TV which boasts a high display quality and is superior in anti-interference, it is not the same kind that the US plans to use to replace the current TVs in 2006," said Bai Weimin, a director of Broadcasting and TV with the Ministry of Electronic Industry (MEI). A true digital TV set should process the digital signals from receiving to broadcasting. But the West Lake TV digitizes just a small part of this process, Bai explained. In April, the US government made public that by 2006 all the broadcasting companies will be required to offer digital pro-grammes to people in the US. Industry observers believe that the US is breaking ground in this field not only because it wants to bring high-quality audio and video enjoyment to its people, but, more importantly, to prepare for the anticipating digital age which integrates broadcasting, telecommunications and computers. This new era promises people new picture pleasure and information abundance. All of these services can not be realized with current analogue broadcasting technology and TV sets. "As far as China is concerned, it probably will take more than 20 years from now," Bai said. "Actually, there is right now no timetable for this issue," she said. An official from the State Science and Technology Commission said such a comprehensive project is not just up to MEI which is responsible for the administration of manufacturing. Responsibility also lies with the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television which is the top manager of China's 1000-plus television stations. But both officials said the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television has not mapped out plans concerning this issue. In fact, a glimpse at the investment required to launch such a huge project in China, whose people have just switched from black/white TV fewer than ten years ago, might hinder China's policy-makers in making the decision. China has over 1,000 television stations and updating the equipment of one of these stations will require an average of $4-5 million. Also, China has brought in a number of large TV manufacturers and many of them are the main money-makers of the local economy. It will be a big headache for the manufacturers to invest a large amount of money in new facilities. More important, there are around 300 million TV sets being used in China. But who knows what response the common people will have if they are informed that their TVs are going to be obsolete and they will have to buy new ones? The official from the State Science and Technology Commission said new facilities, especially the transmitting equipment, will be digitized and some digital TV programmes will be made soon. Date: 11/26/97 Author: Wei Ke Copyrightc by China Daily

To: John Rieman who wrote (31)	11/30/1997 1:49:00 PM
From: Maya	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 324

While interesting, let's see how long will this life of Chromac last. Other lives have been not too long.

To: John Rieman who wrote (31)	12/1/1997 11:52:00 AM
From: Maya	Respond to of 324

How easy/difficult is it to break this anti-piracy technology for DVD? Monday December 1, 11:16 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Nimbus CD Int'l to Offer TTR's "Anti-Piracy" Technology in Replicating Compact Discs and DVDs Disc Replicator Joins Doug Carson & Associates in Implementing New Technology NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1997-- The $11 billion software piracy market suffered another blow this week with the announcement that TTR Technologies Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of TTR, Inc. (OTC BB: TTRE - news), has licensed its DiscGuard(TM) technology to Nimbus CD International, Inc. (NASDAQ: NMBS - news) for use in the replication of compact discs and DVDs. DiscGuard will be available for use in the replication of CD-Audio and CD-ROM discs, with a version for the DVD format forthcoming. TTR's DiscGuard enhanced mastering system, which has three worldwide patents pending, places an indelible digital ''signature'' on optical media at the time of manufacture, without which the software cannot be used. This ''signature'' is designed to be read by disc drives but cannot be duplicated by disc recorders or by re-mastering, making it a highly effective weapon in the battle against the illegal duplication of software, music, video and other content, distributed on optical discs. DiscGuard addresses both the problems of illicit mass-production of software or other electronic content (counterfeiting) and copying by the casual user using the low-cost CD recorders available on the market (disc burning). TTR is entitled to earn a per-disc royalty for each disc replicated using DiscGuard. TTR is gearing up to apply DiscGuard protection to upwards of 25 million discs during 1998. Nimbus CD International, will manufacture CDs and DVDs protected by the DiscGuard technology worldwide. Under the terms of a joint agreement between Nimbus and TTR, Nimbus will hold the exclusive right, for a period of six months from its first approved run, to manufacture the DiscGuard protected CDs and DVDs on a worldwide basis. TTR also previously announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Doug Carson & Associates, Inc., Cushing, Okla., the world's leading supplier of signal processing systems used to create CD and DVD recording masters, to incorporate TTR's anti-software-piracy technology into its Mastering Interface System. ''The worldwide problem of illegal duplication of CDs is enormous and continues to grow at a rapid rate,'' said Lyndon J. Faulkner, president and CEO of Nimbus CD International. Faulkner added, ''Nimbus has always worked proactively to provide solutions to help combat the costly problem of disc piracy and counterfeiting. We are very pleased to be the first replicator to offer the DiscGuard technology. We believe DiscGuard addresses a real market need and will be a valuable tool to content owners around the world.'' ''The combination of Doug Carson & Associates equipment, Nimbus' disc mastering and replication capabilities, and the DiscGuard technology will be a powerful weapon against mass disc counterfeiting worldwide and should help to establish DiscGuard as a worldwide standard,'' said Arik Shavit, CEO of TTR Technologies. Shavit added, ''We anticipate that the availability of DiscGuard's superior media protection capability will encourage publishers and motion picture producers to release more DVD titles and create the critical mass needed for the DVD industry to take off in 1998.'' Nimbus CD International is one of the world's leading independent manufacturers of compact discs distributed throughout North America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. The company is at the forefront of disc manufacturing technologies and provides complete CD and DVD replication services to the audio, computer and video software markets. Nimbus established one of the first CD manufacturing facilities in 1982 and continues to be a pioneer in disc manufacturing technology and new applications for compact disc. Most recently, Nimbus secured the coveted status of being one of the world's first manufacturers of DVD format. TTR Technologies Ltd. is primarily engaged in the development and marketing of a family of proprietary products that are designed to protect intellectual property rights and prevent the unauthorized reproduction and use of electronic content and media, including software and audio CDs and DVD discs. DiscGuard(TM) is a trademark of TTR, Inc. All other trade names are the properties of their respective owners. This release is available on the KCSA Worldwide website at www.kcsa.com. Any statements released by TTR Inc. that are forward looking are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may affect the Company's business and prospects, including economic, competitive, government, technological and other factors discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact: TTR Inc. Robert Friedman, 212/333-3355 212/333-7891 (fax) robertf@ttr.co.il or NIMBUS CD International, Inc. Lorri Haney 804/985-1100 ext. 457 804/985-4625 (fax) lhaney@nimbused.com or KCSA Worldwide, Media Suzanne Sullivan/Jacqueline A. Rabin/Henry Feintuch 212/896-1221 / 896-1213 / 896-1212 KCSA @aol.com or KCSA Worldwide, Investor Paul Holm/Joseph A. Mansi 212/896-1201 / 896-1205