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

To: DiViT who wrote (25990)	12/2/1997 3:50:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Video Week, this sounds like the a PC week article............ Movie Use Touted for First Dvd-rom Drives Video Week Mon, Dec 01 1997 At recent Comdex show in Las Vegas, Jazz Multimedia became latest aftermarket supplier to offer low-cost 2nd-generation DVD-ROM drive for PCs, joining recent entries from Creative Labs and Hi-Val that can read recordable CD-R discs. All tout products' ability to play DVD movies, either on PC monitor or through link to big-screen TV, meaning that, at least in short term, parts of PC industry intend to compete for DVD movie playback market. New $379 kit combines Toshiba-sourced drive with remote control and Jammin' DVD II card that provides MPEG-2 and Dolby AC-3 decoding. Package with card and remote is available separately at $199 -- in effect, price of DVD-ROM drive is $180. Jazz spokesman said card uses C-Cube's Ziva 1.1 decoder as well as Auravision digital/analog mixer. Decoder also is compatible with all VGA video cards and has video output jack for viewing movie DVDs on TV set. Each kit comes bundled with DVD movie sampler of films from Warner and other studios as well as music video sampler from Warner Music Group. Discs feature Internet link that enables customers to purchase DVDs online. Given lack of DVD-ROM software on retail shelves, many DVD-ROM manufacturers have been hailing ability of drives to play movies. While most industry observers we spoke with doubt movies displayed on 14" or even 17" PC monitors ever will prove compelling application for mass market consumers, opinions were mixed whether DVD-ROM and its ability to be linked to big-screen TVs pose threat to DVD player sales. IBM Aptiva PCs Mktg. Mgr. James Bartlett said: "Maybe some people's first DVD movie player could be hooked up to their PC," but he added quickly that he doubted DVD-ROM could be successful when marketed as movie player. "No one wants to go upstairs to turn on their PC and put in a disc just to watch a movie in their living room," he said. IBM already has PCs that can be wired to TV sets so films can be viewed simultaneously on TV and PC monitor, Bartlett said. While wireless linkup also is possible, he said cost and bandwidth issues currently prevent that from being viable consumer option. "DVD players are not going to be so expensive that people can only afford one," he said. "By the time the {wireless} bandwidth issue is solved, players will be way down in price and people won't think twice about buying one or more for around the house." But Peter Black, pres. of DVD software developer Xiphias, feels PC manufacturers will end up battling consumer electronics (CE) industry for DVD movie viewers. "I don't think people will have desktop machines in their living rooms," he said. "But if there end up being sub-$1,000 PCs that are really configured to go into the living room, and I understand there will be, then I think that's going to happen." Black estimated 25% of early adopters of DVD-ROM drives are connecting them to large-screen TV and using them as movie players. (Copyright 1997 by Warren Publishing, Inc.)

To: DiViT who wrote (25990)	12/2/1997 8:28:00 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Respond to of 50808

David, price cuts always occurr in high tech. The question is, where is the balance between supply, demand, and margins. Take PCs for example....Dell and Intel are doing quite well and consider cuts of 20-40% quite normal. You can't automatically assume CUBE isn't making money when VCD players cost less in China. It's possible ASP's for CUBE chips come down over time, but at the same time production costs may go down, and unit-volumes may go up. (re: your China story) Dan

To: DiViT who wrote (25990)	12/3/1997 2:26:00 AM
From: Hedley Rainnie	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

I have heard Luxsonor (www.luxsonor.com) will be bombing the price on VCD with a $3.00 offering. At 3$ the die per wafer on an 8" wafer would be about 1000 since I assume an 8" wafer costs ~$1000-$2000. That is one small die and one hell of a commodity market. Oh, this company also has a DVD chip too. It's a party!

To: DiViT who wrote (25990)	12/3/1997 8:39:00 AM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

Toshiba DVD decoder called "Timpani." Is this the PC-DVD solution that Toshiba recently discontinued?................. Toshiba, Microsoft Make DVD Drive Software December 3, 1997 (TOKYO) -- Toshiba Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have jointly developed driver software for DVD decoding add-on boards compatible with the Windows 98 operating system. It will be bundled into the beta 3.0 version of Microsoft's Windows 98. Windows 98 will have a function for PCs to process video data or audio data. Toshiba has developed a group of device drivers to use such functions on a Toshiba DVD decoding IC called TC81203TB. Toshiba said the development code name is Timpani I. Specifically, the drivers are Win32 driver model (WDM), a streaming class driver that processes video or audio data furnished by Windows 98, a mini-port driver for connecting Timpani I, and drivers for content scrambling system (CSS) circuits for protecting copyrights. Timpani I uses a 352-pin ball grid array (BGA) package, a power supply of +3.3V, and its standard power consumption is 1.4W. (Nikkei Electronics)