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To: Barry A. Watzman who wrote (41709)	12/8/1997 12:51:00 AM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 186894

Barry, I didn't realize you knew so much about the complexities of television displays. Thanks for the post. I thought you wouuld find these two product announcements interesting. My personal belief is that this will be the main route the industry will take. A chip installed into a television which will turn every T.V. into a computer monitor. Although computer monitors are big business now, the economies of scale and desire by T.V. manufacturers to differentiate their products will propel the T.V. industry into buying these chips and adding this function. Sorry I couldn't find the old link to the second announcement. Michael ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ biz.yahoo.com Rockwell's New Video Encoders Turn TVs Into PC Monitors; New Flicker-Free Video Encoder From Rockwell Enables True Living Room PC Applications November 18, 1997 NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. -- Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Monday announced a new suite of video encoders that allow consumers to convert their television screen into a video monitor. Rockwell's single-chip PC-to-TV converters provide outstanding quality video while overcoming the poor image artifacts of previous solutions, for a number of applications such as Web browsing, video conferencing, interactive gaming, and on-line shopping. Rockwell's Bt868 and Bt869 video encoders enable end-users to transfer PC applications to their TV and still maintain the same video quality viewed on a VGA PC monitor. Combining features such as flicker-free video architecture, programmable scalability and input pixel blanking, Rockwell's Bt868 and Bt869 are the most comprehensive video encoders on the market. Designed for use in desktop and notebook computers, as well as set-top boxes, Rockwell's video encoders provide a low-cost solution for superior quality living room PC applications. "With Rockwell's new video encoders, the living room PC is finally a reality," said Tim Yates, product manager for Rockwell's Digital Infotainment Division. "Our new encoders enable PC users to connect their TVs to their PCs with ease. Web browsing from your living room sofa is now as easy as changing TV channels." The Bt868 and Bt869 video encoders enable a variety of living room PC applications though Rockwell's UltraScale technology. Rockwell's UltraScale technology provides the most advanced vertical and horizontal scaling necessary for the display of non-interlaced data on interlaced devices such as the TV, resulting in high-quality flicker-free video. UltraScale technology works by converting the lines of input pixel data to the appropriate number of output lines for producing a full-screen high-quality image. With Rockwell's new video encoders, end-users now have the most advanced flicker filtering architecture available, with eight Luma flicker filter settings and eight Chroma flicker filter settings. The Bt868 and Bt869's 5-line flicker filter and large number of software programmable filter settings allow OEMs to create end-user applications with superior TV-out quality for optimal display of Web pages, games, word processing, presentations and spread sheets. Because OEMs have to separate their TV-out offerings, Rockwell's encoders provide OEMs with the quality and features needed to differentiate their hardware through software applications that drive the TV-out device. OEMs can also derive proprietary flicker filter settings using the Bt868 and Bt869's large number of register settings to provide higher quality TV-out. Rockwell has incorporated the highest quality 10-bit DAC encoder technology into the company's new suite of video encoders. The 10-bit DAC technology has made the company the leading supplier of video encoder devices to price sensitive consumer electronic markets, such as video DBS boxes, DVD players, and video CD players, and has gained Rockwell a number of design-wins in low-cost consumer electronic markets due to the superior picture quality directly related to the performance of the 10-bit DAC. Rockwell has also included a number of features that are exclusive to its Bt868 and Bt869 video encoders. Some of these features include a fully programmable overscan compensation architecture that enables end-users to utilize the entire viewable area of the TV, a low-power consumption supply of 3.3 volts, support for both pixel-based and character-based clocking through the use of a blank signal, and the most flexible input pixel format of 8-, 16-, and 24-bit interface modes. Designed for video systems that require high-quality flicker-free composite and Y/C (S-video) signals from various YCrCbr or RGB digital streams, the two new devices accept both 640x480 and 800x600 digital input formats, and are well supported by NTSC and PAL (B, D, G, H, I, M and N) worldwide video standards. Both devices support all Microsoft PC97 and PC98 TV-out requirements and are functionally identical, with the exception that the Bt869 can output Macrovision Level 7.01 anitcopy algorithm. Available now, the Bt868 and Bt869 are priced at $9.25 in quantities of 1,000. Both products are packaged in an 80-pin Plastic Quad Flat Pack (PQFP). Volume production is scheduled for the first quarter of 1998. Rockwell is demonstrating its new video encoders at Comdex/Fall 1997 at the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nov. 17-21, in booth S2633.