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

To: DiViT who wrote (28191)	1/16/1998 4:36:00 PM
From: Stoctrash	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 50808

Peter V with encoder news & a picture of MPACt2: techstocks.com direct link is here: nikkeibp.com

To: DiViT who wrote (28191)	1/16/1998 5:37:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

JVC to Include Divx Player in DVD Line ELMWOOD PARK, N.J., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- JVC Company of America, one of the world's leading manufacturers of consumer electronics, announced today that it will manufacture DVD players which include the new Divx feature, an enhancement that gives consumers additional choices to enjoy digital home movie entertainment. "JVC is currently celebrating our 70th Anniversary. Our success reflects a commitment to staying on the cutting edge of home consumer technology and our ability to accurately assess and produce quality products and features that offer consumers what they want to purchase," said Harry Elias, Executive Vice President and C.O.O. of JVC Company of America. "We believe that manufacturing DVD players with the Divx feature gives our customers more versatility while broadening the choices available in DVD technology." The Divx system allows consumers to purchase a special, encrypted movie disc for about $4.50. [Or $5-7???] The price includes a two-day viewing period that begins, not when the consumer leaves the store, buy only when he or she inserts a disc into a Divx player and pushes play for the first time, either on the day of purchase, the next week, or months away. Divx plans to make an ample inventory of each title available so the consumer can conveniently purchase discs for future play. Discs never have to be returned and so the consumer can incur no late fees for a video rental. A Divx player will play all standard DVD discs, but players without the Divx feature will not play the more modestly priced Divx discs. JVC anticipates that its Divx-enhanced DVD players will be available to consumers through authorized JVC dealers within a year. Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks have agreements to make titles available for release on Divx discs. Close to 500 titles are expected to be available during the product's first year. Divx players also enable movie enthusiasts to both purchase additional viewing periods at reduced costs over initial purchases and convert most titles to unlimited viewing. All transaction information is recorded through a phone line connection from the player to the Divx transaction processing center. No phone connection is required to play a Divx disc. Digital Video Express, LP is making the Divx capability available to JVC. JVC, headquartered in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, is a leading consumer electronics manufacturer. The company distributes a complete line of video and audio equipment including camcorders, VCRs, color televisions, home and portable audio equipment, mobile audio and blank tapes. For more information on JVC consumer products, contact Nancy Fleming Bird or Arlene Rupp at 201-794-3900 or visit JVC's web site at www.jvc.com. SOURCE JVC Company of America /CONTACT: Nancy Fleming "Rare" Bird of JVC Company of America, 201-703-4054, or nbird@jvc.com/ /Web site: jvc.com Headlin

To: DiViT who wrote (28191)	1/16/1998 5:46:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

DVD-ROM notebook uses Deschutes processor, but what kind of MPEG2 decoder??? techweb.cmp.com A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted at 8:45 a.m. EST/5:45 a.m. PST, 1/16/98 PCs based on Intel's 'Deschutes' pre-announced by Taiwan firms By Mark LaPedus TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Several Taiwan notebook makers have jumped the gun, announcing products based on a yet-to-be-introduced mobile version of Intel Corp.'s Pentium II chip, code-named "Deschutes." Acer Inc., Clevo Co., Twinhead International Inc., and other Taiwan notebook makers this year promised to begin shipments of products based on Deschutes--a Pentium II-level chip that will come in 233-, 266-, and 300-MHz speed grades. Processor prices range from $500 to $900, depending on the product, according to sources in Taiwan. A spokesman for Intel's Taiwan subsidiary said the companyt could not comment on unannounced products, but some sources believe the U.S. processor giant will introduce Deschutes in the next month or two. One local company, however, said it will show its first Deschutes-based notebook to OEM customers as early as next month. One of the models being shown to OEM customers is built around a 266-MHz processor, Intel's 440BX chipset, and 512-kilobits of L2 cache---all of which are bundled and sold in the U.S. company's mobile module format. The notebook itself incorporates 64-Mit DRAMs, a DVD-ROM drive, a 4.1-gigabyte hard drive, and will sell for a lofty $4,000.

To: DiViT who wrote (28191)	1/16/1998 6:02:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

SurfTV PC Coming For US$500 ****SurfTV PC Coming For US$500 01/16/98 PARIS, FRANCE, 1998 JAN 16 (NB) -- By Steve Gold, Newsbytes. When is a PC not a PC? The answer is when its a SurfTV - Com One's new Internet set-top box (STB), which is actually a Pentium 133 megahertz PC in disguise. Previous Internet STBs have been "black boxes" which sit on top of the TV and access the Internet for Web and e-mail purposes. Com One's SurfTV, which has just started shipping in France, and will ship in the UK and US within the next few months, is really a modular PC with Internet capabilities that uses a TV for display purposes. Two flavors of the SurfTV are being shipped by Com One. The SurfTV Lite at around US$ 500 in local currency, and a soon-to-ship SurfTV Plus. Both versions are the size of a satellite decoder and plug into the power and telephone sockets, with TV aerial (RF lead), SCART Euro connector and S-VHS connections for the TV. The SurfTV's heart is a Pentium processor running a Unix operating system. The main memory on the system is eight megabytes, half of which is allocated to applications, the other half for the cache. Driver memory is built into a hybrid RAM/ROM (read only memory) system designed around flash EEPROM technology. This means that, as with early ROM-driven laptops, the compacted operating system and applications can be booted instantly from its two-megabyte storage area. Because the SurfTV is built around flash memory, it automatically downloads operating system and application updates across the Internet. There is also a smart card reader and a hands-free telephone function built into the machine. The Lite version, which is shipping, is billed as a basic Internet access system. The Plus version, which is due to ship at a slightly higher price than US$ 500, is claimed to be a fully expandable network computer (NC) system with connections for peripherals such as CD-ROM or digital laserdisk player (available in March). The Plus unit can also be used as an interface to a DVD (digital versatile disk) player for the TV. "What you have here is a complete PC system that plugs into your TV," said Vince Holton, a spokesperson for Com One. Holton told Newsbytes that various bundling deals are being developed across Europe for SurfTV's various country markets. The modem inside the SurfTV is a 33,600 bits per second unit, but Holton said that plans are in hand for a 56k modem version to be shipped later this year, probably when the system ships in the UK and US in March. While the SurfTV is driven by a Unix micro-nucleus operating system, it also has Spyglass Web technology. The flash Internet operating system supports HTML (hypertext markup language) v3.2, including support for frames and tables, and includes a Java interpreter as standard. The unit also supports GIF and JPEG images, including GIF decoding, as well as SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) and POP (post office protocol) e-mail. IDs and passwords are contained within an ISO 7816 standard smart card that plugs into the onboard reader. The Lite version of the SurfTV comes with an infrared controller, which provides full navigation around the Web, plus basic alpha key entry for e-mail and input of WWW addresses. The controller can also take a standard PC keyboard, Newsbytes understands. If all this sounds impressive, it is, Newsbytes notes. Com One has pulled out all the stops to trounce the rest of the Internet STB marketplace. There's no precise time scales on when the unit will be available in the US, but Holton told Newsbytes that he expects the system to ship this spring. As reported by Newsbytes last October, Com One now has a US operation known as Com One USA. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company has to establish distribution channels to service the North and South American markets, as well as Canada. Com One has signed up Larry Rotkin to head up the US operation and is looking to roll out its range of modem products across North and South America. Com One's Web site is at com1.fr . Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com . (19980116; Press Contact: RS PR International +44-171-546-8787; Fax +44-171-546-8788; Reader Contact: COM One France +33-5-5678-8400; Fax +33-5-5678-8478; Com One UK +44-118-969-5570 /SURFTV/PHOTO) Copyright cNewsbytes News Network.