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

To: Robert G. Harrell who wrote (29198)	2/6/1998 4:46:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Cube's Dvx could be included in either, but backward compatibility is what will sell the format. DVD+RW appears to be behind DVD-RAM. Competing standards will delay the mass distribution of DVD-recordables. It would be good to have just one standard. Delays will let the competition catchup with Cube.

To: Robert G. Harrell who wrote (29198)	2/6/1998 6:58:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Robert, "For the technically challenged", this is a better response...................................... ijumpstart.com C-CUBE READIES LOW-COST MPEG-2 CODEC C-Cube Microsystems Inc. [CUBE] isn't letting the slow adoption of DVD slow down technology developments related to the emerging platform. The chip company is pushing ahead with an MPEG-2 codec and expects demand to spike early next year when rewritable DVD drives are expected to ship in volume. C-Cube expects to ship a consumer version of the DVx single-chip encoder and decoder in the second half of this year. Company officials are confident at least one third-party upgrade kit marketer will sell a board-level implementation of the technology for $299 by late 1998. That means the cost to OEMs for the DVx chip will be sub-$100. C-Cube also is reaching out to drive manufacturers as a potential distribution source. The consumer-level codec will be a scaled-down version of the $1,800 DVx product available to the broadcast market today. C-Cube has started showing DVx to potential OEM customers. The company expects after-market peripheral makers to account for the bulk of sales this year and interest from PC OEMs to pick up in 1999. Officials there said they have received a positive response from one supplier, but would not name the company. Sony Electronics Inc. [SNE] seems the likeliest candidate for DVx, based on the company's PC introductions to date. Sony dubbed the second-generation VAIO PC the creativity PC and bundled it with more consumer-level authoring tools than any other vendor. C-Cube officials view the technology as a way for PC OEMs to put content creation into the hands of consumers at a very low cost and spark new applications. The company also expects to sell a version to peripheral makers pushing non-linear editing boards and software. Companies such as Truevision and Pinnacle Systems Inc. [PNCL] are likely targets. The product could appeal to multimedia developers and pro-sumers looking for inexpensive MPEG-2 encoding. And DVx could gain even more support from vendors targeting those buyers when the company releases a DVC to MPEG-2 transcoder in the second half of the year. Adaptec Inc. [ADPT] is co-developing the trans-coder, which will allow digital camcorder users to put their creations onto the PC. (C-Cube, 408/490-8000)