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

To: Bob Strickland who wrote (31579)	3/28/1998 8:38:00 PM
From: C. Niebucc	Respond to of 50808

I just got back from WinHec. What a delight... and this goodie was waiting for me from the DVDList mailer at tully.com. ----------------------- -----Original Message-----From: Peter Biddle <peterbi@microsoft.com> To: Randy Berg <randy@rain-maker.com>; 'Ben Garcia' <ben@denon.com> Cc: DVDList@tully.com <DVDList@tully.com>Date: Saturday, March 28, 1998 7:26 PM Subject: RE: Encoding and Authoring >During Billg's keynote at WinHEC (two days ago), I demoed a real-timeMPEG2 >encode (from an S-Video live camera feed) and DVD burn live, on stage.(I >basically shot and MPEG2 encoded Bill doing an HD0 demo about a minute >before he came across the stage to me, and had a burn going before hegot >there.)>>The finale of the demo: I played the resulting DVD-Video disc in a consumer>DVD-video player; the entire demo took less than 5 minutes.> >I used the 2Real C-Cube chip, on retail boards with basic SW(According to >C-Cube) for under $300 by this summer. The complete system I did it oncould >retail by summer for under $20K ($15+ K of that being the Pioneer DVD-R >drive), and by the year 2000 under $1K (get ready for some wars in X >gigabyte removable re-writable storage). And the quality was stunning.> >This market is about to be blown wide open, to the enormous benefits of >consumers and the industry. >>Peter >+++++ >>>-----Original Message----- >From: Randy Berg [mailto:randy@rain-maker.com] >Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 1998 6:22 PM>To: 'Ben Garcia'>Cc: DVDList@tully.com >Subject: RE: Encoding and Authoring>>>Ben,> >There are a few encoders doing the bulk of the movie work today. Three of >the major Hollywood studios are producing their own titles andsoliciting >others work as well. The majority of today's 500-600 titles were created at: > >California Video Center (CVC) Warner Brothers Studio, Toshiba > Toshiba (main) and Sonic encoders>>Columbia TriStar - Sony > Sony encoder > >Universal Pictures - Matsushita (Panasonic)> Panasonic encoder > >Note the hardware ties in the studio parent companies. If you look at the >distribution company, you can guess which encoder was used. Toshiba and >Pioneer make encoders for their studio needs but are not available tothe >market. Panasonic has 2 encoders outside Universal currently, with thenext >generation coming later this year. > >Because Sonic Solutions was first on the block with a complete system,most >of the early adopting encoding facilities have or had this system tostart. >Other companies like Minerva, Cagent Nuko, Optibase, and others have >competitive products that can do the job to some degree or another. > >For authoring systems, Daikin's Scenarist has by far the largest market >penetration, and works with any serious encoder on the market. Toshiba, >Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer encoders all have their own proprietary >authoring software. Spruce Technologies is an aggressive upstart with >authoring tools. Sonic Solutions now has their own tools. > >Authoring yesterday was complicated. Today it works much better, andjobs >take half as long . In the near future, we'll all be able to download >McAuthor from Microsoft, given to us free as an integral part ofWindows99. >Our kids will teach us how to use it. > >Rainmaker has both the Panasonic and Sonic encoding systems (Scenarist, >Spruce authoring), each with different strengths serving their market>segments. >>Randy Berg randy@rainmaker.com www.rainmaker.com >Account Executive Rainmaker Digital Pictures Interactive Division >50 West 2nd Avenue Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5Y 1B3 >Main 604-874-8700 Fax 604-874-6756> >Opinions are personal, not necessarily that of the company. >

To: Bob Strickland who wrote (31579)	3/28/1998 8:59:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Don't plan on buying a HDTV with C-Cube inside this Christmas. C-Cube is working on second generation chips. The market for 1st generation is not big enough to recoup your R&D. eb-mag.com As a leading producer of video decoding chips, C-Cube Microsystems Inc., Milpitas, CA, may profit handsomely when digital television takes off. But the company is approaching the market cautiously until its acceptance becomes clearer. "We need to predict when HDTV [will pass] the 100,000-unit mark," says Didier LeGall, chief technical officer. Below that figure, "it's not such a good business to be in." Digital TV will require a more robust MPEG 2 solution than is available today, LeGall says. C-Cube's decoder chips currently run at about 80 megahertz, a figure that will need to be boosted to 150-200 MHz, for digital TV. "We could have that in a year or year and a half if the market demanded it," he says. The company will need to tackle the issue of heat generation, since set-top boxes don't contain fans, he adds. C-Cube is also investigating the video encoding side of the digital TV market, and expects to have chips for that function available by next year, LeGall says. While it doesn't represent the volume potential of TV receivers, there will still be an important market created for chip makers when digital TV cameras and broadcasting equipment are built.