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

To: Lhn5 who wrote (32768)	4/28/1998 12:49:00 AM
From: Ian deSouza	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

How much Hi-8 camcorder video will fit onthe 5.2 gig disk in DVD-RAM? * Not sure but think that it should be more than 2 hrs. Is CUBE definitely in the Encore product from Creative? Seems like a great product!! * CUBE is definitely inside Encore. Its got great reviews and was the first DVD upgrade so its got market share too. What percent of Christmas PCs will come with DVD vs CDROM drive 1998? I would think well over 50%. * That would be my guess. Its shipping in the high end PCs now, which are usually low end in a few months.

To: Lhn5 who wrote (32768)	4/28/1998 1:34:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

"Is CUBE definitely in the Encore product from Creative?" Unless these guys were smoking something (turkey?) at the time, then I think this answers you question... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date:03/16/98 Rate this Product 1-10 (10 is Best) User Rating 9.3 Test Center engineers were not surprised that Creative Labs' DVD bundle was one of the easiest upgrades to install and use. Without a doubt, Creative Labs' experience in building Plug and Play peripherals is clearly evident in the PC-DVD Encore. The Encore upgrade bundle also was one of the most complete bundles:Any cable that might conceivably be needed, including IDE ribbon cables and various styles of audio cables plus an S-video cable, are part of the package. The S-video cable is only six feet long, but that is six feet longer than what came with any of the other bundles. Creative Labs offers an S-video extension cable as an option. Engineers cannot be certain as to the origin of the components in Creative's bundle, as Creative Labs often sources components from different vendors. A representative from Creative Labs would not divulge the source of the components because brands can change from package to package, but he did say that the DVD drive is not an Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony or Pioneer. Opening the case of the drive did not provide any real clues, either. Creative Labs modifies everything it sells, so whatever it once was, the drive has been morphed into a Creative Labs product. The drive was not at all fussy, working properly on an IDE chain regardless of whether it was configured as a master or slave device. It was also one of the fastest performers, beaten only by the Pioneer drive, which Pioneer claims is a 2.6X drive rather than just 2X. Creative Labs' Dxr2 MPEG-2/AC3 decoder board was also a mystery as to its source. It was, however, the only decoder board employing the C-Cube ZiVA DS-C single-chip MPEG-2/AC3 decoder. Like any other IDE CD-ROM drive, the back panel of Creative Labs' DVD drive features a power connector, IDE connector, master/slave/cable select jumper block, analog audio output and a digital audio output for connection to a digital audiotape (DAT) drive or other high-end audio gear. Creative Labs colorfully labels the drive's front panel so that no one will miss the fact that a system has a Creative Labs DVD drive installed. The Dxr2 PCI decoder card was the most versatile in the roundup. The audio output on the back of a CD-ROM drive or, in this case, a DVD-ROM drive, normally goes from the drive to a sound card. However, when an MPEG-2 decoder is added, audio first goes through the decoder card and then onto the sound card. The Dxr2 was the only decoder board to feature two audio inputs so that the audio output from two drives-typically a system's original CD-ROM drive and the new DVD-ROM drive-can both be connected. All of the other decoder cards assume that the DVD drive will be the only disc drive in a system. The Dxr2's card bracket features a Dolby Digital (AC-3) S/PDIF jack for connection to a Dolby Digital AC-3 decoder if one is available, which is not included in any DVD upgrade kit. The bracket also features a TV Out DIN jack into which an included custom cable plugs. On the other end of that cable are standard composite and S-video connectors for connection to TVs and VCRs. Also on the bracket are VGA input and output connectors. These allow DVD video to be placed on the PCI bus using an analog overlay technique and an included VGA loop-through cable. The VGA output from a system's graphics adapter plugs into the Dxr2 card using the loop-through cable, and the monitor then plugs into the decoder card. Installing the DVD hardware was a simple matter. Engineers were asked for a driver diskette for the Dxr2 card on first boot-up. The drivers are included on a single diskette. The DVD player and other applications are installed from a CD-ROM. The first time the hardware is used, two quick, automated alignment procedures are performed to ensure that everything works properly with the graphics adapter. After that, DVD software and movies can be viewed on the computer monitor, and S-video can be viewed on both the monitor and a TV set at the same time. Test Center engineers liked everything about the Creative Labs PC DVD Encore Dxr2 bundle, including its street price, which recently dropped from $379 to $300-quite a bargain. --- Creative Labs PC-DVD Encore Dxr2 Price:$300 Warranty:1 year Distributors/Integrators:Amax, Comstar, D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro, Liuski, Merisel, MicroAge, PC Wholesale, SED, Synnex, Tech Data Authorization Requirements:None Model Number:MK 5001 Creative Labs Inc. Milpitas, Calif. (408) 428-6600 (800) 998-1000 www.soundblaster.com Copyright (c) 1998 CMP Media Inc.