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

To: CPAMarty who wrote (33885)	6/17/1998 9:53:00 AM
From: Don Dorsey	Respond to of 50808

The Battle for Your Living Room A number of vendors from disparate camps--cable TV, consumer electronics, and the PC industry--are vying to build the next-generation home-entertainment/computing devices. While these devices will keep developing well into the new millennium, it's clear that the ultimate living-room appliance will have more in common with your computer than your TV. But you don't have to wait until 2001 to see the TV and PC worlds merge on your desktop. Several vendors, including ATI, Diamond, and Matrox, offer TV-tuning options that let you watch television on your PC monitor. Why bother? Several ATI products, including the All-In-Wonder Pro and ATI-TV, can scan closed-captioned text behind the scenes and alert you when specified keywords are mentioned. Diamond's DTV 2000 accepts Intercast broadcasts for high-speed downloading of Web-based data related to programs on CNN, MTV, NBC, and QVC. Both products also capture still and video images, though video capture is limited to 15 frames per second, good for multimedia but not for output back to tape. TV tuners can be found as stand-alone cards, optional daughtercards for specific graphics cards, or built into a 2-D/3-D graphics card. Another convergence feature increasing in popularity is DVD playback. Though DVD-ROM software is still scarce, DVD is gaining momentum as a movie format, with feature-length DVD movies encoded in high-quality MPEG-2 video and Dolby Digital audio widely available. However, decoding DVD's audio and video streams is very demanding, requiring dedicated decoding hardware for the best results. Several companies, such as Creative Labs, Diamond, and Hi-Val, offer DVD upgrade kits that bundle a DVD-ROM drive with an MPEG-2/Dolby Digital decoder card. These PCI-based solutions work with both PCI and AGP systems. Some graphics cards claim onboard DVD-playback capabilities, but be wary--you want full hardware-based MPEG-2/Dolby Digital decoding to avoid dropped frames. DVD can be decoded in software, but software decoding has a voracious appetite for processor power; you'll need at least a 266MHz or 300MHz Pentium II. ATI enjoys somewhat of a lead in integrating DVD playback into graphics cards, supporting several DVD-acceleration features (though not true hardware decoding) in the Rage Pro chip set. However, you'll still need a 266MHz or faster Pentium II PC with AGP graphics. Dedicated hardware is also important for video capture, especially if your goal is to output edited video to analog tape. For example, Matrox's Rainbow Runner, a daughtercard for the Millennium II and Mystique boards, includes onboard Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) hardware for full-screen, full-frame-rate capture. Whether you're looking at capture capabilities built into a graphics card, a stand-alone capture board, or a daughtercard, look for M-JPEG if you intend to output video to tape.

To: CPAMarty who wrote (33885)	6/17/1998 12:05:00 PM
From: Peter V	Respond to of 50808

IBD - Are we selling the news today? This is deprssing. RB should be here any moment to cheer us up.

To: CPAMarty who wrote (33885)	6/17/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: Bob Strickland	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Yes, it has done wonders for the stock price.

To: CPAMarty who wrote (33885)	6/17/1998 1:58:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Sinclair Broadcast Group Demonstrates Multi-Channel Broadcasts... biz.yahoo.com Sinclair Broadcast Group Demonstrates Multi-Channel Broadcasts; Tests Show Potential For New Medium BALTIMORE, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI - news) announced today that it conducted a demonstration of over-the-air digital television (DTV) on June 10-12, 1998, in Baltimore, Maryland. Sinclair used two digital channels for the broadcasts. Sinclair broadcast a high definition television program in the 1080i format one channel and compared it to four other programs broadcast simultaneously in the 480p/480i wide-screen DTV formats over the second digital channel. Invited guests included representatives from Congress, the FCC, and the broadcasting and financial communities. The demonstration, which was followed by a thought-provoking discussion with Sinclair management, illustrated the wide range of uses to which DTV channels can be put. The demonstration, which was fully compliant with the standards adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, also advanced Sinclair's knowledge of the challenges broadcasters will face as they roll out digital television nationwide beginning the end of this year. Nat Ostroff, VP/New Technology said, ''We were extremely pleased with the response to the demonstration from our guests. Sinclair will continue to explore all of the possibilities that digital television offers in order to arrive at a business model that bests suits the interests of the American consumer.'' Equipment suppliers participating in the demonstration included Comark Communications (transmitters), DiviCom (multiplexing equipment), Panasonic (480p television cameras, converter boxes and wide-screen digital receivers capable of displaying high definition and standard definition television) and Scala (antenna). Comark Digital Services acted as system designer and integrator. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is a diversified broadcasting company that currently owns or programs 37 television stations and 49 radio stations. Upon completion of all pending transactions, Sinclair will own or program 57 television stations in 37 separate markets and 50 radio stations in 11 separate markets. Sinclair's television group will reach approximately 22.4% of U.S. television households and includes ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB and UPN affiliates. Sinclair's radio group is one of the top 10 groups in the United States.