News!!
Toshiba and Sigma Designs Join Forces To Turn PCs Into Full-featured DVD
Players
DVD-ROM Kit Enhanced with REALmagic Hollywood Plus Playback Card for
Flicker-free Video, Realistic Dolby Digital Surround Sound
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 1998-- Sigma Designs(R),
Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGM - news) strengthened its lead in the DVD/MPEG-2
playback card industry today with the announcement that the Disk
Products Division (DPD) of Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
(TAEC) has selected its REALmagic Hollywood Plus playback card for the
new Toshiba DVD-ROM kit.
Specifically designed for value-added resellers (VARs) and system
integrators (SIs), the DVD kit is based on Toshiba's 4.8X SD-M1202
DVD-ROM drive and includes all of the components needed for remarkably
smooth, high-quality MPEG-2 digital video playback, realistic Dolby(R)
Digital Surround Sound, and storage for volumes of data and images.
''Sigma Designs' REALmagic Hollywood Plus DVD/MPEG-2 playback card was
chosen because of its analog overlay technology, ease-of-installation,
and overall performance,'' said Maciek Brzeski, vice president,
marketing, TAEC DPD. ''Sigma's cutting-edge solution supports Toshiba's
goal of providing its VAR and SI customers with a high-performance,
easy-to-integrate DVD solution. It's the perfect complement to Toshiba's
DVD-ROM drive.''
With Sigma's advanced analog-overlay technology, integrators can be
confident that their customers will be able to enjoy the full-motion
video available with any VGA card. Other solutions that do not include
analog overlay cannot deliver full-screen video, are incompatible with
many VGA cards and motherboards, or may not work with all resolutions
and bit depths.
REALmagic Hollywood Plus enables the sharpest video possible at
resolutions from 640 x 480dpi to 1600 x 1200dpi. It consistently
displays 24-bit video, even when working with a VGA card in 256 color
mode.
Designed with robust system silicon, REALmagic can handle all of the
complex video and audio streams without placing any burden on the
computer's CPU. As a result, the PC runs at maximum performance at all
times; multitasking (e.g., having DVD, live TV broadcast feeds, and
interactive web browsing open in concurrent windows) is possible with
the Hollywood Plus card.
''Toshiba's selection of our REALmagic card is an endorsement of Sigma's
technology expertise and market presence,'' said William K. Wong, vice
president of marketing for Sigma Designs. ''Being included in Toshiba's
DVD-ROM kit strengthens our efforts to reach the installed base of 100
million Pentium PCs that can be upgraded with DVD capability.''
Broad Compatibility, Ease of Use
Available as an OEM product, Sigma's Hollywood DVD playback card works
with any Intel Pentium 133 MHz (minimum) system without requiring a
specialized graphic adapter. This capability and full compliance with
DVD specifications make it the playback card of choice for PC
manufacturers and DVD upgrade kit providers like Toshiba.
The REALmagic DVD card includes device drivers and Sigma Designs' DVD
Station, an intuitive, easy to use program for DVD navigation and
control. With DVD Station, PC users can take full advantage of every
interactive DVD feature, using simple VCR-like controls to choose from
multiple DVD settings such as sound track and subtitle language, viewing
aspect ratios, and viewing angle. Users can also interact with DVD
Station menus to exercise parental control and execute search commands,
such as jumping to any point in a movie with the click of a button.
Upgrade Kit Based on High-Performance DVD-ROM Drive
The new kit includes the 4.8X SD-M1202, Toshiba's leading-edge DVD-ROM
drive. The SD-M1202 offers transfer rates twice as fast as previous
generations with a high-performance 4.8X speed playback for DVD-ROM
(6,535 KB/sec.) media, which is equivalent to a 43.5X transfer for
CD-ROM.
The SD-M1202 is the only DVD-ROM drive on the market to play back CD
media at 32X (4,800KB/sec.). In addition, it's compatible with all CD
media, including CD-R and CD-RW, allowing users to enjoy their existing
CD library. The drive can also read all DVD software formats available
today--from 4.7GB software to dual-sided, dual-layered 17GB packages.
The Toshiba DVD-ROM kit is an ideal solution for VARs and SIs, enabling
them to provide a complete DVD PC playback package to both corporate and
consumer end users.
About Sigma Designs
An acknowledged leader in the burgeoning multimedia market, Sigma
Designs entered the multimedia market in 1993 with products based on the
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard for compressing and
decompressing digital audio and video signals. Sigma is a driving force
in advancement of the MPEG technology used in most multimedia PCs on the
market today. Sigma Designs' products, marketed under the REALmagic
trade name, include affordable MPEG decoding hardware used in PCs,
notebook computers, and networked video applications. Sigma products are
sold to PC OEMs and card makers worldwide. For additional information,
call 800-845-8086 or 510-770-0100, fax 510-770-2640, or visit Sigma's
web site at sigmadesigns.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the PC-DVD market and the features and potential
growth prospects of certain DVD/MPEG-2 products offered by the Company
in this market, that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results of
Sigma Designs may vary materially due to a number of factors including,
but not limited to, the levels of orders from and the risk of
cancellation of orders by significant customers, the ability of the
Company's REALmagic EM8300 DVD/MPEG-2 decoder to compete with other
technologies in these emerging markets, the risk that such product will
not gain widespread acceptance or will be rendered obsolete by product
offerings of competitors or by alternative technologies, and the risk
that the Company will not meet price or time-to-market estimates due to
production, manufacturing, or other delays.
Editors and Analysts: For additional information, photographs and
interviews, please contact Andy Marken, marken@cerf.net or 408-986-0100
REALmagic is a trademark and Sigma Designs is a registered trademark of
Sigma Designs. Other products and companies referred to herein are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Marken Communications, Inc. (MEDIA)
Andy Marken, 408/986-0100
Fax: 408/986-0162
marken@cerf.net
or
Sigma Designs, Inc. (INVESTOR RELATIONS)
Carol Kaplan, 510/770-2991
Fax: 510/770-2640
carol_kaplan@sdesigns.com |
