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

To: DiViT who wrote (35930)	9/14/1998 2:02:00 PM
From: Rarebird	Respond to of 50808

My order is in at $9.875. Not bad ( if I get it ) considering I never worked there. :)

To: DiViT who wrote (35930)	9/14/1998 2:14:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Front page article in today's Electronic News mentions CUBE............. sumnet.com (click on DTV.......) From Page One of Electronic News: September 14, 1998 Issue DTV/PC Cry: 'Interactivity' Interactive content to help push DTV signals on PCs By Peter Brown San Jose, Calif.--To some, interactivity may seem as minor as surfing the web during work or in someone's spare time. However, if the companies promoting the broadcast PC have their way, interactivity is going to be much, much more. Interactivity will be the main driving force enabling digital television (DTV) on PCs. Some companies are already preparing chips and services for the upcoming interactive DTV desktop PC. Companies such as Wink in San Francisco, Wave4, and GemStar are all gearing up for what they hope will be the entertainment and data services of the future. Microsoft, Intel and others are banking on this interactivity to be a huge selling point when it comes down to enabling DTV signals on a PC. The Wintel contingent also believes that interactivity will be the decision most users will look to when choosing whether to go the conventional route and buy a DTV or buy a PC and generate digital signals that way. According to Kris Narayan, president/CEO of Telecruz, a small start-up based in San Jose, interactivity already is much more than just browsing the Web and looking for content. Along with numerous companies providing E-commerce solutions (and many more popping up every day), there are companies providing electronic programming guides, interactive advertising, and information-browsing such as gathering weather and traffic services and stock quotes up to the minute. "Interactivity is something more reactive than proactive meaning someone chooses an area to look at rather than having that information automatically come to you," said Mr. Narayan. Telecruz is working on an interactive digital television chip that should be available sometime early next year, which will bring a lot of these features to both the desktop PC and the consumer market. The company is also working with Wink, Gemstar and others to enable this Interactivity when the time comes. Uphill Battle For Wintel, both companies have an uphill battle with numerous consumer electronics manufacturers vying for the population's interest. Although both companies are striving very hard to have digital video capability and broadcasting in all PCs by year's end, TV manufacturers have the upper hand because the television is already a proven technology in millions of homes whereas PCs are still black magic in a lot of homes. However, Intel and Microsoft are trying to shed that image and may be using some unusual tactics to help--including some rumored incentives to broadcasters and PC OEMs as well as other interesting tactics. Instead of going head-to-head with these television heavyweights Intel is looking at other ways to draw attention. What it calls "renewable content" is being able to deliver data services while watching the morning news or "must-see TV." This content is tailored for each individual person or household to deliver only what they want. The plan is similar to Telecruz's reactive approach to delivering interactivity. "The amount of content available and how you receive that content is going to increase in the next year or so as the Internet bandwidth increases and more companies begin to see they can make money from this type of service," said Tom Galvin, director of market development for the TV and Broadband division at Intel. Intel also is boasting that a PC will make it easier to deliver this content because having a hard disk drive (HDD) will allow users to store favorite areas easier and access them much more quickly than having to load it through the telephone line every single time. Television without a HDD may find it harder to do that. Although some consumer electronics manufacturers have hinted about providing some sort of storage device, maybe compact flash, maybe ZIP drives or an HDD, in set-top boxes so that this fast access to the Internet could take place. Interactivity Players Various other chipmakers are setting the stage for these services as well. C-Cube Microsystems, STMicroelectronics, TeraLogic, and Equator Technologies are just a few developing and integrating chips with interactivity capabilities. Most of these companies are developing their chips for the consumer space and leaving Intel alone to generate the interactive content, however, some have acknowledged that interactivity does pose an interesting possibility to expand their reach and may move into that area in the future. TeleCruz is one of the only companies not developing a standalone DTV chip but is developing a DTV chip that supports interactive functions. Intel again wants all of this content to be driven by a Pentium-class microprocessor with the drivers and programs all done in software. Microsoft said it has integrated multiple interactive features in Windows 98 including WebTV for Windows designed to deliver DTV and interactivity on a PC. Microsoft also has said it plans to work with Intel, broadcasters, interactive content providers and others to move interactivity to the mainstream as well. Microsoft is in the same boat with Intel--meaning it is competing against proven technologies in DTV sets and has to find different and more interesting ways to attract viewers to watching TV signals on a PC. Intel is going as far as to develop a specification where HTML Web content is combined with video at the same time for broadcasting. Intel is working with the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) as well as digital terrestrial, digital cable and PC OEMs to help develop a standard for this interactive service. Mr. Galvin said Intel has already developed prototyping capability for satellite and terrestrial TV content providers to get that interactive capability on the PCs and onto the cable space, where connecting one's cable box to one's PC might be another way for Intel to manipulate DTV signals. Interactivity may be one of the driving forces for these companies pushing the broadcast PC. The more industry observers begin to analyze the posibilities and the potential of the broadcast PC, the more it begins to look more attractive from the onset. It can be enabled with all the PCs in the market right now with an upgrade or add-in board, it offers easier access to the Internet and the various other applications that PCs can provide as well as this HDD capability. However, the questions remain. How good will the quality be, how will people react to watching DTV on a 17-inch monitor or if it is generated on a TV through a cable how easy will it be to hook it up? Most importantly will consumers really wait for their television to boot up? These question are left unanswered going forward. What is known is that interactivity poses serious revenue potential for many who are proliferating the broadcast PC and many of the players involved are actively searching for the right content that will attract views, the right schemes and right quality and resolutions that consumers will demand. Finding the Content How will Intel or a company like Wink, Wave4 or GemStar know what content to provide? There are on-going trials and tests being conducted by all four companies right now and when this capability comes to market those trials will increase. "The bulk of our knowledge about what to provide and what market regions to provide it in will be formulated as we go. So there will be a lot of learning along the way," said Mr. Galvin. Intel said it should have some preliminary trials down by the end of this year. The future of interactivity can be summed up as having multiple ties to the World Wide Web. Some possibilities include sporting events where users can get up-to-date scores, instant replays, predictions and statistics, interactive gaming of all kinds from gambling to basic solitaire, and chat talk and instant data information on a non-obtrusive or separate viewing screen. Telecruz's Mr. Narayan commented "Anything where you can interact and still be able to watch your favorite programs will be a reality. People are going to demand interactivity because it will make everything easier and much more fun and entertaining than just a normal everyday analog TV set."