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

To: John Rieman who wrote (36787)	10/17/1998 8:50:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 50808

From Barron's "DVDs reach critical mass," declared the front-page headline in last week's Computer Retail Week. Cynics would want to add the word: Maybe. For nigh on two years, DVD industry cheerleaders such as Warner Home Video's President Warren Lieberfarb have been touting the time of the new entertainment technology. But somehow the good times never arrived, and sales of the new devices trailed most targets over two successive Christmas selling seasons. A number of things went wrong, not least that the $600-plus players were too expensive, even as there were too few movies out in the new format. More recently, of course, there has been the additional problem with Divx, the rival DVD format planned by Circuit City that threatened to both confuse DVD buyers and split the market into incompatible factions much like Betamax and VHS did. But now, for all these snags, it really does appear that the time of DVD is imminent. First, the makers of the DVD players have moved far enough along the technology learning curve to be able to make full-featured machines that sell at under $400, a price that could make DVD the hot item under this year's Christmas tree. Moreover, as a visit to any video or CD store will confirm, there are now literally hundreds of movie titles available on DVD, with Disney, DreamWorks and every other major Hollywood studio now turning out movies in the new format. At the same time, the threat of Divx has faded. Sure, the new players are becoming available in Circuit City Stores but word is they're not moving fast. Indeed, so limited is the apparent potential that the company has seemingly given up on its attempts to seek an additional financial partner to fund the launch. No one was interested! The changes have not gone unnoticed in the DVD fraternity. After a trial run at a few of its stores, Wal-Mart has concluded that DVDs could be hot, and it now plans to offer both players and discs nationwide. Others, like Target and Blockbuster Video, are also jumping on the DVD bandwagon. When and if DVD does take off, some gain will flow to the makers of the players, the likes of Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Toshiba, all of which have lacked any really hot new consumer product since the compact disc. The same goes for the electronics stores. But the biggest eventual beneficiary, ironically enough, could be Circuit City. "A big success with DVD would not necessarily be all bad for Circuit City," says Harry Katica, who follows the company for Prudential Securities out of Atlanta. "Sure it would be better for them if Divx hit a home run, but most investors have long since discounted that possibility." The worst scenario is that Circuit City keeps spending big bucks in a fruitless attempt to make Divx take off. A better one is that DVD is such a success that Circuit City gives up on Divx before pouring more money into the sinkhole. Explains Katica: "If they quit Divx, I'd be jumping for joy." So, too, might the stock, which now trades at 33 3/8, up from 32 15/16 a week ago but down from a summer high of 55.

To: John Rieman who wrote (36787)	10/19/1998 10:02:00 AM
From: Grantcw	Respond to of 50808

Sigma in SVCD? biz.yahoo.com Sigma Brings Super VCD to the PC With REALmagic EM8800 Silicon Product to be Launched at COMNET/ICE Shanghai 98 FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1998-- Sigma Designs, Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGM - news), a leader in digital video solutions for personal computers, today announced the REALmagic EM8800 decoder IC, the first single-chip PC solution for China's new SuperVCD (SVCD) standard. Integrating virtually all SVCD decoding functions on one chip, the EM8800 can turn a PC into a full-featured home theater video player that fully exploits the improved video quality supported by the SVCD standard. The EM8800 will be demonstrated at COMNET/ICE Shanghai 98, Oct. 19-22. Sponsored by IDG, the China Computer Federation, and the Shanghai Computer Society, COMNET/ICE focuses on Internet/intranet PC applications. SVCD was developed as the successor to VCD by the China National Technical Committee of Standards. The VCD format is based on MPEG-1 video, while SVCD is based on the MPEG-2 standard. The primary differences between SVCD and DVD include slightly lower video resolution, CD-quality audio, and use of a CD rather than a DVD drive. Upgrade cards based on the REALmagic EM8800 chip will be launched in the marketplace later this year in time for the peak consumer-buying season prior to the Chinese New Year. Industry experts say the fast-growing Chinese PC market is expected to account for 4.5 million new machines in 1998, rising to 10 million computers to be sold in China by the year 2000. PC demand in China has continued to be fueled by its strong economy, which has remained undisturbed by the currency crises experienced in many Asian countries. Lung Hwa Electronics, Formosa Industrial Computing, Inc., and Labway Corporation, leading providers of PC graphics and digital video-related cards to worldwide OEMs, have selected the REALmagic EM8800 SVCD decoder IC for their new SVCD decoder cards. ''Sigma Designs has been instrumental to our MPEG-2 product road map,'' commended Peter Pai, Chairman of Lung Hwa. ''The availability of Sigma's EM8800 silicon for SVCD decoding will enable Lung Hwa to provide one-stop shopping for Chinese OEMs, with graphics acceleration and SVCD playback solutions.'' ''The high-quality scalar included in Sigma's EM8800 silicon enables video display quality superior to that found in an SVCD player for a fraction of the cost,'' said Sharming Lin, Chairman and CEO of Formosa Industrial Computing. ''As a highly integrated, flexible, and cost effective solution that is ideal for the PC upgrade market, we believe the EM8800 will help make SVCD playback on PCs available and affordable,'' stated Austin Sun, President, Labway USA Corporation. EnReach Technology, the leading supplier of authoring tools for the SVCD format, has assisted several China publishing companies in producing over 1,000 SVCD titles so far. ''We welcome Sigma's partnership, as our two companies together can provide a complete SVCD encoding and decoding solution for PCs,'' stated Eric Li, Director of Marketing and Sales for EnReach. ''This will be an important step in assuring high-quality SVCD content for the China consumer,'' concluded Li. China's population of 1.2 billion entertainment-oriented people is by far the world's largest consumer of video players that conform to the Video CD format. A huge variety of digital movies and karaoke selections -- more than 15,000 titles -- is already available in China. The SVCD specification is backward compatible with VCD disks. ''Sigma has established itself as a technology and quality leader in the DVD/MPEG-2 market and has long been a driving force behind advancement of MPEG technology,'' stated William K. Wong, Sigma's vice president of marketing. ''REALmagic EM8800 is the latest demonstration that Sigma continues to leverage its technology leadership to meet the growing needs of new and dynamic markets by providing excellent video picture quality on computer monitors or full-screen TV output. Rather than having to migrate from VCD to DVD, which includes the cost of a DVD drive, the Chinese PC market will now be able to play back all SVCD and VCD titles for the small cost of an SVCD card.'' The EM8800 has a companion device, the Sigma EM9210, a PAL/NTSC encoder with on-screen display of Sigma's navigation software. The EM9210 converts digital video data from the EM8800 SVCD decoder into a standard analog television signal compatible with NTSC and PAL formats. Samples of the EM8800 and EM9210 are available, and both chips are in volume production now. The bill of materials for the EM8800-based SVCD card is under $30.