Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: John Rieman who wrote (37269)	11/17/1998 12:24:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Panasonic, Philips cards seen as endorsment for PC/TV 11/16/98 DV Business (c) 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc. Consumer electronics manufacturers and chip makers are speeding development of devices that merge the PC with the TV now that broadcasters around the world are making DTV a household name. Panasonic [MC] and Philips [PHG] are demonstrating DTV tuner cards at this week's Comdex in Las Vegas and C-Cube Microsystems [CUBE] introduced the DVxplore two week ago - the all-in-one DV to MPEG-2 chip for the consumer desktop market. The introduction of these devices bodes well for increasing use and manipulation of digital video on the desktop. Panasonic and Philips anticipate heightened interest from consumers looking for cheaper alternatives to $5,000+ HDTVs. And C-Cube is counting on its chip to grow the consumer desktop video editing market with Matrox, Ulead and Creative Labs, which have endorsed DVxplore. But for the PC/TV to move beyond the novelty stage, it must bring more than just video to the desktop. For example, sending interactive data to the desktop via digital broadcasts is seen as a key factor in marketing PC/TV cards. Growing acceptance of IEEE-1394 (firewire), which enables the transfer of MPEG-quality video also is seen as crucial for market acceptance. DTV has great potential to boost the PC/TV tuner market says In- Stat Group, a market research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1 million analog TV tuner cards were shipped in 1997 and In-Stat predicts that number will double in 1998. Shipments of analog and digital TV tuner cards for the consumer and OEM markets are expected to grow to 8 million units by 2002, for a market value of about $800 million. The PC Alternative Until now, TV tuner cards have been the mainstay of small Silicon Valley start-ups, unknown names to most consumers. With Panasonic and Philips' entry into the market, the major players are not only banking on a lucrative PC/TV market, they're hoping the products will spark consumer awareness in DTV sets. Panasonic's two-card DTV tuner which it is marketing with Compaq Computer Corp., is available now to OEMS in quantities of 10,000 at $800-$1,000 for the pair. Panasonic will initially market the tuner on an OEM basis to manufacturers, broadcasters, content creation studios, and content developers. The device decodes all 18 ATSC formats plus the current ATSC analog format. Due to the high cost of the tuner, Compaq will offer the device on request from end users. Randy Surovy, Panasonic's Industrial's marketing manager for the electronic components group expects the product to eventually make its way to the consumer retail market but he wouldn't give dates. Philips' "Coney Board" - which it co-designed with Intel [INTC] combines an advanced TV front-end tuner with desktop video ICs. The board is being used in Intel's DTV broadcast trials, including its collaboration with PBS that took place last week (DVB, 11.2.98). Philips is providing the architecture to manufacturers and will announce initial licensees at Comdex. For DTV to succeed it needs to move beyond the high-end niche market and the PC industry is well-poised for bringing DTV closer to the consumer, according Simon Wegerif, Product Marketin Manager for Philips Consumer Systems. "The PC industry is taking more initiative at approaching the whole DTV receiver market, " Wegerif says. C-Cube Targets Consumer C-Cube ' DVxplore chip is basically a consumer version of its DVxpress-MX chip that transcodes DV to MPEG, and was introduced to the professional broadcast market in September (DVB, 9.21.98). Initial markets for the chip will be for retail add-in cards for the PC. C-Cube estimates that 2 million video capture devices will be sold this year amounting to a $30 million market for companies supplying video-capture and compression silicon. Features include MPEG-2 and DV25 encoding and decoding, plus frame accurate editing and dual stream decoding. In short, the codec is bringing faster MPEG-2 quality video editing to the consumer at a much lower price point. A future version of the chip will include a 1394 interface. C-Cube is working with about 10 software companies to develop the tools for the chip, according to Patrick Henry, C-Cube 's sr. director of marketing. The chip still is in the software and board testing phase, but Henry says production samples should be available for $75 each in late December. (In-Stat, Mark Kirstein, 602/483-04468; Panasonic, Randy Surovy, 201/392-6067; C-Cube , Patrick Henry, 408/490-8228)