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

To: Don Dorsey who wrote (38096)	1/7/1999 7:19:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

On the surface it appears that the new Cube chips, Ziva-3 and the new ChaoJi chips are based on the same silicon. Same number of pins & packaging and numerous features similarities. This probably means Cube is not manufacturing it's DVD chips in DVD volumes (hundreds of thousands) but rather in VCD + DVD volumes (millions). So I would then have to assume their cost are down in the single digits.

To: Don Dorsey who wrote (38096)	1/7/1999 10:12:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Divx seated at the table, and DVD player inventories are near zero........................................... techweb.com DVD Panel Begrudgingly Accepts Divx (01/07/99, 8:43 p.m. ET) By Andy Patrizio, TechWeb LAS VEGAS -- Whether it's resignation or acceptance, the DVD panel at this year's Consumer Electronics Show was considerably less cantankerous than last year's show when the subject of Divx came up. At the 1998 event, just five months after Divx was announced, Circuit City chairman Richard Sharp took a verbal tongue-lashing from DVD advocates on the panel and in the audience alike. Many felt DVD would take off in 1997 and the announcement of Divx was blamed for confusing the marketplace and making consumers take a wait-and-see attitude for fear of another VHS/Betamax-type war. This year, talk was on DVD and Divx co-existing in the marketplace. There was no wishful thinking of a quick death for the format. Not that this year's panel was a lovefest. Sharp sat on one end of the panel table while on the other end was Warren Lieberfarb, president of Warner Home Video and one of the most vocal critics of Divx. In between the two were six other panelists. Placement of these two was no coincidence. But there was room for joking. Commenting on the surprisingly strong showing for Divx in the fourth quarter, Lieberfarb pointed out the many motivations for Circuit City sales representatives, saying "I'd love to get the spiffs they get, the commissions they get for selling Divx over open DVD." "You're hired," replied Sharp, drawing a huge laugh from the crowd. For the most part, the panel discussed how well DVD had done in late 1998, a statement that has been made repeatedly by vendors selling both the hardware and software. In fact, it was a sell-out. There had been reports of DVD players being out of stock, and two panelists confirmed this. The Good Guys, a West Coast retailer in four states, sold 15,000 players and could probably have sold another 6,000 to 7,000 more if it hadn't run out of inventory, according to John Keating, merchandise manager for the chain. Thomson Consumer Electronics, which sells DVD and Divx players under the RCA and ProScan brands, sold out every unit it made from August through December. "We're going into the new year with almost zero inventory, which is almost unheard of," said Larry Pesce, general manager of worldwide DVD product management, who projected more than two million DVD players sold this year. Divx has been a good business for both The Good Guys and Thomson, and representatives from the two chains expected it to continue to grow as a part of their DVD sales this year. But Pesce put a caveat on Divx sales. Consumers polled after buying a Divx player consistently told Thomson that they did not buy it because they wanted to use the Divx feature right away, but they were looking down the road, said Pesce. "This was a $400 investment for them, and they saw this as a product that's going to be around for a while, and they did not want to lock themselves out of any options for the future," he said. The bulk of the discussion dealt with the rental market and what would be the dominant means of getting movies in the hands of consumers: DVD rental, Divx, and DVD sales. Lieberfarb said they could co-exist, but not without taking a swipe at Divx first. "Divx provides a feature to consumers who want to pay a considerable premium over the cost of renting an open DVD at a rental store for the benefit of disposability," he said. One of the things that will make DVD a success will be if it is as open to use as compact discs, said Mike Fidler, CEO of Sony Electronics. "It has to be an open format that allows consumers maximum levels of utility and functionality, so that they can choose how and when and where they want to view and utilize this product," he said.

To: Don Dorsey who wrote (38096)	1/8/1999 11:38:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

The Gateway/Echostar deal was an upgrade to the Destination XTV............................... pcworld.com Gateway TV/PC Adds Satellite Receiver Destination XTV will integrate digital broadcasts. by James Niccolai, IDG News Service January 8, 1999, 3:41 a.m. PT LAS VEGAS -- Gateway has teamed with EchoStar Communications to co-develop an integrated satellite receiver for Gateway's Destination XTV PCs, which meld together television and computer capabilities. Gateway and EchoStar are demonstrating the product at the Consumer Electronics Show here this week and expect to release the first systems in by the end of the second quarter, a spokesperson said. No pricing has been announced yet. Gateway's current Destination offerings, which use analog television broadcasts, start at $1,999, the spokeswoman said. EchoStar operates the DishNetwork, a digital broadcasting network that offers more than 300 channels to customers in North America. It has also created the DishLink TV system, a satellite PCI receiver that the companies say will link Gateway's PC to EchoStar's broadcast network. This is proving to be a busy week at CES for EchoStar. Earlier today the company announced a partnership with WebTV Networks that will bring its satellite programming to customers of WebTV's WebTV Plus TV Internet service.