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

To: John Rieman who wrote (39163)	3/7/1999 9:38:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Nice to have some GOOD news, I was afraid to look. I can't put this piece into the German puzzle, does it impact Kirch or D-boxes? Sounds like hardball is being played? Dow Jones Newswires Deutsche Telekom:No Interest In TV Ops Sale To Deutsche Bk Dow Jones Newswires FRANKFURT -- Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) said Sunday it may no longer consider Deutsche Bank AG (G.DBK) as an investor in its cable television business after conflict between the two parties reached a climax late last week. The spokesman for Deutsche Telekom confirmed that the company had sent a letter to Deutsche Bank, but wouldn't detail its contents. He said, however, "It appears that Deutsche Bank has attempted to exert price pressure via Brussels, and under these circumstances we would no longer be prepared" to consider a sale. A report in German news weekly Der Spiegel on Sunday highlighted the dispute. Deutsche Bank officials couldn't be reached for comment. The conflict boiled over Thursday after the bank approached E.U. competition authorities and accused the telecommunications giant of using time-wasting tactics to block its attempt to mediate in the privatization of the cable TV business, the news weekly said. "We don't view this as good style," Telekom said. Spiegel reported that Telekom flatly rejected the bank's offer of a complete buyout of the business for a price between DEM5 billion and DEM9 billion, stymieing potential talks between the two parties. Deutsche Bank's offer is significantly lower than Telekom's DEM20 billion valuation reported recently. The Spiegel report said Telekom is also considering reducing its business ties with Deutsche Bank, which would mean a significant loss for the bank. The spokesman wouldn't comment. The bank is reportedly interested in the investment returns from buying and repackaging Telekom's cable network, while ranking high as a potential book-runner for a DEM15 billion capital increase being considered for this year by the largely state-owned telecom company. Ties between the companies have been close since Deutsche Bank acted as one of the lead book-runners for Telekom's DEM20 billion initial public offering in 1996. Spiegel said Deutsche Bank claimed its actions had been misunderstood, and that it is only interested in acting as a "facilitator" in the privatization of the cable business for an interim three to four years. The bank's move irritated senior Telekom executives, however. "We won't allow ourselves to be put under time pressure, by anyone," said Telekom board member Gerd Tenzer to Spiegel. Instead of a complete sell-off, Telekom will continue with its original strategy of founding at least ten regional cable television associations, for whom it will then find strategic investors such as media or telecoms companies. In some it will maintain a 20% stake, while others will be sold off completely. A roadshow to advertise the sale of the business starting in March will be taken to Berlin, Duesseldorf, Munich, London and New York, with the first talks set to begin in April, said Tenzer, who heads the cable TV operations. In January, Telekom spun off its cable TV business into two new subsidiaries in a move to attract investors. Kabel Deutschland GmbH is responsible for expanding the extensive network, which serves almost 18 million German households. MediaServices GmbH is developing broad-band cable and digital TV. Many companies including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) are reportedly interested in Telekom's cable network, which serves almost 18 million German households. -By Angela Cullen;

To: John Rieman who wrote (39163)	3/7/1999 10:18:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

JR, If you go to Dell's site they are still selling CD-ROM as the standard, but for 108 extra you get hardDVD that will have output to your TV, or for half that you can buy softDVD. tDVD. commerce.us.dell.com

To: John Rieman who wrote (39163)	3/8/1999 1:31:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Lights! Camera! Time Sink!(Product Information)(Abstract) Bill Howard 03/23/99 PC Magazine COPYRIGHT 1999 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company If you want to make movies--and you want to make them with your PC-- it's going to cost you. Specifically, if you want to edit videos using the PC, set aside a bunch of evenings and weekends to learn and then to edit. Your colleagues will be impressed by the results. And by the amount of time you've spent. Thanks to digital video (DV) camcorders and PCs with IEEE 1394 (FireWire) connections, you can now capture high-resolution video with your PC, edit it, add titles and transitions, and write it back out to DV or standard VHS videotape. All this is nonlinear editing,meaning you can jump to any point in the tape (because it's now stored on the hard disk). For the past month, I've been working with a Sony VAIO Digital Studio, which is a Sony VAIO desktop PC with an IEEE 1394 connection (Sony calls it the i.Link), a big hard disk, and two bundled applications-- Sony's own editing and capturing software, DVgate, and the more comprehensive Adobe Premiere LE. I've connected it to a palm-size Sony DV camcorder. Roughly speaking, DV quality is as far above that of Hi8 camcorders as Hi8 is above standard VHS. (See our next issue for a roundup of ten leading DV camcorders.) Here's how it works: You shoot videos just as you always have. Then when you come back to the house or office, you can play back what you've shot on any TV with composite or S-Video connections or any PC with a 1394 connection--found on only a handful of systems from Compaq and Sony. When you're ready to edit the tape, you transfer its contents to your PC via 1394 cable. The good news is that there's no additional compression or loss of quality as the data travels from camera to PC. The bad news is, the data pours onto the hard disk at about 3.6MB per second. Think about that: You could fill roughly one floppy disk for every half-second of footage, or one Zip disk every 30 seconds, or 14GB with the 60 minutes on a single DV cassette. You can mark rough cuts as the PC captures the video and then fine-tune the exact transition points. One feature I missed was automatic scene detection, which is standard on tape-to-tape PC-based editors such as the Pinnacle Systems Studio 400 (www.pinnaclesys.com). This feature watches for a large number of changed pixels in adjacent frames, which indicates that a scene has changed--or that you're panning too fast. Using Premiere, you can add titles and a potentially nauseating variety of transitions. You can also overlay background music. Then you write the results back out to DV tape or standard VHS; alternatively, you can save them for PC-based presentations as AVI or MPEG-1 files, trading off image quality for smaller disk requirements. The results are great, but the time it takes to edit the tape is significant, even when you're past the learning curve. The nonlinear- editing nature of disk-based video saves time but not a lot. Figure at least 2 hours for each hour of tape for minimal editing, and as much as 10 hours if you have visions of grandeur. DVgate and Premiere are not tools for casual users; this is not Broderbund Print Shop for Video. If the home/departmental video-editing market is to take off, there needs to be a far simpler, wizard-based video editor that lets you add titles, automatically tracks scene changes, lets you quickly delete unwanted scenes or goofs (the 30-second-long shot of the ground), and allows a couple of cute transition effects (but argues if you try for too much variety), then writes it all out to a second tape. Home editing will also be more attractive when standard hard disks are 100GB, not 10GB; when MPEG-2 encoders are standard on PCs (MPEG-2 is the encoding method used on DVDs), giving you high-quality storage with fewer space constraints; when every PC can create CDs--or better yet, DVDs that can be played on home DVD players; and when home AV devices have IEEE 1394 connections (coming within the year). In the meantime, if you're in the market for a camcorder, give DV some consideration, instead of Hi8 or 8-mm. Prices range from just under $1,000 to $2,500, which is what a Hi8 camcorder cost just a few years ago. Look for a DV camcorder that has AV inputs, so you can convert your old 8-mm or VHS tapes to DV format for in-PC editing, using the DV camcorder as a pass-through device. Sony also has announced a sub- $1,000 hybrid product, the Sony Digital 8 camcorder, which records a DV-style format on 8-mm tapes and has a 1394 connection; it also plays existing 8-mm tapes. The results are great, but the time it takes to edit the tape is significant, even when you're past the learning curve. More on the Web: Fellow auteurs: Join us online and tell us about your experiences with PC moviemaking. www.pcmag.com/opinions

To: John Rieman who wrote (39163)	3/9/1999 8:08:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

U.S. Air Force selects Cube's Ziva DVD decoder... Amittedly that's stretching it just a bit, but the USAF did select Dell's Dimension XPS desktops with DVD-ROM and Dell does use the Quadrant DVD card and Quadrant does use Cube's Ziva chip... ---------------- U.S. Air Force Again Taps Dell to Provide Computer Systems 03/09/99 Business Wire (Copyright (c) 1999, Business Wire) ROUND ROCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 9, 1999-- New Procurement Contracts Enables the Service to Purchase Leading-Edge Desktops, Notebooks and Servers Directly from Dell Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq:DELL), the world's leading direct computer systems company, announced today that Dell has been selected by the U.S. Air Force as one of three companies that will provide desktop, server, and portable computing products. The Air Force has chosen Dell to offer its products through a GSA Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), enabling Air Force officials to obtain computer systems directly from Dell, bringing greater efficiency and cost savings to the service as it enhances its IT infrastructure. Dell was selected by the Air Force last year to provide systems as part of a one-year BPA contract. That contract, which supplements the existing Air Force Desktop V contract for technology procurement, expires this month. "Dell's direct-to-the-customer business model enables the Air Force to efficiently and affordably get the leading-edge technology it requires, using streamlined contracts designed to save taxpayer dollars," said Ro Parra, senior vice president and general manager of Dell Public, Americas and International. "Buying from Dell allows the Air Force to get the systems and services they need, and the ability to purchase these systems online, simplifying the procurement process." To support the BPA, Dell has designed specifically for the Air Force a Premier Page, designed for the BPA contract. This online site allows government procurement officials, authorized to purchase off the BPA, to configure, price and purchase systems and peripherals, in addition to providing key contact information and access to online support services. Dell, a leading supplier of computer technology to the Federal government, and the top vendor on the General Service Administration's Federal Supply Schedule, will provide Dimension(R) and OptiPlex(R) desktop PCs, Latitude(R) CPi notebooks and PowerEdge(R) servers. Dell will continue to service the Air Force with dedicated account, technical and support staff that will work directly with the Air Force to tailor solutions for individual bases worldwide. Through the BPA, Dell will deliver most custom-configured systems within five to seven days, and will provide next-business-day support for all Dell products for customers in the contiguous 48 states. "Dell is dedicated to providing the Air Force with the systems and solutions they need to meet their IT requirements, and through DellPlus, the integration capabilities needed to add unique hardware and software to meet specific military requirements," said Tom Buchsbaum, vice president and general manager of Dell Federal. The Air Force can select from four Dell product families including: -- Dell's award-winning PowerEdge servers including the PowerEdge 4300 departmental-class and the PowerEdge 6300 enterprise-class servers. The Dell PowerEdge 4300 is designed to run business-critical file-and print-sharing, electronic mail and database application functions, providing users enhanced reliability, availability and scalability features. Dell's PowerEdge 6300 offers quad-processor technology, and features redundant components for enhanced reliability and other high-end availability and scalability features required for large data centers and organizations. -- Dell's highly durable Latitude notebooks will provide the Air Force a dependable, lightweight mobile computing solution, incorporating powerful processor technology and features. Dell initially will offer the Dell Latitude CPi featuring 233 MHz, 266MHz and 300 MHz Pentium II processors. -- Designed for customers who need highly reliable systems within networked environments, Dell will provide OptiPlex GX1 desktops, giving government users the latest in enterprise management solutions for enhanced reliability. The Dell OptiPlex family of highly manageable PCs are designed for large institutional users, and provide a stable platform that protects customers' technology investment. -- Dell's Dimension XPS desktops lead in the industry's transition to a new generation of applications, designed with the latest processing and multimedia technology for users who demand high-performance computing capabilities, including advanced video and audio solutions, DVD ROM, expansive hard drives and high-speed SDRAM memory. Ranked No. 125 among the Fortune 500 companies and No. 363 in the Fortune Global 500, Dell Computer Corporation is the world's leading direct computer systems company, based on revenues of $18.2 billion for the past four quarters. Dell designs, manufactures and customizes products and services to customer requirements and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained through its toll-free number 800/388-8542 or by accessing the Dell World Wide Web site at www.dell.com. Dell, Dimension, OptiPlex, Latitude and PowerEdge are registered trademarks, and Premier Pages is a service mark of Dell Computer Corporation. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. Fortune 500 is a registered trademark of Time Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Contact: CONTACT: Dell Computer Corporation, Round Rock Media Contacts: Deborah Cromer, 512/728-4650 deborah_cromer@dell.com or Investor Contacts: Don Collis, 512/728-8671 don_collis@dell.com or Rob Williams, 512/728-7570 robert_williams@dell.com 14:19 EST MARCH 9, 1999