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

To: Black-Scholes who wrote (40664)	5/7/1999 4:04:00 PM
From: Black-Scholes	Respond to of 50808

Let's everyone have some fun this weekend - God knows we've earned it.

To: Black-Scholes who wrote (40664)	5/7/1999 4:06:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Respond to of 50808

CUBE on the radar screen... newmedia.com DVXpress Boards Boast Dual Streams and Dual Formats Matrox and Pinnacle have both announced new dual-stream editing hardware, neither using mainstay M-JPEG compression. Both are based on C-Cube's second generation DVXpress chipset, which is capable of dual-stream MPEG-2, DV, or a mix of the two formats. Matrox's Digisuite DTV is the successor to the company's Motion-JPEG-based DigiSuite and DigiSuite LE board sets. Digisuite DTV will likewise use Matrox's DigiMix architecture for a wide variety of real-time effects. Targeting professional users, Matrox uses the 50Mbit/sec version of DVXpress to support standard 25Mbit DV, but also supports dual streams of Panasonic 50Mb DVCPro-50 and up to 50Mb I-frame MPEG-2. Since I-frame only, 4:2:2 profile MPEG-2 is very similar to M-JPEG, DigiSuite DTV can support both analog component I/O as well as serial digital component. A modular daughter card allows for IEEE 1394 I/O and native DV dual-stream editing, yielding all-digital and/or all-analog editing capabilities. More important during the transition to digital, Matrox also allows you to mix legacy analog footage with new digital assets in real-time. Matrox uses a second DVXpress chip on a daughter card to enable real-time recompression to DV or I,B,P MPEG-2 for distribution to DVD or DTV. Pricing for DigiSuite DTV was not formally set at press time, though it is expected to fall between $5,000-9610,000. Pinnacle Systems, on the other hand, targets the other end of the real-time editing spectrum with the most affordable dual-stream hardware available. The DC1000 supports analog S-Video and composite video I/O, digitizing material into IPPP-syntax MPEG-2. Very similar to M-JPEG, "IPPP" MPEG-2 leverages temporal compression, thus saving storage space while maintaining image quality. DC1000 is expected to be priced at $2,499, about half the price of Pinnacle's own dual-stream, component I/O-capable ReelTime hardware. Focusing on analog I/O, Pinnacle has chosen not to exploit the native dual-stream DV capabilities of the C-Cube chip. Pinnacle is planning a DV daughter card option for DC1000 costing "less than $1,000." However, it will include Sony's DVBK1 DV codec chip and will transcode all DV footage to MPEG-2 for editing rather than maintaining first-generation digital data throughout the editing process. Fast Multimedia is now shipping its dual-stream "601" hardware and software turnkey editing solution. Based on the first MPEG-only version of DVXpress, 601 lets you edit dual-stream, I-frame-only MPEG-2. Fast has not announced plans to add the DV native editing capabilities of C-Cube's second-generation chips. Rather than relying on third party editing software like Adobe Premiere or In:sync Speed Razor, Fast has closely tied 601 to its own "Fast Studio" editing software. The 601 system is sold as a turnkey editing station, including Fast's hardware and software and a 350MHz computer, and costs $12,995. A $1,999 component option is also available. --Jeff Sauer Digital Radar May 1999