Storage
Solutions - DVD's and CD's
Recordable
CD/Digital Audio Systems - Oak Technology announced a
strategic relationship with PortalPlayer to provide platform
solutions for PC-Free recording and playback of digital media
content to consumer electronics manufacturers. The companies
intend to jointly develop a reference design for a next- generation
digital media player/recorder, as well as future digital music
products and technologies. Initial collaboration will focus
on development of a reference design for recordable optical
storage products that support direct encoding of digital audio
content in MP3 file formats, without the need for a personal
computer. The reference design will incorporate Oak's recently
introduced OTI-8001 consumer CD recordable controller and
PortalPlayer's Tango digital media platform, which is based
on the industry's first single chip embedded controller capable
of real-time MP3 recording and playback [-more-]
Multilevel
Recording technology - According to TDK, ML technology
will allow up to 2 Gbytes of data to be recorded at rates
of up to 36X on specially formulated $2 ML blank discs, with
up to 700 Mbytes of data on standard CD-RW discs at 12X rates.
This is at least three times the capacity of current technology.
TDK plans to scale this quickly to 2.6, then 3.2 Gbytes. Key
to the technology is the fact that it is IC-based, meaning
no changes are required to the optics or hardware, beyond
the addition of an extra IC to current drives — though special
media are required. Mitsubishi has already developed a rewritable
phase-change disc [-more-]
Iomega's
Peerless Drive System - Iomega Corporation, a global leader
in data management solutions, today announced a new modular
drive platform for PC and Macintosh users: the Iomega Peerless
drive system. Debuting this month at CES and MacWorld and
expected to ship mid-year in the U.S., the Peerless drive
system represents a new generation of high performance data
storage devices that delivers market-leading affordability,
versatility and reliability. The Peerless disk, which incorporates
world-class hard drive technology in 5GB, 10GB and 20GB capacities,
is roughly the size and shape of a PDA. It slips into a base
station only slightly larger than the disk itself - a slim,
vertical enclosure about four inches across and five inches
tall. The Peerless drive system offers up to ten times the
performance and massively greater storage capacity than CD-RW,
DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW alternatives [-more-]
National
Semi's NextGen DVD Chips - The Mediamatics NDV86xx processors
support full DVD-Video decode/display and CD-Digital Audio,
MP3, VideoCD and all VideoCD derivatives. They offer an on-chip
MPEG-2 video decoder; high quality video processing and filtering
with a zoom scaler; and integrated NTSC/PAL/SCART video encoder
with four integrated 10-bit 2X oversampling video DACs. Substantial
"trick mode" features are supported, such as multi-angle viewing,
digesting, strobing and 1X reverse playback, in addition to
integrated on-chip CSS decryption/descrambling for DVD-Video
content. The RISC processor architecture operating at high
performance levels allows system developers to combine the
ease of C-based application coding with flexible system extensions
unavailable in other platforms. The chips are capable of Internet
access through modem or broadband connection. Manufactured
on .18-micron technology, the chips are available in a 240-pin
PQFP package [-more-].
Philips'
DVD+RW Video Recorders - Divio Inc. announced that Philips
Consumer Electronics is using Divio's market-leading NW701
Digital Video (DV) video encoder-decoder (CODEC) to provide
a DV input in its new DVD+RW video recorder. The NW701's patented
compression technology allows the up-and-coming Philips DVD+RW
video recorders to deliver unrivaled DV quality, performance
and write/rewrite functionality for the mass market. The NW701,
the world's first and leading single-chip DV CODEC, and the
Philips Semiconductors IEEE 1394 digital interface will provide
high-speed DV/1394 connectivity. The new DVD+RW format is
predicted by many to become the next-generation equivalent
of the tape-based VCR [-more-]
Dell
Selects WinDVD For THX-Certified DVD Playback - To create
the first multimedia PCs ever to pass stringent THX certification
testing, Dell Computer selected WinDVD for the crucial video
and audio DVD playback. WinDVD from InterVideo, Inc., a leading
provider of PC digital video and audio solutions for consumers
and OEMs, is the world's leading DVD software player. Created
by the THX Group of Lucasfilm Ltd for movie theaters, home
theaters, and now PCs, the THX certification program is designed
to ensure consumers that movies, music, and games will have
superior picture and sound quality for movie-theater impact,
realism and quality [-more-]
Request's
CD Recorder MP3 Jukebox - ReQuest Multimedia announced
the AudioReQuest-II (ARQ-II) MP3 Home Stereo platform, which
stores over 10,000 songs from customer's music collection
onto the internal hard drive. With the built-in CD recorder,
the ARQ-II is the first non-PC appliance to create both MP3
and audio CD. Users play their audio CDs once and AudioReQuest
remembers the music, eliminating the need to insert the CD
again. With an easy-to-use remote control, AudioReQuest gives
users the power to search their entire music collection by
song title, artist, and album, as well as create their own
custom play lists. Animated graphical displays that move to
the beat of the music can be viewed on any TV screen. AudioReQuest
also allows music fans to connect to their portable USB MP3
Player making it easy for them to download and take their
favorite tunes with them. [-more-]
