DIGITAL ENTERS RETAIL MULTIMEDIA PC MARKET.MAYNARD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Nov. 8, 1994 -- Digital Equipment Corporation today announced the FullVideo family -- its entry into the retail multimedia market -- a full line of board-level PC enhancement hardware products that provides full-screen, full-motion, TV-like video with 16-bit CD-quality stereo sound. Based on RealMagic Interactive MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). (Moving Picture Experts Group (compression, standard, algorithm, file format, body) Moving Picture Experts Group - (MPEG, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11) An ISO committee that generates standards for digital video compression and audio. Also the name of their algorithms. ) technology from Sigma Designs (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :SIGM), the FullVideo line adds a new sense of realism to popular entertainment and education titles of PC software. Created for home entertainment and business, FullVideo products are currently available at BrandsMart, Fry's Electronics Fry's Electronics is a specialty retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. Starting with one store located in Sunnyvale, California, USA, the chain now boasts sales of $2. , and Lechmere which also offer Digital's PC retail printers. Digital is supporting its FullVideo line with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and expanding its retail distribution to other leading retailers. "The introduction of FullVideo products expands Digital's retail line into the fast-growing multimedia segment," said Patrick Sullivan, vice president of Digital's Components and Peripherals Merchandising Business. "Together with our current retail printer line, we now have the products PC users want in over 1300 locations." The FullVideo line is intended for home use, enabling access to educational and reference materials like World Atlas, interactive games like Return to Zork Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series for the PC and Apple Macintosh. It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label. and MegaRace, entertainment movies including Top Gun, and music videos for all ages. By using interactive MPEG playback, FullVideo products will bring the home PC to a new level. In addition to home use, FullVideo products are ideal for schools, enabling students to learn interactively by using encyclopedias and other reference materials with full screen video. There is also a wide variety of commercial applications such as interactive corporate training, video information kiosks, video demonstrations, and CD catalogs. At the heart of FullVideo is RealMagic technology developed by Sigma Designs. RealMagic is based on a patented chip set used for MPEG decompression decompression /de·com·pres·sion/ (de?kom-presh´un) removal of pressure, especially from deep-sea divers and caisson workers to prevent bends, and from persons ascending to great heights. . Hundreds of leading software developers like Mindscape mind·scape n. A mental or psychological scene or area of the imagination. , formerly The Software Toolworks and Activision are now using the RealMagic standard to add to the thousands of titles already available. MPEG source material is recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, then compressed at up to 200:1. Based on the MPEG standard for video and audio compression Encoding digital audio data to take up less storage space and transmission bandwidth. Audio compression typically uses lossy methods, which eliminate bits that are not restored at the other end. ADPCM and MP3 are examples of audio compression methods. See audio codec and data compression. , RealMagic enables playback of up to 74 minutes of full-screen, full-motion, TV-like video and 16-bit stereo audio from a single CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). , about 650 MBytes of data. "Digital is the first of many major computer manufacturers to announce a line of products based on our RealMagic interactive MPEG technology," said Greg Jones Greg Jones may refer to:
Easily installed on any 386/SX-25 or faster PC with 2 MBytes of free RAM and 2 MBytes available on a hard disk, Digital's FullVideo doesn't require a high-performance PC to take advantage of the wide assortment of currently available MPEG interactive game titles and thousands of full-length feature films and music videos. "PC users want interactive multimedia products with TV-like full-screen video and high fidelity high fidelity n. The electronic reproduction of sound, especially from broadcast or recorded sources, with minimal distortion. high sound. Until now, users had to compromise video quality. Digital's FullVideo products satisfies their need for high quality video," said Larry Cabrinety, Vice President of Digital's Components and Peripherals Business Unit. "FullVideo technology is based on the MPEG standard for video and audio compression, the only way to get interactive TV-like video quality on your PC. Other so-called 'full-screen' solutions simply don't provide the same quality or ability to interact." The MPEG standard used by FullVideo products feature a 20 times compression improvement, 4 times the video data and twice as many sound bits compared with AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) A Windows multimedia video format from Microsoft. It interleaves standard waveform audio and digital video frames (bitmaps) to provide reduced animation at 15 fps at 160x120x8 resolution. Audio is 11,025Hz, 8-bit samples. , the common full-motion technical format used supported by Creative Labs, MediaVision and VideoLogic. MPEG source material is recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, then compressed 200:1, compared with up to 15 frames per second and 8-bit sound with compression of 10:1 with the AVI format. This results in only 10 minutes of video on a single CD with the AVI format compared with 74 minutes with MPEG, enabling MPEG users to see full-length feature films with TV-like quality. By definition of the respective standards, products offering enhanced AVI playback simply cannot match MPEG quality. Since there is no AVI source material recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, AVI enhancers offering features beyond 15 frames per second and 8-bit sound have created technology with no titles for customers to use. MPEG, with its support by the consumer electronics industry, offers thousands of titles for Karaoke karaoke (Japanese; “empty orchestra”) Use of a device that plays instrumental accompaniments to songs with the vocal tracks removed, permitting the user to sing the lead. , CD, movies and music videos. FullVideo MPEG supports interactive applications and randomly direct access to individual tracks. The FullVideo family of products is available now and includes FullVideo Elite, a MPEG video decompression playback card plus 13 titles for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $349; and the FullVideo Interactive MPEG Playback System, a complete multimedia upgrade solution for a PC including a single board providing MPEG decompression, 16-bit stereo sound and CD-ROM controller, internal double-speed CD-ROM drive A device that holds and reads CD-ROM discs. CD-ROM drives generally also play audio CD discs by sending analog sound to the sound card via a 4-pin cable. For specifications of 10x, 20x, etc. drives, see CD-ROM drives. See CD-ROM, CD-ROM changer, CD-ROM server and CD-ROM audio cable. , stereo speakers and 15 top titles, for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $749. Digital's FullVideo family is currently available from BrandsMart, Fry's Electronics, Lechmere, and other leading retailers. Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server solutions from personal computing Refers to users working on their own computers rather than a terminal to a mainframe. Sometimes, the term refers to using computers at home for work and/or entertainment in contrast to business use only. See personal computer. to integrated worldwide information systems. Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace. -0- Sales Information: 800-777-4343 Note to Editors: Digital, the Digital logo and FullVideo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. RealMagic is a trademark of Sigma Designs, Inc. MegaRace and World Atlas are trademarks of Mindscape, formerly The Software Toolworks. Return to Zork is a trademark of Infocom, a Division of ActiVision. Top Gun is a trademark of Paramount Studios. CONTACT: Digital Equipment Corp. Richard Lee Richard Lee may refer to:
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