Digital Cube Portable Media Player Uses Sigma Media Processor; Elegant New Media Player Sets The Standard For Quality.MILPITAS, Calif. -- Sigma Designs (Nasdaq:SIGM), a leader in digital media processing See media control. for consumer appliances, today announced that Digital Cube, Inc. has launched the i-Station (PMP-1000), a high quality portable media player which is based on Sigma's EM8561 media processor. The PMP-1000 portable media player offers a polished design, an elegant user interface, and a host of media playback features that sets the standard for quality. Digital Cube has just begun worldwide promotion of the i-Station and intends to market the product at retail as well as through OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and accounts. Portable media players with full video playback as well as music, are now entering the market with the broadest range of entertainment options for consumers on the go. These new devices are expanding on the market demand started with portable music players by appealing to consumers who want to take movies and photos on the road with them, along with their music collection. Sporting a sharp color LCD display, users can play movies, videos, or photos in various formats, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. , and soon WMV (Windows Media Video) A family of digital video compression technologies from Microsoft based on MPEG-4. Version 9 of the WMV codec was released to the SMPTE organization and became the SMPTE 421M standard, otherwise known as VC-1 (see VC-1). 9. Furthermore, using standard video/audio outputs, users can enjoy their movies, share their photos, or amplify their music on any available television or stereo. Sigma media processors support this entire range of features and more, decoding nearly all the major digital media formats and providing the power for full control of a portable device. Currently, the most popular portable music players can hold up to 10,000 songs, and newer models with photo viewing hold up to 25,000 photos, both far exceeding the average person's portfolio. Using similar storage capacity, consumers can now hold up to 20 full-length movies for instant entertainment. With storage capacity expanding from the early models with 4GB to the latest models with 80GB and more, an individual's complete media library along with selected videos can be taken everywhere. For instance, imagine having 1,000 selected songs, 2,000 significant photos, and a dozen new movies you're waiting to see always at your fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. . Offered in a similar size and price range to the latest portable music players with photo capability, portable media players are expected to achieve enormous demand in 2005. "We are excited to see this level of quality and performance in a portable media player, which will fuel growth as more consumers become aware of them," said Ken Lowe, vice president of strategic marketing, Sigma Designs. "Sigma has designed the most flexible media processors available, with support for all the formats, security, and processing power needed for a world-class media player." The i-Station PMP See point-to-multipoint and portable media player. PMP - Portable Media Player 1000 Portable Media Player The i-Station integrates all the power and utility of a video player, music player, and photo viewer into one elegant device. It enables users to conveniently store and access a myriad of digital media content either from the internet, PC, or other sources. Featuring a large TFT-LCD TFT-LCD Thin Film Transistor - Liquid Crystal Display screen, a 20/30 GB hard disk drive, and a rechargeable lithium polymer A rechargeable battery technology introduced in the late 1990s that stores less energy per pound than lithium ion, but is more flexible. Lithium polymer uses a gelatinous electrolyte rather than liquid. battery pack, the i-Station offers an estimated 5 1/2 hours of video or 10 hours of music playtime. Key features include: --3.5" LCD screen with 320x240 pixels and 262,144 colors (18-bit) --Touch-screen interface and remote control for convenient handheld or TV operation --Video formats include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, XVID, and JPEG (photos) all without transcoding and audio formats include MP3, WMA (Windows Media Audio) An audio compression method from Microsoft. Known originally as MSAudio, this proprietary format competes with the MP3 and AAC methods. WMA encodes rapidly and is known to be especially effective at low bit rates. , AC3, and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and better sound quality than MP3, which also came out of the MPEG standard. , and OGG --Extended functions include FM Radio, voice recording, dictionary, calculator, and text viewer --TV output signals (NTSC (National TV Standards Committee) The committee that developed the television standards for the U.S, which are also used in Canada, Japan, South Korea and several Central and South American countries. Both the committee and the standard are called "NTSC. or PAL) with composite, s-video, and stereo audio. The i-Station product and features can be viewed at: http://www.digital-cube.co.kr/ "We have received a very positive response from our initial customers and anticipate widespread demand at both retail and OEM accounts," said Richard Kukil Sohn, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Digital Cube. "Sigma's media processor provides the processing power, video quality, and format support needed for our full-featured product." Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. Statement This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements about the projected timing and extent of customer shipments as well as the expected use of Sigma's MPEG decoder Software or hardware that decompresses and renders MPEG-encoded data. Because MPEG uses lossy compression, the decoded images are not 100% identical to the original. In most cases however, the differences are not easily detectable. See MPEG. products. Actual results could vary from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including worldwide economic conditions, changes in the customer's ability or desire to complete the roll-out, consumer reaction to the new products and services being offered, the ability of Sigma to deliver sufficient quantity and quality of MPEG decoder chips, prices for the Sigma chips, alternative offerings by competitors, and the ability of the parties to work together successfully to achieve the rollout. About Digital Cube Digital Cube is headquartered in Gunpo City, a renowned South Korean hub for technology research and development. Digital Cube designs, develops, and manufactures a unique range of miniaturized digital entertainment peripherals. The company was incorporated in February 2000 with headquarters in Gunpo City, a renowned technology research center in South Korea. Since then, Digital Cube has become a leading exporter of portable digital audio and video players, based primarily on flash memory. Digital Cube offers an increasing array of advanced functions including multi-codec audio format recognition, voice and FM radio recording, advanced caption display, and the world first dual screen display. The company's products use proprietary development and manufacturing technologies to create extremely efficient and highly extensible core technology. In addition to marketing the company's product offerings at home in Korea, Digital Cube exports the company's growing line of digital audio players throughout Asia, and Europe with plans to further expand into the North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. market. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.digital-cube.co.kr About Sigma Designs, Inc. Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM) specializes in silicon-based 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). decoding for streaming video, progressive DVD playback, and advanced digital set-top boxes. The company's award-winning REALmagic(R) Video Streaming Technology is used in both commercial and consumer applications providing highly integrated solutions for high-quality decoding of MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., the company also has sales offices in China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.sigmadesigns.com/. REALmagic and Sigma Designs are registered trademarks of Sigma Designs. All other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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