Stream Machine and Castlewood Systems Make Viewing TV More Personal and Fun; New Personal Video Recorder to be Demonstrated at COMDEX.SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 1999-- Recognizing the need for high-quality digital video recording at consumer friendly prices, Stream Machine, a provider of innovative video and audio semiconductor solutions, and Castlewood Systems, Inc., a developer of high performance removable storage solutions, have combined their expertise to provide the ideal development platform for time-shift personal video recorders (PVR See DVR. ). The platform will be on display next week at COMDEX The former, premier computer trade show in the U.S. Although it grew into an end user event, it was originally created for dealers and distributors (it was the COMputer Dealers EXposition). at Castlewood's Booth (L6026) and Stream Machine's Demonstration Suite. It's More Than Just "Going Digital" The new media experience is more than just digital quality, it is the ability to interact with and gain control over the media, for example, through pause, instant replay or slow-motion of live broadcasts, and by recording and playing back at your convenience. However, digital video recording is currently expensive and comes with limited storage. The development platform offered by Stream Machine and Castlewood overcomes both of these objections. Affordable: Stream Machine's new SM2210 single-chip MPEG-2 video encoder/decoder is the foundation of the Symphony(TM) Personal Video Recorder reference design. The SM2210, in conjunction with the Philips TriMedia processor, provides very high quality video and audio record and playback. The SM2210's high integration ensures that the total system cost is as low as possible, making MPEG-2 PVRs affordable. Unlimited Storage: Castlewood's magnetoresistive See magnetoresistance. (MR) product, named ORB, uses 3-1/2" removable media with a capacity of 5.7 GB, much more than any other product in this category and more than enough for a full-length DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. at 4.7 GB. Additionally, at an impressive 16.5 MB/second maximum sustained data transfer rate -- the fastest transfer rate of any removable media product available today -- ORB is completely "video ready." "Stream Machine's MPEG-2 codec (1) (enCOder/DECoder) A hardware circuit that performs analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) conversion. When analog signals are entered into a computer, cellphone or other device via a microphone or video source such as VHS tape or analog TV, is enabling new classes of recordable digital video consumer electronics," said Stream Machine's president and 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. , Michael Canning. "The combination of the Symphony PVR with Castlewood's ORB removable hard drive overcomes consumers' frustration with limited storage and provides an ideal platform for developing affordable, time-shift personal video recorders." "Symphony's flexible system architecture and the completeness of the Symphony reference design's deliverables made it straightforward to integrate the Castlewood ORB drive The Orb Drive is a 3.5" removable hard disk drive. It was introduced by Castlewood Systems in 1999. The Orb Drive's original capacity was 2.2 GB. A later version of the drive, introduced in 2001, increased the capacity to 5.7 GB. 2. ," said Iftakar Syed. "The combination of the ORB drive's high capacity and Symphony's high quality MPEG-2 encoding allows video and audio to be recorded at DVD-quality levels." About The Symphony Reference Design The Symphony reference design is a complete audio/video record and playback platform for developing PVRs, recordable DVD players and digital VCRs. Symphony features Stream Machine's highly integrated SM2210 MPEG-2 video codec, which provides high quality at low total system cost. The architecture of the Symphony reference design is flexible and can operate with various storage technology: CD-RW (CD-ReWritable) The only rewritable CD technology. CD-RW disks look like other CD media, but with close inspection, they have a more polished surface with a very dark blue-gray cast. , hard disk, DVD-RAM A rewritable DVD disc endorsed by the DVD Forum. Using phase change technology, DVD-RAMs are like removable hard disks, and the media can be rewritten 100,000 times compared to 1,000 times for DVD-RW and DVD+RW. The first DVD-RAM drives with a capacity of 2.6GB (single sided) or 5. or removable storage like the Castlewood ORB. Using the ORB drive as storage, the SM2210/Symphony system achieves DVD-quality video and audio. The Symphony reference design comes complete, including software/firmware, schematics, bill of materials The list of components that make up a system. For example, a bill of materials for a house would include the cement block, lumber, shingles, doors, windows, plumbing, electric, heating and so on. (BOM), Gerber files, and user documentation to enable products based on these reference designs to be brought quickly to high volume manufacturing. Availability The SM 2210 single chip MPEG-2 video CODEC is in full production and available now. Pricing for SM 2210 is $49 in 4000 unit orders. The Symphony reference design is available and priced at $25,000. About the ORB drive Castlewood's ORB drive is the first removable media storage drive to use the most advanced magnetoresistive (MR) technology, providing users with the digital storage solution for the next millennium. The ORB drive provides a substantial increase in capacity, performance and reliability -- with 5.7 GB of storage, a maximum transfer rate of 16.5 megabytes per second (unit) megabytes per second - (MBps, MB/s) Millions of bytes per second. A unit of data rate. 1 MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes per second (not 1,048,576). , and a suggested retail price of $199, the ORB drive is a fast and cost-effective alternative to current storage options on the market today. The ORB drive is currently available in IDE internal and Parallel Port external interfaces as well as SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. for both MAC and PC. About Castlewood Castlewood Systems, Inc. designs and manufactures high performance removable media drives using the latest magnetoresistive (MR) head technology, offering computer users the solution to storage for the next millennium. ORB offers consumers the largest capacity, highest reliability and lowest cost of any product in its class. Additional information about Castlewood and its products, partners, technology and distribution can be found at http://www.castlewood.com. About Stream Machine Company Stream Machine Company provides innovative audio and video solutions for the Internet, consumer electronics and personal computer markets. Stream Machine uses proprietary technology and techniques to bring to market cost effective semiconductors that implement industry standard audio and video algorithms, such as MPEG-2. Please visit the Stream Machine website for additional information: www.streammachine.com |
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