Plug & Play Volume 8 Issue Number 11. The official newsletter of the IDMA & the DVD-Association Circulation over 1,750 Members & Registered Readers. Contents: New DVD-Association. General news, success stories and technical information. >From the Editor. A new Association, just for DVD. The Interactive Digital Media Association, (IDMA) in conjunction with the members of the DVD group, today announced the formation of a new association for the DVD industry. The new organization will be known as the DVD-Association, or DVDA, and will be operated as a sister organization, by the Interactive Digital Media Association. The new Association will support the DVD platform in North America and Europe. Two new directors selected from the members of the DVD Group will join the IDMA Board immediately. The DVDA will also have an advisory council made up of industry representatives to assist in the shaping of this exciting new industry. The first two honorary members of this Advisory Council are the two chairpersons of the leading DVD conferences in North America and Europe, Dana Parker and John Barker. Panasonic Home and Commercial Products Company are the first Manufacturer to join the Advisory Council. They will be represented on the council by Mr.Stan Cook. "Plug & Play, the IDMA's free e-mail newsletter for the interactive digital media industry, has for some time concentrated almost entirely on supporting the DVD Platform." said Paul Holmes, Chief Executive of the new Association and editor of Plug & Play. "Now with the influx of experts from the DVD group the contents should be even more helpful and informative for the readers." The DVDA will share, both the new web site, www.DVDA.org, currently being designed for the IDMA and the IDMA-DVDA Summit conference scheduled for Dallas, October 22-24. Richard French Chairman of the IDMA and now of the DVDA, said. "The IDMA was originally formed to support the developers of all the new digital platforms. As DVD has emerged as the predominant platform for this decade, it seemed only sensible to focus our support on this platform and what better way than by utilizing the existing frame work of the IDMA to create a DVD-Association." The first meeting of the new group which is scheduled for Sunday, August 15, will be held in the 'Seacliff D'Room from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, during the 1999 DVD Pro conference at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, San Francisco. Dana Parker DVD PRO Conference Chair said." We welcome the chance to host this important meeting and wish the new Association every success." Existing members of the IDMA and those joining the DVD-Association before the annual meeting in Dallas on October 22, will automatically become charter members of the new association. Three months FREE membership for charter members. To encourage everyone involved in DVD to join the new Association, the IDMA-DVD-Association is offering free individual membership during the ninety day start up period. To enroll as a charter member, all you need to do is send an e-mail with the following information: Subject line: "Enroll me." Followed by: Name- E-mail address- Phone #- Company or affiliation- You will become a member of the DVD-Association for three months. You will receive Plug & Play the IDMA-DVDA e-mail newsletter, bi-weekly and be given the password to the 'Members only' section of the new IDMA-DVDA web site. Manufacturers and other companies wanting a seat on the DVDA Advisory Council should talk to either the DVDA Chairman, Richard French ([email protected]) or the Chief Executive, Paul Holmes. ([email protected]), This association is not for profit, it's for you. Make the most of it. Join now. Information for the new IDMA-DVDA web site. Among the items on the new www.DVDA.org web site will be: Web site links. If your web site links with ours, please tell me so that we can check that our web-site links with yours. Association Web Links. If you have an association that features DVD, please tell us and we will arrange a link. A Calendar of events. If you know of any events that our readers should be aware of, please let me know. Breaking news from our members If you have a press release please make sure we have a copy. Even if you have a simple success story please tell us. Remember we don't make the news, we only pass it on. News and Information of General interest. Digital Video Express Calls It Quits. In case anyone has not heard yet, Digital Video Express will cease marketing of the Divx home video system and discontinue operations. Digital Video Express will provide a $100 cash rebate to all consumers who purchased Divx-enhanced players prior to June 16, 1999. Rebate forms will be available at www.divx.com, participating retailers and by calling 1-888-639-DIVX. The rebate will ensure that no Divx customers have paid more for the Divx-featured player than they would have paid for the least expensive, comparable DVD player available at the time of their purchase. All Divx-featured DVD players are fully functional DVD players and will continue to operate as such. All Divx discs, including those previously purchased by consumers and those remaining in retailer inventories, can be viewed on registered players anytime between now and June 30, 2001. Subsequent viewings also will be available during that period. Discs can no longer be upgraded to unlimited viewing, known as Divx Silver. Customers who have converted discs to Divx Silver can continue viewing the discs until June 30, 2001, or can receive a full refund of the conversion price at their request. Divx expects to provide registered owners with written notification of the details related to the system phase-out. Effective today, Divx will no longer register new customers. Success stories. First DVD-Video touch-screen Kiosk application. "Faces of Asthma" A DVD-Video touch screen application debuted at the National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library in the world, on March 22 along with special guests Olympic gold medallist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and the Sesame Street Muppet characters Rosita, Luis, and Dani. "Faces of Asthma" is the National Library of Medicine's first DVD program and may be the first DVD touch-screen application opened to the public in the United States. This interactive program features nine Americans who share their thoughts on the impact asthma has had on their lifestyles, accomplishments, and goals for the future. The individuals featured on the program range from young children and teenagers, young adults, entire families, to retired senior citizens with asthma. The program is also closed captioned for the hearing impaired. This DVD program is running daily on the Philips 170 Professional player interfaced to a 20" Sony monitor and Neuro Logic touchscreen. This DVD program was produced by Thomas Held, Germantown, Maryland ([email protected], 301-540-2539). Success story from Valkieser in the Netherlands. 'Kamp Westerbork' is the title of the latest release of an interactive DVD Video title produced by the Dutch companies Valkieser Solutions and Scoop. The title serves as an audio-visual on demand medium for visitors to the permanent exhibition at Westerbork concentration camp, a second World War museum near Groningen, the Netherlands. The program comprises 96 minutes of professionally produced (16 mm) film, which is made available via an attractive 12 section-navigation interface. "We have deployed DVD Video and a Philips ProDVD170 as a system since this provides the highest achievable picture quality in combination with durability and ease of use", explains Bob Nieskens, account manager of Valkieser Solutions from Hilversum. "Visitors access this documentary, with at times highly emotional content, via a touch screen TV monitor. We are pleased with the result, and pleasantly surprised by the robustness of the this advanced solution". More info: Web: www.valkieser.nl Black Isle Ships 'Baldur's Gate' DVD Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment unveiled the release of the DVD version of their award-winning hit, ``Baldur's Gate''. The DVD game will include the original version of ``Baldur's Gate'' developed by BioWare Corp., previously only available on five PC CD-ROM disks. The DVD version will eliminate the player's need to switch disks between areas in the game and allowing for more seamless adventuring. Set in the Sword Coast region of the popular Forgotten Realms Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting licensed from TSR, Inc., ``Baldur's Gate'' takes the player on a visually dazzling adventure. It brings to life the grand traditions of a true AD&D role-playing game experience for the personal computer through cutting-edge art and loyalty to the AD&D rule set. The story begins with looming economic strife and mysterious murders terrifying the local residents of the city of Baldur's Gate. This causes local leaders to point the finger at the neighboring nation of Amn. War seems imminent, and the player's character is thrust into the dangerous regional conflict to unravel the mystery with a party of adventurers. Contact: Black Isle Studios Web Site: http://www.blackisle.com Large number of used CD-I players for sale. AccentHealth has in excess of 12,000 Philips CD-i players for sale. The breakdown is approx. 1000 CDI450's, 8000 CDI550's and 3000 of the new CDI490's. They will all be sold "as is", so in an interest to move them, the pricing will be $50 for each CDI450/550 and $350 for each CDI490. Quantity discounts will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Interested parties can contact Bob Strader at [email protected] phone: 813.349.7118 fax: 813.349.7218 The Cambridge DVD Seminars. To be held in England at Cambridge University. 7th July 1999 and 22nd September 1999 Presented by Cambridge Multimedia, Daikin Industries, Optibase, Philips and Pioneer. For the modest fee of �35.00 Booking Form, fax back 011 44 1638 743572 or send a request by post to: The Cambridge DVD Seminar Bookings. St Andrews, North Street, Burwell, Cambridge CB5 0BB UK Get free movie rentals. If you rent your DVD movies from NetFlix you will know how easy it is and how efficient they are. When you first sign up you get three free movies rentals. Now you can get two more free rentals just for referring a friend. What is more, the friend will be entitled to five free rentals, when they sign up. Of course if you are that close friends you would expect them to share their free rentals with you, so you get to see seven movies free, for each friend you recommend. But the deal gets better still! In addition to your two free DVD rentals, each month they will award a ReplayTV model #2003, valued at $899.00, to the customer who brings the most friends to NetFlix.com. Now there's a deal, go to: http://referral.netflix.com/5free/index.html?nfso=opal19419303, and give them the name of the friend you'd like to refer. To find out more about RePlayTV. Go to: http://www.replaytv.com Sigma Integrates DVD Player With Microsoft TV Sigma Designs reported a Microsoft TV-compatible reference platform for adding DVD playback to the Microsoft Windows CE operating system . The combination of DVD video playback with a Microsoft TV-based device represents a major breakthrough in home convergence appliances. ``Microsoft TV is designed to provide a rich television and Web experience for consumers,'' said Alan Yates, director of Platform Marketing, Microsoft Corp. ``The integration of the Microsoft TV experience and Sigma Designs' DVD player creates a consumer electronics product that can deliver new levels of interaction into the living room.'' Hitachi Names Veteran To Lead Sales For DVD Storage Products Hitachi reported that James D. Kaufmann has joined the company as director of general sales in the Optical Storage Group. Kaufmann, a 25-year veteran of the data storage industry, will manage a team focused on expanding channel sales of Hitachi's award-winning DVD-RAM and DVD-ROM drives. Before joining Hitachi America, Kaufmann served as vice president of sales at Digital Video Systems, a DVD-ROM manufacturer that launched its OEM product line in late 1998. He has worked in the optical data storage industry since 1993, serving as vice president of sales and marketing both at MOST, Inc. and Nikon, Inc. During his 25-year career in the computer data storage industry, Kaufmann has managed sales and marketing operations for both tape and disk drive manufacturers. Prior positions include tenures as vice president, sales and marketing, for Computer Memories, Inc. and Rexon, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from California State University, Northridge. Contact: Hitachi Web Site: http://www.hitachi.com Technical information. Sony Develops ''Open System'' DVD Video Encoding Utility Sony Electronics reported the compatibility of the DVA-1100 DVD Authoring System with Daikin's Scenarist NT, Sonic Solution's DVD Creator, and Spruce Technologies' DVDMaestro systems. The DVA-1100 allows facilities that already have an investment in authoring systems to improve their picture quality, using Sony's MPEG-2 encoding technology, as well as offering added flexibility of a high quality video stream to facilities interested in entering the DVD market in the future. Sony's DVA-1100 DVD Authoring System includes the capability to export MPEG-2 encoded video that has been compressed using the DVA-V1100 Video Encoder for use in other, non-Sony, authoring packages that customers may already be using. By providing these capabilities, Sony allows facilities that already have an investment in authoring systems to improve the picture quality they can provide at a cost comparable to other high-end encoders. Contact: Sony Web Site: http://www.sony.com Gomotion Delivers High-Quality MPEG-2 Files To Rewritable DVD Panasonic and Ligos Technology jointly revealed that the Panasonic LF-D101 DVD-RAM drive supports MPEG-2 video and multimedia files encoded by Ligos' GoMotion software-only, real-time MPEG-2 encoding technology. GoMotion provides corporate in-house developers, OEMs, ISVs and IHVs with a cost-effective means of delivering high-quality, full-motion video without the additional cost of hardware encoders. With support for GoMotion MPEG-2 encoded files, businesses and individuals will be able to take advantage of the Panasonic LF-D101 drive's high capacity and low-cost media for reliable storage of home videos, corporate training and marketing films, and entertainment videos. The GoMotion codec is scalable for all MMX and SSIMD-enabled Pentium processors. It performs real-time, 30 frames-per-second, with full IPB frame compression at D1 (720x480) pixel resolution on a 500 MHz Pentium III processor, Half D1 (352x480) pixel resolution on a 350 MHz Pentium II, and SIF (352x240) resolution on the 266MHz Pentium II processor. Based on Ligos Technology's patent-pending LightSpeed motion estimation algorithm, GoMotion technology is being incorporated in products as diverse as ATI's All-in-Wonder 128 multimedia graphics boards and ICTV's ISX 2000 interactive television system. Based on the rewritable DVD standards approved by DVD Forum, the Panasonic DVD-RAM drive provides a single solution for reading data, video clips and audio files from both CDs and DVDs. The drive can read from discs currently accepted by CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives, as well as DVD video, DVD-ROM and DVD-R drives. Files recorded to DVD-RAM media can also be played back on Panasonic's current 5X and 6X DVD-ROM drives and future higher-speed DVD-ROM drives. DVDconductor Authoring Software And DVDstationcx Authoring System Spruce Technologies' DVDConductor is a professional-caliber, entry-level DVD authoring application based on Spruce's award-winning DVDMaestro, a Windows NT-based DVD authoring solution. The new product provides new media producers and corporate departments with an inexpensive and upgradable platform for delivering DVD titles. DVDConductor is available as a stand-alone application and as the software component of the new Spruce DVDStationCX DVD authoring system. DVDConductor includes all the software tools needed to design DVD titles, including software-based encoding for MPEG audio and video, installed on a fully configured Windows NT system. Users can easily create vivid titles that leverage the capabilities of DVD -- including interactive menus, multiple audio and language tracks, multiple camera angles -- while benefiting from a robust authoring environment that includes an intuitive drag-and-drop style interface, real-time full-quality preview system, and an on-screen navigation simulator. DVDStationCX bundles the DVDConductor authoring system with high-quality MPEG-2 and Dolby AC-3 hardware encoders from Spruce. DVDConductor is upgradeable in increments, based on the user's needs, up to the full DVDMaestro feature set with the addition of three upgrade packages. DVDPowerPack provides nine camera angles, eight audio streams, 32 subtitle streams, motion menus, and more. The DVDEntertainmentPack includes such features as CSS encryption, parental lock, Karaoke support, Divx support, and more. The DVDEncoderPack provides segment re-encoding, multipass VBR, forced I-frame insertion, and inverse Telecine. Pricing for the DVDConductor authoring system starts as low as $11,950 (U.S). DVDStationCX starts at $24,950 (U.S.). Contact: Spruce Technologies Web Site: http://www.spruce-tech.com Philips Ships New Lines of DVD Players with SRS Labs' Trusurround Through a new licensing agreement with Philips Consumer Electronics, SRS Labs' TruSurround technology has been selected as the virtual surround sound standard for Philips' new 700, 800 and 900 Series DVD players that are now available worldwide. These new DVD players are the first implementation of the TruSurround-featured STi5505 DVD chip solution offered by STMicroelectronics, an SRS chip licensee and world leader in silicon solutions for digital consumer products. DVD players mark the first products offered by Philips that include an audio technology from SRS Labs. ``We're very pleased with the virtual surround sound that TruSurround offers,'' stated Rob Beukeboom of Philips. ``It's the perfect complement for our DVD players, providing consumers with unprecedented sound performance -- whether they're using two or five speakers.'' The 700, 800 and 900 Series DVD players are the latest product innovations from Philips. They boast advanced DVD technology including a 10-bit video DAC and 24-bit/96kHz audio DAC. The Series is CD-R and CD-RW compatible with DVD/Super VCD/Video CD/Audio, and CD Playback. Additionally, they are full-featured Karaoke devices with 2-microphone inputs, echo and key control. ( SVCD playback only available in Asia.) TruSurround is designed to take advantage of the new multi-channel audio standard for DVD (Dolby Digital). While the Dolby Digital format brings unparalleled quality, a consumer must have multiple speakers in order to take full advantage of the 5.1 separate audio channels of Dolby information. SRS Labs realizes that this is not always an option as it is often difficult to surround an individual with six separate speakers. To overcome this challenge, SRS Labs developed TruSurround which processes the six discrete channels of digital AC-3 audio into just two channels, retaining all of the original audio information and giving the listener the perception that they are surrounded by additional ``phantom'' speakers. With its heritage traced to the patented Head Related Transfer Function-based (HRTF) SRS technology, TruSurround envelopes the listener in the most sensational two speaker sound ever experienced. Contact: SRS Labs Web Site: http://www.srslabs.com __________________________________________________________ "Plug and Play" is published by the Interactive Digital Media Association and the DVD-Association as a service to our members and readers. The Editor is Paul Holmes who can be reached at (440) 349-9661 If for some reason you do not want any more copies of Plug & Play, just send an e-mail, to [email protected]. with "Unsubscribe" on the Subject line. If you wish to join IDMA-DVDA , just ask for an 'E-mail membership application.'
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