HDS Network Systems Inc, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, took the wraps off Version 2.0 of its HDS netVideo multimedia application software for its X Window terminals at UniForum in Dallas. The new version features live video at up to 30 frames per second, teleconferencing via the Internet, and video capture for direct import into word processing documents or World Wide Web home pages, and has an improved Motif-based user interface. It consists of four basic applications. HDSconference enables X terminal users to establish a conference and see each other in a window on the screen, with simplified log-on and videoconferencing on the Internet. HDSvideo supports receipt of an analogue video signal from a camera or VCR into the X terminal, and the new version enables still frames of live video to be included in word processing, graphic applications or World Wide Web home pages in colour. The HDStuner option enables X terminal users to connect to cable television or an antenna and view broadcast television in an X window on their screen. Channels are changed by a Motif client on the screen and the video is displayed in a resizable window that can display 1,280 by 1,024 resolution at 30 frames per second. HDS netTV enables one X terminal to broadcast video and audio over the Internet, Ethernet or Token Ring to other X terminals on a network via IP multicasting; the new release features a new user interface to enable one X terminal to digitise analogue video and broadcast it to other X terminals using the IP Multicasting protocol. And HDSmovie is a new application that enables users to view video files that are stored in Microsoft .AVI file format for cross-system multimedia compatibility. Video and audio files captured on a Windows personal c omputer can play on an HDS X terminal without modification. The new release is out now at the same price as the original version, and users of the company’s X terminals without multimedia hardware can license the HDSmovie for $200 per X terminal.
