Sigma Design Inc, a US digital versatile disk (DVD) company, has been chosen in collaboration with UK graphics design company VideoLogic Group Plc, to supply its MPEG-2 decoder card for MemorexÆs DVD retail kit Memorex 632-R. Memorex will package the product and offer end-user support and services.
Sigma director of product marketing Marshall Goldberg says that SigmaÆs product offers quantitative differences in three areas. Visually, computer monitors offer a better image as the top to bottom picture construction makes advances on television’s traditional odd/even top to bottom make-up, enabling twice the resolution.
In audio, the five speaker channels with digital S/PDIF sound (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) instead of the usual analog, give greater depth and overall quality. Also, the chip controlling audio and visual functions independently of the computer using only one oscillator that can synchronize the two electrical impulse commands.
Memorex becomes another of SigmaÆs customers, which include Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and Hitachi Data Systems. Sigma has just signed an agreement with Creative Laboratories to provide its microprocessors to the OEM. Dataquest estimated that the DVD market was expected to grow by seven times this year. In 1998, 300,000 units were sold.
