Sigma Designs Inc has announced Multimedia Personal Computer Council Level 2 enhancements to its RealMagic full-screen, full-motion video and audio playback controller. The board now includes 16-bit sound board functionality supporting Sound Blaster and Windows sound standards and direct interface to most popular CD-ROM drives. Added functions include full support for the Multimedia Personal Computer Council Level 2 audio specifications, such as line/microphone input, joystick port and MIDI input-output support. In addition, the board provides direct connector support for Sony Corp and Panasonic CD-ROM drives as well as IDE CD-ROM drives. The RealMagic MPEG playback board enables a personal computer to play feature films and music video Video CDs and support low-cost interactive training and local network-based video applications. It works with any 80386SX/25 computer or higher at resolutions of up to 1,024 by 768 at 30 frames per second. The board attaches to the VGA feature connector and can display 128,000 effective colours even on a basic 16-colour VGA board. RealMagic costs from $450.
