C-Cube unveils DVD recording chip

DVexplore aimed at consumer PCs with DVD-RAM drives, but where are they?

Recording DVDs could soon become a consumer PC technology, thanks to a new chip from C-Cube, DVxplore. The chip can encode video from analog or digital camcorders in MPEG 2 format -- the standard DVD encoding technology -- and save it on a PC's hard disk, a CD-R or DVD-RAM disk. According to C-Cube, it also allows the encoded material to be edited in real time. The company anticipates the DVxplore will appear initially in third-party add-in cards, priced at around $299. The chip itself costs $75, in volume. Of course, reasonably priced DVD-RAM drives will have to emerge first. Panasonic's latest drive, one of the first to produce disks that can be read by DVD-ROM units, costs $599, so there's still some way to go yet before manufacturers of low-cost PCs begin bundling them, or user start buying external units. ® Click for more stories Click for story index