Several vendors made announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Wednesday on products ranging from HDTV to digital TV to personal video recorders.
• Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. showcased a complete high-definition plasma-television solution, incorporating National Television Systems Committee tuning, Advanced Television Systems Committee tuning and digital-cable tuning.
The new solution is the first step in the company’s effort to include high-definition cable tuners as standard features in all of its plasma television sets, Pioneer said in a release.
• SmartASIC Technology Inc. launched a wireless HDTV board-level solution, "SPTV800."
The SPTV800 -- which enables wireless transmission of audio and video content from servers such as media gateways, PCs, TV tuners or DVD players -- is based on Sigma Designs Inc.'s "EM8610" digital-media processor, as well as icube Corp.'s "Play@TV" digital-home-network technology.
• ADS Technologies introduced its "Instant TV Deluxe," an external, universal-serial-bus 2.0 device that allows Microsoft Corp. Windows-based PC users to watch and record television shows from any TV signal -- cable TV, digital cable, satellite TV or standard TV.
Instant TV Deluxe includes time-shifting capabilities; an infrared remote control for TV tuning, recording and playback; an electronic programming guide; and the ability to schedule and record TV shows for viewing at any time.
• Zoran Corp. announced that it and three other firms have developed a plug-and-play-complaint digital-television reference design.
The company collaborated with Digital Stream Technology Inc., Digital Keystone Inc. and VividLogic Inc. on a production-ready platform that integrates their advanced technologies to enable digital-television original-equipment manufacturers to develop products that comply with both the Federal Communications Commission’s mandate to integrate Advanced Television Systems Committee capability in terrestrial televisions and the plug-and-Play OpenCable requirements adopted by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the consumer-electronics industry.
