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REALmagic Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder Card

Join the community - in the OCAU Forums! Date  15th September 1999 Author  Dean Claxton Editor  James "Agg" Rolfe Manufacturer  Sigma Designs Hardware Overview The heart of the Hollywood Plus is the Sigma EM8300 single-chip MPEG-2 decoder. The EM8300 MPEG-2 Decoder provides full screen high-resolution jitter-free movie playback, utilising a 10-bit video DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) for crystal clear TV output to either NTSC or PAL systems - the playback system being selectable from within the player application. It will decode both DVD-video as well as MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 interactive titles (those V-CD's you've been hanging on to), at a sustainable input channel data rate of up to 20 Mbps. Most 3rd generation DVD drives have transfer rates that max out at around 8 Mbps with averages around 6 Mbps - this decoder has way more than enough grunt to handle it. The Hollywood Plus is capable of converting PAL to NTSC and vice-versa which is very handy when it comes to viewing DVD's from other regions such as the US, where NTSC is used. The card can convert the output to PAL (the system used in Australasia), so that you may view it on a television that does not have multi-system capabilities (more on this later.) Also implemented in the Hollywood Plus is the Sigma EM9010 analog overlay controller for excellent DVD picture quality on your computer monitor and compatibility with all VGA cards. This baby is capable of displaying non-interlaced full motion video at full-screen or in a resizable window (from 16 x 16 up to 1600 x 1200) in 24-bit colour, even when the VGA card is set at a lower colour depth. Supported audio output formats are Standard 2-channel stereo, Dolby™ Surround, and Dolby™ Digital 5.1 channel output via the S/P-DIF connector. I am assured by Sigma Designs that support for DTS (Digital Theatre Systems digital sound) is coming in the form of new drivers in October '99. The Hollywood Plus is fully plug and play compatible, and drivers and application software are supplied for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. Unfortunately there are no Linux drivers available as yet, but I am told by Sigma Designs that they are currently being produced and should be available in the coming months. << Back Next Page: >> Select Page Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 - Page 5 - Page 6 - Page 7 -

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