Kodak, LSI bring Picture CD to DVD!
By
Mike Tomkins
(Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 21:11 EDT)
New DVD chipset expands Picture CD possibilities from PC to TV...
An interesting news item from ZDNet News, the online presence of publisher ZD Inc., notes that industry giant Eastman Kodak Co. has signed a deal that will see its Picture CD product find a place not only in your PC, but on TVs via a compatible DVD player as well. DVD chipset maker LSI Logic offers support for the Picture CD format in its new C-Cube ZiVA-5 DVD chip, which is shipping to manufacturers currently but likely won't show up in DVD players until nearer Christmas. ZiVA-5 based players will allow viewing of thumbnails or images scaled to fit the TV screen, as well as rotation of images.
Kodak's Picture CD has traditionally been limited to computer users, and this news can be seen as a move by Kodak to expand its Picture CD market into the living room. The company has made similar efforts in the past, with a TV-connected player for its older PhotoCD standard having been available, but the higher costs of PhotoCD discs caused that effort to fail. DVD players are seeing rapidly increasing market penetration, however, and by piggybacking on this success Kodak stands a good chance of gaining a new market for the cheaper Picture CD.
LSI Logic declined to reveal to ZDNet which companies have signed up to use the ZiVA-5 DVD chipset, but Hitachi, JVC, LG Electronics and Samsung have used the company's chipsets in current DVD players.
Source:
Yahoo! News / ZDNet News
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