NEWS

Comcast, Samsung, And Ucentric To Conduct Multi-TV DVR Trial

15-May-03

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSK, CMCSA), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Ucentric Systems announced plans for a joint field trial of Multi-TV DVR (Digital Video Recording), which extends DVR capabilities to TVs throughout the home. Samsung's digital set top boxes will incorporate Ucentric's DVR and home media networking software to deliver a host of new services, including a Multi-TV DVR solution. This trial is scheduled to begin in mid-2003 with a limited number of Comcast customers in the Philadelphia area. ""This trial with Samsung and Ucentric reinforces Comcast's commitment of delivering to its customers the best services and technologies available today,"" said Steve Craddock, Senior Vice President of New Media Development for Comcast. ""DVR provides important control and convenience benefits to our customers. This field trial will provide a better TV viewing experience throughout the home, not just on one TV."" Digital set-tops from Samsung, integrated with Ucentric's Multi-TV DVR solution will provide Comcast's trial participants digital recording capabilities, as well as a full programming lineup on multiple TVs throughout the home. TV viewers will be able to select and control individual video recordings from a single in-home recording library, shared amongst multiple television sets. Also, with a common recording library amongst TVs, consumers can pause a program in one room and pick it up at exactly the same scene on a TV in another room. In addition to enabling DVR capabilities throughout the home, the Ucentric software provides MSOs the ability to offer additional feature-rich services to the TVs, including a music jukebox, photo album, and other potential revenue generating services. Samsung's advanced digital set-top boxes powered by Ucentric software store content and deliver DVR and other digital entertainment services to multiple TVs in the home using IP-based ""thin"" network media clients. Ucentric software enables the sharing of hard drives, tuners, and other resources amongst connected TVs, providing network operators the ability to offer DVR and other multimedia services to multiple TVs in the home at lower capital costs. ""This Multi-TV DVR solution from Ucentric and Samsung being field-tested with Comcast customers is a cost-effective, leading-edge, in-home client/server implementation,"" said Chong-Ho Choi, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Samsung's Home Media Solution Team. ""It holds the promise of delivering a whole-house video and multimedia solution for network operators as they provide DVR and all-digital TV services throughout the home. Multi-TV DVR also represents the lead application for driving the proliferation of a wide variety of retail consumer devices throughout the home. It will be a groundbreaking extension of our current family of digital set-top box products."" ""We are excited to work with recognized companies such as Comcast and Samsung to deliver the better way to enjoy TV throughout the home,"" said Michael Collette, Chief Executive Officer, Ucentric Systems. ""This latest trial with Comcast is further validation for delivering the next phase of on-demand capabilities that consumers are looking for. In this competitive environment, state-of-the-art solutions like Multi-TV DVR are critical to leapfrog existing DVR offerings, establish new high watermarks for customer satisfaction, drive new revenue streams, and reduce churn."" For more information, visit the following Web sites: - Comcast Corporation, www.comcast.com - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, samsungelectronics.com - Samsung Electronics America, Inc., www.samsungusa.com - Samsung's set-top box products, www.samsungstb.com - Ucentric Systems, www.ucentric.com

Read More:
http://www.comcast.com
http://samsungelectronics.com
http://www.ucentric.com