Macintosh Support For Sigma Designs DVD-Video

Sigma Designs has selected Wired, Inc. as a development partner for the Macintosh platform. Wired will provide Wired 4DVD, a DVD and MPEG-2 playback PC-based card for the Macintosh. When used with a DVD-ROM or DVD-RAM drive, Macintosh users will be able to view DVD-Video movies and MPEG-2 data on either their computer screen or television. Based on Sigmaís feature-packed EM8300 decoder IC, the Wired 4DVD card includes Macintosh drivers to turn a Macintosh into a full-featured DVD-Video player that fully exploits the digital video and DolbyÆ Digital 5.1-channel discrete surround sound capabilities of the DVD-Video format. The card plays DVD movies at up to 1600 x 1200 resolution. The Wired 4DVD processes the MPEG-2 video and audio streams without burdening the computerís processor. As a result, says the company, the Mac runs at maximum performance while multitasking DVD, live TV broadcast feeds, and interactive web browsing open in concurrent windows. ""Appleís DVD solution is fine for simple playback of a DVD clip or movie on the computer screen, but Wired 4DVD adds the ability to view MPEG files on the computer screen, view MPEG files and Hollywood movies on a television by way of composite and S-Video output, and output AC-3Æ audio via S/PDIF. Furthermore, Wired 4DVD is the only Macintosh solution that will work on all existing Macintosh PCI-based computers,"" said Michael Whittingham, Wiredís Vice President of Research and Development. Wired 4DVD will be available in March. For more information contact Sigman Designs website at www.sigmadesigns.com.