DTV To Be Displayed On Computer Monitors

Digital TV appears to have captured personal computer enthusiasts at COMDEX Fall í98 in Las Vegas, Nevada. There, a number of companies demonstrated the first public showing of DTV systems on PC monitors by Compaq, LG Electronics, Panasonic and Philips.The DTV systems, which allow PC monitors to receive all 18 ATSC bitstream DTV signals, are made possible by newly developed dual and single-board PC DTV cards.The single-board card demonstrated by Panasonic was developed with Microsoft. Pricing is expected to be below $500, which is significantly below the $5,000 plus price tags on the first HDTV sets.Panasonic also showed its PV-HD1000 Digital VCR, which when paired with Panasonicís DTV set-top decoder, can record all 18 ATSC bitstreams. The Digital VCR is slated to ship in January at a $999 suggested retail price.Philips showed its new Coney DTV circuit board, which will be licensed to PC OEMs and add-on board manufacturers. The Philips card requires at least a 400MHZ Pentium II processor and is expected to sell for $299 by the end of 1999.LG Electronics, Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Princeton, Sanyo and Zenith showed direct view widescreen DTV displays capable of 480p and when connected to a PC delivers true VGA resolution. Princetonís new 32-inch AF3.0HD direct view all-format widescreen HDTV monitor is priced at $6,995. Hitachiís new UltraVision HDTV-ready 36SDX88B direct view set displays 480p, and 1080i signals when used with a set-top receiver. The set is priced at $2,999.