Pure Divas To Face Off With Replay/TiVoPersonal Video Recorders

MGI, a Canadian multimedia software developer, has announced plans to deliver its Pure Diva software to computer manufacturers in time for the holiday shopping season. If the company's numbers are accurate, there will be significantly more computer hard drive versions of the personal video recorder (PVR) than standalone units in the marketplace come Christmas.Pure Diva is designed to emulate typical PVR functionality. It uses a simultaneous MPEG-2 real-time software encoder/decoder to allow pause, rewind and slow motion of live TV broadcasts, zoom and pan effects, and programmable time-shift recording using a Web-based program guide. An optional remote control communicates with the computer via infrared receiver. Just like a PVR, the Diva can accept and output an S-video signal.The product will ship with certain compatible 550 MHz and higher Pentium III machines with DVD-ROM drives (Diva also functions as a DVD player) and a host of multimedia hardware. ""We expect to ship 1 [million] to 2 million copies of the software by Christmas,"" said MGI's Joseph Zankowicz. ""We're currently talking to around 30 of the top computer manufacturers and expect to make an announcement in early September as to which ones will bundle (Pure Diva)."" Although Pure Diva uses WebTV's program guide, Zankowicz told etown.com that MGI is considering designing a custom guide, especially since WebTV is primarily directed at North America.