Coming to a PC in 2001 will be the ability to receive digital television
signals, as Intel, Microsoft and a dozen other leading high-tech companies
announced the formation of the PC DTV Promoters Group. The alliance will promote
digital-television broadcasting over personal computers.
The PC DTV Promoters Group was announced at the start of Intel's annual
Developers' Conference in San Jose. Members of the group include ATI
Technologies, Broadlogic Network Technologies, Conexant Systems, Decisionmark,
Hauppauge Digital, iBlast, InterVideo, Pinnacle Systems, Ravisent Technologies,
SCM Microsystems and Wavexpress.
These and other companies will build everything from receiver cards and
software decoders to viewers and antenna-selection guides. The potential for DTV
access on PCs appear both real and vast. Already, two-thirds of American homes
can receive digital television signals today.
The group members say personal computers are the best way of receiving
enhanced digital broadcasting and likely to be the least expensive as most PCs
need little more than an additional add-on card. DTV sets in comparison cost
upwards of $800.