Digital's FullVideo Interactive MPEG Playback System Produces Full-Screen,
Full-Motion TV-like Video and 16-bit Stereo CD-Quality Sound -- Supports
RealMagic, the Industry Standard for Interactive MPEG Playback. Available
at BrandsMart, Fry's Electronics, Lechmere

MAYNARD, Mass. -- November 8, 1994 -- Digital Equipment Corporation today
announced the FullVideo family -- its entry into the retail multimedia
market -- a full line of board-level PC enhancement hardware products that
provides full-screen, full-motion, TV-like video with 16-bit CD-quality
stereo sound. Based on RealMagic Interactive MPEG (Moving Picture Experts
Group) technology from Sigma Designs (NASDAQ:SIGM), the FullVideo line
adds a new sense of realism to popular entertainment and education titles
of PC software.

Created for home entertainment and business, FullVideo products are
currently available at BrandsMart, Fry's Electronics, and Lechmere which
also offer Digital's PC retail printers. Digital is supporting its
FullVideo line with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and
expanding its retail distribution to other leading retailers.

"The introduction of FullVideo products expands Digital's retail line into
the fast-growing multimedia segment," said Patrick Sullivan, vice
president of Digital's Components and Peripherals Merchandising Business.
"Together with our current retail printer line, we now have the products
PC users want in over 1300 locations."

The FullVideo line is intended for home use, enabling access to educational
and reference materials like World Atlas, interactive games like Return to
Zork and MegaRace, entertainment movies including Top Gun, and music
videos for all ages. By using interactive MPEG playback, FullVideo
products will bring the home PC to a new level.

In addition to home use, FullVideo products are ideal for schools, enabling
students to learn interactively by using encyclopedias and other reference
materials with full screen video. There is also a wide variety of
commercial applications such as interactive corporate training, video
information kiosks, video demonstrations, and CD catalogs.

At the heart of FullVideo is RealMagic technology developed by Sigma
Designs. RealMagic is based on a patented chip set used for MPEG
decompression. Hundreds of leading software developers like Mindscape,
formerly The Software Toolworks and Activision are now using the RealMagic
standard to add to the thousands of titles already available. MPEG source
material is recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, then
compressed at up to 200:1. Based on the MPEG standard for video and audio
compression, RealMagic enables playback of up to 74 minutes of
full-screen, full-motion, TV-like video and 16-bit stereo audio from a
single CD-ROM, about 650 MBytes of data.

"Digital is the first of many major computer manufacturers to announce a
line of products based on our RealMagic interactive MPEG technology," said
Greg Jones, vice president of marketing for Sigma Designs. "Digital's
entry into the MPEG market solidifies RealMagic as the standard for
interactive MPEG playback."

Easily installed on any 386/SX-25 or faster PC with 2 MBytes of free RAM
and 2 MBytes available on a hard disk, Digital's FullVideo doesn't require
a high-performance PC to take advantage of the wide assortment of
currently available MPEG interactive game titles and thousands of
full-length feature films and music videos.

"PC users want interactive multimedia products with TV-like full-screen
video and high fidelity sound. Until now, users had to compromise video
quality. Digital's FullVideo products satisfies their need for high
quality video," said Larry Cabrinety, Vice President of Digital's
Components and Peripherals Business Unit. "FullVideo technology is based
on the MPEG standard for video and audio compression, the only way to get
interactive TV-like video quality on your PC. Other so-called
'full-screen' solutions simply don't provide the same quality or ability
to interact."

The MPEG standard used by FullVideo products feature a 20 times compression
improvement, 4 times the video data and twice as many sound bits compared
with AVI, the common full-motion technical format used supported by
Creative Labs, MediaVision and VideoLogic. MPEG source material is
recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, then compressed
200:1, compared with up to 15 frames per second and 8-bit sound with
compression of 10:1 with the AVI format. This results in only 10 minutes
of video on a single CD with the AVI format compared with 74 minutes with
MPEG, enabling MPEG users to see full-length feature films with TV-like
quality.

By definition of the respective standards, products offering enhanced AVI
playback simply cannot match MPEG quality. Since there is no AVI source
material recorded at 30 frames per second and 16-bit stereo sound, AVI
enhancers offering features beyond 15 frames per second and 8-bit sound
have created technology with no titles for customers to use. MPEG, with
its support by the consumer electronics industry, offers thousands of
titles for Karaoke, CD, movies and music videos. FullVideo MPEG supports
interactive applications and randomly direct access to individual tracks.

The FullVideo family of products is available now and includes FullVideo
Elite, a MPEG video decompression playback card plus 13 titles for a
manufacturer's suggested retail price of $349; and the FullVideo
Interactive MPEG Playback System, a complete multimedia upgrade solution
for a PC including a single board providing MPEG decompression, 16-bit
stereo sound and CD-ROM controller, internal double-speed CD-ROM drive,
stereo speakers and 15 top titles, for a manufacturer's suggested retail
price of $749.

Digital's FullVideo family is currently available from BrandsMart, Fry's
Electronics, Lechmere, and other leading retailers.

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information
systems. Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software
and services, together with industry-focused solutions from business
partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global
marketplace.

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product Information'  Electronic News Service
 on AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO BUSINESS PROD)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 OmniPage Pro is now used for converting all printed input! 
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
