DIGITAL INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS EYES MORE DEALS WITH CE MAKERS
As Apex geared up to start shipping its $499 ApeXtreme PC game console hybrid with DVD player and PVR by the end of summer, technology supplier Digital Interactive Systems Corp. is getting results from talks with other CE and PC makers about using its “drop & play” engine for PC gaming functionality, DISC Pres. Avraham DorEl told Consumer Electronics Daily at the E3 Expo in L.A.
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ApeXtreme is the first device coming to market using DISC’s technology. But DorEl said DISC had wrapped up deals calling for Alienware, ABS and Diamond Viper to offer products using DISC’s technology. DISC’s exhibition booth also showed prototypes from Onkyo and Teac of home entertainment systems using its technology; likewise, a mobile entertainment system for cars from Rockford, and a home entertainment system for kids from Memcorp/Memorex geared toward that company’s Disney Electronics line. But DorEl said deals with those companies hadn’t been finalized. He said DISC had also talked with Panasonic and Sharp about possible future products.
Onkyo Gen. Mgr.-Product Planning & Mktg. Masahiro Kashiwai told us his company was looking into making a system that would offer DVD and CD playback, along with game playing and PVR functionality, similar to the Apex device. He said the machine would be Onkyo’s first gaming device and PVR but added gaming would just be “one of the features” and his company was “not trying to get into the gaming market.” The prototype that Onkyo showed at E3 didn’t include a PVR but he said “ideally we want to” add that function. Kashiwai, however, stressed that his company was “still researching” the product and using E3 to gain feedback before a final decision.
Separately, Alienware said it started shipping in the U.S. its new line of Digital Home Systems (DHS) with PVR functionality. They feature Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and integrate the functionality of individual A/V components into a single unit. The systems can store, play back and burn CDs and DVDs; organize digital photos; record, pause and playback live TV; pause live FM radio broadcasts; play games; and “download thousands of movie titles and music tracks on-demand.” They will soon start shipping in Europe as well, Alienware said. The company said its DHS systems use Panasonic Industrial’s UJ-825- BPN Slim Slot OEM DVD Multi Drive with read/write support for DVD-RAM, as well as CD-R/-RW and DVD-R/-RW.
Alienware also unveiled Video Array and X2, which it described as “an exclusive, patent-pending technology designed to significantly enhance the performance of graphics intensive applications including extreme gaming, professional design and engineering, real-time rendering and animation, and flight training and simulation modules.” It said the Alienware Video Array and X2 motherboard will ship 3rd or 4th quarter under its new ALX brand, a family of “extreme performance systems” addressed “to the demands of the most hardcore PC enthusiasts.”