When it comes to my Christmas wish list, you can start with one of the those DTV reference designs Philips Semiconductor put on a PCI card to promote its TriMedia video media formatter. Like a lot of engineers, I do not have time to tinker, but I would try things out on my PC before migrating them to my home entertainment center. Pixel-by-pixel, the 17-inch monitor for your home PC has more resolution than your television. This could be the perfect vehicle for trying out some of the new DTV formats broadcasters said they will experiment with.
My PC has been the test bed for a lot of multimedia testing. A Hauppauge WinTV on one of my Windows 98 machines allows me to watch football on Sundays while I type copy for a Monday deadline. The Hauppauge card uses a Brooktree NTSC decoder and has decent Windows NT drivers for it. But the NT applications software I downloaded from the Hauppauge Web site was pretty raw and buggy. The Winnov video capture card, based on Cirrus Logic A/D converters, fits smoothly in an NT environment. It unfortunately shows me more digital artifacts than the Hauppauge card when you hook up a camera or VCR.
I've tried out surround sound on the PC with a stereo-output VCR, a beat-up Dolby ProLogic receiver and a rear-speaker set powered by the Texas Instruments' TPA0102 audio-evaluation module. Most of the VHS movies you can rent are already Dolby ProLogic encoded. With a puny window on your PC and dinky speakers, a movie that uses the soundtrack well can produce some pretty dramatic effects.
My first DVD player, similarly, will likely be something like a Creative Labs Encore 5X, but I haven't figured out how to pull out the Dolby AC-3-encoded sound. Earlier versions of the PC-DVD kit insisted on "virtualizing" the 5.1-channel sound; that is, reducing it down to two speakers with a subwoofer. The USB-based Altec-Lansing A310 uses a Zoran ZR38600 to decode Dolby Digital, but puts four corner speakers in two stereo-like enclosures.
More impressive were the multichannel surround-sound receivers using the Motorola DSP56360. Some of these would even provide DTS and THX theater decoding, as well as AC-3.
Anyone want to take me shopping at Fry's? Ah, well. Happy holidays, and best wishes for 1999.
