Xing offers one-stop shopping for MPEG; new XingMPEG software product line offers OEMs the easiest, most cost-effective way to integrate MPEG into their hardware and software strategies

Business Wire, Feb 13, 1995

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1995--Xing Technology Corp., the leading supplier of MPEG software technology worldwide, Monday announced a new strategy for MPEG that will make it easier and cheaper for multimedia hardware and software OEMs to add support for the world's first and only international digital video standard to its product lines.

The XingMPEG line of software encoders and decoders are the latest offerings from the company whose name is virtually synonymous with MPEG. Xing's core technologies conform to the ISO MPEG and JPEG international standards and have been licensed to many high-profile industry leaders, including Analog Devices, Compaq, Creative Labs, Fuji Electric, Intel, Logitech, Micrografx, Microsoft, NBC, S3 and Weitek.

As market interest in these international compression standards grew, the company developed and marketed products for the retail channel, further expanding its installed base.

With the widely acknowledged acceptance of MPEG as the standard for digital video in the PC industry, many companies are struggling to implement an MPEG strategy. Most have been discouraged by the high costs of MPEG hardware, and are now turning to software as a cost-effective solution.

As the first company to implement MPEG in software, Xing is well positioned today to offer the most advanced yet mature software-only products as part of its XingMPEG line.

Xing's successful MPEG encoder, XingCD, a retail video and audio encoder aimed at multimedia developers, forms the basis of its new OEM XingMPEG Encoder, targeted both at video capture cards and at MPEG hardware playback cards. Existing video capture cards featuring M-JPEG offer a higher-quality editing format than the editable I-frame MPEG capture cards recently announced by Sigma Designs and others.

Together with the XingMPEG Encoder, they offer a better MPEG authoring solution at only one-fourth the price. This solution is currently available with popular products from Alpha Systems Labs, Fast Electronics, miro Computer Products, Smart and Friendly, and Videologic.

The XingMPEG Encoder is also ideal for bundling with MPEG hardware decoders, allowing users to convert their existing AVI libraries to MPEG. Xing has shipped more MPEG encoders than anyone else, and will further that accomplishment with this new product offering.

Long acknowledged as the volume leader in MPEG software decoders, Xing recently announced its XingMPEG Player, the first software-only MPEG decoder product available to OEM customers. The XingMPEG Player CD includes a digital video player with GUI interface, a variety of MPEG title excerpts and an MCI driver, making it the only MPEG software available as a complete application, not simply a driver or ``applet.''

The XingMPEG Player, first demonstrated at COMDEX Fall, is the first complete MPEG software decoder product capable of playing back MPEG video streams, video CD movies and MCI applications.

The fully DCI- and MCI-compliant XingMPEG Player supports every advanced VGA chipset, including those from Alliance, Avance, Cirrus, IC Works, S3, Trident, Tseng Labs, Videologic, Weitek and others, adding complete MPEG decode capabilities to video-accelerated VGA cards and Pentium-class MPCs from ATi, Diamond, Genoa, Hercules, IBM, Matrox, miro, Number Nine and others.

``The compression debate has recently transitioned from `which standard?' to `which MPEG?,' '' said Sean O'Toole, product manager for Xing Technology. ``We anticipated that shift and, as a result, began working on a software-based OEM product line early in the game. We now have the most cost-effective, high-performance MPEG software available. Anyone who wants a complete, integrated MPEG software solution should look no further than Xing.''

``Xing has already reached the performance of dedicated MPEG playback hardware,'' said Chris Eddy, Xing's director of software development. ``Our optimization efforts have enabled us to achieve a full frame rate of 30fps on today's high-end Pentiums, and by midyear we fully expect to see the same results on today's low-end Pentiums. Software is unequivocally the future for MPEG.''

MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) is the international standard for compression of digital video and audio. It has been widely accepted by the television-broadcast, consumer-electronics and entertainment industries, and most recently by the PC industry, as the standard for digital electronic distribution of video programming. MPEG provides for high-quality 30-frames-per-second video and 44kHz 16-bit audio in highly compressed digital format.

Xing Technology, with headquarters in Arroyo Grande, has been an active participant on the MPEG standards committee and a leading developer of international standards-based data-compression and communications technologies for multimedia. Xing's core technology and desktop products enable OEMs, developers and end users to integrate words, sound, and still and moving pictures into cost-effective PC-based business, education and training tools.