XingMPEG Player includes wide variety of MPEG titles; Xing announces MPEG titles to be included with software-only MPEG Player now available for bundling with VGA boards and Pentium multimedia systems

Business Wire, Feb 7, 1995

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 1995--Xing Technology Corp. (Arroyo Grande, Calif.) Tuesday announced the names of titles to be included in its much-anticipated software-only MPEG playback product.

Due to begin shipping in early March, the XingMPEG Player features a software-only MPEG decoder, a playback application with GUI interface, an MPEG screen saver, a Windows MCI driver and MPEG titles all on a single CD-ROM.

The player supports VideoCDs including CD-I movies and KaraokeCDs. The screen saver application offers selective or random playback of MPEG videos when the computer is idle. The Windows MCI driver supports the Microsoft MPEG MCI command set as recommended by OM/I and allows playback of MPEG video or system streams from within Microsoft's Media Player, as well as other applications and titles.

Xing is targeting OEM board and system manufacturers as the initial distribution vehicles for the XingMPEG Player.

"Xing is pleased to announce the availability of titles with its MPEG playback product," said Sean O'Toole, product manager for Xing Technology. "Only the XingMPEG Player offers instant access to a wide variety of MPEG content, including entertainment, educational and reference material. We expect the availability of the XingMPEG Player will contribute significantly to the development of further MPEG content."

Among the providers of titles to be included on the XingMPEG Player CD are:

Betacorp Technologies Inc.

"Multimedia Space Explorer": A multimedia encyclopedia that provides a timeline of man's quest for the stars; includes full- screen, full-motion MPEG video highlighting major space events.

"Kid's Interactive": Uses MPEG video to illustrate the worlds of science, music, arts & crafts and recreation.

Hollywood Select Video

"Superman Puzzletoons Vol. 1": Excerpts from the classic Max Fleischer cartoon featuring proprietary interactive story editor and scrambler.

"Multimedia Shakespeare": Act 1, Scene 1 of "As You Like It," presented in true interactive multimedia format, with text, study guide and scenes from the Laurence Olivier movie.

Lumivision Corp.

"Video CD Samples": Scenes from Lumivision's exclusive Video CD titles include The Best of John Belushi, Tropical Rainforest, Smithsonian's Dinosaurs, The Voyager Odyssey, Plymptoons and Flight of the Dream Team.

The included titles are themselves fully featured applications. In order to provide a variety of titles on the single XingMPEG Player CD-ROM, they have been limited in size. Retail versions of the titles, with additional content, are available directly from the manufacturers.

Representing a major milestone for the MPEG marketplace and a significant development for title producers and consumers, the XingMPEG Player was the first software-only product to demonstrate full-screen, full-motion MPEG video and audio decompression on multimedia PCs at COMDEX Fall.

Previously, MPEG decoding required expensive add-in hardware. The XingMPEG Player completely eliminates the need for special MPEG chip, chipsets or decoder boards, especially on Pentium-class systems equipped with DCI drivers and video acceleration.

The XingMPEG Player product is being distributed by Xing and major graphics chip manufacturers to VGA card and multimedia system manufacturers for bundling. Pricing is well under $5 per unit in OEM quantities. The XingMPEG Player fully exploits hardware video acceleration features such as color space conversion and scaling found in new VGA chips from Alliance, Avance, Cirrus, ICWorks, S3, Trident, Tseng, Videologic, Weitek and others.

VGA card and system vendors such as ATI, Diamond, Genoa, Hercules, IBM, Matrox, miro, SPEA and others already have products which include video acceleration. Video accelerated products, together with XingMPEG Player product, will significantly boost the installed base of MPEG-enabled systems. End users can expect MPEG to be a standard component of forthcoming multimedia systems.

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 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, still and moving pictures into cost- effective PC-based business, education and training tools.

Xing can be reached at 800/294-6448, 805/473-0145, fax 805/473-0147 or email: info("at-sign")xingtech.com.

CONTACT: Xing Technology Corp.

Sean O'Toole, 805/473-0145

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