ATI Announces the RAGE Theater^TM, First Integrated Video Decode/Encode Chip, Ideal For Best Video-In and TV-Out Display For Set Top and PC Platforms

ATI Player^TM Software Unleashes Powerful Hardware Capabilities, Including High Quality Video Capture and Video Playback Applications

TORONTO, - ATI Technologies Inc. today announced RAGE Theater^TM, the computer industry's first integrated chip with combined video decode and encode, a single chip that provides OEMs with the highest quality and most cost-effective video-in and TV-out display solution in the industry for set top boxes and PC products.

RAGE Theater quality is superior to all other competing PC solutions, for both motherboard and add-in card implementations. The video decoder produces crystal clear digital video images for computer use from analog video sources, such as cameras, VCRs and tuners. The video encoder provides the highest quality flicker-free images on the TV, images as good as, or better than an expensive VGA to TV converter box and raising analog TV to near-digital quality.

The chip's integration, high quality, cost-effectiveness and small size makes it ideal for entertainment and corporate PCs, set top boxes, home theater systems and a host of coming PC/telecom convergence products. It supports all popular operating systems, including Windows CE for the consumer appliance market.

"The RAGE Theater is a low-cost, multi-standard video decoder/encoder that will enable OEMs to bring the digital multimedia revolution to a whole new range of applications, both currently on the market and still to be designed," said Ed Grondahl, vice president of product marketing, ATI. "It will make video both affordable and pervasive, greatly enriching the scope of multimedia as a practical tool in everyday life."

RAGE Theater's advanced hardware design, when coupled with the ATI Player^TM software, enables and enhances such popular applications as Web surfing, Internet use, multimedia creation and gaming, motion video capture, videoconferencing and video editing.

Video Quality Enhancing Features
RAGE Theater's TV-out quality is enhanced with features including exclusive signal noise reduction circuitry, including Continuous Sharpness Control, an exclusive image sharpening filter which produces high bandwidth studio-quality DVD images. This is especially important for real-time MPEG encoding, as it removes high frequency vertical and horizontal noise, which confuses DCT encoders and reduces the level of compression. RAGE Theater's Text Sharpening Filter enhances text sharpness and clarity, especially important for Web and Internet use.

RAGE Theater has also been designed with special features to maximize video-in quality on the PC and the TV. Automatic Gain Control, the best in the industry, keeps output signals constant as input signal amplitude varies. It can lock onto weak and noisy signals other competing solutions cannot. RAGE Theater's Adaptive Comb Filter provides better video quality through more effective separation of the luma and chroma and makes Composite video look as good as S-Video.

Full Support of All Major Video Standards
For the ultimate in flexibility for video-in, the RAGE Theater supports any video standard, including AMC, ITU-656 and VIP1.1. The chip also accepts S-Video and Composite inputs, in NTSC, PAL and SECAM formats.

For TV-out flexibility, RAGE Theater supports Composite, S-Video and SCART-RGB (for the European market), NTSC and PAL standards. It supports up to 800x600 TV screen resolution.

RAGE Theater has also been designed to support new and emerging PC/TV convergence applications, such as Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) services which include closed captioning, teletext and Intercast, for further reduction in component costs to the OEM. The chip also supports Macrovision 7.01 and CGMS copy protection schemes to protect the intellectual property of content developers by restricting copy reproduction. The chip also provides full support for audio S/PDIF output for 5.1 channel surround sound to AC-3 receivers.

"With the new video capabilities introduced by RAGE Theater, ATI enables convergence products with either the PC or the TV at the center," said John Latta of the Wave Report. "While ATI already leads the PC convergence market with their award-winning All-in-Wonder product line, they are now well-poised to achieve the same success in the set-top box arena."

Integration means lower costs to OEMs, saving $20 per unit
With integration of video decode and encode, full support for audio S/PDIF output and a 100-pin PQFP package format, RAGE Theater can save OEMs more than $20 per system, removing the need for discrete video-in, video-out and audio components support costs and reducing motherboard real estate requirements from 25 square inches to one square inch.

The RAGE Theater is the companion chip for the new ATI Rage 128 chip, is backwards compatible with the RAGE PRO family and will be compatible with all new RAGE chips. ATI has been a leader in video-out technology since the ImpacTV and ImpacTV2 TV-out chips, which set new standards for picture quality.

Price and Availability
RAGE Theater will be sampling to OEMs in November 1998, with production beginning in January, 1999. It is priced at $18 in units of 10,000.

SOURCE ATI Technologies Inc.
Web Site: http://www.atitech.com