Turn your PC into a complete Home Theater system

Shaith · Jul 30, 2002, 06:47 AM

For users with high horsepower machines, MPEG4 and DIVX aren't a problem. For those without the deep wallets and resources necessary to buy one of these speedster machines, MPEG4 means bad video, artifacting, sync problems, and generally speaking a poor replay experience.

The folks over at Sigma Designs, makers of semiconductor products designed to bring seamless Windows Media and DivX playability to your DVD player have now introduced a consumer level add-in card that enables your PC to become a complete home theater controller. It supports both NTSC and PAL, is scalable up to HDTV resolution, handles all video and audio decoding including 5.1 and DTS, and supports DVD-Video, Superbit™ DVD, Super VideoCD (SVCD), and VideoCD (VCD) 1.x, 2.0, DivX™ video (version 4.02 or later), MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 files. For enthusiasts, it also allows playing NTSC titles on PAL televisions and PAL titles on NTSC televisions without the need for expensive secondary conversion units.

Best of all it'll do this on a P200 - meaning your old dinosaur currently collecting dust in your closet now actually has a purpose in life.

And for the Tim Taylor's out there - IT HAS A REMOTE!

The price is going to shock you.

The X-card, complete with software, remote control, cables, accessories...

$99 USD.

Want to know more? Check out their website at: http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm

DallasStar · Jul 30, 2002, 07:00 AM

Wow

That's one hell of a good price!

mriz · Jul 30, 2002, 07:06 AM

i ordered the card and wait nearly a month but i get disapointed not due to quality. Quality is perfectly allright. This card is not compatibale with divx3 version so you should have divx 4 or later to run on this card. But unluckly there are few films on the net with divx4 or later codec. I will be wait unitl they will be released any patch who make it possilbe divx3 to play then it will be cool to buy this card

Desert_Siege · Jul 30, 2002, 07:12 AM

Check the sig...hehehe.

Always wanted me one of them there hi tech DVD players. Nah, I may actually get one of those. My old Hollywood card finally crapped out (wouldn't have anything to do with 48Mhz FSB) and the image quality is better than any software decoder I have tried.