Chatsworth, California-based Packard Bell Inc – and that’s not the one that was practically synonymous with the TV industry of the 1950s and 1960s – has announced a Windows-based add-in board that enables any personal computer to function as a television. The PBTV3 enables users to watch television while carrying out word processing or working on a spreadsheet, and it accepts feeds from VCRs, laserdisk players and camcorders. The PBTV3 can capture, freeze, store, retrieve or print images from any video source, and it is available as a stand-alone add-in board or as part of Packard Bell’s new 486SX/25 Multimedia Computer System. The PBTV3 incorporates a tuner module for reception of VHF, UHF and cable channels in National Television Systems Committee format, the standard television format in the US, Canada and Mexico, as well as PAL signals. An audio amplifier on the board drives a pair of optional external speakers or headphones, and in addition to displaying, controlling and capturing video pictures, it can print the captured images. It uses TGA, BMP, MMP, TIFF and PCX file formats. The PBTV3 is controlled with an on-screen remote control unit, and users can create up to 16 events programmed in a manner similar to programming a video recorder. Packard Bell supplies the necessary cables for connecting PBTV3 to a computer. These include a 26-pin ribbon cable to connect PBTV3 to a feature connector on either the computer VGA board or on the motherboard; and ‘F-to-RCA’ pin adaptor for cable connection to the on-board tuner module; and an auxilliary seven-pin mini-DIN connector for signal input from an external VCR, laserdisk player or camcorder. The video output is sent to a standard DE-15 VGA connector, while audio output is on a mini-headphone jack to drive headphones or external unpowered 8 Ohm speakers.
Multimedia Computer System
Input to PBTV3 is through a standard 75 Ohm cable ‘F’ connector located on the side of the board. The board requires any AT-class computer in 640 by 480 pixel 16-colour or 256-colour VGA mode with a VESA/Feature Connector, a VGA monitor and and Windows 3. The PBTV3 will be available in the third or fourth quarter for $500. The Multimedia Computer System with the PBTV3 will be available with a monitor in early fourth quarter for around $3,000, $2,600 without the monitor. The 486SX/25 Multimedia Computer System comes with an internal stereo CD-ROM drive, a three-speaker amplified micro stereo system, the Sound Blaster Pro II integrated digital audio mixer module and bundled software for multimedia applications. The 80486SX processor operates at 25MHz, and comes with 4Mb of RAM, a 210Mb hard drive with 15mS access time and dual high-density floppy disk drives. Also, the system offers an extended VGA 1,024 by 768 resolution video controller with 512Kb of video memory, expandable to 1Mb, a built-in facsimile modem capable of sending messages at 9,600 bps or receiving messages at 4,800 bps and sending and receiving data at 2,400 bps. The 5.25 CD-ROM supports both standard Compact Disks and all CD-ROM software disks and has a data capacity of up to 630Mb. Sound Blaster Pro II’s multimedia personal computer audio mixer board provides sound manipulation and editing functions in addition to the digital sound capability for the system. Included with the Sound Blaster Pro II is a Musical Instrument Digital Interface adaptor that enables a MIDI keyboard or other electronic musical instrument with MIDI port to be connected to the system for recording and playback. The micro stereo audio system includes an output amplifier, one 4.75 downward-firing woofer and two 2 stereo speakers. Custom-installed software on the hard drive includes Microsoft Windows 3.1; MS-DOS 5.0; Microsoft Works for Windows Multimedia Edition, integrated software that includes a talking tutorial, word processor with spell checker and thesaurus, a spreadsheet and charting module, a data base, a drawing facility and telecommuni cations facilities; proprietary Packard Bell software with on-line tutorial and technical support informati
on; Sound Blas ter Pro II software; Mathematica’s Tempra GIF and Show, an MS-DOS presentation pack age; WinFax LITE, Windows facsimile soft ware; and a Prodigy Service Start-Up Kit.
