PALO ALTO, CALIF.–The chip powering Disneys forthcoming MovieBeam set-top box will be supplied by Dotcast, executives said, and the company is already working on a chip to datacast movies and other data over DTV.
MovieBeam, first disclosed this past spring at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, will “datacast” movies over the NTSC terrestrial analog television signal, according to Disney chief Michael Eisner. A Dotcast executive said that his company will provide the chip, which is known as “ReX”.
Datacasting pushes data over the airwaves or other media alongside television, radio or other signals. The technology has largely failed; Intel and PBS attempted to drive the technology into the mainstream in 1998, but the trial never took off with consumers. Intel and PBS tried to use the data channel to supplement the PBS broadcasts with additional information; MovieBeam will only allow consumers to download movies.
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