Intel Unveils System Linking PCs With TV Programmers : Technology: Product will allow computers to receive broadcasting signals. Firm says several providers are interested.
SAN FRANCISCO — Hoping to accelerate the much-hyped integration of television and computer technologies, semiconductor giant Intel Corp. on Monday rolled out a system that will enable personal computer users to watch television on their PCs and receive special data broadcasts at the same time.
Called Intercast, the technology consists of a special circuit board and software, and it enables PCs to receive regular television signals as well as data that broadcasters can send on a lightly used portion of the television signal called the vertical blanking interval.
Intel said a number of television program providers--including Cable News Network, QVC and MTV parent Viacom Inc.--had agreed to support the technology, and PC makers Packard Bell and Gateway 2000 said they will sell Intercast PCs in mid-1996.
What Intel did not explain is exactly why this foray into hybrid television-PC technology will succeed where others have failed. Other companies already sell special devices to make it possible to receive TV signals on PCs, but none has caught on.
And interactive television--which was supposed to give consumers access to thousands of movies, shopping networks, interactive games and other services via a TV equipped with a special box--has been a bust. The Internet, on the other hand, which ignores the TV set entirely, is now proving useful for many of the features that interactive television was to offer.
Intel, which makes the brains for about two-thirds of the PCs in existence, has long contended that the PC is a much more appropriate vehicle for delivering interactive “content” to consumers than TV.
NBC will use Intercast to create complimentary content for its news and entertainment programs. For example, a PC user watching a news segment on the civil war in Bosnia could look up information about the conflict’s historical roots; a viewer tuning into a TV interview with Colin L. Powell could also get a short biography of the retired general, or even order a copy of his autobiography.
Intercast has been under development for more than two years at Intel’s Internet Technology Laboratory in Portland, Ore., according to Mike Richmond, a manager at the lab. The technology is currently being tested “to show that it works,” Richmond said, and Intel is eagerly recruiting other more media companies to create content for Intercast.
