When DVD drives first hit the computer market a few years ago, no software DVD decoders had been developed, so hardware decoders were rushed to market. Because of some marginal products that were introduced, hardware DVD decoding has received a bad rap with the enthusiast market. Today, Sigma Designs is the only main player left in the hardware DVD decoder market, and it is attempting to draw more users back to hardware DVD decoders with their latest product, the Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder, a third-generation product. Over the past few years, Sigma Designs has gained respect in the DVD industry, and this has helped them quickly gain widespread OEM acceptance for the Hollywood Plus. If you recently purchased a DVD-ROM kit, it is likely that it featured either a Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder card, or a hybrid chip based upon the Hollywood Plus core.

The Hollywood Plus offers absolutely everything you need for DVD playback, including onboard Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1 and Dolby ProLogic sound processing. Users can watch DVD movies, either on a computer monitor or on a television screen (via an S-Video or Composite connection). During DVD movie viewing, the Hollywood Plus supports all DVD playback options from Widescreen display to subtitles and multiple language tracks.

• Sigma EM8300 Single-chip MPEG-2 decoder with full compliance ISO 13818-2 MPEG-2 standard
• Sigma EM9010 analog overlay technology for superior DVD picture quality on computer monitor and compatibility with all VGA cards
• Plays DVD-video, MPEG-2, and MPEG-1 interactive titles
• Displays non-interlaced full motion video at full-screen or in a resizable window from 16 x 16 up to 1600 x 1200 on the VGA monitor
• Full screen NTSC/PAL TV output
• Brightness, contrast, and color saturation control for VGA and TV display
• Dolby™ Digital 5.1 channel output via S/P-DIF connector
• Dolby Surround, 2-channel stereo analog audio output
• Supports up to 20 MB/s sustained input channel data rate
• Plug and Play support for Windows 95/98