ROCHESTER, N.Y., November 24 ╤ Consumers can display as many as 500 photographs on television, or listen to six hours of CD audio without interruption, with a five-disc Photo CD player that Eastman Kodak Company began shipping to consumer electronics stores this week.
The Kodak Photo CD player model PCD 5870 offers all the features audiophiles expect from an advanced audio CD player. These include 1-bit conversion technology, favorite track selection, and a five-disc carousel. The PCD 5870 player also adds the unique power of the Kodak Photo CD system to let people enjoy their pictures on TV.
Available nationally since July, the Photo CD system allows people to have their standard 35 mm negatives or slides scanned onto special compact discs at their photofinisher. The pictures can then be viewed on TV by inserting up to five discs into a PCD 5870 player ╤ that can display the pictures automatically in sequence, or provide direct access to any photograph by pressing a number on the remote control.
People can rotate their pictures or pan across them, and choose to keep or skip pictures for later viewing of the same disc. The PCD 5870 player offers a number of other advanced viewing features:
Ñ 2x tele, which allows users to select a rectangular portion of an image and enlarge it on-screen
Ñ on-screen display to indicate how many discs are in the player, whether they are audio CD or Photo CD discs, the number of the photograph or audio track being played, and other information
Ñ insert, which allows the user to view pictures in any order
Ñ expanded favorite picture selection (FPS), providing 8K of RAM (random access memory) to store the viewer╒s edits and picture selections so that the disc plays the same way on subsequent viewing
Ñ full view, which compensates for the different aspect ratio of a TV screen and a 35 mm photograph, displaying the complete 35 mm image on screen with no image loss at the edge
The PCD 5870 player joins a family of two other Photo CD players currently available: the Kodak Photo CD player PCD 270, a basic unit with standard viewing features; and the Kodak Photo CD player PCD 870, a deluxe unit with expanded features.
╥With the combination of photographic and audio capability, the PCD 5870 player is ideal for people who don╒t currently have an audio CD player, or who have a one-disc audio player and would like to upgrade to multi-disc capability,╙ said Michael P. Morley, Kodak vice president and regional business manager, U.S. and Canada. ╥Consumers will be happy to learn that they can obtain the benefits of Photo CD technology and have the high-quality performance they want from an audio CD player.╙
Compatible with New Formats
Consumers currently view their photographs using Kodak Photo CD Master discs, which store up to 100 35 mm film images at full photographic resolution. Along with the original format, Kodak has announced a number of new disc formats, all of which will be compatible with the home players. They include:
Ñ Kodak Pro Photo CD Master discs, which store the larger film formats favored by professional photographers (like 120 and 4x5), also at full resolution;
Ñ Kodak Photo CD Portfolio discs, which enable the creation of on-disc programs that merge images with text, graphics and sound;
Ñ Kodak Photo CD Catalog discs, which store up to 6,000 images at video resolution for easy distribution.
Besides viewing these disc formats on television with a home player, people can work with Photo CD images on computers by inserting their discs in a CD-ROM XA drive. Kodak announced the new disc formats soon after the players became available to consumers in August, to extend the benefits of Photo CD technology to more users.
╥Since the Photo CD system was first announced, Kodak has focused simultaneously on both the consumer benefits and commercial applications of this remarkable technology,╙ Morley said. ╥The PCD 5870 player offers exceptional value in three ways ╤ as a high-quality audio CD player, as a new way for consumers to enjoy their photographs, and as a player for Photo CD discs in a variety of commercial applications.╙
The 5870 player carries a suggested list price of $649.
Customers interested in more information may call the Kodak Information Center at 1-800-242-2424, ext. 77.
