NVIDIA will seek to expand its reputation outside the PC gamer enthusiast field and into the HD video community this fall with the relaunch of its GeForce 6 Series graphics cards.
The focal point of this new marketing program will be re-introducing to the public NVIDIA’s GeForce 6 Series as a tie-in with the upcoming unveiling of Microsoft’s updated version of the Media Center operating system, an event expected to take place this fall. Instead of concentrating on the card’s gaming capabilities, as it did during the card’s initial launch in March, NVIDIA will put its high-definition video playback capabilities front and center, said Bill Henry, senior product manager at NVIDIA
“We needed to tell people that NVIDIA delivers the best video possible on a PC. Now we have to take the next step and say it delivers the same thing for TV,” Henry said.
However, with the newest version of Media Center, NVIDIA intends to show consumers, primarily video enthusiasts, that its product will enhance their television viewing experience even when it powered by a PC and not a traditional TV. A GeForce 6-equipped PC can connect and power any HD-ready display, Henry said. When all the additional TV-related features such as PVR and program guide are figured in, the computer can truly become the centerpiece for the digital home, as put forth by Microsoft, Henry said.
With this in mind, NVIDIA tweaked the card’s software package to get rid of the jagged edges sometimes found on PC-viewed TV programming. The card’s TV capability is scaleable, so it can connect to a dedicated CRT or flat panel HDTV of any size, and it has an LCD color control capability so those displays can be properly adjusted.
