Conexant Unveils Card That Allows HDTV to Be Viewed on Computers

Predicting that people will want to enjoy watching movies and television programming on their PCs, Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. unveiled a PC card on Monday that will allow Net users to watch high-definition television broadcasts.

The $149 card, which has a trio of silicon chips built into it, will be added into personal computers by some hardware manufacturers within six months, company officials said. There are no plans to sell the card by itself in stores at this time.

The card was developed jointly by Conexant and Ravisent Technologies Inc., a Pennsylvania software maker whose products are helping blur the line between computers and TVs.

High-definition television offers an enormous boost in quality, but has also been slow to roll out because of a classic Catch-22.

Broadcasters have been hesitant to pay for the cost of sending out program signals in HDTV if no one has the special TV sets needed. And consumers have been slow to shell out thousands of dollars for the new TVs if there is no programming.

NBC was the first television network to broadcast a series in HDTV, beginning with “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in April. And with a recent announced deal with CBS, Irvine-based Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of HDTV sets, will underwrite the costs associated with producing the majority of CBS’ prime-time entertainment programming in high-definition.

The Conexant product “is a counter-trend to this,” said Bob Merritt, director of emerging markets for Semico Research Corp., which tracks this trend. “You can experience what HDTV is all about on a reasonably inexpensive PC, enjoy the quality and then decide if you want to spend all that money on a high-end TV.”