Last week, in a statement coinciding with the International Broadcasting Convention taking place in Amsterdam, Equator Technologies and Snell & Wilcox announced that they have developed what they describe as the world's first end-to-end, optimized digital video platform enabling low-cost consumer products to deliver "better-than-VHS-quality" video at sub-megabit bandwidths. The companies claim that the newly developed technology, which they have dubbed "VHS-plus/Megabit-minus," will be available near the end of 2000.

Last week, digital video and networking companies Optibase, Lucent, 3Com, DiviCom, ECI Telecom, and Siemens announced that they have formed BigBand Networks in an effort to provide "a new network platform to deliver entertainment-quality content and services combining video, voice, and data over multiple broadband networks including cable, DSL, satellite, and wireless."

Last week, CBS Television and Thomson multimedia's RCA brand announced that they have entered into an advertising agreement for Thomson to underwrite the costs of producing high-definition coverage of Super Bowl XXXV as well as the four AFC playoff games. CBS reports that all NFL HDTV programming will be broadcast in 1920x1080i, the highest-definition widescreen digital television format.

A lot of folks seem stymied by the remote controls that come with consumer-electronics gear. But is using the Internet any easier? ReplayTV thinks so, and last week announced its new service: MyReplayTV. The company says that MyReplayTV "creates a Web portal where viewers can find out about TV programming, gather additional information about shows of interest, and control the ReplayTV Service and digital video recorder via the Web." ReplayTV expects the Internet remote feature to be online later this fall.