Last week, Lucasfilm THX announced the availability of the first THX certified PCs under a newly created THX program that the company says is designed to deliver "the best picture and sound to date on a personal computer." A Lucasfilm press release states that "with consumers increasingly turning to the PC for entertainment content, a THX certified PC ensures that movies, music, games and more will be enjoyed with a sound and visual impact that will satisfy the most demanding multimedia user."

This week, 2netFX, which specializes in providing streaming technology for intranet and broadband Internet media delivery, has announced that its new HDTV-over-IP streaming technology will be featured in a live demonstration of Gigabit Ethernet over fiber in conjunction with World Wide Packets at Comdex in Las Vegas. The new approach is intended to enable Internet Service Providers, cable television companies, and telecommunication carriers to base new services on HDTV technology.

Last week, Sony and Candescent Technologies, a developer of flat panel displays (FPD), announced an agreement to extend their existing partnership. In October 1998, the two companies announced their initial agreement regarding the joint development of high voltage Field Emission Display (FED) technology for "next generation" thin, flat-panel displays. The new agreement extends their joint technology development partnership, under which the two companies say they will co-fund these activities, until December 2001.

Digital cinema has begun to pick up speed in movie houses (see previous story), but finding ways to deliver the huge datafiles needed to present theater-grade imaging has remained an obstacle. Hoping to provide a solution to the problem of digitally storing high-resolution feature-length films, Constellation 3D announced last week the impending demonstration of its Fluorescent Multilayer Disc (FMD) videodisc technology at a satellite-delivered digital cinema film premiere of the film Bounce, to be hosted by Miramax Films.