Now Showing . . . On the Landmark Channel Captain Kirk

Now Showing . . .

On the Landmark Channel

Beam me down to the surface, Scotty. I just found out that Landmark Computer Labs has a new video system that lets PC users combine their computers with television.

I want to watch the fun.

It's all routine to us, of course. But do you realize that even near the end of the Twentieth Century the populated planets had not yet mastered melding video with their data transmissions? Thank goodness for Landmark Labs.

It was back in 1997 that they first announced a series of PC-TV subsystems. How amazing it must have seemed!

Oh, sure, Landmark personal computers already had full 3D stereo sound, music recording, and voicemail. But now, for the first time, people could do all kinds of cool things, like watching TV in a window while they did their primitive data processing. (I'm sending you some ad copy in a data sidebar on the right side of your screen.)

And how modest were the system requirements, even considering how primitive computers were back then. All it took to run video on a PC were a 486 processor and a 16-bit version of Windows.

In retrospect, Landmark changed everything and paved the way for starship technology. Their Landmark 2000 Videophone, for example, is the predecessor of our video intercom.

So beam me down to Landmark, Scotty. I want to mingle with the locals and have some fun with a Landmark PC. Spock, you come too—and for the love of Zeus, please wear your hat!

Landmark's Premiere PC-TV Subsystem:

For use with your Intel-compatible personal computer.
  • Zoom in to a closeup view and put it anywhere on the screen.
  • Display all available channels and then select one with the mouse.
  • Pop up your favorite shows on schedule, just like a VCR.
  • Watch silently by reading the closed-captioning text display in a separate window. Scroll back through the transcript to catch what you missed while you were working in another application.
  • Record text from the closed-captioning subchannel. Capture scripts from documentaries or movies, or even record step-by-step instructions for building the latest Martha Stewart project.
  • Monitor programs for specific keywords. (Note from Kirk: Back then the keywords were mostly variants on "sex" and "murder.")
  • Use a live newscast or sporting event as "wallpaper." It's a background process that lets you run foreground applications at full speed.
  • Capture still or moving images from VCRs, camcorders, and laserdiscs.

Click here for more details on the system.

Back to Landmark Computer Labs Home Page

Copyright notice

URL: http://www.landmark.org/pc-tv.html

Last update: 5-28-98.