Tandy and Microsoft team up again to tackle the home

The Tandy Corporation of Fort Worth, TX, announced at the end of August the release of its long-rumored Gryphon product, an interactive, CD-ROM-based multimedia player designed for the home market. Tandy compiled the suggestions from more than 65 computer, consumer electronics and software vendors, including major input from Microsoft, during a two-year period to develop the new Video Information System, or VIS.

VIS is a CD-ROM player which, on first glance, is very similar to Philips’ CD-I, or Commodore’s CDTV. But a quick look under the hood reveals the significant differences in the strategies and technologies. These differences may result in the ultimate success or failure of all of these products.

Née Haiku. Microsoft developed the operating system for the VIS device based on its immensely successful Windows software. Thus, VIS is able to piggyback all of the work that has already gone into the windows-based multimedia computer, MPC — authoring tools, system facilities and titles development. (For more detailed information on Tandy’s and Microsoft’s strategies, see Vol. 1, Nos. 11 and 10, respectively.)

Called Modular Windows, and formerly known by the code name Haiku, the operating software is a scaled-down version of full Multimedia Windows, the core of the MPC effort. MPC titles that have already been written can be ported to VIS in a matter of weeks, if not days. The major adaptation required adding drivers for the VIS remote control, as opposed to a mouse and keyboard, and certain interface alterations for television as opposed to a computer monitor.

According to Mike Grubbs, senior director of marketing at Tandy, Brøderbund was able to create the VIS version of its well-received Grandma and Me title from the MPC version in only a few weeks, and it runs faster on VIS than it does on a PC. ICOM Simulations was able to port its Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective game, complete with compressed video, in only three days.

Not one, but five buses. VIS, which will retail at $699, looks like a very simple CD audio player, with a smooth front panel, audio and video input and output on the back, and an infrared remote control that is remarkably similar to Nintendo’s (see photo).

Tandy concentrated on creating a hardware architecture that was optimized for a level of performance acceptable to the consumer, yet inexpensive enough for that market — without reinventing the wheel. It began with the latest technology available from the computer industry, and combined it with enhancements specifically designed for the consumer market.

The hardware, while similar enough to the ‘x86 family of personal computers to work through the dos/Windows compatibility issue, is configured in a manner that addresses the need to route media-rich data quickly through the box and out to the display.

There is no single data bus (across which all data must pass in a normal PC). Instead, there are five local buses with individual controller chips designed specifically for this box by Tandy.

The audio capabilities have been boosted to make the quality as high as any audio CD player. Animation and interactivity, i.e., button clicking and the corresponding response, are processed very quickly. Tandy representatives claim that the machine can handle input from the remote control faster than any human thumb could possibly click. The VIS can process vga, yuv or rgb (all digital video formats) inside the box, and displays on any ntsc television; the conversion to nysc is quite clean.

There is a slot on the front of the box that will hold a “SaveIt” cartridge, providing the capability to store personal information or to save a location in a game or interactive CD-ROM title. There are also two additional ports in the back of the box that deserve mention. First, there is a slot for a modem, which will be available with the first VIS boxes, although there will not be any software available to take advantage of it until later in 1993. It will cost about $60. In addition, there is a port for a digital signal processor, or dsp, which has not yet been priced.

The VIS box has video “pass through” built in. That is, there is an input and output jack for a television cable. Looking to the time when an incoming television signal has additional information accompanying it, Tandy has included the technology to process that data. In addition to incoming signals, the dsp could enable the player to play back full-motion video from a CD-ROM.

Tandy claims its built-in sales channels, including more than 5,000 Radio Shack stores and the thousands of Tandy Name Brand retail chains, will place VIS boxes within 10 minutes of 90 percent of the U.S. population. Tandy will put VIS kiosks in the front of the store, and equip them with demonstration discs that show off a wide range of titles to get consumers ‘hooked’ on the technology.

A winning strategy. With almost universal agreement that interactive multimedia appliances will sell only if the available software libraries are rich and varied enough, Tandy and Microsoft may have developed a winning strategy.

Compared to Philips, the two partners have effectively created a new market, complete with the distribution, advertising and support of Tandy’s immense Radio Shack family, into which software developers can push their products without having to build, from scratch, the same title over again.

For its part, Philips has had to jump start an entire development community, which required its own set of tools particular to the platform. As a result, after being on the market for a full year, and in development for six, there are still only 65 titles available. Tandy announced that by the time the first VIS boxes reach the stores (in time for the Christmas ‘92 selling season), more than 100 titles will be available, many of them ported from the MPC.

Will all of this sound the death knell for Philips’ CD-I? Probably not, but Philips is certainly on the run. While its latest software demonstrations with full-motion video have been impressive, sales remain slow. The suggested retail price for the units has dropped from $999 to $699 (the same price as VIS players) and sales outlets carrying the product have doubled to 2,000.

With the drop in the retail price, many people believe that third-party manufacturers, like Sony and Matsushita, may not be able to realize enough profit from selling the box to justify a major consumer sales and marketing push in this country. Already these companies are hedging their bets by redirecting the focus away from the consumer and toward industrial and training markets.

Today, Zenith. Tomorrow, Kodak. VIS support will come from Zenith, which plans to market the player under its own name. This brings into the fold one of the last remaining U.S. consumer electronics television manufacturers, and a finalist in the HDTV transmission standards competition being run by the FCC. Zenith is examining the VIS system as part of a delivery mechanism for large-format television.

VIS is not yet licensed by Kodak for Photo CD, but that has more to do with finalizing business relationships than finalizing technology. According to Mike Alcorn, program manager of software products in Kodak’s CD Imaging Division, Kodak has two different licenses available for Photo CD — one for consumer devices and one for computers.

In an area that blurs such distinctions, it’s not surprising to hear that there may be a slight disagreement over which license, if either, is appropriate to the new Tandy family of products. Grubbs anticipates that Tandy’s new player will be Photo CD-compatible shortly.

Microsoft supports the new format, as do Zenith and 65 software developers, so far. And Kodak will bestow its blessing soon. The folks at Tandy studied their history well, and did not repeat the mistakes of its predecessor, Philips and CD-I. But, all of the cross-industry support in the world won’t add up to a hill of beans if the platform does not capture the support of the consumer.

David Baron