AUDIO VIDEO NEWS

Last week, the 26th mission of the Space Shuttle <I>Columbia</I> touched down with a payload of high-definition footage, taken with an HD camcorder. The mission, which lasted five days and concluded last week, was the 95th so far. <A HREF="http://www.nasa.gov">NASA</A> and <A HREF="http://www.sony.com/professional">Sony</A> will research these high-resolution images of Shuttle mission STS-93, including footage of the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Moving the consumer-electronics world a little closer to a universal high-end DVD player, <A HREF="http://www.national.com">National Semiconductor</A> announced last week the second generation of its DVD-on-a-chip product family, the Mediamatics NDV8501. National reports that this is the first chip on the market with progressive-scan video support and DVD-Audio capability in one package.

The <A HREF="http://www.nbc.com/">National Broadcasting Company</A> has announced its withdrawal from the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters</A>. The network is departing the industry's most powerful trade group in protest of the NAB's refusal to support the network's effort to raise the federally mandated cap on the number of stations that can be owned by a single company. A majority of NAB members support the current limits on ownership.