Digital Video Interactive
Digital Video Interactive (DVI) was the first multimedia desktop video standard for IBM-compatible PCs. It let a DOS-based computer play full-screen, full-motion video with stereo audio, plus still images and graphics, using a special compression chipset. DVI covered the file format (including a digital container), the video and audio compression methods, and the hardware needed to use it.
Development began around 1984 by Section 17 of the David Sarnoff Research Center Labs (DSRC), which handled RCA’s R&D. When General Electric bought RCA in 1986, the DSRC was seen as redundant, and GE looked for buyers. In 1988 GE sold the DSRC to SRI International, but the DVI technology was sold separately to Intel.
DVI content was created with the Authology Multimedia authoring system from CEIT Systems and was usually distributed on CD-ROMs. It was decoded and shown on a PC with add-in hardware cards. DVI used early data compression, with audio using ADPCM.
DVI was the first of its kind for desktop PCs and helped start the PC multimedia revolution. It was announced with enthusiasm at the Microsoft CD-ROM conference in Seattle in 1987, despite CD-ROM drives at the time delivering data at about 1.2 Mbit/s. The DSRC team managed to deliver motion video, stereo audio, and still images at that rate with good quality.
Early DVI used three 16-bit ISA cards inside the PC: one for audio, one for video, and one to connect to a Sony CDU-100 CD-ROM drive. The video card used a custom decompression chipset (the i750) with a pixel processor and a video display processor (VDP). Later, more integrated cards like Intel’s ActionMedia series appeared (available for ISA and MCA buses).
Intel’s technology behind DVI helped lead to the MMX instruction set later on.
DVI defined two video schemes: Presentation Level Video and Real-Time Video, and two audio schemes: ADPCM and PCM8. Presentation Level Video compressed non-real-time video down to 30 frames per second at 320x240, using a Digital VAX minicomputer for the encoding, done at Intel facilities or licensed facilities. The resulting .AVS file was displayed in real time on an IBM PC-AT with the add-in boards, at NTSC resolution, with stereo audio.
Real-Time Video was introduced in March 1988 (initially called Edit-Level Video). In 1992, Intel released Indeo 2 as version 2.1 of Real-Time Video.
The original DSRC team formed a Princeton operation (NJ1) near Intel. The team grew from about 35 researchers to over 200 at its peak, with strong support from Andy Grove. In 1992, Intel VP Ken Fine decided to shutter the operation and moved many employees to other Intel sites. The Princeton site closed in September 1993.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:16 (CET).