About

Updated 02/07/04

Since very little information can be found about the Hardware CineMaster C cards, I've summarized what I've learned about them on these pages. There's also some Hardware CineMaster S and Software CineMaster information.

The Hardware CineMaster is a hardware DVD decoder for Windows. The original developer and manufacturer of the product has changed name several times and is now known as Axeda (former Ravisent Technologies, former DiviCore, former Quadrant International) and does not seem to be in the market as previously.
The product was for many years an OEM only product, meaning that it was only included with other products (like Dell computers etc). It was almost impossible to buy the product itself.
Axeda licensed it's software DVD player business and technology development groups to Sonic in May 2002.

The Hardware CineMaster product is now sold directly to end users by Cifelli Corporation under the name cifePEG C3.0.

Ravisent also had a product called Software CineMaster. This was a software only version of the decoder and was for a long time considered to be one of the best software decoders. This software was first also an OEM product for other companies to build their own players upon. This product shared the same player as in the Hardware CineMaster products.
In May 2002, Sonic licensed the Software CineMaster and is marketing it as Sonic CinePlayer. This product is available to end users. There is also a decoder pack available for Windows XP (software decoder only without the CinePlayer application) and the old Software CineMaster 99 for older versions of Windows.

Please note that the Hardware CineMaster (cifePEG) and Software CineMaster (CinePlayer) are different products. This site is mainly for the Hardware CineMaster products although I provide news and some information about the Software CineMaster products.

/Niclas Pennskog