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Spot the opportunity
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20/10/2006
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Video images, whether generated from a dvd player, received via television or captured using a hand held device, are moving towards ever higher levels of definition. This move is underlined by the recent push for high definition (HD) tv and the accompanying sales effort for lcd and plasma tvs.
Kenroy Francis, director of digital tv products for LSI Logic, noted: “Digital broadcast is entering an era of change from standard to high definition and a shift from Mpeg2 to H.264.” And that, says Francis, creates a problem. “There are several million boxes in the UK which are based around Mpeg2. Whilst Sky has announced H.264 transmissions, they are being simulcast with standard definition. And any IT network coming online is going straight to H.264 because of bandwidth issues.”
So Francis says H.264 is on its way. Yet the average home has several pieces of Mpeg2 based equipment. “How do you then share video content or use your existing set top box (stb)?” he asked.
LSI’s response has been to extend its Domino architecture – which has been around since 2001 – to take account of these developments. The enhancement – Domino (X) – is, for the moment, an architecture, but products being rolled out next year will target professional broadcast, HD optical and HD stb applications. But the main target will be consumer devices – anything ranging from a pc to hand held portables capable of displaying, and even sharing, video content.
There are three main applications for Domino (X): transcoding, such as converting H.264 to Mpeg2; resolution change, such as HD to standard definition; and bit rate reduction. “We see this capability becoming key in the future because the industry is moving towards having large server type boxes in the home – maybe stbs, but they could be an HD dvd box – with the ability to share content with other consumer items. The ability to transcode will become commonplace in this box.”
Francis acknowledges this functionality is already available: “But it tends to come as a standalone device, with either a hard wired piece of silicon or a dsp programmed for the particular function. Domino (X) will support SoCs with that functionality built in.”
According to Francis, Domino (X) devices will address forward looking compression standards, including H.264 and VC-1 – a codec that can support resolutions of up to 2048 x 1536pixels at a maximum data rate of 135Mbit/s. “H.264 will address the main profile and the high profile for optical disks,” Francis continued, “while VC-1 will go to the AC Advanced Profile, probably for use with streaming video. That highlights another shift, we don’t know how the internet will affect how people receive video content.”
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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