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Tag: mpeg-2

  • Sky Picks Pace STB to Roll-out HD Content in Germany and Austria


    PayTV operator Sky has selected Pace’s HD technology for its set-top box deployments in Germany and Austria, which will begin rolling out in August.

    Pace has been a set-top box technology partner of Sky, formerly Premiere, for a number of years.

    The new DS830 STB gives Sky the full flexibility to roll-out HD services with support for both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

    Richard Slee, president of Pace, said the DS830 is a classic example of Pace’s ability to design best in class set-top boxes.

    "As it is rolled out, this box is set to become an important part of Sky’s payTV offering and will be the launch-pad for a universe of HD content," he said.

    "We look forward to the success of this product in the market and to the positive effects that its introduction will have on payTV market across German-speaking Europe."

    At the front-end, the fully DVB compliant DS830NP includes one DVB-S2 tuner and one demodulator.

    It incorporates NDS conditional access and Fusion middleware and has an external power supply unit to reduce box size.

    It also meets the criteria outlined in Pace’s own low environmental impact (LEI) initiative.

    Pace recently won the contract to provide an HD-capable set-top box to Latin America’s largest multi-service cable provider – Brazil’s cable operator NET Serviços de Comunicação.

    And in a separate announcement earlier this week, Pace revealed its interim results for the half year ended 30 June 2009, which showed revenue for the period increased to GBP £526.5m, up from £231.1m in the same period last year.

    Demand for Pace’s products drove strong volume growth to 8.5m units, compared to 2.8m units for the same period last year.

  • Digital Vision Launches USB Flash Drive DVR


    Digital Vision has launched the first USB flash drive-based digital video recorder (DVR).

    The UK company says its GiGo DV-DTR1 Digital TV recorder allows users to record content and then view it on devices such as laptops.

    Programmes are recorded in MPEG-2 format direct to any storage device plugged in to one of the DVR’s three front-facing USB ports.

    Playback is via the GiGo or via any device that supports MPEG-2 – allowing recorded content to be played on the move.

    Digital Vision said the GiGo box will be available from September for GBP £69.99 initially, although this will probably drop to £59.99.

    Functionalities include:

    • Record and playback digital TV
    • Copy from one device to another
    • Schedule recordings from the EPG onto three separate devices

  • Growth in HDTVs Driving Demand for HD STBs


    Shipments of set-top boxes are expected to peak this year, at least in mature markets, and then commence a gradual decline.

    However the rolling series of analog TV shutoffs in countries around the world, combined with the strong uptake of HDTV sets, mean that HD STBs will form a growing fraction of the total market, according to ABI Research.

    HD STBs are expected to account for about 30 per cent of all STB shipments as soon as 2010.

    Michael Inouye, ABI Research industry analyst, said this will be accompanied by a progressive movement from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for content delivery.

    He said a growing affinity for HD boxes over SD is closely related to MPEG-4.

    "As more HDTVs find their way into homes, the demand for HD content grows in kind," he said.

    "Anticipating this demand, some countries and operators have elected to support the more efficient standard up front or to begin deployments of upgraded CPE."

    Inouye said the price points of boxes are converging.

    So much so that he said MPEG-4 and in some cases HD are getting sufficiently inexpensive that some operators will be providing them to their customers by default.

    While some STB vendors feel that demand for standard models will be around for a long time, reports from infrastructure vendors suggest a push towards MPEG-4 encoders, according to Inouye.

    So he said vendors will have to support MPEG-4.

    In markets primarily served by digital terrestrial broadcasts where most sales of STBs are retail, especially those with a large MPEG-2 installed base, this means that vendors will have to encourage consumers to switch by reducing the prices of upgraded boxes.

  • 1080p Processing Added to Elgato H.264 Dongle


    Elgato has launched a successor to its Turbo.264 USB video conversion dongle with the addition of 1080p compatibility.

    Called the Elgato Turbo.264 HD, the upgraded – and much faster – device converts videos into the H.264 format from camcorders and digital cameras.

    The converted video is compatible with iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and Sony’s PSP and similar devices.

    Users simply plug the dongle into a Mac and the software allows video to be previewed and trimmed before converting – without the need to import into iMovie.

    The device also adds support for HD camcorder formats such as AVCHD as well as MPEG-2- and MPEG-4-encoded HD content.

    Elgao says that while it normally takes an hour to make a fifteen minute movie from video taken on an AVCHD camcorder, the Turbo.264 HD takes less than 20 minutes.

    The Turbo.264 HD is priced at USD $150/ €149.

  • Envivio Selected For Türk Telekom's New IPTV Service


    Envivio has announced that its Convergence Series video headend has been selected for Türk Telekom’s IPTV project in Turkey.

    The IP video convergence provider said Türk Telekom will use its 4Caster C4 SD and 4Caster HD30 HD MPEG-4 AVC encoders and the 4Manager NMS, to deliver standard and high definition channels for its new IPTV service.

    The 4Caster C4 provides video compression for all three screens of consumer video – TVs, PCs and mobile devices – on a single platform.

    Envivio’s 4Caster HD30 delivers high quality, high definition encoded content at less than half the bit rates required by MPEG-2.

    The company’s Convergence Series architecture allows MPEG-2 content downlinked from satellite to be delivered to the compression system directly over a local IP network.

    This all-IP, all-digital processing of content eliminates the need for traditional intermediate analog or digital video and audio interfaces between MPEG-2 decoders and MPEG-4 encoders.

    Julien Signès, president and CEO of Envivio. said: "Forward-thinking operators around the world recognize that quality of service is a dominant factor in their success and the C4 and HD30 both deliver the very highest picture quality."

    The IPTV headend for Türk Telekom, which serves more than 30 million customers, is being installed by Birtel the partner of Envivio in Ankara, Turkey.

  • TI Unveils Video Processor Aimed at Removing Format Concerns







    Texas Instruments has launched a new video processor specifically aimed at removing video designers’ concerns about video format support, network bandwidth or system storage capacity limitations.

    Called the TMS320DM365 DaVinci, the processor includes production-qualified H.264, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MJPEG and VC1 codecs.

    The DM365 also has an integrated image signal processing (ISP) solution for intelligent video processing capabilities and a suite of on-board peripherals.

    TI says this has the potential to save developers up to 25 per cent on their system cost.

    The company is aiming the processor at video designers of media playback and camera-driven applications, such as video doorbells and portable media players.

    According to TI, by using the DM365 it will allow them to expand their product portfolio on one platform with the ability to select the right HD video codec for multiple product designs – 1080p MPEG-4 at 24 fps or 720p H.264 and MPEG-4 at 30 fps.

    An example is video security applications supporting 1080p H.264 at 10 fps to provide high-quality video with greater compression efficiency.

    As a result, TI says developers can attain increased video storage without straining network bandwidth.

    In addition, by having a built-in ISP with capabilities including face detection, developers can focus on differentiating their products with smart video features.

    These include enabling intelligent digital signage to detect its viewers and display relevant advertising or video doorbells to instantly recognize family members and automatically unlock the door.

  • Leading HDTV manufacturers take legal action against Vizio over patents


    Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sony, and Philips have filed a patent suit against low-cost HDTV maker Vizio claiming the company is violating 15 patents key to supporting MPEG-2 video in its products.
    The legal action is seeking an order to prevent Vizio from using the patents, as well as financial compensation.
    According to the complaint – other parties to which also include Columbia University of New York, Victor Co. of Japan, and Thompson – the individual companies have pursued Vizio about licensing the patents, but the company has refused to deal with them.
    It is claimed that Vizio has also declined to discuss the matter with the MPEG Licensing Authority trade group.
    In response to the suit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan on June 2, Vizio said it doesn’t need licenses for the MPEG-2 patents.
    It claims its suppliers have licensed the patents and those licenses extend to Vizio’s products.
    The company said it will fight the suit and expects its partners will support and cooperate in the defence.
    Earlier this year, the MPEG LA trade group filed suit against Target over its Tru-tech brand of televisions (PDF) on similar patent infringement claims.
    Vizio has made a name for itself in the US by selling comparatively low-cost high-definition televisions through mass retailers like Wal-mart, Costco, and Circuit City, often substantially undercutting prices for similarly-featured models from competitors. During the first quarter of 2008, Vizio was ranked as the number three seller of LCD televisions by DisplaySearch and iSuppli.

  • Starz Entertainment becomes latest cable network to adopt MPEG-4


    The move towards the new compression standard continues as Starz Entertainment invests in a four-channel, HD MPEG-4/AVC encoding system from cable-equipment manufacturer Motorola.
    The premium programmer has become the latest cable network to adopt MPEG-4 compression to conserve satellite bandwidth as it expands its HD offerings.
    The Motorola system – already being used for Starz’s existing HD channels Starz E, Starz Kids and Family HD, Starz Edge HD and Starz Comedy HD – compresses, encrypts, modulates and receives HD signals within a single integrated transmission system.
    The new transmission system also includes DVB-S2 satellite modulation gear, which can increase a satellite transponder’s output by up to 50 per cent.
    Starz said upcoming HD channel Encore HD will also be launched using MPEG-4.
    Ray Milius, senior vice president of programming operations and information technology for Starz, said a key selling point for the Motorola MPEG-4 system was its development of an integrated receiver/decoder for affiliates, the DSR-6050.
    This is able to receive the MPEG-4 signals and then transcode them to MPEG-2 compression for delivery to existing digital cable set-top boxes.
    The importance of such backward-compatible receivers was mentioned by HBO when it selected Motorola last year for its conversion to MPEG-4 delivery for all of its networks.
    “Motorola’s highly efficient MPEG-4 encoding system allows us to seamlessly migrate from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 with the video quality that we require while conserving satellite bandwidth to deliver diverse additional HD content for our customers,” said Milius.
    He said MPEG-4 was “all about how much can we squeeze out of the satellite”, a necessity as the network was running out of capacity on its [VOD] pitching distribution.
    HBO was the first programmer to announce plans to adopt MPEG-4 for most of its planned HD feeds.
    By the end of June, the programmer will offer all 26 channels in MPEG-4, although it will retain the primary HBO and Cinemax feeds in MPEG-2.