Sigma Designs, a leader in digital media processors
for consumer appliances, today announced that its EM8500 family of DVD decoder
chips are now used worldwide by more than eleven manufacturers of advanced DVD
players. These advanced DVD players set a new standard for consumer
entertainment products by turning Internet video content, based on MPEG-4 and
DivX Video into everyday television entertainment.
With MPEG-4, DivX Video
and various music formats gaining popularity across the Internet, users can now
enjoy a wide range of downloadable content directly from their DVD players.
Driven primarily by increased compression efficiency, MPEG-4 is enabling
providers to offer a new range of innovative video products and services over
bandwidth-limited networks and low cost CD discs.
Sigma Designs' line of feature-rich, high quality,
single chip DVD player solutions with MPEG-4 video decoding allows manufacturers
to satisfy the growing consumer demand for cutting-edge multimedia technology.
Sigma has also worked closely with DivXNetworks to enable playback support for
all versions of DivX Video. Sigma Designs' EM8500 family represents the first
DivX certified chipset available on the market. Key features in many of these
advanced DVD players include:
- Video playback using standard DVD, SVCD, VCD,
MPEG-4 and DivX Video content - Music playback using standard CD, MP3, and WMA
content - Photo viewing using JPEG, PictureCD and other
content - High quality picture and sound featuring
progressive scan and high definition output - User friendly media browsers for selecting and
controlling content playlists
The premium video quality delivered by DVD players
based on Sigma's EM8500 decoder chip (such as the Bravo D1 from V Inc), are
reinforced by users speaking out on the AVS Forum, a premier forum for sharing
evaluations of home theatre systems.
In a statement issued on the AVS Forum, Alan Gouger
said, "Using the $200 Bravo D1 DVD player (configured for 720p DVI output) with
a Seleco 300+ DLP projector and 9' wide screen provided an accurate, smooth,
film-like image. The Bravo D1 with its DVI output is very accurate in that it
does not add any artificial edge enhancement or have chroma delay issues. Using
the Avia resolution wedge test pattern, this player is perfectly clean right out
to the edge, better than the Samsung HD1000 which uses the Faroudja chip for
deinterlacing and scaling."
More than eleven manufacturers have introduced
advanced DVD players in the past six months based on Sigma's EM8500 family of
decoder chips. The following manufacturers have announced products that are
available today.
- Cosmic Digital
- Jamo
- Kiss Technology
- Link Concept
- Lite-On IT
- Momitsu
- Mustek
- Neuston
- Shenzhen Skywood
- V Inc
- Xoro
"MPEG-4 provides enhanced compression technologies
that are being deployed today to enable convenient use of custom and
downloadable content across bandwidth limited applications," said Ken Lowe, vice
president of strategic marketing at Sigma Designs. "As a leader in advanced
CODEC technologies, Sigma introduced the first set-top decoder solution for
MPEG-4 a year ago and plans to offer other advanced CODEC technologies when they
become commercially viable."
About Sigma's EM8500 Series of DVD
Decoders
Sigma's EM8500 family is the premium solution for
DVD players, enabling manufacturers to easily incorporate support of MPEG-4,
DivX Video, MP3, WMA and Picture CD content, progressive DVD-Video, high
definition scaling and audio CD playback. The convergence of these applications
into a single, cost-effective appliance delivers a substantial benefit to the
consumer. The EM8500 is designed around the system-on-chip concept with an
internal 150 Mhz RISC CPU, both IDE and DVD loader interfaces, SDRAM memory
controller, and the various I/O ports required to implement a complete DVD
player. The EM8550 offers additional local busses and video ports to enable the
use of Ethernet controllers, MPEG encoders, and other peripherals.
Video decoding capabilities include MPEG-4, MPEG-2
and MPEG-1 compressed video formats while audio decoding includes Dolby®
Digital, Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MPEG-1 Layers 1, 2 and 3 (MP3). MPEG-4
video support is based on the advanced simple profile and supports DVD
resolution content. MPEG-2 video support includes full precision DVD decoding
and Macrovision protection and can be output in either progressive or interlaced
format. Beyond the normal decoding of content, the EM8500 offers a sophisticated
scaling and scan conversion of standard video to various HDTV resolutions, which
recreates many elements of cinema picture quality. Also supported are the
Picture CD (JPEG) formats for viewing digital photo content, which provides a
substantially enhanced image when utilizing the high definition output.
About Sigma Designs, Inc.
Sigma Designs specializes in silicon-based MPEG
decoding for streaming video, progressive DVD playback and advanced digital
set-top boxes. The company's award-winning REALmagic® Video Streaming Technology
is used in both commercial and consumer applications providing highly integrated
solutions for high-quality decoding of MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Headquartered
in Milpitas, Calif., the company also has sales offices in China, Europe, Hong
Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. For more information, please visit the company's
web site at www.sigmadesigns.com.
Source: Yahoo!Finance
