Sigma's EM8620L processor to power first wave of FVD players

December 1, 2004

FVD or Forward Versatile Disc, a high definition format, is catching on with makers of optical drives in China. Soon, the first FVD players will be introduced by manufacturers from both China and Taiwan for less than $150 dollars. It's interesting too, in that the format wont need a fancy new blue or violet laser either, it's sticking with the old stand by red one. In addition, FVD has captured the support of CMC Magnetics, Ritek, U-Tech Media, Lite-On IT, BenQ, Quanta Storage and Mustek Systems. Not a bad start!

Taiwan's red-laser based high definition DVD-like format, which was driven by Taiwan's Advanced Optical Storage Research Alliance (AOSRA) in conjunction with the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). FVD based products are being launched in China and Taiwan, with plans for expansion into other worldwide markets in the future, including an unveiling at the coming Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2005) taking place in January at Las Vegas. FVD has also attracted the support of Taiwan providers of digital content and several movie publishers in China. Currently, over 20 FVD titles are planned for introduction next month and over 500 titles should be available during 2005.

The FVD format differs technologically from the DVD standard in physical format, compression (encoding) and decoding, and content protection, and therefore is not subject to normal DVD royalty charges. First generation FVD discs will have a storage capacity of 5.4-6GB for single-sided discs and 9.8-11GB for double-sided discs and will support resolutions of up to 1280x720. Second-generation FVD discs are expected to have a capacity of over 15GB and will support resolutions up to 1920x1080i.

According to the article, content will be encoded using Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9) and WMA9 compression algorithms. Microsoft's codec is the best deal around at the moment, as far as royalty charges go, which has been a real sticking point in Chinas craw causing them to have to keep prices higher than they would like.

But getting back to the chip, Sigma Designs figures that a complete 2 hour high def 720p movie will fit on a single disc using this processor/compression scheme. Second-generation players will be introduced in January sporting a newer Sigma processor for WMV9 that can handle a 1080p resolution. I guess by then, the next higher capacity discs will be along as well. These guys are moving fast.

The Sigma EM8620L features the following video/audio codecs, including WMV9, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video decoding up to 720p resolution. On the Audio side it is limited to WMA or MP3 with stereo or SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) output. It supports common outputs including S-video, component and DVI or Digital Video Interface.

Source: Emedia Live