Location: North Meeting Room, Booth #N217
NXP Semiconductors recently introduced its SAA7164E and SAA7163E, the first in a family of PC TV processors designed to bring new levels of performance and system integration to desktop and notebook multimedia PCs. SAA7164E provides dual channel TV as well as radio capture and streaming capabilities with hardware AV compression, allowing for independent watch, record and advanced personal video recorder (PVR) features. The SAA7164E is a highly-integrated 90-nm device in a space efficient BGA364 package, with the SAA7163E providing a cost-effective single-channel derivative of SAA7164E.
SAA7164E and SAA7163E support multimedia solutions such as Intervideo's WinCinema, Media Center PCs, Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition, and the Windows Vista operating system. This enhances end-users' PC TV viewing experiences by powering vibrant media devices that expand the capabilities of current and future mainstream consumer PC software platforms.
"Our focus has always been to offer the consumer a more flexible and interactive user experience," said Chris Matichuk, program manager of the eHome TV Team, Microsoft Corp. "Media Center technology and NXP's leading edge PC TV chipset technology transform TV viewing into a whole new experience. Microsoft continues to drive the evolution of the PC from beyond a simple computing platform to a truly integral part of each consumer's digital entertainment experience, and technologies like Windows and NXP's PC TV solution are making this happen."
"PC TV tuner cards will comprise a market of $3.7 billion worldwide in retail value by 2009, with a compound annual growth rate of 42.6 per cent," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst multimedia, broadband and consumer content, In-Stat. "This rapid predicted growth demonstrates that the digital home is quickly becoming a connected home. People want to experience entertainment anywhere in the home, not just on the TV, but on their PC as well."
"As consumers demand more from their PC, NXP has worked to develop a low-cost, easily implemented solution that can offer advanced digital TV and PVR facilities at home and on the move," said Martin Maloney, marketing director and manager BCT PC Video, BU Home, NXP Semiconductors. "NXP is number one in the TV solutions semiconductor market, and the SAA7164 underpins this position, by enabling manufacturers to develop devices that offer simultaneous, independent reception of two channels of live TV or baseband video capture on a PC."
The SAA7164E includes two high-quality AV decoders, each supporting worldwide analog broadcast (NTSC/PAL/SECAM), TV stereo sound (BTSC, NICAM, Dual FM, EIAJ), and FM radio and RDS decoding. It provides crisp video performance with adaptive 3D comb filter including 3D noise reduction for each channel. The PC TV processor also supports global reception of all digital broadcast standards by streaming dual transport streams, allowing combo and hybrid analog/digital reception configurations. Two independent hardware compression engines enable reduction in the host CPU load, and generate dual compressed AV streams for time shifting, recording, networking, and downloading files to portable media players (PMPs). The independent AV compression engines support a variety of formats for high quality and low bit rates, including several kinds of video compression standards, such as MPEG1/2/4, Windows Media Video (VC-1) and DiVX. Audio compression standards supported are AAC, and MPG1L2, MP3, Windows Media Audio and AC-3 (Dolby Digital). The AV compression can either output DVD compliant program stream or transport stream.
The SAA7164E also includes two high-quality IF demodulators, supporting small form-factor and cost-effective system designs based on NXP's line of silicon tuners. It also includes baseband video inputs supporting high performance NXP tuner cans and NIM modules, and video capture from camcorders, VCRs, DVD players, cameras, and microphones, allowing recording and archiving of consumer content to multimedia PC hard drives and CD and DVD recorders. The SAA7164E includes a PCI Express 1.1 compliant bus interface for desktop and notebook PCs, including mini-card and Express Card form factors. It also extends the capabilities of PC TV tuners to include the reception and protection of premium TV content, with encryption and decryption capabilities, including AES and (T)DES. A remote control receiver and two RC transmitter interfaces ensure a convenient control of TV reception and PVR functionality.
Subsequent derivatives of the SAA7164E will include support for additional bus interfaces, including PCI and USB, allowing a complete PC TV portfolio to use a common core for design and qualification engineering efficiency.
NXP Semiconductors is planning a revolution in the TV viewing experience, not only through improving picture quality, but also by enabling a variety of audio, video, data and images to be available anytime, anywhere throughout the home and on-the-move.
Samples are available now with volume shipments planned for the Q107. Pricing is under $40 USD for less than 10,000 pieces. For more information, visit www.nxp.com.