Zoran Provides All Digital Processing Functions for Combo DVD Recorders for Analog and Digital TVs in U.S. and European Markets
Sunnyvale, California - December 12, 2005 - Zoran Corporation (Nasdaq: ZRAN) announced availability of two new reference designs for DVD Recorders with integrated support for digital broadcast standards, one with ATSC for the U.S. and another with DVB for Europe.
These two new platforms deliver technology developed by Zoran in its leadership position in both the DVD and DTV markets and represent the first reference designs to combine all key technologies from one IC supplier.
Both new platforms are based on the market-proven Activa 100/150 DVD recorder solution, currently shipping to leading manufacturers worldwide, and support stand-alone DVD or hybrid DVD+HDD (hard-disk drive) recorders. These new reference platforms have been optimized to receive and record either high-definition content from ATSC broadcasts in the US or standard-definition DVB sources in Europe, using Zoran’s integrated digital television processors SupraHD or SupraTV, respectively.
"As digital broadcasts become the norm throughout the world, consumers are demanding next-generation products to record these broadcasts with a user experience that meets or exceeds the products they are already familiar with. This new generation of designs introduced by Zoran demonstrates that this goal can be achieved without lengthy product development cycles or high product costs," said Tim Bajarin, president, Creative Strategies.
"Zoran has taken the next step in driving convergence in the home. These new reference designs allow consumers around the world to use a single DVD combo product to record digital broadcasts directly to DVD or to the hard-disk drive. Zoran’s customers can quickly bring cost-effective combo systems to market that enable DVD recorders with digital receiver set-top-box capabilities," said Dr. Jinxing (Gene) Liu, senior vice president, general manager DVD division at Zoran.
For the U.S. market, Zoran’s DVDR+ATSC reference design uses the SupraHD 640 high-definition digital TV processor and Zoran’s Cascade 2 front-end demodulator with the Activa 100/150 to enable recording of high-definition broadcast signals to DVD or hard disk. This solution includes a transport processor, high-definition MPEG video decoder, and Zoran’s proven HDXtreme video processing and picture-enhancement technology.
For DVB systems in Europe, the Zoran reference design uses the SupraTV 150 integrated standard definition digital TV processor to support free-to-air satellite or terrestrial broadcasts throughout Europe and Asia, including support for third-party middleware such as MHEG-5 for the U.K. market and selected conditional access systems for other markets.
The DVDR subsystem features include a best-in-class analog video decoder with 3D Y/C separation and time-base correction, a high-resolution progressive scan video encoder, and full system support for authoring and editing DVDs in DVD-Video, DVD-VR, and DVD+VR formats with full verifier compliant accuracy. The integration of these components allows compatible, reliable recording with editing, lowers overall system cost, and gives consumers a high quality, seamless viewing and listening experience.
Both reference designs come with a complete software stack that enables OEMs to quickly bring products to market. Software includes a full recording, playback, and tuner control application suite with an easy-to-use, rich user-interface that is integrated across the DVD recorder and set top box subsystems, enabling a reliable, uncomplicated user experience.
The Activa 100/150 based DVB+DVDR and ATSC+DVDR reference designs are now sampling to customers worldwide.
About Zoran Corporation
Zoran Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is a leading provider of digital solutions for applications in the growing digital entertainment and digital imaging markets. With two decades of expertise developing and delivering digital signal processing technologies, Zoran has pioneered high-performance digital audio and video, imaging applications, and Connect and Share technologies for the digital home. Zoran’s proficiency in integration delivers major benefits for OEM customers, including greater capabilities within each product generation, reduced system costs, and shorter time to market. Zoran-based DVD, digital camera, DTV, multimedia mobile phone, and multifunction printer products have received recognition for excellence and are now in millions of homes and offices worldwide. With headquarters in the U.S. and operations in Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, Zoran may be contacted on the World Wide Web at www.zoran.com or at 408-523-6500.
Zoran, the Zoran logo, Activa, HDXtreme, SupraHD and SupraTV are trademarks or registered trademarks of Zoran Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. All other names and brands may be claimed as property of others.
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Company Contact
Betty Watkins
Zoran Corporation
408-523-4373
betty.watkins@zoran.com