C-Cube Expects New Chip to Lower Cost for PVRs

<%=company1%>(Milpitas, CA) has launched a low-cost chip which it hopes will significantly lower the cost of Personal Video Recorders now entering the consumer marketplace.

The DVxcel MPEG-2 Codec builds on legacy architecture from C-Cube's DVxplore silicon that was introduced for desktop digital video applications in 1998. DVxcel allows simultaneous encoding and decoding MPGE-2 digital video in personal video recorders (PVRs). PVRs, exemplified by new services from TiVo and Replay use hard drives to enable "time-shifted viewing," or the ability to watch favorite television shows at the viewer's convenience, rather than just when the shows are broadcast.

"Simultaneous encode/decode of broadcast quality video is key for the PVR market," says Patrick Henry, vp, marketing and system solutions for C-Cube's Home Media Division. C-Cube is the only company currently providing this function for MPEG-2 quality video in PVRs.

"We're shrinking the [DVxplore] codec to a more aggressive processing technology at a lower cost," says Henry, who adds that the chip could bring PVRs to the sub-$299 price point. Currently the devices are selling for $500+.

DVxcel leverages the C-Cube's PerfectView MPEG-2 compression algorithm in C-Cube's DVxpert and DVxpress broadcast and video production silicon. PerfectView is used by C-Cube subsidiary DiviCom, General Instrument, NDS and Scientific Atlanta. In the video production industry, Avid, FAST, Matrox and Pinnacle have also adopted PerfectView.

DVxcel provides high-quality, single-pass variable bit rate encoding. For the consumer digital recordable market, this ability to record video at varying bitrates allows users to record at anywhere from 1.8 to10 megabits per second depending on the desired balance of quality and record time. Consumers can record up to 4 hours on a DVD disk, over 10 hours on a 10GB hard drive and up to 50 hours on D-VHS tape. At each given bit rate level, DVxcel optimizes the image quality while efficiently compressing the video to the requested file size.

DVxcel is sampling to consumer electronics manufacturers this month and will begin shipping in volume by the second quarter of 2000. DVxcel is priced at $29 in high-volume production quantities.

Edited by Tom Butts