CES: Sanyo, Funai to Develop Low-Cost Set-Tops With Sarnoff

In a major customer win for its low-cost DTV reference design, Sarnoff Corp. (Princeton, NJ) announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES; Las Vegas, NV) that Sanyo Manufacturing Corp. and Funai Electric Co. will manufacture DTV set-top boxes using Sarnoff's technology. The boxes will convert digital and high-definition television broadcasts for display on a standard analog television. Sarnoff will work with each company to develop the customized boxes—expected to hit the market by Q4 2000.

The announcements mark a shift in attention to the US market for Sarnoff, which initially targeted the Japanese DTV market with its reference design, developed using Motorola silicon. Under the terms of the agreement, Sarnoff will develop a special graphical user interface and provide the customized reference design.

The company's technology for the DTV set-top boxes effectively turn an analog TV into a display for digital content, giving consumers access to digital television programming and such DTV features as CD-quality surround sound. The box will include Motorola's second generation 8-VSB demodulator—the MCT2100—and MCT 4100 video decoder chip. The product will handle digital and analog reception without manual switching by the user.

Edited by Meredith Lockard