DataVideo Chooses Stream Machine's Codec Technology to Capture, View, Edit and Time Shift Video on a PC.Business Editors/High Tech Writers SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2000 USB-TV(TM) Manufacturing Kit Wins Design of a Near-DVD-Quality, USB-Peripheral That Is Consumer-Friendly and Very Affordable Stream Machine, a provider of innovative video and audio semiconductor solutions, today announced that DataVideo Technologies, a major Taiwanese video post-production manufacturer, has chosen the SM2210 Video Codec (1) A hardware circuit that converts analog video (NTSC, PAL, SECAM) into digital code and vice versa. The term may refer to only the A/D and D/A conversion, or it may include the compression technique for further reducing the signal (definition #2 below). See codec. chip and the USB-TV(TM) manufacturing kit from Stream Machine. The product will enable Digital VCR/Time-shift recording on a PC and as well as the creation of content for streaming media See streaming audio, streaming video and digital media hub. applications. DataVideo meets the large and rapidly growing demand to simultaneously access TV and the web. With its onboard TV tuner, Datavideo provides the ability to view TV in a window on a PC monitor and to record TV programming at near-DVD-quality levels onto the PCs hard-drive - converting the PC into a time-shifting digital VCR See DVR. through the simplicity and convenience of a USB-link. The Stream Machine SM2210 MPEG-2 video codec enables near-DVD-quality recording at just 2Mbps. This industry-leading compression means that at any given viewing quality more than twice as many hours of programming can be recorded onto a hard-drive as with other technologies. Also, because this technology uses a hardware-based MPEG-2 encode and decode solution, it consumes almost no Pentium CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. cycles during recording or playing back, enabling the user to have multiple open windows and tasks running while simultaneously recording and viewing TV programming in real-time or time-shifted. "The consumer market for PC peripherals to manipulate digital media is exploding," said Jack Lin, president of DataVideo. "We chose Stream Machine's solution as it offered the highest quality and the lowest total system cost of any solution, as well as offering the quickest time to market of any solution." "Consumers are beginning to regard digital media as more than a spectator sport. The growing market of camcorders, powerful home PCs, and the burgeoning broadband base all point to an increasing focus on digital media," said Brian Heuckroth, VP of Marketing at Stream Machine. "The completeness of the USB-TV manufacturing kit enables fast development of new and affordable products in the exciting PC/Digital VCR VCR: see videocassette recorder. VCR in full videocassette recorder Electromechanical device that records, stores on a videotape cassette, and plays back on a TV set recorded images and sound. Time-Shift market," said Stream Machine's VP Marketing, Brian Heuckroth. "USB-TV relieves the biggest factors currently limiting MPEG-2 digital VCR and streaming media applications -- the performance of the Pentium CPU for software-centric solutions, the reluctance of consumers to crack open their PCs to install a new card, and the high cost of currently available alternative hardware-centric solutions. The cost effectiveness of the USB-TV design and the close teamwork between the two companies has enabled the rapid development of DataVideo's affordable USB-1000." The foundation for the USB-TV manufacturing kit is the Stream Machine SM2210 MPEG-2 video encoder/decoder. The manufacturing kit exploits the SM2210's unique combination of high image-quality at low bit rates to provide streaming video A one-way video transmission over a data network. It is widely used on the Web as well as company networks to play video clips and video broadcasts. Computers in home networks stream video to digital media hubs connected to a home theater. with near-DVD-quality levels while consuming very little system storage. The SM2210's high level of integration and USB-TV's low parts count make real-time, full-resolution, full-frame rate video affordable. Technology Breakthrough These performance, quality and cost breakthroughs are enabled by Stream Machine's single chip MPEG-2 video codec IC, the SM2210. SM2210 supports real-time video encoding and decoding using a single-pass variable bit rate MPEG-2 encoding technique -- providing higher video quality than traditional constant bit rate MPEG-2 encoding. This technology, along with the SM2210's other proprietary image enhancement See image editing. processing, enables products based on the SM2210 to have record and playback quality that is visually equivalent to that of DVDs, but at much higher compression settings. This saves valuable disk space, enabling more hours of video to be stored per Gigabyte. Because the single chip SM2210 is a true codec, performing both encode and decode functions, the total system cost is reduced compared to chip sets with separate MPEG-2 encoders and decoders. The SM2210 further reduces parts count and system cost by combining a high-degree of system integration with ease of design. For example, SM2210 eliminates costly glue logic A simple logic circuit that is used to connect complex logic circuits together. For example, an ASIC chip may contain large functions, such as a microprocessor, memory block or communications block, which are tied together via small amounts of glue logic. by directly interfacing with popular NTSC/PAL video decoders, NTSC/PAL video encoders, microcontrollers for embedded applications and PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). interface chips for PC applications. The SM2210 also cuts costs by requiring only 4 MBytes of SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) A type of dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chip that has been widely used since the late 1990s. SDRAM chips eliminated wait states by dividing the chip into two cell blocks and interleaving data between them. for full resolution NTSC (National TV Standards Committee) The committee that developed the television standards for the U.S, which are also used in Canada, Japan, South Korea and several Central and South American countries. Both the committee and the standard are called "NTSC. 30 frames-per-second MPEG-2 encoding. Stream Machine's USB-TV Manufacturing Kit Accelerates Time-To-Volume The USB-TV manufacturing kit is a USB USB in full Universal Serial Bus Type of serial bus that allows peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, digitizers, data gloves, etc.) to be easily connected to a computer. Peripheral that makes it easy to get high quality, full resolution, full frame rate video, audio and TV into and out of a PC, Mac or Settop Box. This type of package is commonly referred to as a "dongle The term was originally slang for a "hardware key." Today, the term is often used to refer to any small adapter that has a short cable with connectors at both ends. See hardware key and PC Card dongle. ", meaning that it connects to the back of the PC. It is used as a platform to accelerate the development of PC-based digital video and audio USB-peripherals, for applications that include: TV tuner boards with time-shift and digital VCR capability, video capture and playback, high-quality streaming media content creation, consumer video capture and editing and video email. The USB-TV manufacturing kit comes complete, including software/firmware, schematics, bill of materials The list of components that make up a system. For example, a bill of materials for a house would include the cement block, lumber, shingles, doors, windows, plumbing, electric, heating and so on. (BOM), Gerber files, and user documentation to enable products based on these manufacturing kits to be brought quickly to high volume manufacturing. Available Now USB-TV Manufacturing Kit and SM2210 codec: The SM2210 single chip MPEG-2 video codec is in full production and available now. The USB-TV manufacturing kit is available now and priced at $5,000. About Datavideo Technologies Datavideo Technologies Co. Ltd., founded in 1985, is a Taipei, Taiwan-based manufacturer of sophisticated video post-production equipment. The Company maintains distributorships in more than 35 countries around the world, including a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. in the United States: Datavideo Corporation and in the Europe: Datavideo Europe. Datavideo Technologies is an ISO- iso- or is- pref. 1. Equal; uniform: isobar. 2. Isomeric: isopropyl. 3. 9001 quality certified manufacturer. The Company adheres to the highest international standards in design, production, and quality control. The Company also has an experienced in-house research and development engineering team that produces proprietary ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. chips and custom-designed circuit boards for Datavideo's state-of-the-art video production products. Datavideo's corporate philosophy is to create and produce the world's best value in advanced video production equipment for both amateur and professional videographers. Please visit Datavideo Technologies website for additional information: www.datavideo-tek.com or Tel: 562 696-2324. About Stream Machine Company Stream Machine is at the heart of digital home entertainment providing cost-effective semiconductor solutions that enable industry-leading video and audio compression. Stream Machine's proprietary compression technology offers the highest quality video at the lowest possible bit-rates and is compatible with all the important consumer standards, including MPEG-2, MP3 and Dolby-Digital. Stream Machine's high level of integration provides the low system cost necessary to bring DVD-quality entertainment to consumers at a price they can't resist. Please visit www.streammachine.com for more information. |
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