ViXS Systems Debuts Industry's First Video Processors Featuring High-Definition Transcoding Capabilities.

TORONTO -- XCode 2121 & 2111 Give Consumer Device Manufacturers Full HD Video Support Combined with a Powerful Content Protection Engine Supporting Multiple DRM Formats

ViXS Systems, the leading developer of video processing and networking chipsets, today unveiled its newest breed of video processors, now featuring support for high definition (HD) broadcast content. ViXS' XCode 2121 and 2111 combine MPEG encoding, transcoding and transrating with world-compliant conditional access and content protection to support multiple digital rights management (DRM) schemes. By integrating ViXS' new single-chip video processors, OEMs and ODMs will give their products the functionality and flexibility needed for today's multimedia devices, while also maintaining the lowest possible integration cost.

XCode 2121 and 2111 have the ability to encode MPEG2 and MPEG4 streams and are based on ViXS' powerful XCodeHD(TM) Engine, which gives consumers high-speed transcoding and transrating capabilities for reprocessing of MPEG streams to lower bit rates, resolutions and MPEG formats. The XCodeHD(TM) Engine delivers high-speed HD-to-HD transrating, as well as HD-to-HD and HD-to-SD downscaling.

"As digital and high definition content becomes more prevalent, XCode 2121 and 2111 enable manufacturers to quickly and cost-efficiently integrate digital content support into all kinds of multimedia products," said Sally Daub, president and CEO of ViXS Systems. "We're delighted to not only introduce these new video processors, but also to announce that Hitachi -- the first customer in the world for XCode 2111 -- has integrated ViXS' XCodeHD technology into its new high-definition TV Wooo products, the newest HDTVs to feature an integrated hard disk drive."

XCode 2121 and 2111 are ideally suited for handling high definition broadcast content and support a wide array of encryption and decryption technologies. For example, the HD transport stream is input and simultaneously de-multiplexed, descrambled, transcoded and re-encrypted to support any number of DRM schemes for storage or distribution. The processor's efficient XCode encoding and reprocessing technology can reduce video bit rates while maintaining the same quality as the original content. This reduced bit rate capability enables consumers to store content on any fixed or removable memory media using only half the space required by other video encoders.

The XCode 2121 video processor includes added features such as low bit rate encoding and transcoding to support small portable media players such as the video-enabled Apple iPod(R), Sony PlayStation(R)Portable (PSP(TM)) or video-capable cell phones. Moreover, it is ideally suited for remote TV applications such as Sony's LFX product. Both the XCode 2121 and 2111 have PCI and PCI express interfaces and have the ability to self-boot for embedded application.

"It is expected that along with the increase of HD TV broadcast content, the demand on recording HD sources will grow accordingly," said Mr. Kousuke Ozeki, senior manager of marketing dept., Ubiquitous Platform Systems, Hitachi Ltd. "To meet this market demand, Hitachi has selected ViXS' XCode for the high-definition hard disk drive recorder integrated in our new high-definition TV Wooo. With XCodeHD, the high-definition transrating technology allows long hours of recording HD content while maintaining the original high quality picture. It is a revolutionary technology that allows extended recording of HD without deterioration of the image quality."

XCode 2121/2111 product features include:

--Real-time Transrating and Transcoding

--1 HD or 3 D1 MPEG1/2/4 transcodes/transrates in 2X to 12X realtime

--Adjusts video stream rates to match the network's available bandwidth

--Automatically switches video formats (MPEG2-MPEG4)

--Highest Quality/Highest Compression MPEG encoding

--Up to 2 D1 MPEG2/4 (SP, ASP)

--Supports PSP, video iPod, FOMA and DivX

--Digital Capture

--Transport stream inputs -- 1 parallel/2 serial

--Content Protection

--Supports multiple DRM schemes

--High Quality Filtering

--3D Y/C comb filter, spatial and temporal filters to clean noisy signals

ViXS Systems' XCode 2121 and 2111 development kits are available today.

About ViXS Systems Inc.

ViXS Systems has developed high performance MPEG video processors and wireless semiconductor solutions with unprecedented capabilities for processing and distribution of broadcast-quality video. These products provide manufacturers of consumer electronics, personal computers, and set-top boxes with a proven technology that operates within defined standards. ViXS components offer full support for HDTV, DVD, satellite or cable broadcasts and deliver highest quality video for consumer entertainment, personal computing applications, and multimedia gateways. Founded in January 2001, the company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and has filed over 100 patents to date. For further information, please visit us at www.vixs.com.