It is not "true HDTV", therefore the product or prototype should not use the name HDTV. It won't pass CEMA certification. It is deceptive otherwise. Yes, some material will be broadcast in 1080i. About half of all HD programming. So it's OK to go dark on selected material ? How lame. That's like saying you will only play some DVD titles.
Just committ the damn VLD (1 sq mm? 2 ?) on chip and get it over with. $1 worth of silicon would make a night-and-day difference in the product. But alas, if you have any experience with graphic controller companies, you'll know how stupid they usually are.
Gee, maybe that $1 extra cost in silicon will save $3-4 in having to bundleware DVD players. Microsoft already provides a DVD player that handles the work down to the picture headers. Have the uninspired $1 silicon take it from there.
It's such a simple stage, designed by dozens of people around the world so many times, puny compared to the bloated 3D engine. Without it you must buy a high end Pentium and, as a result, listen to the whirring of the fan in your living room or den.
The uninspired attitude of graphics controller business is ripe for being pushed aside by the likes of Broadcom or other more progressive controllers like NVidia, etc. Some of whom will be competing against ATI in the market targeted by ATI's SOC. No, I think SOC will be a miserable failure all around.
Edit: is a non-real time process, and less volume of a requirement than simple Digital VCR will be. Besides, you can edit bitstreams, and not have to re-encode (which introduces artifacts).
I think why ATI has been winning up to now has been due to short product cycles and less yield problems than their competition. It is really the former which is responsible for better performance, not any cleverness of their design. |
