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To: DiViT who wrote (47754)	11/29/1999 7:11:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Digital video veterans field reference design Junko Yoshida 11/29/1999 Electronic Engineering Times Page 54 Copyright 1999 CMP Publications Inc. SUNNYVALE, CALIF. - Hoping to broaden the use of digital video based appliances, Divio Inc. and Philips Semiconductors have joined forces to launch a reference design that uses Divio's DV codec and Philips Semiconductors' IEEE1394 chip. The reference design, called Divio NW701-DAAD, lets system designers develop standalone digital video systems that can import, edit and convert digital and analog video. "We expect our reference design to drive a variety of DV-based consumer systems, including DVD [digital video disk] rewritable drives, D-VHS systems and HDD [hard-disk drive]-based digital video recording systems," said Isaac van Kempen, vice president of marketing at Divio. Incorporated into the reference design are Divio's single-chip DV codec, Philips Semiconductors' IEEE1394 chip set, a 9-bit video decoder/scaler with 4-line combo filter, 10-bit video encoder, 8051 microcontroller and audio codec. DV is a DCT-based digital video compression format originally designed for digital tape recording for camcorders and VCRs. While MPEG-2 is a widely accepted distribution format for satellite, cable, terrestrial and DVD , DV has been establishing itself as the video industry's de facto acquisition format not only for consumer digital camcorders, but also for professional digital cameras and postproduction editing systems. Dovetailing with MPEG-2 Discussing the popularity of MPEG-2 encode/decode chips in a variety of personal recording devices, van Kempen said, "If the storage capacity is not a constraint, system vendors would love to use DV because of DV's picture quality." But more important, he added, DV has lately become "a key interface codec for data interchange, combined with IEEE1394." And, he noted, "if necessary, the decoded video stream can be handed over to an MPEG-2 encoder-also residing in the same digital video appliance-to create an MPEG-2 video stream." Because of the unresolved copy protection issues with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), many consumer electronics manufacturers still hesitate to output MPEG-2 data through IEEE1394. But fortunately, the problem does not occur with DV over IEEE1394, van Kempen said, "because DV is an acquisition format." Applications for the Divio/Philips reference design go well beyond digital VCRs. While DV-based personal video recording appliances use a bidirectional DV codec, other applications such as video projectors and plasma displays will use a DV codec's decoding function only, van Kempen said. Some system companies are also planning to use the Divio/Philips reference design to develop a media converter box that can take in analog video and output digital. The fully tested reference design kit includes source code, Gerber files and schematics. The bill of materials for a whole DV/1394 solution, including chips, boards and connectors, is $160, according to Divio. November 29, 1999