"Killer bitstreams"?
http:// www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET19980330S0061
PCs, players seek one DVD solution
By Alain Bismuth
Consumer-electronics systems makers and PC manufacturers are jockeying for market position and one-upmanship as DVD technology continues to make inroads into both entertainment systems and PCs. At the same time, DVD chip makers are escalating their own brands of software and hardware technologies to support next-generation DVD players and DVD in PCs and laptops.
Savvy, farsighted DVD systems manufacturers are taking a number of emerging issues into account for when the DVD systems market steeply ramps up, which industry forecasters estimate by mid next year. Those issues deal with identifying the correct semiconductor platform for both DVD on PC and DVD player designs; quality of trick play modes; and the so-called killer bitstreams, which can adversely affect both DVD audio and video quality.
A common semiconductor platform must meet a host of requirements for both DVD-PC and DVD player designs. In a PC-DVD system, these are low cost, low power, small form factors, a bus interface and possibly multiple bus interfaces.
Requirements for the same DVD chip to be used in DVD player systems are low cost and high-quality audio and video. As the industry goes into second- and third-generation systems, DVD player-design engineers are heavily challenged to attain superior audio and video quality. The target they're aiming for is to cost-effectively engineer DVD players that have quality levels superior to that of today's high-end VCR machines. If they don't, consumers will not readily buy these new DVD players.
The issue of video quality is closely aligned to killer bitstreams. Killer bitstreams are those that can trigger the audio/video decoder to succumb, creating video degradation because they require high bandwidth, for example.
One of the best ways to avoid these killer bitstreams is to deal with veteran component suppliers with extensive MPEG-2 silicon experience. Another way is to perform extensive bitstream tests on the finished system.
In the area of trick-play modes, some DVD player manufacturers with first-generation products now on the market realize they've got to do some major design engineering catch up to be more acceptable to the consumer. The quality of trick plays is the most significant feature lacking in first-generation DVD players. Trick plays refer to such DVD player features as fast forward, fast reverse, slow forward, slow reverse, pause, parental control and seamless playback. The idea is, for example, to provide the consumer with a smooth fast forward and fast reverse, instead of choppy ones.
Systems-engineering management view these special features as key differentiators. Digital signal processing (DSP) is utilized for trick plays in some DVD audio/video decoders. This option provides the design engineer some highly favorable flexibility, but DSP-based designs often consume considerable power.
Conversely, a mostly hardwired implementation of a DVD decoder, for silicon optimization, high performance and low power, coupled with some level of programmability can provide the design engineer with the necessary flexibility to design in trick play modes differentiation.
While these issues can seem a bit overpowering, the good news is that DVD technology is on the verge of making even greater strides to help DVD system OEMs come to grips with those problems. Leading chip makers have set product road maps that deal with these and newer design issues. Product road maps should include continuing functional integration, deep-submicron processes and the necessary packaging technologies critical for future portable applications. Advances like these are essential for the DVD system price point to reach the magic $299 for mass consumer market acceptance.
The ideal product road map expected by DVD system manufacturers includes the availability of a low-cost single-chip DVD, combining back-end and front-end functions. Of particular importance is process technology, which has a key role in evolving functional integration.
The DVD system OEM's focus should be on low power consumption, mini-ball grid-array packaging for small form factor designsDoes CUBE have this?, and in some cases, even a ready-to-go manufacturing kit, which can turbo-charge a DVD system OEM's market entry.
-Alain Bismuth is director of strategic marketing for consumer DVD products at LSI Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.)PCs, players seek one DVD solution
By Alain Bismuth
Consumer-electronics systems makers and PC manufacturers are jockeying for market position and one-upmanship as DVD technology continues to make inroads into both entertainment systems and PCs. At the same time, DVD chip makers are escalating their own brands of software and hardware technologies to support next-generation DVD players and DVD in PCs and laptops.
Savvy, farsighted DVD systems manufacturers are taking a number of emerging issues into account for when the DVD systems market steeply ramps up, which industry forecasters estimate by mid next year. Those issues deal with identifying the correct semiconductor platform for both DVD on PC and DVD player designs; quality of trick play modes; and the so-called killer bitstreams, which can adversely affect both DVD audio and video quality.
A common semiconductor platform must meet a host of requirements for both DVD-PC and DVD player designs. In a PC-DVD system, these are low cost, low power, small form factors, a bus interface and possibly multiple bus interfaces.
Requirements for the same DVD chip to be used in DVD player systems are low cost and high-quality audio and video. As the industry goes into second- and third-generation systems, DVD player-design engineers are heavily challenged to attain superior audio and video quality. The target they're aiming for is to cost-effectively engineer DVD players that have quality levels superior to that of today's high-end VCR machines. If they don't, consumers will not readily buy these new DVD players.
The issue of video quality is closely aligned to killer bitstreams. Killer bitstreams are those that can trigger the audio/video decoder to succumb, creating video degradation because they require high bandwidth, for example.
One of the best ways to avoid these killer bitstreams is to deal with veteran component suppliers with extensive MPEG-2 silicon experience. Another way is to perform extensive bitstream tests on the finished system.
In the area of trick-play modes, some DVD player manufacturers with first-generation products now on the market realize they've got to do some major design engineering catch up to be more acceptable to the consumer. The quality of trick plays is the most significant feature lacking in first-generation DVD players. Trick plays refer to such DVD player features as fast forward, fast reverse, slow forward, slow reverse, pause, parental control and seamless playback. The idea is, for example, to provide the consumer with a smooth fast forward and fast reverse, instead of choppy ones.
Systems-engineering management view these special features as key differentiators. Digital signal processing (DSP) is utilized for trick plays in some DVD audio/video decoders. This option provides the design engineer some highly favorable flexibility, but DSP-based designs often consume considerable power.
Conversely, a mostly hardwired implementation of a DVD decoder, for silicon optimization, high performance and low power, coupled with some level of programmability can provide the design engineer with the necessary flexibility to design in trick play modes differentiation.
While these issues can seem a bit overpowering, the good news is that DVD technology is on the verge of making even greater strides to help DVD system OEMs come to grips with those problems. Leading chip makers have set product road maps that deal with these and newer design issues. Product road maps should include continuing functional integration, deep-submicron processes and the necessary packaging technologies critical for future portable applications. Advances like these are essential for the DVD system price point to reach the magic $299 for mass consumer market acceptance.
The ideal product road map expected by DVD system manufacturers includes the availability of a low-cost single-chip DVD, combining back-end and front-end functions. Of particular importance is process technology, which has a key role in evolving functional integration.
The DVD system OEM's focus should be on low power consumption, mini-ball grid-array packaging for small form factor designs, and in some cases, even a ready-to-go manufacturing kit, which can turbo-charge a DVD system OEM's market entry.
-Alain Bismuth is director of strategic marketing for consumer DVD products at LSI Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.) |
