Audio Video News

Moving the consumer-electronics world a little closer to a universal high-end DVD player, National Semiconductor announced last week the second generation of its DVD-on-a-chip product family, the Mediamatics NDV8501. National reports that this is the first chip on the market with progressive-scan video support and DVD-Audio capability in one package.

Coinciding with the announcement, Japanese electronics maker JVC says that it is designing the chip into its new DVD players. JVC's Hiromu Sekiguchi says that his company "has adopted Mediamatics' second-generation DVD-on-a-chip solution in our new XV-D721 DVD player. The new chip features the most advanced functions, such as Progressive Scan and Point Transform Control, which will enable consumers to experience higher-quality audio and video programs through DVD players."

National states that the NDV8501, which operates at up to 108MHz for progressive scan in an effort to improve video quality over the conventional interlace-scan method, is aimed at all feature ranges of the DVD market. The included Point Transform Control is intended to allow the end-user control over hue, saturation, contrast, brightness, and gamma. National adds that the new chip also has a bi-directional video I/O port that works with recordable DVD platforms and Internet-access devices.

According to the company, audio features include complete processing for the new DVD-Audio standard, including the Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) algorithm. Also, on-chip decoding of DTS Digital Surround, MPEG-2 multichannel, and MP3 formats are now provided, along with post-processing effects for karaoke, 3D stereo surround, and Dolby Pro Logic.

National's Kent Goodin sums up, saying that "the introduction of the NDV8501 signifies a major step in the growth of DVD-on-a-chip technologies for our customers. The product integrates all the video and audio functions of a world-class DVD player, including host processing, video and audio processing, I/O function, and video DACs into a single chip."