Vendors of Home Entertainment Video Technology

Many general purpose video technology vendors target home entertainment among other markets.

Contents

IP Cores
Chips
Boards
Software
Systems

Jetstream Media Technologies

• Location: Naperville, IL
• Founded: 2002
• sells IP cores for special effects
• Products:
  JetFX SD Real-time video effects IP core
  JetFX HD Real-time video effects IP core
  JetTitle Real-time animation IP core
  JetMovie Automatic Movie Effects
  JetFX HD Pro Real-time video effects IP core

Conexant

• Headquarters: Newport Beach, CA
• Nasdaq: CNXT
• Products:
  CX24301 and CX24302 decoder chips for free-to-air (FTA) digital video broadcast (DVB) set-top box (STB) receivers, developed in Conexant's Shanghai development center, based on a 150 MHz ARM946 CPU with an MPEG-2 decoder and QPSK demodulator and 2D graphics compositing features. CX24301 costs $5 and CX24302 costs $6. This chip competes directly with the Zarlink ZL10039.
  CX24126 DVB-S2 demodulator for satellite set-top boxes.
  CX24118 8PSK tuner.
• Customers:
  • The LG Electronics H20 HDTV receiver, deployed by DirectTV, uses the Conexant CX24126 and CX24118 chips.
• Acquisitions:
  • H.264 semiconductor IP developer Amphion (Belfast, Ireland) 2004, 16.2M euros. Conexant continued Amphion's IP licensing business for a while.
  • Amphion
    • The Amphion hardware decoder core was described in a GSPx 2004 conference paper
    • Products:
      CS7050 is a 62.2 megapixel/second H.264 decoder that runs at 200 MHz in a .13um process in 300k gates and consumes 160 mW of power
      CS7150 is a 62.2 megapixel/second WMV9 decoder.
      CS6790 is a 12.4 megapixel/second MPEG-4 encoder/decoder with a "low" gate count.
      CS6701 is a 3.0 megapixel/second MPEG-4 Simple profile encoder. It is fully compliant with ISO 14496-2 Simple Profile Levels 1-3.
      CS6750 is a 3.0 megapixel/second MPEG-4 Simple profile decoder. It is "ultra" low power. It is fully compliant with ISO 14496-2 Simple Profile Levels 1-3. Level 1 requires 12 MHz, <8 mW, <120K gates.
      CS6601 is a 10.4 megapixel/second MPEG-2 encoder. It is optimized for FPGAs.
      CS6650 is a 66.4 megapixel/second MPEG-2 decoder. It performs at 12.4 megapixels/second with 4:2:0 chroma scaling or 66.4 megapixels/second with 4:2:2 chroma scaling.
      CS6651 is a 12.4 megapixel/second MPEG-2 decoder. It is optimized for FPGAs.
      CS6652 is a 62.2 megapixel/second MPEG-2 decoder. It is capable of decoding 2 streams simultaneously.
      CS6654 is a 62.2 megapixel/second MPEG-2 decoder. It is capable of decoding 4 streams simultaneously.
  • Conexant acquired the iCompression video compression division of GlobespanVirata in April 2002. This ultimately precipitated the merger of Conexant and GlobespanVirata.
  • Brooktree
• Partners:
  • PLX Technology and Coneant have developed a PCI Express video decoder board reference design.
• Vendors:
  • Conexant is a licensee of the ARC ARC-600 core.

Marvell

• Location: Santa Clara, CA

Alcatel

Hughes Network Systems

• DirecTV

Advanced Microdevices (AMD)

• Acquisitions:
  • ATI Technologies
    • Founded 1985
    • NASDAQ: ATYT
    • Products:
      Theater 550 Pro home theater chip for video capture and playback in PCs
      • PCI and PCI Express interfaces
      • 3-D comb filter for converting composite to component video signals with minimal artifacts
      • good MPEG-2 quality at low-bitrate encoding
      • dedicated hardware for intelligent noise reduction
      
      Xilleon 220 SoC for embedded video devices such as set-top boxes, digital TVs, home media gateways, and TV-enabled webpads.
      • based on a MIPS CPU
      • graphics, video, and audio accelerators
      • many standard I/O interfaces
      
      Xilleon 240 SoC for embedded video devices such as set-top boxes, digital TVs, home media gateways.
      • based on a MIPS CPU
      • graphics, video, and audio accelerators
      • many standard I/O interfaces
      • video scaling and deinterlacing
      • ATSC / 8VSB decoding
      
      NXT2003, NXT2004, NXT2005, NXT6000 digital television (DTV) receiver chips designed for various broadcast, cable, and satellite modulation formats, including:
      • ATSC compliant 8 VSB reception mode for terrestrial broadcasting
      • the OpenCable/ITUJ. 83B/SCTE DVS-031/ DOCSIS compliant 64 QAM or 256 QAM and QPSK modes for Digital Cable Ready 1 and 2 downstream reception
      • OFDM
      Many other polygon graphics rendering chips, including the GeForce 6800 (222 million transistors manufactured in IBM .13um technology at 400 MHz with a 550 MHz GDDR3 memory interface) and GeForce 7800 (302 million transistors manufactured in TSMC .11um technology at 430 MHz with a 256-bit wide 1.2 GHz GDDR3 memory interface)
    • Acquisitions:
      • Modulation/demodulation chip company NxtWave (Langhorne, PA), 2002, $20M, 50 engineers
      • multimedia processor company Chromatic Research (Sunnyvale, CA), 1998, $67M
    • Partners:
      • Cyberlink
      • InterVideo
      • Microsoft
    • Customers:
      • Microsoft, in the second generation "X-box 360" video game product, uses an ATI graphics chip that processes 500 million triangles per second with 10 megabytes of on-chip DRAM accessing 512 megabytes of external GDDR3 SDRAM running at 700 MHz. along with three 3.2 GHz IBM PowerPC processor cores each handling two threads and including a 128-bit vector graphics unit with 128 registers and a 1 megabyte cache.
      • The Nintendo Game Cube uses a 203 Mhz ATI ArtX graphics processor chip along with a 485 MHz PowerPC chip and 40 megabytes of RAM.
      • The Panasonic PT-50LCX63 50-inch rear projection television uses the ATI NXT2003 DTV chip to receive and demodulate a range of input signal sources.

Nvidia

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• Nasdaq: NVDA
• Licensed ARM 11 MPCore in 2005 as an application processor for future chips
• Products:
  GeForce 7300 GS graphics processing unit (GPU), capable of 3D graphics at 1080i resolution with support in Microsoft Vista operating system.
• Customers:
  • Microsoft uses a 300 MHz Nvidia GeForce3 graphics chip along with a 733 MHz Intel Pentium 3 (x86 instruction set) processor and 64 megabytes of RAM in the first generation X-box video game console.

Genesis Microchip

• NASDAQ: GNSS
• Faroudja Labs
  • Faroudja Labs has developed an advanced motion adaptive deinterlacing algorithm known as Directional Correlation Deinterlacing (DCDi). This was first implemented in the FLI2200 chip.
• Products:
  gm5221 LCD controller chip with de-interlacing up to SXGA (1280x1024) resolution
  gmZAN3SL bare bones LCD controller chip with SXGA (1280x1024) resolution
  gm5621 LCD controller chip with SXGA (1280x1024) resolution
  gm5626 LCD controller chip with SXGA (1280x1024) resolution
  gm1601 LCD TV controller chip with motion adaptive de-interlacing up to UXGA (1600x1200) resolution
  gm6010 HDTV controller chip with temporal de-interlacing up to 1080i (1920x1080) resolution
  gm6015 LCD TV controller chip with temporal de-interlacing up to 1080i (1920x1080) resolution
  gm7030 digital controller for CRT displays up to UXGA (1600x1200) resolution
  FLI2300 HDTV / LCD TV controller chip with DCDi de-interlacing up to 1080i (1920x1080)
  FLI2310 HDTV / LCD TV controller chip with DCDi de-interlacing up to 1080i (1920x1080)
  FLI2301 DVD CTB chip with DCDi de-interlacing up to 1080i (1920x1080) resolution
• Customers:
  • TTE Corporation (a joint venture of the Chinese TCL group and Thompson Electronics) 26-42" LCD and 42" and 52" plasma television sets will use the FLI8532 chip.
  • Fujitsu 32-inch All-in-one LCD TV/PC monitors FMVTX90LD and FMVTX70L use the FLI8532 chip.
  • Toshiba "HD-compatible" LCD TV products use the Genesis Microchip FLI8532 chip.
  • LG Electronics' 42PX5M, 42PM1M, 42PX4RV, 42PX3RV, and 42PX1RV plasma televisions use the Genesis FLI8532 (Cortez) and FLI8125 (Hudson) display controller chips.

Silicon Image

• Location: Sunnyvale, CA
• Silicon Image sells chips and also licenses IP cores for High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), and serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive interfaces. How does such a company avoid competing with its IP core licensees?
• Silicon Image's video related chips are primarily transmitters and receivers for HDMI or DVI at a range of resolutions and refresh rates.
• Products:
  HDMI Transmitter core supporting 480i/p to 1080i/p digital video and 640x480 to 1024x768 PC display with color space conversion, 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 up conversion, and digital audio support.
  Sil9002 HDMI Tx PHY
  HDMI Receiver core supporting 480i/p to 1080i/p digital video and 640x480 to 1024x768 PC display with color space conversion, 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 up conversion, and digital audio support.
  Sil9003 HDMI Rx PHY
  PanelLink DVI core for 640x480 up to 1600x1200 resolution displays.
  SiI 504 takes in interlaced video and performs
  • deinterlacing
  • horizontal scaling
  • color table look-up conversion
  • color space conversion
  • LCD/CRT control
  and outputs progressive scan RGB or YCbCr.
  SiI 8100 full embedded video device controller that takes in HDMI or other formats and does
  • 3D motion adaptive video deinterlacing
  • video scaling
  • frame rate conversion
  • picture-in-picture (PIP) processing
  • image processing control
  • on-screen display (OSD) generation
  
  SiI 8200 full embedded video device controller with all features of the SiI 8100 and also including a 32-bit MIPS Technologies processor and an IDE hard disk controller for DVR applications. Priced at $20 with volume production in 2006Q3.
  Sil9002 HDMI Tx logic and PHY chip, built from the IP cores with the same part number, priced at $1.50 in high volume.
• Customers:
  • Pixelworks' Pearl image processor chip uses a Silicon Image HDMI receiver IP core.
  • The Sunplus SPHE6500 DVD chip includes a Silicon Image HDMI transmitter IP core. The Sunplus SPV7030 LCD/CRT display controller chip includes a Silicon Image HDMI receiver IP core.
  • Renesas has licensed the Silicon Image Sil9002 HDMI Tx and Sil9003 HDMI Rx RTL IP cores.
  • The Panasonic PT-50LCX63 50-inch rear projection television uses the Silicon Image SiI9993 cjo[ to receive HDMI input signals
• Acquisitions:
  • SciWorx (Hannover, Germany)
    • Acquired in 2007 for $13.5M dollars. Company had 172 employees.
    • History:
      • Founded in 1990 as Sican
      • a 74.9% stake acquired by Infineon in 2000 and name changed to SciWorx, company had 300 employees and 35M euro revenue.
    • Partners:
      • As of May 2005, SciWorx will use the Tensilica Xtensa LX processor as a building block for some video cores.
    • Products:
      MuViStar software programmable multi standard video decoder and encoder capable of H.264, H.263, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VC-1/WMV9, Real Video 9 & 10, DivX, XviD, and motion JPEG. Capable of decoding H.264 Baseline Profile at CIF resolution at 30 fps at 69 MHz. Capable of decoding at up to D1 resolution. Requires approximately 250k gates and 64k bytes of local memory and consumes approximately 0.25 mW/MHz (in unspecified manufacturing process technology). Capable of H.264 Baseline Profile encode at CIF resolution at 25 fps at 195 MHz (unspecified GOP and motion estimation).
      Multi-Standard Video Decoder (MSVD) is a 124.4 megapixel/second decoder of H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2 streams, supporting multi-stream decode.
      H264 Baseline Profile is a 9.2 megapixel/second H.264 Baseline profile decoder. It runs at 40 MHz and requires 210k gates and 120k bytes of on-chip memory. For lower resolution applications a lower clock speed and less on-chip memory is required. Power consumption is estimated at 102 mW for VGA (640x480) and 35 mW for CIF (352x288) resolution.
      MPEG-2 Video Decoder - HDTV is a 62.2 megapixel/second MPEG-2 video decoder. It runs at 135 Mhz and requires 75k gates and 16k bytes of on-chip memory. The core also decodes DivX 5.x bitstreams.
      MPEG-2 Dual Stream Video Decoder - HDTV (M2VD_2HL) is a 124 megapixel/second MPEG-2 video decoder. It runs at 250 Mhz and requires 70k gates. The core decodes 2 HDTV MPEG-2 streams at 250 MHz, 1 stream at 125 MHz, or 6 SDTV streams at 125 MHz.
      MPEG-2 Video Decoder - SDTV is a 10.4 megapixel/second MPEG-2 video decoder for up to 4 simultaneous streams. It runs at 135 Mhz and requires 30k gates.
      MPEG-2 Video Encoder is an MPEG-2 bitstream encoder. It is capable of 10.4 megapixels/second and runs at 135 MHz in .18um ASIC technology. The core generates I-, P-, and B-frames.
      MPEG-2 Video Encoder I-Frame-Only is an MPEG-2 bitstream encoder. It requires 42k gates and 4k bytes of on-chip memory. The core only generates I-frames and requires a separate system processor to encode header information and construct the bitstream.
      MPEG-2 and Dolby AC-3 with 5.1 Channels is a configurable video/audio decoder for MPEG-2. It requires approximately 66k gates and is configurable for 2 or 5.1 channels of audio.
      DivX Multi Standard Video Decoder is a 62.2 megapixel/second decoder for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP/SP, and DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x video. It run at 135 MHz and requires 400k gates and 34k bytes of on-chip memory.
      DivX Multi Standard Video Encoder is a 9.2 megapixel/second encoder for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP/SP, DivX 6, and XviD 1.03 video. Supports variable and constant bitrates up to 20 Mbps and generating GOPs with up to 2 consecutive B frames. Encodes using rate distortion optimized motion vector search and coding decisions, psychovisual adaptive quantization, block and frame level rate control, up to ?26 horizontal and ?2 vertical (pels or 1/4 pels?), with a 4-level hierarchical motion search algorithm and 1/4 pel resolution.
      Many MPEG-4 decoder component cores are offered, including a motion estimation, deblocking/deringing filter, OSD/scaling/color space conversion, and audio decoder cores. Also offered are DivX decoder and JPEG encoder and decoder cores and transport stream demux.
    • Licensees:
      • Gambling equipment vendor Aristocrat
      • Chinese consumer electronics video chip maker Celestial Semiconductor
      • Display controller chip maker Enuclia
      • Consumer electronics semiconductor manufacturer Fujitsu
      • Mobile communication chip maker Icera
      • Multi-market consumer electronics chip maker Micronas
      • Multi-market consumer electronics chip maker Philips Semiconductor before it was spun out as NXP
      • Toshiba
      • Home entertainment chip maker WISchip before it was acquired by Micronas

Redmere Technology

• Location: Drogheda, Ireland
• Founded: 2004 by ex-Parthus (Ceva) people
• fabless chip maker for mixed signal HDMI interface chips
• Products:
  • Iconex HDMI interface chip for HDTV, STB, and PVR devices

Silicon Optix

• Location: San Jose, CA
• Products:
  • Realta display controller chip. Supports up to 1080p resolution on two simultaneous channels. Performs four-field de-interlacing with 10-bit multi-direction diagonal filtering of jaggies. Performs noise and motion based per-pixel adaptive noise reduction. Performs per-pixel image enhancement on up-scaled video. Supports many film and animation mode cadences, detected on a per-pixel basis. Includes programmable 16 to 1024 tap adaptive up/down scaling. Supports 10-bit processing in 4:4:4 chroma format. Supports image keystone and warp correction.
  • Reon-GX PC graphics display controller chip. Supports up to 1080p resolution on two simultaneous channels. Supports image keystone and warp correction. Supports graphics up to 1600x1200 resolution. Supports ADC, DVI, NTSC, HD interfaces.
  • sxW1 / sxW1-LX
• Customers:
  • The Yamaha DPX-1300 projector uses the Silicon Optix Realta chip.
  • NEC plasma televisions and projectors use Silicon Optix's Realta HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) video processing chip.
  • The Denon DVD-5910 DVD player uses the Silicon Optix Realta chip.
• Acquisitions:
  • Teranex, maker of high end studio/broadcast video encoding equipment with proprietary good quality de-interlacing technology, 2004. See this white paper on the Terranex deinterlacing technology.
• Management:
  • Founder, Chairman, President, & CEO, Paul Russo, was also the founder of competitor Genesis Microchip and is on the board of competitor ATI.
  • CTO, Louie Lee, was previously in an engineering management role at Genesis Microchip. He has also held positions at Matrox and LSI Logic.
  • EVP of Ops and CFO, Eric Erdman, was previosuly CFO and CEO at Genesis Microchip.
  • EVP of Engineering & Technology, Kent Goodin, was previously General Manager of the Mediamatics Group at National Semiconductor
  • VP & GM of Systems Business, Stephen Wood, was previously VP of Pro A/V Engineering at Focus Enhancements.
  • VP of Marketing, Dennis Crespo, was previously at Diamond Multimedia, Director of Marketing at S3, and VP of Sales at Arithmos.
  • VP of Operations, Michael Hopton, was previously Manager of Manufacturing Engineering at Genesis Microchip and Senior Product Engineer at TI.

i-Chips

• Location: Japan
• Founded: 2000
• i-Chips sells a range of Wide XGA (WXGA), SXGA, and 1080P resolution display controller chips with and without scaling and de-interlacing.
• Customers:
  • The Panasonic PT-50LCX63 50-inch rear projection television uses the i-Chips IP00C720 image scaler.

Genoa Color Technologies

• Location: Herzlia Pituach, Israel
• Sells color enhancement chips that can be used with various television and PC display devices. The chips map RGB or YCbCr color representations to a representation with a greater number of primary colors in order to push colors into ranges of the spectrum that are not represented by 8-bit per color RGB. This creates a display with more intense colors. This technology is similar to the BrilliantColor technology from Texas Instruments
• Single product line of Keshet ASICs:
  GMP1004 4 primary colors at SVGA resolution
  GMP1015 4 or 5 primary colors at XGA resolution
  GMP1025 4 or 5 primary colors at SXGA or 720p resolution
  GMP1026 up to 6 primary colors at UXGA or 1080p resolution
• Founded in 2000 by experts from Scitex, a company in the printing pre-press equipment business.

National Semiconductor

• ticker: NSM
• Products
  AVC2510 Dual-Channel Video Format Converter priced at $49 takes in SDTV, HDTV, and PC graphics signals and performs noise reduction, image enhancement, and PiP overlay for two simultaneous streams at up to 1080p, 60 fps.
  AVC5000 Integrated Dual 3D Video Format Converter priced at $125 takes in SDTV, HDTV, PC graphics, and DVI signals and performs noise reduction, deinterlacing, scaling, frame rate conversion, image enhancement, and PiP overlay for two simultaneous streams at up to 1080p, 60 fps.

Tvia

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• Nasdaq: TVIA
• Products:
  CyberPro 5600 takes two MPEG-2 video input streams, time-base corrects, deinterlaces, scales, overlays 2D graphics, and enhances the image quality and outputs RGB component video or S-video with a PCI interface to typical host processors. Supported resolution and frame rate is unclear.
  CyberPro 5202 with the same features as the 5600 but support for 3 input streams and more host processor interfaces and output formats. Supported resolution and frame rate is unclear.
  TrueView 5600 similar to the CyberPro 5600 but I2C control instead of PCI, support for up to 1920x1080 interlaced at a maximum frame rate that is not clear. Implemented in .18um technology.
  TrueView 5700 similar to the TrueView 5600 but supporting only 1 video input stream at only up to 576 lines at 50-75 fps.
  TrueView 5705 similar to the TrueView 5600 but supporting only 1 video input stream at 50 to 75 fps progressive scan. Implemented in .35um technology.
• In 2003 Tvia sold its software business and related assets to MediaTek for $10M including the transfer of employment of 75 employees from Tvia's Chinese subsidiary.
• Customers:
  • Korean DVR maker POSDATA (a division of POSCO) uses a CyberPro chip
  • 1080i HDTV sets from Proton use a CyberPro 5700 chip
  • The Fujitsu Siemens computers activity media center uses the CyberPro 5005 for TV output
  • The InFocus LiteShow wireless digital projectors use the CyberPro 5202 chip
  • and others

Adimos

• Location: Kfar Saba, Israel
• Products:
  ADM100 DVD player, set-top box, or TV set chip for 802.11a wireless network transmission or reception of multimedia content
  ADM200 DVD player, set-top box, or TV set chip for 802.11a/b/g wireless network transmission or reception of multimedia content with an integrated 162 MHz MIPS Technologies 4KEp processor
  WVP Windows PC software to send multimedia data over a wireless network to an Adimos chip enabled display device
  WVM reference designs, nicely packaged like simple consumer product devices
• Customers:
  • Southern Chinese TV maker Konka uses the Adimos WVM1101 in a line of wireless LCD TV sets
  • Chinese LCD TV maker Visart uses the Adimos WVM1101
  • consumer electronic add-on maker, GigaFast, uses the Adimos WVM1101
  • Toshiba uses the Adimos WVM in LCD TV sets, home projectors, wireless stations, AV servers, and set-top boxes
• Partners:
  • The Atheros WLAN chip interfaces with the Adimos ADM100

Fullhan Microelectronics

• Location: Shanghai, China
• targetting satellite and IPTV set-top boxes
• Fullhan sells IP cores and chips.
• Products:
  FH8600 H.264 Main profile decoder up to level 3 (D1, 10.4 megapixels per second) in 0.18um technology. 300k gates, 40kB SRAM, 10.4M pixels per second at 54 MHz. Consumes 100 mW of power. Available in an Altera FPGA development board with a Stratix EP1S80 chip, consuming 60k logic cells and running 15fps at 27 MHz.
  FH8602 H.264 High profile decoder up to level 4.1 (1920x1080, 62.7 megapixels per second) HDTV resolution at up to 50 Mbps at 250 MHz in 0.13um technology. 350k gates, 80kB SRAM. Available in an Altera FPGA development board with a Stratix EP1S80 chip, consuming 80k logic cells and runing 1080i format at 7 fps at 50 MHz.
  FH8601 H.264 Main Profile decoder up to level 3 (D1, 10.4 megapixels per second) built in 0.18um technology. 300k gates, 40kB SRAM, 10.4M pixels per second at 54 MHz. Consumes 100 mW of power. Available in an Altera FPGA development board with a Stratix EP1S80 chip, consuming 60k logic cells and running 15fps at 27 MHz.
• Partners:
  • Funinhand mobile multimedia encoder, decoder, and embedded system software.
  • Geotic
  • Hikvision PC boards and boxes for networked DVR for video surveillance systems.
  • shdvs
  • Shanghai ICC
  • Ningbo ICC
  • SVA Communications software
  • HeJian Technology foundry services

Xceive

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• founded 2001
• in a similar market as LINX, acquired by Micronas and NxtWave, acquired by ATI
• Products:
  XC3028 RF to baseband transceiver chips for video supporting:
  • NTSC
  • PAL
  • SECAM
  • ATSC (DTV) 8-VSB
  • DVB-T
  • DVB-C
  • ISDB-T
  • QAM
  • DOCSIS

Magnum Semiconductor

• Founded in 2005 to acquire the consumer digital video chip product line from Cirrus Logic
• Cirrus Logic acquired MPEG-2 video encoder/decoder chip company, Stream Machine, in 2001 for ~$75M. The Stream Machine SM2288 chip included an ARC processor core.
• Products:
  CS92199 MPEG-2 encoder
  CS92288 MPEG-2 encoder / decoder (formerly Stream Machine SM2288)
  CS9268X DVD encoder / decoder
  CS98100 DVD processor with progressive scan
  CS98200 DVD / SVCD processor
  CS983XX DVD processor with DivX support
• Vendors:
  • Magnum Semiconductor uses Denali Software's MMAV verification IP for its digital video chips.

ESS Technology

• Location: Fremont, CA
• Nasdaq: ESST
• Acquisitions:
  • ESS bought still camera image processor chip, Pictos, in 2003 for $27M.
  • ESS bought digital video, still camera, and camcorders encoding company, Divio, in 2003 for $27M.
• Competitors:
  • Zoran
  • Mediatek
  • ALi Corp.
• Legal:
  • Lawsuit from Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) asserting contract violations settled in 2005
  • Lawsuit against Mediatek asserting firmware copyright infringement settled in 2003 with Mediatek agreeing to pay a $45M license fee to ESS Technology and quarterly royalties.

MediaTek

• Location: Hsinchu Taiwan
• Founded: 1997
• Products:
  MT1369 "Super Integration DVD player single chip"
  
• Products:
  • MT1369 DVD Player single chip with MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and JPEG video and image decode at up to 720x576 at up to 15 fps, AC-3, DTS, and DVD audio decode, servo control, track and A/V bitstream buffering, error correction, video scaling and quality enhancement, and OSD features. Based on an 8032 microcontroller core with hardwired video and audio decoding logic.
  • COMBI (DVD-ROM + CD-R/RW) drive chipsets
  • CD-R/RW drive chipsets
  • DVD-ROM drive chipsets
  • CD-ROM drive chipsets
• Though it is not Mediatek's traditional business, the company web site has many postings for wireless and WLAN engineering jobs opportunities.
• Legal:
  • Lawsuit filed by Zoran against Mediatek in 2004 asserting patent infringement, settled in 2006 with Mediatek paying $55M to Zoran and an agreement to pay future royalties, possibly up to $30M.
  • Lawsuit pending from Zoran asserting patent infringement
  • Lawsuit from ESS Technology asserting firmware copyright infringement settled in 2003 with Mediatek agreeing to pay a $45M license fee to ESS Technology and quarterly royalties.
• Acquisitions:
  • In 2003 MediaTek acquired the software business and related assets of Tvia for $10M including the transfer of employment of 75 employees from Tvia's Chinese subsidiary.
• Customers:
  • OPPO Digital Inc.
  • Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
• Competitors:
  • Zoran
  • ESS Technology
  • ALi Corp.

ALi Corp.

• Location: Taiwan
• A major supplier of DVD player chips
• Competitors:
  • Zoran
  • ESS Technology
  • Mediatek

Sigma Designs

• Nasdaq: SIGM
• Location: Milpitas, CA
• Keith Jack is Director of Product Marketing
• sells to various markets, especially IPTV and other "connected" (networked) media players
• video chips include internally design (not licensed IP) hardwired (not software programmable) video processors
• Products:
  EM8220 MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video decoder for PC-based DVD playback and streaming video used in products from:
  • Creative Labs
  • Sony
  • Panasonic
  
  EM8400 series of MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 video and audio decoders for broadband interactive set-top boxes used in products from:
  • Fujitsu
  • Siemens
  • Acer
  • Samsung
  
  EM8500 series of MPEG-4 and DivX decoders for DVD players, portable media players, and digital media adapters with scaling to HDTV resolution and support for DVI output.
  EM8610 series MPEG-4 decoder for IPTV at HDTV resolution for HDTV sets and set-top boxes and supporting progressive DVD playback.
  EM8610L series for cost-sensitive SDTV resolution products.
  EM8620L series MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, and H.264 (AVC) decoder at HDTV resolution for digital media adapters, IPTV set-top boxes, networked DVD players and digital televisions.
  SMP8630 series (including SMP8634) MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, and H.264 (AVC) decoder supporting up to 2 simultaneous high-definition (HD) resolution streams for MSTV IPTV, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray DVD players and recorders with support for DRM and conditional access for digital media adapters, IPTV set-top boxes, networked DVD players and digital televisions. The SMP863x chips include an undisclosed processor core. Based on a 300 MHz (MIPS?) host CPU with a 200 MHz DDR SDRAM interface and a separate 200 MHz CPU for DRM. B7CW101 RF and B7CW201 baseband Windeo UWB chipset for up to 200 Mbps video streaming over non-line-of-sight wireless connections using multiple antenna technology.
• Customers:
  • UT Starcom
  • The Tatung / TISNet STB4000C set-top box uses the Sigma Designs EM8620 and EM8622 chips for 720p and 1080i resolution decode in a system based around an x86 CPU.
  • The Sony VGP-MR100 network media receiver uses Sigma Designs' EM8620L chip.
  • EnerLook subsidiary of EnerNow for hospital and hospitality video on demand systems
  • among many others
• Partners:
  • Sigma Designs' SMP8634 chip is supported by the Microsoft TV IPTV software.
  • Silicon Image for DVI and HDMI interface compatibility
  • Toshiba America Electronic Components for system host processors. Specifically, the MIPS architecture processor in the Toshiba TX4938, which runs Linux, has been demonstrated working with the Sigma Designs EM8620L media processor.
  • VWeb for PVR functionality
  • among others
• Acquisitions:
  • Sigma Designs acquired 20-person private ultrawideband (UWB) baseband and MAC chipset company, Blue7 of San Jose, in 2006 for $14M in stock.
• Legal:
  • The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claimed violations in the proper implementation of copy protection technology in Sigma Designs chips. The dispute was settled in 2004.

Amlogic

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• Founded: 1995
• makes DVD and VCD player chips
• Products:
  • AML3400 MPEG-2 decoder with support for HDTV (720p / 1080i) display output
  • AML3285 / AML2395 MPEG-4 decoder for NTSC / PAL displays
  • AML3370 MPEG-2 decoder for NTSC / PAL displays
  • AML3300 MPEG-2 decoder for NTSC / PAL displays

Trident Microsystems

• Nasdaq: TRID
• Sells video display controller chips, has motion compensation and IDCT accelerators to offload another processor, but not (yet?) full digital video bitstream decoder chips
• Customers:
  • Samsung uses Trident SVP EX display controllers in 23 inch to 40 inch LCD television products

Cheertek

• Location: Hsinchu, Taiwan
• A Winbond spin-off
• Vendors:
  • For use in set-top box chips Cheertek has licensed the MIPS Technologies 4KEc 32-bit RISC processor core and MIPS Technologies' Dolby® Digital AC3 and Dolby Prologic II audio decoder software.

Myson

• Location: Hsinchu, Taiwan
• Sells basic monitor controller chips among chips for other markets

SmartASIC

• Location: Taipei, Taiwan
• Products: SmartASIC makes a range of display controllers for TV and PC products using TFT and LCD display technologies. SmartASIC chips include many digital video decoder post-processing features such as de-interlacing, scan rate conversion, and up and down scaling. SmartASIC does not (yet?) include digital video bitstream decode in its chips. The latest TV video processor chip is the STV110.

Chips & Media

• Location: Seoul, South Korea
• Sells chips and semiconductor IP cores for video, audio, CPU, DSP, PCI, and other peripherals
• Targets digital TV reception, video-on-demand, video over IP, HD-DVD playback and personal video recording
• Products:
  CMS2121 MPEG-2 Main profile, Main Level (MP@ML) decoder
  CMS2122 MPEG-2 Main profile, Main Level (MP@ML) decoder
  CMS2131 MPEG-2 Main profile, Main Level (MP@ML) decoder
  CMS2221 MPEG-2 Main profile, Main Level (MP@ML) encoder
  CMS2421 MPEG-2 Main profile, Main Level (MP@ML) decoder
  CMS4321 MPEG-4 Simple Profile (SP), level 5 encoder/decoder
  CMS4322 MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP), level 5 encoder/decoder
• H.264 chips "Coming Soon..." (2005/5)

Magima

• Location: Shanghai, China
• founded 1998
• Products:
  ZJ2.0a set-top box backend decoder chip with integrated 32-bit MIPS 4Kc CPU at 190 MHz takes in, decrypts, and demultiplexes a DVB stream, performs MPEG-2 decode at up to SDTV resolution and up to 30 fps, performs frame scaling and 2D graphics overlay with alpha blending, and outputs RGB component video and S-video, manufactured in 0.18um technology
• Vendors:
  • Magima is a licensee of the 4Kc CPU core from MIPS Technologies
• Membership:
  • Magima is a member of the AVS Audio / Video coding standard workgroup

Ambarella

• Location: Sunnyvale, CA
• Founded: 2004
• about 75 employees in Sunnyvale and Hsinchu, Taiwan
• Didier Legall is Executive Vice President
• Products:
  A199 H.264 (AVC) High profile level 4 encoder / decoder, video processor, still image processor, and audio encoder chip for consumer HD resolution (1080i or 720p) camcorders. Encodes up to 15 Mbps. 17 mm² TSMC 0.13um technology chip runs at 216 Mhz and consumes 1W (operating in an unspecified way). D1 encoding at 450 mW. Includes an ARM9 processor and has CCD and CMOS image sensor, LCD display, USB 2.0, TV output, IDE hard disk, and DDR2 SDRAM interfaces. Capable of HD encoding using one 16-bit DRAM using a patented technique. Includes an ARM 926 processor core. Priced at $30 in high volume.

MStar Semiconductor

• Location: Hsinchu, Taiwan
• Products:
  • SG9884A triple 8-Bit, 140 MSPS ADC, RGB Graphics Digitizer for SXGA LCD monitors
  • MST9883 triple 8-Bit, 140 MSPS ADC, RGB Graphics Digitizer for SXGA LCD monitors
  • MST9010 triple 8-Bit ADC, LCD Controller for XGA LCD monitors
  • MST9015 triple 8-Bit ADC, LCD Controller for XGA LCD monitors with TCON
• Legal:
  • Genesis Microchip sought from the US International Trade Comission (ITC) and won a blockade of importation into the US of certain MStar chips with upscaling and certain kinds of systems that contain such chips on the grounds that the chips infringe a Genesis Microchip patent.
• Partners:
  • MStar has partnered with Israeli developer of ARM-based streaming processors for home entertainment, CeRoma to jointly market their complementary chips.

Enuclia Semiconductor

• Location: Beaverton, OR
• Founded: 2003
• building display controller chips
• Board of directors comprises only people from finance, no practicing implementers of technology and no full-time company employees.

Gigle Semiconductor

• Location: Spain and Scotland
• Founded: 2005
• Building chips for distributing multimedia around the home using power line networking.
• Organization membership:
  • HomePlug Powerline Alliance
  • Digital Living Network Alliance

Connex Technology (formerly Gemicer)

• Location: Los Gatos, CA
• founded in 2002 by ex-Sandcraft engineers and academics
• targeting HD television set chips
• Chips based on a ConnexArray of 1024 parallel processing simple RISC-like processing elements (PE) with local memory. PEs have about 70 instructions with no floating point and not even integer multiplication. PEs are connected serially to only 2 neighbors.Presently the chip is programmed only in assembly language (referred to as Connext Programming Language). 1024 PEs can decode two channels of H.264 HDTV.

Elemental Technologies

• Location: Portland, OR
• Founded: 2006 by a co-founder of Pixelworks
• fabless chip maker for chips enabling secure remote access to video and television conent
• Investors:
  • Pixelworks

Fujitsu

• Location: Japan
• Products:
  • MB86H50 H.264 High Profile level 4 encoder/decoder system-in-package (SiP) with two 256 Mbit FCRAM chips for a 15 mm² SiP device that consumes 600 mW (performing unspecified functions). Priced at $120.
• future chips supporting H.264 with MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 are planned

Avinity

• Location: Hilversum, The Netherlands
• Founded: 2005
• member of Digital Living Room Network Alliance (DLNA)
• Products:
  Wireless Media Client LC. The Sitecom WL-124 is based on this Avinity design. Wireless Media Client HD. PC media server software.

Cabot Communications

• Products:
  Aurora set-top box middleware
• Partners:
  • partners with LSI Logic on delivering jointly tested DVD recorder set-top box software for DMN-8623 and DMN-8673 chips.

Veoh

• Location: La Jolla, CA
• startup with the goal of democratizing video distribution
• Running a content guide and video server web service with full-screen resolution (640x480?) digital video content created by anybody who wants. Revenue comes from advertising of free content and (per-viewing?) viewing fees on some content.

Microsoft

• Products:
  Microsoft TV IPTV Edition is a software product for IPTVs
• Partners:
  • Microsoft TV works with Sigma Designs' SMP8634 multiformat video decoder and IPTV chip.
  • Scientific-Atlanta supports Microsoft TV in some set-top boxes
  • Linksys-KiSS supports Microsoft TV in some set-top boxes
  • Motorola supports Microsoft TV in some set-top boxes
  • Tatung supports Microsoft TV in some set-top boxes
  • Thomson supports Microsoft TV in some set-top boxes

Mediabolic

• Location: San Mateo, CA
• embedded software for digital entertainment products
• aquired Digital 5 in 2006 for undisclosed terms
  • Location: Lawrenceville, NJ
  • embedded consumer electronics (CE) software for networked media devices in the home.
  • Products:
    software for TCP/IP networked DVD players
    software for 802.11g wireless networked UPnP players
  • Customers:
    • A Gateway "connected" DVD player uses Digital 5 software
    • The Go Video D2730 Networked DVD players uses Digital 5 software
    • The Oritron On Media DVD player NPD3117 uses Digital 5 software
    • The Netgear MP115 Wireless Digital Media Player uses Digital 5 software
  • Partners:
    • Digital 5 has applied its network attached storage (NAS) software to the Micronas/WISchip Cypher 7108 PVR reference design to create a digital media server reference design.
    • Sigma Designs
  • Standards Compliance:
    • Intel Networked Media Product Requirements (NMPR)
    • Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
    • Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

OpenTV

• Location: San Francisco, CA
• Nasdaq: OPTV
• Products:
  • OpenTV Core middleware for PVR and interactive TV devices for cable, satellite, telecom, and digital terrestrial networks
  • OpenTV SpotOn middleware for addressable set-top boxes and audience measurement
  • OpenTV Measure middleware for set-top boxes for audience measurement
  • OpenTV Device Mosaic HTML engine for interactive television set-top boxes
  • OpenTV Integrated Browser browser for the Japanese interactive TV market
  • many software offerings for enterprise targetted television devices
  • SDKs and development tools for set-top box software
• Partners:
  • OpenTV has partnered with ST and Silicon & Software Systems to develop set-top box (STB) reference designs.

ANT

• Location: Cambridge, UK
• ANT sells browser software and other software for set-top boxes.
• Products:
  Galio browser
  PurePlay digital media manager
  Fresco browser
• Customers:
  • Philips IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT software
  • Pace Micro Technology IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT software
  • ADB IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT software
  • Motorola IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT software (through Motorola's 2006 acquisition of Kreatel)
  • Telsey IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT software
  • Amino Technologies IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT Fresco browser
  • Foxconn IPTV set-top boxes use the ANT Fresco browser

Pioneer

• Products:
  • PM0033A deinterlacer for high end progressive scan DVD players

Amphion MediaWorks Inc.

• A mobile system vendor with fabless chip design capability

USB video tuner

Compro Technology

• Location: Taipei, Taiwan
• Products:
  PCI television tuners / video capture cards
  VideoMate Live (U1500), VideoMate Live LT (U1350), VideoMate (U900), VideoMate Action Ultra (U800), & VideoMate Action (U700) NTSC/PAL analog terrestrial broadcast television tuners with MPEG-2 or MPEG-1/2/4 encoding and a USB 2.0 interface for control and viewing on a PC. Software supports programmable recording, timeshifting, and other PVR features.
  VideoMate (U880) with the above features in a USB stick form factor
  DVB-T digital terrestrial broadcast receivers in cards and USB-attached boxes

Agora TV

• Location: Taipei, Taiwan
• Founded: 2001
• Products:
  M2GO MP3 HDD Jukebox
  PVR MPEG4 recorder/player and Sony PSP accessory
  DTB DVB-T USB stick
  E2GO DVB-T receiver and PVR set-top box
  

Set-top boxes (STBs)

Amino Technologies

• Location: Cambridge, England
• LSE: AMO
• Specializes in internet protocol (IP) television (IPTV) players
• Products:
  AmiNET103, AmiNET110, AmiNET110H MPEG-2 SDTV resolution IPTV video players
  AmiNET120 MPEG-2 HDTV resolution IPTV video player
  AmiNET124 H.264 (AVC) SDTV resolution IPTV video player
  AmiNET500 MPEG-2 SDTV resolution personal video recorder (PVR) and server for the above AmiNET players
• Customers:
  • AS Intercom distributes AmiNET MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 IPTV set-top boxes in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Intercom will pay Amino a license fee and royalties for at least 5 years.
• Partners:
  • Philips' STB810 Nexperia-based set-top box (STB) reference design is available to customers with Amino's IPTV STB software stack.

Auroras

• Location: Kalispell, MT
• founded in 2004
• developing set-top box solutions for IPTV using AVC video compression for SDTV and HDTV resolution video streams.
• targetting telephone companies as customers
• Auroras also sells central office video distribution equipment

Beijing Digital TransVideo Technology Co.

• Location: Beijing, China
• 60 employees
• Products:
  DMD2000Plus H.264, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2 D1 (SDTV) resolution IPTV set-top box based on an Analog Devices ADSP-BF533 BlackFin DSP chip and a 360 MHz Arca CPU chip. The STB receives content from KyLinTV, a distributor of chinese language IPTV content over the internet.
  DMD2500 based on an Analog Devices BlackFin ADSP-BF561 DSP chip and a 360 MHz Arca CPU chip. The STB receives content from KyLinTV, a distributor of chinese language IPTV content over the internet.
  DMD3000Plus H.264, MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2 D1 (SDTV) resolution IPTV set-top box based on an Analog Devices BlackFin ADSP-BF533 DSP chip and a 360 MHz Arca CPU chip. The STB receives content from KyLinTV, a distributor of chinese language IPTV content over the internet.
  DMD3500 based on an Analog Devices BlackFin ADSP-BF561 DSP chip and a 360 MHz Arca CPU chip. The STB receives content from KyLinTV, a distributor of chinese language IPTV content over the internet.

Motorola Broadband

• NYSE: MOT
• Motorola Broadband reportedly uses a MIPS processor-based host CPU chip in a system based around a Broadcom / Sand Video chip and has been held up by delays in the delivery of the Broadcom / Sand Video silicon.
• Acquisitions:
  • Motorola created the Broadband division after the acquisition of cable TV set-top box maker General Instruments in 2000 for $17 billion. Competitor, Scientific-Atlanta was acquired by Cisco in 2005.

Sagem Communication member of the SAFRAN group of companies

• Location: France
• sells mobile phones and broadband devices including digital TVs and DTV STBs
• Products:
  ICD600 cable set-top box
  ISD600 satellite set-top box
  PVR 5110S satellite set-top box and PVR
  IAD5116 IPTV STB and PVR
  AXIUM digital HDTV set, based on a TI DLP chip
  ITD80 MPEG-4 decoding digital terrestrial broadcast receiver set-top box
  ITAD80 MPEG-4 decoding IPTV set-top box
• Vendors:
  • The Sagem ITD80 and ITAD80 MPEG-4 set-top boxes use the software programmable ST Microelectronics STB7100 chip for MPEG-4 video decode.

Thomson

• funded by NAB to create digital terrestrial broadcast to analog (RF modulated) video converters.

Personal Video Recorders (PVRs)

Tivo

• Location: Alviso, CA
• Partners:
  • Starting in 2006, Series2 Tivo boxes will be able to automatically synchronize with and transfer recorded TV shows to Apple Video iPods.
  • Starting in 2006, Series2 Tivo boxes will be able to automatically synchronize with and transfer recorded TV shows to Sony PlayStation Portables.

Digital Networks North America (DNNA) subsidiary of Japan-based D & M Holdings

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• maker of replaytv
• Computer graphics card maker, Diamond Multimedia, originally created the Rio MP3 player product line. Diamond spun out the company Sonic Blue to continue making and selling the Rio product line. Sonic Blue acquired the startup company, ReplayTV. ReplayTV is like the better-known Tivo, except that early models could automatically skip commercials. When the television networks threatened to sue, despite a questionably defensible position, Sonic Blue went bankrupt. D & M Holdings, owner of the Denon and Marantz brand names, bought the ReplayTV and Rio business from Sonic Blue for $36.2M. The feature for automatically skipping commercials was removed. Now ReplayTV and Tivo are, for the purposes of most users, equivalent. Older Replay TV 4500 series models, with the automatic commercial skip feature, are often available on Ebay.

SnapStream Media

• Location: Houston, TX
• Sells software and a remote control and infra red receiver for a PC that can interface to a range of PC graphics cards that support video capture. With the SnapStream Beyond TV television or Beyond Media photo, music, DVD, video software the user can turn their Windows PC into a PVR

Akimbo

• The Akimbo PVR product downloads user-selected content from Akimbo's servers over the internet for viewing. The available selection includes much interesting television content, but not the level of selection available from most cable providers.

Sling Media

• Location: San Mateo, CA
• Founded: 2004
• Products:
  Slingbox makes your live television or other PVR-recorded content available on a PC on the network, even over the internet.
  Plextor ConvertX 402U MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and DivX recorder box connected via USB.
  Zap2it television programming guide
  PC remote control with USB receiver
• Partners:
  • Microsoft
  • Texas Instruments

Sage TV

• Location: Los Angeles, CA
• founded 2002
• Software for Windows that enables PVR-like features with no subscription fee as well as network streaming of music and photos.
• Partners:
  • Hauppauge TV Tuner PCI cards and USB devices.
  • Plextor 402U USB connected MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and DivX capture / encode device.
  • Zap2it TV listings
  • Streamzap remote controller with USB receiver.
• Internal projects:
  • Linux port
  • ports to embedded (non-PC) processors for IPTV set-top boxes

There are many open-source, usually Linux-based, software offerings that turn a PC into a PVR. Source Forge is a good site for such open-source projects.

Networked Media Players

icube

• Location: Korea
• Founded: 1995
• Products:
  Play@TV wired / wireless networked media player.
  mGate analog TV receiver, digitzer, and network video server. Allows any wired or wireless networked PC to display TV.
  Play@TV for PC remote controller and PC software for controlling the playback of media files on a PC. This can be used to operate a PC as a home media server.
• various software for control of broadcast stations

Netgear

• Products:
  MP115 Wireless Digital Media Player. Plays MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 videos as well as various audio and image formats. Displays on a TV through an RCA composite video jack or S-video or RCA component video jacks. Comes with a remote controller. Works with a wired ethernet connection or 802.11g wireless network. The MP115 seems to have been discontinued.

D-Link

• Products:
  DSM-320 wireless media player. Plays MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and XviD video in AVI containers. Supports various still image and audio formats. Uses wired ethernet or 802.11 wireless networking. Outputs composite video through an RCA jack or component video through RCA jacks or an S-video connector. 17" form factor for standard home audio equipment. Available for $159.
  DSM-320RD wireless media player with DVD player and card reader. Same features as the DSM-320 but with a DVD drive capable of reading DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs, as well as CDs and MP3 CDs as well as a card reader slot for SD, Memory Stick, MMS, and Compact Flash (type I and II). Available for $245.
  DSM-520 wireless media player with HDTV resolution. Same features as the DSM-320 but also supporting WMV9 video and playback of all video formats at up to 1080i resolution. Available for $229.

Hauppauge

• Products:
  MediaMVP digital media receiver. Plays MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 videos as well as various still image and audio formats. Connects over wired ethernet. Outputs composite video over an RCA jack or component video over an S-video connector. Available for $86.

PRISMIQ

• Prismiq shut down operations in 2006.
• Products:
  MediaPlayer played MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and motion JPEG videos in an AVI container. Also supported various still image and audio formats. Worked over wired ethernet or 802.11g wireless networking. Output composite video over an RCA jack or component video through an S-video connector. Based on a NEC uPD61130 32-bit MIPS processor chip with an integrated MPEG decoder. With 16 M bytes of flash and 64 M bytes of SDRAM. Player natively played MPEG-1/2 video. MPEG-4 and motion JPEG or other AVI formats were transcoded in software on a PC running PRISMIQ software. Was available for $118.

Roku

• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Founded: 2002
• Products:
  Roku used to offer but apparently no longer offers the HD1000 PhotoBridge HD High-Def digital media player. Plays MPEG-2 videos as well as still image and audio formats. Connects over wired ethernet, with a USB connector for an optional wireless ethernet adapter. Outputs composite and component video at SDTV or HDTV (720p or 1080i) resolution. Based on a 300 MHz MIPS CPU with a separate HD MPEG-2 hardware decode engine. Available for $299. Perhaps this design was pulled because it was too closely competed with Roku's partner-customers' designs.
• Customers:
  • Pinnacle Systems manufactures systems based on Roku designs.
  • The Japanese robot company ZMP sells the Miuro robot which streams music and video using Roku designs.

Camcorders

• Mini DV tape

• Mini recordable DVD disk

• Flash memory

  • Mustek
    • Location: Hsinchu, Taiwan
    • Mustek has a broad product line of flash (MMC NAND flash or compact flash NOR flash) based cameras including:
      • digital still cameras with video capture ability
      • DSC-sized video cameras with audio recording ability
      • traditional form video cameras
      All available at surprisingly low costs and built using Omnivision CMOS image sensors.

• Hard disk drive

  Digital camcorders that record to hard disks are a new class of camcorder. Makers of recording media (mini-DV tapes and recordable DVD disks) are surely displeased with the availability of such cameras.
  • JVC
    • Everio G camcorders with f1.2 lens, 15x optical zoom, a USB 2.0 interface, a random access file system, 8.9 Mbps, 5.9 Mbps, 4.5 Mbps, and 1.6 Mbps modes of constant rate MPEG-2 encoding and support for JPEG still image captures.
      • GZ-MG20 with 800k pixel CCD image sensor and a 20 GB internal hard drive
      • GZ-MG30 with 800k pixel CCD image sensor and a 30 GB internal hard drive
      • GZ-MG40 with 1.33 million pixel CCD image sensor and a 20 GB internal hard drive
      • GZ-MG50 with 1.33 million pixel CCD image sensor and a 30 GB internal hard drive

Video Phones

8x8, Inc. aka Packet 8

• Location: Santa Clara, CA
• offers a video phone ($99) and video telephone service along with unlimited free long distance calls ($19.99 per month) over your cable or DSL internet connection.

Sundance Film Festival

• Sundance film festival short films available for free
• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at 400x300 resolution with letterbox black bands

YouTube

• acquired by Google
• 100 MB upload limit per clip, unlimited clips
• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at 400x300 resolution with a superimposed YouTube logo

video.google.com

• no upload limit, requires clip approval
• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at scalable display resolution.

Vimeo

• 20 MB upload limit per week
• Most videos encoded in QuickTime format in .mov container files. Some are available in Windows Media Video in .wmv containers or other formats in .avi containers.

Sharkle

• 40 MB upload limit per member
• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at 320x240 resolution with a superimposed Sharkle logo

ClipShack

• 100 MB upload limit per member
• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at 360x270 resolution

Heavy

• Video encoded in Macromedia Flash Video format at different resolutions and displayed at different resolutions, sometimes scaled.
• commercials shown before and between each clip

PureVideo

• runs multiple audience-targetted video clip sites:
  • GrindTV for skateboarding, surfing, snow, and bike sports in Macromedia Flash Video format at 320x240 resolution with a superimposed GrindTV.com logo
  • StupidVideo.com humorous video clips in Macromedia Flash Video format at 320x240 resolution with a superimposed StupidVideos.com logo

Blip.tv

• Video encoded in different formats and resolutions.

Veoh

• requires downloading the Veoh browser/viewer program
• Videos are encoded in whatever format the uploader (publisher) chose and will not play unless the viewer's PC (or Mac) has the correct codec installed.

Mobunga

• "aggregator" search engine for videos on other video clip web sites that can be downloaded to portable media players such as video iPods or Sony Play Station Portable (PSP) devices.

VideoEgg

• personal video sharing ("blogging")