Audio Video News

By December of this year, home-theater-in-a-box systems may be able to record television programs, archive digital videotape on recordable DVDs, and perform other technical feats now possible only with megabuck gear.

That is the intention of Royal Philips Electronics, which on April 16 announced a manufacturing-ready six-channel DVD+R/+RW recorder reference chip design for the consumer market. The company has integrated the functionality of its Class-D amplifier family with its Nexperia DVD+R/+RW technology. The result will be what a Philips press release calls a "total turnkey system solution," giving manufacturers the ability to complement the emerging DVD+R/+RW recorder market with AM/FM Radio, RDS, surround audio decoding and six-channel Class-D performance.

Philips's semiconductor breakthrough will include all these features in DVD-recorder based home theater-in-a-box (HTiB) systems. Such systems are currently based only on DVD players. Philips believes that a significant portion of the DVD+R/+RW market will eventually consist of HTiB systems. Maximizing the functionality of HTiB systems would streamline consumers' home entertainment systems by combining the traditional stack of home audio components into a single box. It would also lower the cost associated with acquiring and using that stack of components.

"We anticipate the next phase of the DVD evolution will be DVD-recorder-based HTiBs, which will quickly gain in popularity," said analyst Michelle Abraham of research firm In-Stat/MDR. "Philips made a large push into the mainstream DVD recorder market in 2002 and as a leader in highly efficient Class-D solutions, is ideally positioned to make this technology a reality in the marketplace." DVD player-based HTiB systems have already established a solid market presence, she noted.

Functionalities being added to Philips' turnkey reference design are based upon the Nexperia pnx7100 MPEG CODEC, with integrated surround audio decoding (DTS, Dolby Digital or AC3); multi-channel application of TDA8920 Class-D amplifiers; SAA6588 RDS decoder; SAA7715 sound processing DSP; TEA5757 integrated single chip AM/FM radio and UDA1328 Audio DAC. The design complies with the DVD+R/+RW standard, a format backed by Philips, Sony, Microsoft, Yamaha, Hewlett-Packard, and Thomson Multimedia.

The pnx7100 sells for US$35 "depending on volume and customer," according to a Philips press release. Samples are available now, with volume production scheduled for the second quarter (late summer) of 2003.