Horizon Semiconductors Announces Industry’s Smallest Form-Factor, Stand-Alone High Definition Multi-Standard Transcoder Reference Platform

Horizon Semiconductors, a leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable secure video and audio compression & transmission for the consumer electronics and broadcast markets, announces the immediate availability of industry’s smallest form-factor, multi-standard high definition stand-alone transcoder reference platform for cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial distribution, broadcast, home media server and set-top box markets.

Based on Horizon’s Hz4010 multi-channel multi-standard high definition transcoder SoC, the new HzR4010 stand-alone platform is designed both for professional and consumer applications. HzR4010 enables real-time transcoding of HD or multiple SD video streams, as well as faster than real-time transcoding of HD to SD or lower resolution video. HzR4010 supports the leading video compression standards including AVC (up to HP@L4.2), MPEG-2 (MP@HL) and VC-1 (AP@L3 and MP@HL). The highly integrated and programmable SoC features advanced video pre/post-processor supporting spatial linear and non-linear noise reduction, motion compensated temporal filtering, frame rate conversion and ultra-flexible video scaling, a high performance audio CODEC engine enabling transcoding from and to various audio formats such as MPEG-1, AC-3, Dolby Digital Plus, AAC and WMA, a programmable high-bandwidth transport processor, as well as a multi-standard conditional access/digital rights management security processor. HzR4010 allows transferring of video/audio content in and out of the Hz4010 using wide variety of methods and interfaces, including real time streaming through DVB, 1G Internet, USB or IEEE 1394.

“In response to customer requirement for portability, we’ve packaged our Hz4010 high-definition transcoding SoC in an ideal form factor. As for ease of use, just plug in your Set-top or PC into the HzR4010, and you’re in business”, said Amir Morad, President and CEO of Horizon Semiconductors. “In addition to the portability, the transcoding capabilities of the Hz4010 provide a vehicle for cost-effective, faster than real-time transfer of secured content to portable media players, cell phones & game consoles at home and over the network at the highest video quality, thus extending the flexibility of sharing video content across multiple playback platforms.”

Product Information
The HzR4010 is designed around the HZ4010 SoC offering the following cutting edge technologies and interfaces:

* Powerful multi stream video decoder and encoder engines, supporting real-time transcoding of 1920x1080 HD, or faster-than-real-time lower-resolution media streams, using leading compression standards including: H.264 (AVC) Baseline, Main and High Profile up to Level 4.2, MPEG-2 up to Main Profile @ High Level, VC-1 (SMPTE 421M) Advanced Profile @ Level 3.
* Multi-channel multi-format audio encoder, decoder, and special audio effects processor, supporting leading standards such as: MPEG-1 Layer I, II & III (MP3), Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, AAC-LC/AAC-HE, and WMA.
* Multi-stream high bandwidth flexible mux/demux processor, supporting essential web and mobile delivery file formats such as M2T, MPG, MP4, ASF, AVI, MKV, and others.
* Advanced video pre/post-processor, supporting motion compensated temporal and spatial linear and non-linear adaptive noise reduction.
* Sophisticated polyphase scaler and advanced motion adaptive high-definition de-interlacing and motion-compensated picture enhancement.
* Wide variety of advanced connectivity and peripherals including DVB TS, IEEE1394, 10/100/1G Ethernet, USB 2.0, SMPTE-292, Flash, I2C, SPI/SSI, UART and others.
* World-class security processor with embedded secure OTP memory, enabling complete content protection in strict compliance with numerous conditional access and digital rights management schemes commonly used in the cable, satellite, IPTV and Blu-Ray marketplace.
* A dedicated co-processor enabling real time streaming of multiple channels.
* Powerful, easy to use API, with the ability to accelerate and off-load host application code.

Horizon’s HzR4010 reference design kit is provided with PCB schematics, full software design kit and documentation.