Magnum Semiconductor Unveils DXT-LP Low-Power HD Encoder-Transcoder

Magnum Semiconductor has reportedly introduced Magnum DXT-LP low-power HD encoder-transcoder; industry's first USB-powered multi-standard HD transcoder-encoder with mirror transcoding. In addition to transcoding between VC-1 and H.264, this new transcoder can also transcode from MPEG-2 1080i to H.264 1080i and lower resolutions, the company said.

 

Video encoders help content providers to work on a single architecture for all broadcast applications including production, contribution, and distribution equipment. Also, the rich video content needs to be compressed at the broadcaster’s end to make it viewable in the living room set-top boxes.

 

The DXT-LP media-processor provides high video quality at lowest bit rates with the help of Magnum's proprietary media-processor architecture. The programmable architecture supports HD and SD resolutions, multiple encoding standards, such as H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10, MPEG-2 and VC-1. It also supports various other features such as encoding, transcoding and decoding.

 

“The DXT-LP opens a whole new range of opportunities for PC peripheral and STB device manufacturers by offering their customers with instant time-shifting, place-shifting, device-shifting or content-on-the-go, as well as whole home DVR add-on functionality. Support for VC-1 provides instant access to the fast Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows installed base, which is a unique feature in the industry,” said Gopal Solanki, CEO at Magnum Semiconductor, in a statement.

 

Magnum’s new transcoder allows better compression efficiency, resulting in superior video quality at lowest bit rates with the help of its broadcast technology knowhow in the DXT-LP for bit rate shaping over variable bandwidth networks and full decode/re-encode transcoding. The company is also offering the Plankton, a USB-powered reference design, which takes full advantage of the DXT-LP's low power operation and transcoding capabilities.

 

Recently, the company demonstrated AVC coding of 1080p50/60 content at traditional 1080i50/60 bit rates. The company said that its DXTPro is based on a scalable and flexible multi-core architecture, which delivers uncompromising video quality, highest channel-density and lowest bit rates. The solution comes with Multi-format support including SD, HD and full HD at 1920x1080 at 50/60 frames/sec.