Zoran Boosts Performance of Its Frame Rate Converter Technology for Worldwide 2D & 3D TV Markets

Second Generation SupraFRC® 301 Processors Dramatically Improve Video Display Quality

SUNNYVALE, Calif — Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ: ZRAN) announced that its SupraFRC® 301 Frame Rate Conversion (FRC) processor platform is available to qualified LCD and DTV manufacturers demanding superior FRC technology that noticeably improves video display quality. Also, the lower power, more compact form factor of the SupraFRC® 301 solution is ideal for enabling the next generation of thinner flat panel televisions.

“Customer feedback on our new SupraFRC® 301 solution is that it demonstrates superior quality and cost performance for competing in the high performance DTV market. Our innovative approach to video processing enables consumers to see noticeably improved image quality on both 2D and 3D TVs by eliminating artifacts introduced by current state-of-the-industry motion compensation technologies. Plus, our comprehensive support for 3D allows manufacturers to deploy high quality 3D televisions to all market segments,” said Mustafa Ozgen, vice president and general manager, Zoran’s digital TV business unit, Home Entertainment division.

The Challenge and Zoran Solution for LCD TVs

LCD TVs typically need to operate at screen refresh rates of 100/120Hz or 200/240Hz to avoid the flicker and motion blur caused by the limited persistence and slow response time of the display. Since the source content is generally at 50 or 60 frames per second (fps) for TV broadcasts or 24 fps for movies, it must be converted to match the display’s screen refresh rate to deliver a good viewing experience.

The traditional FRC approach — called MEMC (Motion Estimation Motion Compensation) — is effective for visually simple scenes. However, MEMC has no intrinsic understanding of the structure of the image. Lacking image intelligence, the MEMC approach introduces artifacts for faster and more complex motion.

The unique patent-pending object-based FRC technology pioneered by Zoran resolves these problems by using an object model and assigning interpolated pixels according to the motion of the corresponding object. One difference is, since it does not rely on a single motion computation per pixel, like the MEMC method, its geometric processing more efficiently corrects blurring, halo effects, ghosting and shadowing artifacts.

The Challenge and Zoran Solution for 3D TVs

3D TV systems generally require a screen refresh rate of 200/240Hz to avoid cross-talk, such as “ghosting” between the left and right-eye views. Correct handling of objects in the left and right-eye interpolated frames is essential, since any differential spatial errors will result in objects being seen at an incorrect depth.

The object-model approach of the SupraFRC® 301 technology is uniquely able to avoid these and other 3D artifacts. Left-eye, right-eye object correlation facilitates an enhanced and headache-free viewing experience. The SupraFRC® 301 supports stereoscopic 3D using both polarized or shutter glasses. A total of 38 different 3D content formats are supported, including all mandatory HDMI 1.4a 3D formats.