Rovi Signs With Freescale for First DivX Plus Streaming Mobile Agreement

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Rovi Corp logo

To Deliver Improved Video Performance and Advanced Features for Over-the-Top Entertainment on Tablets and Smartphones

BARCELONA, Spain — Mobile World Congress 2012 — Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq:ROVI) today announced its DivX Plus Streaming™ technology will be integrated into the latest Freescale i.MX 6 series ARM®-based processors for tablets and other smart mobile devices. The agreement continues the industry momentum for DivX Plus Streaming and will enable mobile device manufacturers to more rapidly release devices that support the feature-rich adaptive streaming solution. Rovi will be demonstrating DivX Plus Streaming at Mobile World Congress, February 27 to March 1, 2012 (The Avenue – AV90).

Lightweight and easy to deploy, DivX Plus Streaming brings features historically associated with Blu-ray Discs to the over-the-top entertainment experience. The adaptive streaming solution not only dynamically adjusts streams to help deliver maximum visual quality based on available bandwidth, but also offers an advanced feature set with support for 1080p, subtitles, multiple language tracks, and trick-play functions such as smooth fast forward and rewind. DivX Plus Streaming expands the value of the already popular DivX Plus® HD Certification program, which brings these same advanced multimedia features to ‘download to own’ video content.

“We continue to advance and extend the capabilities of our flagship applications processor family to address our customers’ needs for exceptional performance and high quality multimedia features,” said Bernd Lienhard, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Multimedia Applications Division. “DivX Plus Streaming is another example of how we are continuing to push the envelope and enable smart device manufacturers to deliver a more full-featured digital entertainment experience for on-the-go consumers.”

Freescale’s i.MX 6 series is a scalable, multi-core family of multimedia applications processors based on the ARM® Cortex-A9 core. The versatile processors deliver industry leading performance, low power for extended battery life, and support for a wide range of mobile operating systems including Android™ Version 4.0, Linux®, QNX®, Ubuntu® and Windows® Compact 7.

“This is an important milestone that will help rapidly expand the ecosystem of mobile devices that support DivX Plus Streaming,” said Matt Milne, EVP worldwide sales and marketing, Rovi Corporation. “For mobile device manufacturers and operators, DivX Plus Streaming provides a true end-to-end solution for the secure encoding, delivery and consumption of high-quality streamed video content; however, ultimately, it’s about providing the features and visual quality consumers are accustomed to with entertainment on Blu-ray Disc.”

To develop DivX Plus Streaming, Rovi built upon core DivX® technologies recognized by millions of consumers around the world for delivering great video performance, visual quality, and multi-screen interoperability. The solution also utilizes trusted digital rights management technology currently used by a number of online retailers offering movies in the DivX format including WB Shop and Media Markt. To accelerate time to market and device integration, Rovi has built out the existing certification program used for DivX technology device validation and compatibility – a program that has resulted in shipment by top-tier manufacturers of over 600 million DivX-compatible consumer electronics devices into the market.