Magnum Semiconductor Dual-Channel Recorders Deliver Advanced PVR Features to 3 ½ Million Set-Top Boxes

LAS VEGAS — NAB2008 — At the NAB show here today, Magnum Semiconductor Corporation, a worldwide leader in video compression technology, announced that more than 3½ million set-top boxes have shipped to date using Magnum’s dual-channel encoder ICs. Magnum’s Emmy Award-winning codec expertise lets set-top box (STB) vendors deliver feature-rich yet cost-effective boxes. Magnum’s DM8800 family of products offers superior dual-channel MPEG-2 capabilities and improved video quality while lowering the overall system cost.

The DM8800 family of encoder chips enables higher efficiency MPEG-2 video compression, increasing the amount of video that can be recorded onto a given hard disk. The dual-channel capability allows a home viewer to watch one channel while recording another, to record two channels at once, or to pause and replay a live broadcast while simultaneously recording another program.

“This milestone establishes Magnum as a significant supplier of encoder devices for advanced STBs. With the rapid adoption of HDTVs at home, and with consumer demand for ever larger displays, the quality of video recording we achieve in set-top boxes has become an important feature. We’re very pleased with the acceptance of our product family in the marketplace,” said Bob Saffari, vice president of marketing for set-top and broadcast products at Magnum.

The set-top box market has seen rapid growth in recent years as new features, such as video recording, have been added. Set-top box manufacturers continue to drive innovation in this market using Magnum video encoding technologies including TrueView™ motion-compensating temporal filtering and PerfectView Pro® fifth-generation MPEG-2 compression technology.

For further information on the DM8800 family, including the DM8802 and the newly introduced DM8803, readers should contact Magnum Semiconductor.