CrestaTech's 'HDTV Anywhere' chip ready for sampling to PC OEMs

SAN FRANCISCO & SANTA CLARA, USA: Get ready to get global with HDTV on a PC. Reference designs and samples for CrestaTech’'s new programmable broadband technology are now available, enabling PC manufacturers to pop in one universal chip and support all analog TV and digital TV standards worldwide.

Demonstrated publicly for the first time at this week'’s Intel Developer Forum 2009, the CrestaTV™ Universal Broadband Receiver technology combines a programmable RF IC and software that will allow PCs to receive live analog or digital TV broadcast, radio and GPS signals in any city, any region and any country around the world. CrestaTV unleashes unprecedented support for the widest variety of broadband frequencies ever.

As a result, for the first time, PC manufacturers can ship the same TV tuner module to Barcelona as they ship to Manhattan or St. Petersburg, ultimately streamlining the design and deployment process and reducing costs of the overall system.

And PC users can watch the TV they want wherever they travel, picking up local broadcasts or sportscasts by using embedded GPS capabilities to automatically create local channel guides in their area.

“No other chip overcomes the regional and technical limitations of on-the-go TV for PCs like the CrestaTV solution,” said George Haber, CrestaTech president and CEO. “By supporting any TV broadcast standard anywhere, we’re helping turn laptop PCs into truly mobile media centers, where consumers can experience the ubiquity of the Internet with broadcast television at the same time.”

On display at booth 215, the CrestaTV Universal Broadband Receiver supports formats including DVBT, ATSC, Cable QAM, NTSC and PAL, along with FM radio and GPS capabilities.

CrestaTV is comprised of the CTC-200/201 programmable RF and Interface IC and multi-threaded signal processing software. The fully integrated solution eliminates all external filters. Supported frequencies include 45Mhz to 1GHz - and L1 band. OEMs can implement CrestaTV on PCI express cards for desktops and PCI mini-express cards or USB TV modules for laptops.

CrestaTech also offers a suite of companion software applications, CrestaWare, which provide fast channel scanning, enhanced reception, TV and radio tower geo-location and more. It also has an open platform for the development of social media and user-generated content programs.

Samples and evaluation boards are available for designers to quickly prototype and test global TV reception. Contact CrestaTech to arrange a demonstration or with any product requests.

AMD launches new chip for HDTV-on-the-PC reception

COMPUTEX, TAIPEI, TAIWAN: AMD has launched the ATI Theater HD 750 PC TV chip offering HDTV viewing capabilities on desktop and notebook PCs around the world using analog, and digital, and free-to-air broadcast signals.

ATI Theater HD 750 uses advanced video processing and signal reception technologies for clear HD picture quality, crisp images, high color performance and fidelity for an authentic HD home theater feel on the PC.

With the proper connectors, notebook users can enjoy TV on their PC virtually anywhere in the world as the ATI Theater HD 750 is compatible with HDTV/DTV/analog broadcast signals including NTSC, PAL/SECAM, ATSC, ClearQAM and DVB-T.

Take recorded content on the go by capturing and converting recorded TV shows into popular video formats such as H.264, AVI, MPEG, DivX, WMV and MPEG4 for use on portable media devices.

For fast and seamless transcoding, consumers can use ATI Stream enabled video conversion software when they pair an ATI Theater HD 750 with an ATI Radeon graphics card.

Using Windows Vista Media Center, Windows XP Media Center Edition or the forthcoming Windows 7, consumers can schedule recordings and watch, pause and rewind live TV programs. Consumers can also store recorded programs on the PC hard drive, eliminating the problem of limited storage capacity found with most digital video recorders (DVR), and enabling the ultimate video library.

ATI Theater HD 750 is scheduled to be available from supporting manufacturers later this year in a variety of solutions including PCI Express add-in cards, USB “stick”, and others.

“ATI Theater HD 750 combines AMD’s longstanding reputation for video expertise with consumer demand for a cost effective, easy to use and high quality TV on the PC experience,” said Matt Skynner, Vice President & General Manager, GPU Division, AMD Products Group. “ATI Theater HD 750, in combination with ATI Radeon graphics and AMD mobile technology-based notebooks, provides a simplified, high-quality home-theater solution.”

ATI Theater HD 750 advances AMD’s platform technology with the means to receive broadcast HD video on the PC. AMD has a complete family of processors to capture and display TV content at home or on-the-go. Whether watching video from disk or free-to-air broadcast, AMD platforms offer customers a vibrant HD experience unlike any other.