Bangalore  (IndiaPRwire) Fujitsu Microelectronics Asia Pte Ltd (FMAL) today announced the release of a new transcoder chip that can compress full HD (1920 x 1080) MPEG-2 video data to H.264 data. The new chip, MB86H52, is capable of compressing MPEG-2 video to less than half the data size while maintaining the same video quality.

With such high compression, the new chip is ideal for use in recording equipment such as hard drives, etc., where recording time can be increased by more than 250%. It also allows transmission of full HD video over narrow bandwidths. With the predicted increase in home network appliances, there are also many opportunities to embed this transcoder into equipment where the video data size needs to be reduced.

MB86H52’s superior properties are the result of a proprietary algorithm developed by Fujitsu Laboratories that automatically applies less compression to areas in the image where compression artefacts are most noticeable to human vision, such as human faces or slow-moving objects, and greater compression to other areas. Thus, high image quality for the critical zones is maximised.

This technology allows the same video quality to be maintained when transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264. For digital terrestrial and digital satellite broadcasts, data is compressed into MPEG-2 format providing high-resolution video. However, if this video is then recorded to hard drive, the file size is very large and the recording time limited. As such, Fujitsu developed this MB86H52 transcoder that converts MPEG-2 video to H.264, which has higher compression.

MB86H52 provides a full HD H.264 CODEC (COde/DECode) for video encoding and decoding, so that uncompressed video data can be compressed to the H.264 format, while the device can also decompress video data from compressed or transcoded H.264. The CODEC is the same as that used in the previously announced MB86H51 device.

Fujitsu plans to continue to be an industry leader of H.264 video processing devices with full HD multi-decoders that can handle various video formats, and will provide customers with more video processing chips for high-performance digital equipments.

Specifications

• Functions:
  Transcode
• Video
  MPEG-2 HD to H.264 HD/SD
  MPEG-2 SD to H.264 SD
• Audio
  Time stamp re-allocation
  H.264CODEC(*1)
• Video
  VBS(*2) to H.264 HD/SD
• Audio
  ABS(*3) to MPEG-1 Audio Layer2, etc.
• Video
  Profile
  MPEG-2video main profile / high-level decoder.
  H.264high profile /Level 4.0 half-duplex CODEC.
  Resolution
  1920x1080x60i/50i,
  1440x1080x60i/50i,
  1280x720x60p/50p,
  720x480x60i,
  720x576x50i
• Interface
  SMPTE274M/SMPTE296M-2001, ITU-R BT.656
• Audio
  Formats
• MPEG-1Audio Layer2, MPEG2-AAC (LC profile),
  Linear PCM, Dolby© Digital(AC-3)(*4)
• Channels
  2 Channel
• Interface
  LRserial
• System
  Format
  MPEG2-TSCBR/VBR
  StreamInterface
  8bit parallel or serial
• Host Interface
  General-purpose16-bit interface
• Input Clock Frequency
  27MHz
• Operating Frequency
  Internal:216MHz / DDR2 memory interface: 324MHz
• Power Consumption
  2Watt (typ. 1.2V, at HD transcoding)
• Package
  PBGA496 pin, 27 sq. mm, (1.0mm ball pitch)
• Process Technology
  90nm
  CODEC: Hardware or software that can compress and decompress images or audio.

1. VBS: Video Baseband. Refers to uncompressed video data.
2. ABS: Audio Baseband. Refers to uncompressed audio data.
3. Dolby: Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories.

Glossary

MPEG-2
It is a video compression format that is part of the MPEG standard for video compression. Widely used in DVDs and other video products.
H.264
Formally MPEG4 AVC/H.264. A video-encoding format noted for offering more compression than MPEG-2 and other earlier formats. Jointly defined by the ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector) and ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission), it is the most recent international standard for video compression