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Raspberry Pi lands MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoding through personal licenses, H.264 encoding and CEC tag along
Making the Raspberry Pi affordable involved some tough calls, including the omission of MPEG-2 decoding. Licensing fees alone for the video software would have boosted the board's price by approximately 10 percent. Now, after many have made media centers with the hardware, the foundation behind the project has whipped up a solution to add the missing codec. For $3.16, users can purchase an individual MPEG-2 license for each of their boards on the organization's online store. Partial to Microsoft's VC-1 standard? Rights to using Redmond's codec can be purchased for $1.58. H.264 encoding is also in the cards since OpenMax components needed to develop applications with the functionality are now enabled by default in the device's latest firmware. With CEC support thrown into the Raspbmc, XBian and OpenELEC operating systems, a single IR remote can control a Raspberry Pi, a TV and other connected gadgets. If you're ready to load up your Pi with its newfound abilities, hit the source link below. Update: The Raspberry Pi Foundation let us know that US customers won't have to pay sales tax, which means patrons will only be set back $3.16 for MPEG-2 and $1.58 for VC-1 support, not $3.79 and $1.90 for the respective licenses. We've updated the post accordingly.
LG Optimus 3D has dual-core 1GHz OMAP 4 CPU, video codecs up the wazoo
LG's been mighty stingy with details about its 3D smartphone, but some very promising ones have just trickled out of Barcelona ahead of Mobile World Congress -- in keeping with the company's theme of doubling everything, the LG Optimus 3D will ship with a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP 4 chip. Considering that we've seen that particular SOC drive three screens, we're guessing that a single 4.3-inch stereo display (yes, 4.3-inch is confirmed) will be old hat, and we've certainly seen the included PowerVR SGX540 graphics throw around some weight in many a Galaxy S. Raw specs aside, though, the Optimus 3D has a feature that we've been waiting on in Android for a while: LG says it will have "four times more video decoders than competing designs." Admittedly, that probably means it will still only recognize about eight video formats in total, but as long as we can play the vast majority of our anime music video library without re-encoding the lot, we'll promise to only grumble occasionally. Deal? PR after the break. %Gallery-116393%
WebM VP8 specs ready for chip companies to start building hardware acceleration
You know how long we've been waiting for Flash video to get decent hardware acceleration? Well, it looks like the Google-backed WebM VP8 codec won't take nearly so long. The WebM hardware development team just pushed out hardware decoder IP for VP8, which will let chip folks build WebM playback into their chipsets -- most of which are currently oriented around accelerating H.Google's-gunning-for it-264 and / or Flash. A VP8 hardware encoder IP will follow later in Q1. There's nothing much more to it: it's the same ol' 720p and 1080p decoding we know and love, which will be possible on mobile devices (and already is with other codecs), but this time it's open, remember?
NEC chips to include DivX Plus HD support
Expect even higher quality DivX playback from Blu-ray players, HDTVs and other devices, now that NEC has signed a deal to implement DivX Plus HD (aka h.264 in an MKV container with AAC audio) support in its EMMA chipset family. The company has already signed up chipmakers Sigma and Trident, anything rocking the appropriate logo should be able to handle content at resolutions up to 1080p, or older DivX encoded files, so feel free to plug those USB sticks and network cables into home theater equipment anywhere.
CANAL+ KEY provides pay-TV reception of French networks
Forget those OTA tuners that only pick up what's widely distributed for free; the CANAL+ KEY can handle that and more. Developed in conjunction with DiBom, the device -- hailed as the planet's first USB key-sized DTT HD decoder -- enables the reception of French pay-TV programs (SD and HD), 18 free DTT channels and even the premium channel CANAL+ HD. The key is equipped with two small antennas and can provide viewing enjoyment to any USB-equipped PC. Regrettably, there's no price / availability date mentioned, but yet again, we're amazed at how quickly France is becoming Europe's beacon of HD light.[Via TechDigest]
AlleyInsider: QuickTime on a chip?
Silicon Alley Insider is offering "pure speculation" based on a tip that Apple's Fall future product transition is a video upgrade to Apple products that includes a QuickTime encoder/decoder on a chip. As cool as this would be, I don't personally think it's a significant-enough development to warn investors about. Unless, of course, it's part and parcel of more substantial changes to Apple's product lines. Having video playback functions handled by a separate microprocessor capable of dealing with the variety of media formats that QuickTime handles could yield performance increases for lower-end Macs (with less-powerful video cards) and battery life savings for handheld devices. Also, depending on what codecs are included on-board, it could mean an end to countless hours converting video specifically for your iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Additionally, MacRumors' Arnold Kim notes that it could be of some use for encoding Blu-Ray video. All I want is DivX AVI playback on my iPod touch. Pretty please?
On2 Technologies reveals 1080p hardware video decoder for handsets
On the same day that Texas Instruments chose to showcase a new chip that would enable HD recording capabilities on cellphones, On2 Technologies is taking a moment from its hectic day in Barcelona to trumpet an all new 1080p hardware RTL video decoder. The Hantro 8190 reportedly supports Adobe Flash along with H.263, H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark and VP6 video formats, and it can even handle JPEG images up to 16-megapixels. According to On2, the device was created to be easily integrated with ARM, MIPS and "other embedded CPU and DSP cores," and can supposedly decode 1080p H.264 video at 30 frames-per-second using a clock frequency of just 165MHz. As it stands, the Hantro 8190 is currently available for licensing, but only time will tell who's going to bite.
Broadcom launches new dedicated HD decoding hardware for media PCs
Getting Blu-ray or HD DVD playback on that new laptop PC might have just gotten a little easier & cheaper, as Broadcom just announced its new media PC solutions. There's no question that h.264 and VC-1 decoding can require a lot of processor power, but Broadcom will also be competing with integrated GPU solutions like ATI's Avivo technology and NVIDIA's PureVideo. These new chips will be available to OEM's as add-in cards or motherboard chipsets, bringing the same technology already used in standalone Blu-ray and HD DVD players straight to PCs. With the same tech at heart, we can expect to see HD-enabled laptop prices slide to match recent standalones, coming in as low as the $1,000 mark.
TiVoDecode Manager fulfills TUAW prediction
It's nice for TUAW when Laurie is proven prescient, although it does tend to give her a slight air of haughty competence. Just five days ago she and Dave Zatz figured "a GUI wrapper can't be far behind" for the TiVoDecode tool... and now there are two. David Benesch's TiVoDecode Manager is a full-featured beastie -- it automates discovery, download and decoding of TiVo video to the desktop of your friendly neighborhood Macintosh. It's already at version 1.1, which bodes well for a rapid development schedule. Note also that for now you may need superplayer VLC to watch the MPEG-2 files that result.There's also Nik Friedman's droplet TiVo Decoder, which wraps the same behind-the-scenes code in a basic drag-and-drop utility. It doesn't include a way to get the original files off your TiVo, but if you turn on Bonjour bookmarks in Safari you should see your DVR listed and you can grab the files via the browser.Now, if I can get Laurie to post something predicting a financial windfall for me, or even "Rumor: Mike's post-holiday-party headache should be gone within a day or so," that'd be just great.Update, Sunday evening: Reader Samuel McConnell has let us know about his Automator action, also called TiVo Decoder, which provides a wrapper for the utility -- you can check it out on his site.[via engadget & PVRblog]
