High-Def Baby Steps

Every year, like clockwork, LSI Logic announces incremental feature set updates to its DVD recorder-targeted chips in time for the Consumer Electronics Show. In 2004, we got single- and dual-mass storage interface processor variants, the latter supporting HDD-inclusive designs. Last year's tweak was a more integrated optical drive-only processor, as part of a three-device chipset bundle. And this time, the single- and dual-interface processors signify LSI Logic's first tentative steps into the digital television era.

For Europe's DVB market, LSI Logic has two options; the single-drive DMN-8623 and dual-drive DMN-8673. Given my Northern California location, however, LSI Logic spent most of its time with me talking about the ATSC-tailored single-drive DMN-8633 ($20, 1 million units) and dual-drive DMN-8683 ($25). DVB folks, keep reading; all four chips come from a common lineage, so I suspect most of what I'll say in the remainder of this write-up will also apply to you. To pave its entry into the DTV market, LSI Logic added two key features to the already-existing device foundation; the new chips directly accept one (DMN-8633) or two (DMN-8683) MPEG-2 Transport Stream inputs, and they drive high resolution outputs for connection to analog and digital displays.

With the DMN-8683, you can capture an incoming ATSC broadcast (all the way up to 1080i resolution) to the HDD and play it back in high-def from that same storage medium. Dual-input support allows you to record one channel while watching another, and the incoming audio-plus-video information can come not only from an 8VSB (over the air) or QAM (cable, satellite) demodulator, but more generally from any MPEG-2 TS source such as a HDV camcorder or D-VHS deck. You can also capture an incoming MPEG-2 TS stream to optical disc with either the DMN-8633 or DMN-8683, but not in high-def. Thereby explaining the 'baby steps' qualifier in this post's title.

Granted, there isn't yet a blue laser-based optical disc standard; the two leading contenders, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, won't have their big coming-out parties until CES next month, and it's anyone's guess when promises will turn into actual shipping products. But, as a past blog post pointed out, high resolution video and blue laser optical storage don't necessarily go hand-in-hand; it's very possible today to put a consumer-acceptable amount of 720- or 1080-line video material on a red laser-based dual-layer DVD if you use a more advanced codec than MPEG-2 (a concept which I'll explore further in my upcoming March 2, 2006 cover story).

The DMN-8633 and DMN-8683 support the MPEG-4 derived DivX format (which uses MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Format as its video codec, but harnesses MP3 instead of AAC for audio, along with employing a proprietary 'wrapper' file format), as did their predecessor chipsets. But, although LSI Logic admitted that "Yes, the Domino architecture upon which the 8633 and 8683 are built is capable of supporting HD DivX encoding", the company also says that "we are not productizing this feature at this time. The feedback from our customer base has been that the business model to justify this feature on DVDRs will exist when the proliferation of HD DivX-compatible playback devices on the market becomes significant.We will provide support as it becomes a requirement for the market."

Which seems to be a bit short-sighted from my standpoint. The Blu-Ray vs HD DVD standoff shows no signs of resolving itself any time soon. Therefore, LSI Logic and its customers (i.e. you) could more strongly 'grab' the market if it had a product capable of high-resolution video recording and playback via both the HDD and red laser DVD, but it's chosen to not do so. Wouldn't most of the HD DivX playback occur in the same DVD recorder used to create the disc image in the first place, anyway? And with respect to the secondary playback device, a Mac or Windows PC, DivX Networks also already has support in place.

Two other tidbits for your contemplation. The new devices don't include video ADCs, so you'll need to include a discrete video decoder to support a system's analog inputs. Also, the means of implementing an encryption-aware design is unclear to me. Since LSI Logic's chips don't themselves handle the decryption, they'll seemingly need to be fed an in-the-clear digital signal….which media rights holders usually see as a big no-no. Thoughts, readers?