X-bit labs

HP, LG Electronics Enable Divx Support on High-Definition Televisions.

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 04/23/2008 | 11:33 AM ]

In a bid to spread its technology even wider around the industry Divx company has allowed numerous makers of portable and non-portable digital media players, game consoles, high-definition video players, mobile phones, cameras as well as numerous other equipment to enable Divx codec support on their devices. Today it is the turn of TV-sets.

It is not a secret that modern TV-sets pack quite a lot of computing power in order to decode high-def TV streams encoded using H.264 codec. However, there are very few TV-sets capable of content playback from the Internet or USB. Two major manufacturers of high-definition TV-sets – HP and LG Electronics – said on Wednesday that certain of their HDTVs are now Divx certified and can playback appropriate content without a player or set-top-box directly from an USB memory stick or the Internet.

“The company has extended its ecosystem into digital televisions with over 80 models certified from major brands such as LG and HP that allow consumers to easily play back their content via USB storage devices that plug directly into the televisions. Various models also enable content to be streamed directly from Internet services,” a statement by the company explains.

The announcement by Divx is hardly surprising. Earlier this year Advanced Micro Devices and Divx agreed to work together to achieve DivX certification for specific AMD Xilleon processors that power set-top-boxes and HDTVs. Besides, Divx is also working with such chip providers as Chips and Media, Broadcom and Trident in order to enable Divx playback on HDTVs and STBs. Further market penetration of Divx certified devices will considerably popularize not only the codec itself, but also video content downloaded from the Internet, or created using Divx certified camcoders.

At present there are two HDTVs from HP and LG listed at Divx web-site.

The DivX and its brother XviD formats are used to distribute copyright protection-free movies typically by the Internet and usually without content producer approval. Both codecs are based on MPEG 4 ASP and offer balance between video quality and file size.

“The market for televisions is changing rapidly as entertainment is increasingly consumed through digital formats and consumers begin to look for solutions that connect their living room with a high-quality digital experience. Given its steady adoption rate within this market, DivX is well positioned to capitalize on this shift and secure a significant share of the business,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates.