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HQV Processing Returns In IDT’s ‘Vida’ Chip

The popular video-processing chip technology for CE devices known as Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) has resurfaced as a solution for mainstream CE products, following a brief hiatus from the market as the technology’s ownership status changed hands.

New owner, Integrated Device Technology (IDT), based here, recently unveiled its plans to market the next iteration of HQV processor technology, called “Vida.”

In acquiring some of Silicon Optix’s assets last year, IDT landed the rights to the HQV and Reon architecture. The firm’s new HQV Vida chip takes these systems a step further to address new forms of video source material, including Internet video content.

The technology is coming out just as TV and video source device manufacturers begin to ramp up introductions of new products with broadband capability. Demand is growing for video displays and source components with access to Internet-delivered video and movie content through such service providers as Netflix, Amazon On Demand, Vudu, VuNow, Hulu, YouTube and others.

In most cases this content is offered in highly compressed formats and at lower-than-optimal bit rates, resulting in pictures with more noise and artifacts. This interference becomes magnified as screen sizes get larger.

IDT said the Vida processor will clean up such images using two new technologies — Auto HQV and HQV StreamClean.

Auto HQV automatically adjusts image quality of content from different sources or content that varies in quality.

HQV StreamClean then uses three noise-reduction techniques to address specific artifacts, including adaptive mosquito, block and temporal distortion.

IDT said Vida’s resolution enhancement technology will up-scale standard and sub-HD resolution images to achieve “near-HD quality,” while boosting detail in HD content.

The new Vida HQV chip includes 14-bit internal processing and 12-bit output for Deep Color processing and 3-D gamut conversion for x.v.YCC processing.

IDT is making the Vida chip available to manufacturers of HDTVs, computer monitors, video projectors, Blu-ray Disc and DVD players, set-top boxes, A/V receivers, mobile media device docks and media adapters. The chips can also be used in outboard set-top video processors.

The Vida chip has also been reduced in size from previous HQV iterations, allowing for a more flexible fit in shrinking component designs. It is also said to be power efficient.

The company said it has priced Vida for mainstream products at a cost of $25 for 1,000 units. However, no manufacturer partners have been announced yet.

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