Single-Chip, Real-Time HD video transcoding solution from TI

“As there is increased demand for access to video on the go and across different devices and in different video formats, applications will have to be able to manage local transcoding between compression formats to adapt HD video, with its large amounts of data, for storage on different media and sharing with other playback devices using different formats,” said IdaRose Sylvester, senior research analyst, IDC. “Implementing these operations for HD requires greater performance and memory than many systems currently have and multi-format transcoding imposes new requirements on codec algorithms to ensure picture quality.”

The DM6467 is specifically designed to address the HD transcoding challenge of commercial and consumer markets through its multi-core design that achieves a 10x performance increase over previous generation digital media processors. The DM6467 processor integrates the ARM and DSP core along with High-Definition Video/Imaging Co-Processors (HD-VICP), video data conversion engine and targeted video port interfaces. The HD-VICP offers more than three GHz of DSP processing power through dedicated accelerators for HD 1080i H.264 high profile transcoding, while the video data conversion engine manages video processing tasks, including downscaling, chroma sampling and menu overlay functionality. Less than 300 MHz of the DSP core is used to manage the multi-format video transcoding, leaving the rest of the DSP headroom available for additional application performance. While the DM6467 targets markets such as Media Gateways and MCUs where Transcoding is a requirement, the flexibility and efficiency of the DM6467 makes it attractive in applications where simultaneous HD encoding and decoding are required such as video telephony, or video security markets where multiple channels of standard definition encoding is important. The device also includes industry standard PCI bus and gigabit Ethernet among the connectivity peripherals.

The level of integration and optimization of the DM6467 also delivers this performance at up to one-tenth the cost of previous application systems while maintaining the flexibility needed to address multiple video formats in applications like multi-conferencing units (MCUs) and video security. In an MCU, for example, three 1GHz TMS320C6415T DSPs per HD video channel are required for processing HD video at a cost of $507 per HD channel. With a DM6467-based MCU, the system is reduced to a single chip HD solution, reducing the per channel cost to $35.95. Furthermore, with the DM6467 handling the video transcoding, the system will require less power, less expensive DDR2 memory, reduced flash count and a smaller FPGA generating additional savings for the system bill of materials (BOM).

“As the long tail of online and mobile video grows longer, legacy solutions for transcoding video in multiple formats – essentially, software running on servers – are no longer viable and the market demands a new approach,” said Brendon Mills, CEO of RipCode. “Using TI’s DaVinci technology, we are the first company to approach transcoding as a network appliance and the first to offer an on-demand transcoding capability. High-performance TI processors also allow RipCode to quickly incorporate next generation compression standards for future, innovative digital video products.”

Video security systems will also see similar BOM reductions and have the flexibility to implement multi-channel encode (up to five channels of H.264 MP D1) and decode (up to six channels of H.264 MP) for hybrid HD and SD digital video recorder (DVR) and surveillance (DVS) systems. The DM6467 also has the performance to accommodate proprietary video processing algorithms as well as video analytics.

The new DM6467 processor takes full advantage of TI’s proven DaVinci development environment, including complete hardware, software and development tools. TI is also offering a corresponding DM6467 digital video evaluation module (DVEVM), which includes MontaVista Linux, industry standard and DaVinci application programming interfaces (APIs), DaVinci Codec Engine and a host of multimedia codecs for evaluation. In addition to standard video, imaging, speech and audio codecs, the system includes new transcoders, such MPEG-2 to H.264. While the DaVinci system will greatly simplify digital video implementation, additional application-specific software and design expertise is also available from TI’s DSP Third Party Network.