HDMI 1.4 Transceiver for Consumer Audio/Video Designs

Designed for home theatre-in-a-box (HTIB) systems, AVRs (audio/video receivers), HBR (high-bit-rate) TV, pro-AV matrix switches, and sound bar speaker systems, the ADV7623 is the only HDMI 1.4 device to integrate a 4:1 multiplexed input HDMI receiver, HDMI transmitter, and CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) buffer and controller into a single platform. Unlike competitive offerings that require multiple components, ADI’s single-chip HDMI 1.4 transceiver lowers component and board costs by 33 percent, while supporting advanced features such as OSD (on-screen display) and ARC (audio-return channel) traditionally reserved for higher priced entertainment systems.

“The ADV7623 HDMI 1.4 transceiver with Xpressview fast switching technology significantly reduces the cost, development time and complexity of home AV design,” said Martin Cotter, product line director, Advanced Television Segment, Analog Devices. “With its high-level of integration and feature-rich interface, the ADV7623 fills the considerable void between expensive, multi-chip home AV offerings and less integrated solutions that leave much of the HDMI testing and cost burden to the designer.”

By combining the HDMI receiver, HDMI transmitter, CEC, OSD and ARC functions on a single chip, ADI’s new transceiver relieves much of the design work involved in interfacing multiple chips together in HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) repeater designs. The ADV7623 HDMI 1.4 transceiver features a complete SDK (software development kit) that includes ADI’s proven repeater driver libraries.

ADI’s Xpressview fast switching technology enables home AV electronics to switch between any four HDMI input ports in less than one second, eliminating the 15 to 19 second content protection authentication delay required by home AV systems such as DVRs (digital video recorders), STB (set-top boxes), game consoles and HD camcorders. ADI’s Xpressview fast switching technology minimizes software overhead, further reducing design costs and complexity.

The ADV7623 is the first HDMI transceiver to integrate OSD, enabling AV equipment makers to easily and affordably implement on-screen features and menus across an entire line of HDMI-enabled home AV products. ADI provides a complete OSD software development toolkit. The ADV7623 incorporates HDMI 1.4 standard features and colour formats into consumer AV designs, with support for 3D TV video and HDTV formats up to 1080p. The ADV7623 additionally features the new HDMI 1.4 audio feature, ARC, which enables AVRs and other AV equipment to receive audio directly from an HDTV over the existing HDMI cable, eliminating the expense of an extra cable for audio connectivity.

The ADV7623 provides complete audio support for eight channels of I2S audio, S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) digital audio output, SACD (super audio CD) and compressed SACD with DSD (direct stream digital), and DST (direct stream transfer ) output interfaces. The HDMI transceiver also supports HBR audio streaming to allow recovery (and downstream processing) of compressed lossless audio formats, including Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio™ or DTS-HD™ High Resolution Audio. The range of formats supported, in addition to the dedicated, flexible audio input and output ports, make the ADV7623 ideal for integration into advanced audio consumer products.