| Linux-based set-top box partnership targets sub-$150 market |
Apr. 08, 2002
Las Vegas, NV; NAB 2002 -- (press release excerpt) -- Century Embedded Technologies and VT Media Technologies today announced the formation of a strategic alliance to aggressively push into the low-cost broadband/IP set-top box (STB) marketplace. The two companies have collaborated on the development of a Linux-based set-top box design, the VT900 STB developer kit (announced in December 2001), and at CeBIT 2002 announced the world's first broadband set-top box system with a price-point below US $150.
Next-generation set-top boxes will be the delivery point for new entertainment programs and services soon to be offered in the home. They will combine Internet access, web browsing, streaming media playback, video-on-demand, email, online shopping, and a host of other capabilities into a single, unified system. According to Gartner Dataquest, digital STB systems are the fastest-growing consumer video application in the consumer electronics marketplace. Gartner projects 49 million units to ship worldwide in 2002, with more than 92 million units delivered in 2005 -- an 88% increase over just three years, and representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.9%.
About the VT100 set-top box
The compact (7.5 x 4.9 in.) VT100 set-top box (shown at left, attached to the side of a TV) enables several data streams, including Ethernet 10/100, to be converted to composite analog RF data streams or digital S-Video data streams compatible with all standard TV sets. Over 250 channels of various forms of TV-format data have been successfully tested with the VT900. Optionally available are DVD Player, CDRW and standard IDE Hardware.
The Linux-based VT100 provides a full web browser and supports all plug-ins, and fully supports the Web-Media software stack recently announced by National Semiconductor and Century Embedded Software. At the core of the WebMedia suite are two modules: the WebMedia Viewer and the WebMedia Plugin Manager. These two modules work together to manage the display and menu system, interact with the user, and control all multimedia components of the underlying hardware.
The VT100 allows the integration of Broadcast TV into the overall iTV service offering, supporting Analog RF signals, Digital TV broadcasting over MPEG, and IP multicast. This integration with iTV capabilities enables the offering of more than simply broadcast TV. Examples of new capabilities include click-through to a TV channel from a web page, click through from an EPG promotion directly to the appropriate channel and scaled broadcast TV video overlaid on an HTML web page.
Inside the VT100's compact enclosure (shown at right) is a low power single-board computer with up to 256MB RAM and a DiskOnChip Flash storage device, plus interfaces for IDE hard drives, 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet, USB, dual RS232, printer, PS/2 mouse/keyboard, and video outputs for CRT, TFT LCD, and TV (FS450 ultimate TV-out quality, with 6 point font readable on any TV).
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