If NVIDIA thought they could sit back and relax now that their 720p-capable APX 2500 mobile chipset is out in the open, they really need to think again; On2 have just announced the Hantro 8190, a multi-format hardware RTL video decoder that can handle 1080p high-definition video at 30fps as well as H.263, H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark and VP6 formats together with still images of up to 16-megapixels. That means any device built using the chipset will be potentially compatible with YouTube, QuickTime streaming video and DivX.
Okay, so manufacturers will still need a mobile application CPU since the Hantro 8190 is solely for video decoding, but since the APX 2500 is only compatible with Windows Mobile there’s far more scope for seeing the 8190 in a range of devices. Whichever they might be, they’ll definitely be media-focused; the Hantro chipset is capable of colour conversion, image scaling, image rotation, brightness, saturation and contrast adjustment, image cropping, picture-in-picture, programmable alpha blending for semi-transparent text overlay, dithering and de-interlacing for progressive scan displays.
The chipset is available for manufacturer testing now; there’s no indication of when we might see it applied in a commercially-available device.
[via iTechNews]
ON2 Technologies with its hantro chip and the soon to be released VP8 codec will become the Microsoft of video codecs. This company will be a major player in the video architecture space for now and the future.