Application
Video Transcoding Introduction The moving image has become a foundational element in today’s culture. No longer restricted to our family room TVs, video is now ever-present and far from its original analogue roots. With broadcast digital TV, HD, internet video & TV and of course video-enabled Smartphones, things have come a long way in a very short time. What may have been thought of as a “fad” only a few short years ago, (who wanted to watch video on the then tiny cellphone screens?) has turned into an explosive growth scenario. Apple kicked things off with the iPhone, but Microsoft and Blackberry quickly kicked up the pace, and then of course there is Google as it seems hardly a day goes by without a new Android-based smartphone hitting the streets. The bottom line is a huge growth surge in video usage across a wide variety of platforms, from cellphones to computers and of course large HD TVs, with 3D just around the corner. This has caused many challenges for those hosting and/or “broadcasting” the video content. With such a broad spectrum of devices and delivery mediums and their associated bandwidth restrictions a single video file must maintain quality even though delivery to a phone would be at lower bit rate and resolution than the same file intended for HD broadcast over a dedicated cable connection. The need to be able to support multiple formats, compression and encoding schemes has generated the market for Video Transcoding which analysts estimate will be in excess of $1.5 billion by 2014. Multi-format transcoding enables the use of single source video content that can be manipulated (even “on the fly”) and the format, bitrate and/or resolution be changed so that it may be viewed on any video capable device. DSP and high performance computing technology is a prerequisite for these types of demanding applications. Advantech understands these complex issues and alongside their technology partners such as TI, have developed a product range and architecture that can handle the needs of today, and will grow as demands increase and new platforms are integrated. The Advantech DSP Blade, a high-density, AdvancedTCA-based DSP solution provides the ideal architecture to support multi-format transcoding applications.
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