NXP Chip Helps Eliminate Set-Top Boxes
IC does time-shifting of analog video signals
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, September 3, 2008
A European television manufacturer is using an integrated circuit from NXP Semiconductors to build so-called "time shifting functions" directly into its new televisions.
Loewe AG is employing NXP's SAA7164 IC as a single-chip shift engine, capturing analog signals and time-shifting them, thus eliminating the need for a conventional set-top box. Set-top boxes are used, especially in the U.S., to capture video signals, digitize them and hold them for a prescribed amount of time so viewers can eliminate commercials during playback. The SAA7164 eliminates the need for the set-top box because it can be incorporated inside the TV set.
"There's an emerging trend in Europe and potentially in the U.S. to build the time-shift directly into the TV, instead of using an external set-top box," says Michael Malloy, a marketing manager for NXP.
The SAA7164, previously noted for its incorporation in TV tuner cards for the PC space, is being used for the first time in the consumer electronics space, NXP engineers say.
Because the SAA7164 is an analog device, it is expected to serve as a companion chip to digital time-shift ICs. NXP engineers say the device will continue to play a role even as the television industry transitions to digital TV.
"Any customer on the planet today who builds time-shift functionality into a product will support both analog and digital for the foreseeable future," Malloy says.
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