Digital video products and technology specialist Sentivision is shipping an H.264 decoder for Texas Instruments MD64x digital media processors that it says can bring DVD-quality, real-time video-on-demand (VoD) to Linux systems over broadband and wireless Internet connections. The system supports encryption/authentication, and integrates with Sentivision reference designs encompassing server- and client-side hardware and software for IP TV operators.

(Click for slightly larger image of Sentivision's SV-503 set-top box)

Sentivision claims that its implementation of the H.264 high compression digital video codec standard, embedded on the TI media processors, offers “ultra-high compression ratio (more than 50 percent against any standard for the same perceptual quality).” Other features include enhanced motion compensation, entropy coding, and improved deblocking filter.

Sentivision claims that the low bit-rate and “network abstraction layer integration” enable low- and medium-bandwidth networks such as cable TV, DSL, and wireless to support high-quality VoD applications, and the company says the software “runs on Linux, for maximum flexibility and reliability.”

Sentivision says its H.264/AVC decoder complements its other VoD offerings, including a reference STB (Set-Top Box) hardware/software platform based on the TI DM64x processor, a realtime RTSP/RTP streaming server for media delivery, a progressive download system for bandwidth-constrained environments, and a hardware-enhanced Digital Rights Management (DRM) Plugin offering content encryption for high security.

“Together, these elements form a complete, secure, immediately available VoD platform, allowing customers to bring VOD solutions to market immediately,” the company claims.

Jan Rychter, CTO of Sentivision. “With Sentivision's solution now available on the DM64x processors, developers now have a convenient way to seamlessly integrate video on demand.”

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.