H.264 decoders are beginning to appear in many solutions and the compression scheme is becoming more popular. Satellite set top boxes continue to be the largest market for H.264 decoder ICs. In addition more and more DTVs are using H.264 decoder ICs rather than only MPEG-2. As a result In-Stat expects H.264 decoder ICs to grow at an annual rate in excess of 20% through 2013.

“Advanced compression, such as H.264, is becoming increasingly popular due to its lower bit rate and smaller file size that especially helps networked video solutions,” says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst. “The proliferation of video applications, such as user generated content and online video streaming, embedded DVRs and mobile video are serving to increase demand for low cost, high-quality encoders.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Worldwide H.264 chip unit shipments will increase by 51% in 2010 over 2009.
• Broadcom was the largest supplier of H.264 decoder ICs for the satellite set top box market.
• STMicroelectronics continues to maintain leadership in the SD MPEG-2 cable market
• MediaTek remained the top supplier of DVD decoder ICs
• Renesas lead the market in Blu-ray SoCs in 2009

Recent In-Stat research, MPEG ICs Grow with the Consumer Electronics Market (#IN1004696MMT), covers the worldwide market for MPEG integrated circuits in consumer electronics. It includes:

• Examination of MPEG IC markets for broadcast and professional applications, semi-professional and industrial applications, and consumer electronics—both line-powered and mobile.
• Worldwide forecasts for multiple types of MPEG ICs for several types of applications through 2014.
• Companies mentioned in the report:, ALi Corporation, Ambarella, Broadcom, C2 Microsystems, Cavium Networks , Hisilicon, Intel Corporation, Magnum Semiconductor, Maxim Integrated Products, MediaTek, NTT Electronics Corporation, RealTek, Renesas, Sigma Designs, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, Sunplus, Texas Instruments, Trident Microsystems, ViXS Systems, Zenverge, and Zoran.

Intel finally hit the nail with this chipset win on the upcoming media player from DLink, the Boxee.
At first the the Boxee box were going to come with Nivida Tegra chipset, but now it seems that Dlink have changed horses in midstream.
It is said that the box will launch in November with an retail prise at $199.
Intel have recently won many CE producers over with their CE4100 media chipset, which consists of an Atom Processor, and a GMA 500 video graphic chipset and IO subsystem.  The Boxee is supposed to run the popular OS XMBC known from the media center space. the combination of a powerful chip that can run flash and X86 instructions  and a appealing user interface from the XMBC might reveal the first major upgrade in the embedded media player space, in terms of UI and raw computing power, without sacrificing power consumption and easy on access and startup time.

The new SMP100 features Netflix, Digitmotion and MKV support plus USB and Ethernet support, what chipsset it runs on is not known at the moment.

Sony is now getting in the game with this fully featured media player that actually can compete with the current breed of lesser known brands of media players. It will be interesting to see if the old Consumer electronics producer can bring new ideas to the market.

Sony finally introduces as media that supports MKV. Its current media player the U10 and its PS3 game console do not handle the popular MKV file container format.

Secondly does this media player follow the trend of supporting live streams of Netflix and other online video services.

 

Bye Bye physical media?

Seems like Sony is waking up to the fact that more and more users are shifting their usage of video from physicals disk to online storage on hard drives stream to a media player.

 

Sigma  new flagship media processor was shown at Computex in June.
The SMP8656 MIPS based processor runs a 800 Mhz and features Android support and downloadable
applications. For media players producers that can utilize the android platform this is the opportunity to create a media and app User interface on android. Official Android support from Google however ends a screen larger than 5 inches. This is a big limitation for developers of a new compelling media TV interface. However an attractive architecture like MIPS, with an strong OS like Android, could be very interesting for consumers.

Today Major TV Screen producers are running big ads telling consumers that they can have internet@TV on their nrw flatscreen TV´s . 

Digital media Consult have taken a closer look at the market and it current offerings.

Box or TV

If you are in the market for a new flat screen TV and want to have one with internet capabilities, you have choice between many TV but actually very little differentiation between the TV brands. You want to look after if the TV offers your favorites picture viewer, mail app and Facebook and Twitter access.

If you have just recently bought a TV you might not buy a new one with internet capabilities. Instead you can opt for some of the alternatives for internet surfing that some of the little media players or game consoles offer.

Availability

Interneton  TV is what WAP was for mobile phones some time back, you only get what the producer put in the device for you, not the full internet experience. For example Sony and Samsung only offers you access to Youtube, Facebook and a few other sites made for their  TV interface. If you want to access you favorite forum homepage or news site, you are out of luck.

Navigation

It is still difficult to navigate the web with a remote control. The best option for user navigation is still a mini-size keyboard like Logitech Dinovo mini or a  good alternative is the Wii motion controller together with on the Opera browser. More apps and a better user interface is needed before real Internet couch surfing will be enjoyed. For now users are best served by having a separate computer or tablet nearby when then want to surf the net and watch TV at the same time.

Let’s look at the current offerings and see what is in the store for the next 2 years.

Numbers are based on Industry sources, sales of Chipsets by Sigma and Realtek, and other estimates. Excluding sales of game consoles.

For starters, they already have an article rounding up the various media streamer platforms here
enjoy the article