Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Renesas Technology Europe | Subject: SH-Mobile
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 25 April 2008
Media processor gains video-centric
playback
Flexible Movie Player software uses the SH-Mobile's hardware acceleration supporting the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard.
Renesas Technology Corp has developed a novel video/audio playback software package for embedded systems using the SH-Mobile application processor for mobile phones The software will be available from July 2008 in Japan
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 25 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Flexible Movie Player is software designed for the SH-Mobile, which incorporates full hardware acceleration supporting the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard.
It more efficiently extracts the video processing performance of the SH-Mobile than the video playback middleware previously released by Renesas Technology.
In particular, Flexible Movie Player can deliver high-quality video reproduction even of content requiring high-volume processing by the CPU.
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Decode middleware aids the development of applications for mobile phone handsets employing the SH-Mobile application processor.
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NTT DoCoMo, Renesas Technology, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Sharp Corp are developing an SH-Mobile G2 single chip 3G platform that supports Symbian OS v9.3.
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Renesas Technology Europe has announced an expansion of its SH-Mobile range application processor from mobile phones into portable navigation devices and portable media players.
With earlier middleware video processing performance would have suffered when playing such content due to the priority given to audio processing.
In addition, support for playback of MP4 video files, which are widely used on mobile phones, is provided as standard, and modules are available for extending support to newer file formats in the future.
This makes it possible for mobile phone handsets to provide high-quality playback of multiple types of video content.
This modular structure provides flexibility in expanding functions and shortens the system development time.
In recent years the types of processing required of CPUs in mobile phone handsets in order to play video content have proliferated as screen sises have increased, data compression rates have risen, and the need to reproduce original content has grown.
Renesas Technology currently offers video playback middleware for the SH-Mobile that supports playback of MP4 files only.
This middleware gives priority to the audio portion of the content during playback in order to minimise dropouts.
This sometimes results in a drop in video quality when the number of frames output per time unit decreases.
To deal with this problem, Renesas Technology re-evaluated the audio-first processing system used in the existing video playback middleware and decided instead on a new audio-video independent processing system when developing the Flexible Movie Player software.
This ensures high-quality playback of MP4 files, with no audio dropouts and no reduction in the video frame rate.
The Flexible Movie Player does a better job of extracting the full performance of the SH-Mobile's full hardware acceleration and digital signal processor (DSP) because it uses an audio-video independent processing system.
For example, with VGA-sise content recorded at 30 frames per second and combining H.264 video and audio compressed in aacPlus format, the number of frames output per time unit decreases in the existing middleware due to the priority given to audio processing.
But Flexible Movie Player achieves a dramatic improvement in video processing performance, boosting the maximum frame rate by 30% over that achieved by the existing middleware.
Thus, there is no drop in video processing performance, even with content, such as higher quality video, that imposes a large processing load on the CPU, and high-quality video reproduction is achieved.
The Flexible Movie Player has a modular structure that allows new functionality to be added later.
It allows a file format to be extended by developing and incorporating additional modules supporting this software.
This makes it possible to meet the needs of a wide range of customers and helps shorten the system development time.
The existing video playback middleware from Renesas Technology must be used in combination with the MP4 file operation middleware, also supplied by Renesas.
In contrast, Flexible Movie Player can be used in combination with middleware developed by the customer, in addition to middleware from Renesas Technology (file operation middleware and codec middleware).
The modular design will make it possible to provide support for future decoder and new systems more flexibly and quickly.
For example, mobile phone handset embedded display systems are expected to increase in definition from the present VGA to standard definition (SD) and then eventually high definition (HD).
When this occurs, it will be possible to provide support for the new codecs required to implement the higher level of compression and decompression by adding a module.
This will make it possible to develop new systems in less time and enable manufacturers to bring new products to market in a timely manner.
Compared with the amount of time it previously required Renesas Technology to develop software to support a new codec, it takes about half the time to develop a new module.
As the functions of multimedia applications for mobile phones continue to become more sophisticated, Renesas Technology plans to continue developing software solutions such as middleware for video playback in response to market demand.
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