Personal Video Recording (PVR) Goes Mobile with Technology from Texas Instruments

Personal Video Recording (PVR) Goes Mobile with Technology from Texas Instruments

September 12, 2006

Together With PacketVideo and S3, TI's Hollywood(TM) + OMAP(TM) Solution Enables Delivery of PVR and Picture-in-Picture Functionality to DVB-H Mobile Phones

    AMSTERDAM, Sept. 12 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Television
viewers have become addicted to conveniently accessing
their favorite shows with personal video recording (PVR)
technology. Soon consumers will be able to extend this
"on demand" living room experience to their
mobile devices with PVR capabilities enabled by Texas
Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) technology. This
week at IBC, TI, with partners PacketVideo and Silicon
& Software Systems Ltd. (S3), will showcase advanced
mobile DTV solutions. The demonstrations of TI's
Hollywood(TM) DVB-H single chip and OMAP(TM) 2 platform
include the industry's first mobile PVR and
picture-in-picture (PIP) functionality using PacketVideo's
pvTV(TM) technology over a live DVB-H network. (Visit
http://www.ti.com/mobiletv for more information.)   

    The new mobile PVR and PIP solution will nurture
increased viewing of mobile DTV content as consumers will
have access to the programming they are most interested in
viewing, without having to rely on "tuning in" to
a live programming schedule. Initial mobile DTV usage
indicates consumers will spend up to three hours per day
watching mobile TV content, broken into short
"snack-sized" viewing segments of two to 10
minutes at a time. Morning and evening commutes, lunch
breaks and early evening are expected to be prime viewing
times for mobile DTV users. These added capabilities would
allow increased flexibility to what content the consumer
views during their viewing times instead of being bound to
what is on at that moment.  DVB-H mobile DTV networks
provide the spectral efficiency and flexibility needed to
meet the demands of content-hungry consumers. 

    "Consumers are hooked on personalized content,
with consumer adoption for personal video recording growing
at exponential rates. TI's work with partners PacketVideo
and S3 is critical to delivering consumer electronics
functionality to mobile handsets, including PVR and PIP.
These advanced features give users access to their
personalized content anytime, anywhere, in the palms of
their hands," said Marc Cetto, general manager of TI's
Mobile Connectivity Solutions business.
 
    With the Hollywood chip (DTV1000) and OMAP
processor-based solution, consumers can watch live TV and
store broadcast content on their mobile devices. Coupled
together, the OMAP2430 processor and TI's Hollywood single
chip provide the most advanced overall solution for the
reception, decoding and processing of TV content to mobile
phones. The PIP capability can showcase two live channels
of content - ideal for users who want to preview other
channel programming or even sports fans who want to watch
multiple events at once. It can also work with the PVR for
users who may also view one channel showcasing
personalized, pre-recorded content like a movie, while the
other channel plays live broadcast content such as weather
or financial market updates. Road warriors can take
advantage of the video-out capability of OMAP processors
and display their personalized content on a TV either at
home or while traveling. 

    The PVR and PIP demonstration uses PacketVideo's pvTV
client solution -- a complete mobile digital TV client
platform based on PacketVideo's proven video player
framework.  PacketVideo's pvTV solution for DVB-H has two
components: the pvTV client software, and the pvTV
reference hardware platform. 

    Additionally at IBC, TI will showcase an OMAP2420
mobile DTV solution, which also integrates S3's
onHandTV(TM) DVB-H middleware. The onHandTV solution
delivers a robust, proven middleware platform for mobile TV
applications. The demonstration will showcase a DVB-H Group
C broadcast stream at up to 30 frames per second, supported
by the PacketVideo framework. The S3 solution is also
designed to enable PVR and PIP functionality. TI's OMAP 2
processors deliver low-power, high-performance multimedia
processing to enable mobile DTV solutions with the kind of
high-end user experience consumers expect while watching TV
at home. Decoding two channels simultaneously is only
possible with a robust applications engine such as the
OMAP2430 processor, which can decode TV channels "on
the fly" and display both channels at the same time.
TI's OMAP processors have been integral in defining mobile
entertainment and are used in high-quality mobile video
applications to deliver high performance and power
efficiency, allowing handset manufacturers to bring the
entertainment center to the handset.

    As the industry's first single-chip DVB-H solution,
TI's Hollywood chip offers significant advantages in
solution size, bill of materials and power consumption to
drive mobile digital TV into mass market phones and
devices. The Hollywood chip can be used for mobile
DTV-enabled personal media players, and provides an
integrated tuner, demodulator, decoder and memory on one
piece of silicon. For this type of PVR and PIP application,
the DVB-H receiver (such as DTV1000), must be able to
process multiple services, such as two TV channels
simultaneously (concurrently or back-to-back) without
increasing system memory cost and footprint.

    TI's partners play an important role in delivering
innovation around the Hollywood chip-based DVB-H solution.
TI works with PacketVideo, S3 and a number of other
companies in the mobile DTV ecosystem to provide an
end-to-end solution for mobile DTV while enabling choices
for handset manufacturers. In January 2006, TI was one of
the co-founders of the Mobile DTV Alliance, which is
focused on promoting mobile digital TV and accelerating
DVB-H development and deployment in North America. The
Alliance's founding members include Intel, Microsoft,
Modeo, Motorola, Nokia and TI.

    Availability

    Consumer access to PVR and PIP capabilities on DVB-H
handsets is expected in 2007. Manufacturers interested in
technology behind TI's IBC mobile TV demonstrations can
visit TI at http://www.ti.com/mobiletv , PacketVideo at
http://www.packetvideo.com or S3 at http://www.s3group.com
.


    Texas Instruments -- Making Wireless 

    TI is the leading manufacturer of wireless
semiconductors, delivering the heart of today's wireless
technology and building solutions for tomorrow.  TI
provides a breadth of silicon and software and over 15
years of wireless systems expertise that spans handsets and
base stations for all communications standards, wireless
LAN, Bluetooth, A-GPS, mobile TV and Ultra Wideband.  TI
offers custom to turn-key solutions, including complete
chipsets and reference designs, OMAP(TM) application
processors, as well as core digital signal processor and
analog technologies built on advanced semiconductor
processes.  Please visit
http://www.ti.com/wirelesspressroom for additional
information.

    About Texas Instruments 

    Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP
and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world
signal processing requirements.  In addition to
Semiconductor, the company includes the Educational &
Productivity Solutions business.  TI is headquartered in
Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales
operations in more than 25 countries.

    Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol TXN.  More information is located
on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .

    Safe Harbor Statement

    Statements contained in this news release regarding TI
product availability and other statements of management's
beliefs, goals and expectations may be considered
forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by these statements.  The following factors and the
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actual results to differ materially from the statements
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developments occurring after the date of this news
release.

    Trademarks

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    For more information, please contact:

     Daniela Koeppe (EMEA)
     tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Tracy W. Steiner (USA)
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Texas Instruments Incorporated