AfterDawn: News

HDTV comes to mobile phones

As insane as the idea might be, 3DLabs has announced the world's first media processor for phones and PDAs that is capable of 720p resolution AVC/H.264 video playback.

The chip is 3DLabs' first product after it announced to split off from Creative who has owned the company for the last four years. Chip is called DMS-02 and it is a multi-core, ARM-based array of floating point processors.



Company's obvious target market is the expanding portable video player market and the chip is obviously capable of decoding also "standard" resolution videos. For those not familiar with the HDTV acronyms. 720p stands for progressive 1280x720 resolution which means that the video has three times more pixels (or "details") than a regular TV or DVD clip.

Source: TechReport

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 1 Dec 2006 2:54

• Previous article

• Ken Kutaragi removed from president position

• Next article

• MPAA wants your privacy

• 26 comments

• Auslander

  at the size of a mobile phone's screen, what difference could hd possibly make?

  1.12.2006 06:46 #1

• max777

  I'm more interested in a PDA or cell phone that does 1280x720????

  1.12.2006 06:55 #2

• thecraigc

  oooh, iPod 6g... NICE!!!

  1.12.2006 07:51 #3

• gus738

  this would fail as nobody would spent alot and the company cannot afford to do budget cell , dont get me wrong i like the ideal but this is going to fall right before it even starts

  1.12.2006 09:12 #4

• thecraigc

  i think your wrong...

  1.12.2006 10:28 #5

• Auslander

  i think there's no real purpose for this.

  1.12.2006 10:30 #6

• thecraigc

  i think i don't care... its cool!

  1.12.2006 10:32 #7

• Auslander

  i think you're addicted to useless technology :-P
  
  maybe this could somehow have an impact on the pricing of larger-scale hd. that's what i would like.

  1.12.2006 10:38 #8

• thecraigc

  i think i want to know if you mean cheaper or dearer... and so what if i like useless sh*t

  1.12.2006 10:40 #9

• magodeoz

  does anybody care about ipods anymore?
  

  1.12.2006 11:43 #10

• Auslander

  don't fire up the fanboys; we'll all get burned.

  1.12.2006 11:45 #11

• thecraigc

  "FIRE, FIRE!" -- beavis and butt-head
  
  i like iPods... thats why i chose my nano argument here -- http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/428008

  1.12.2006 11:53 #12

• Auslander

  your invalid nano argument?

  1.12.2006 11:54 #13

• thecraigc

  no, my valid one. ¦¬D

  1.12.2006 12:08 #14

• Auslander

  oh; i have yet to see that one.

  1.12.2006 12:09 #15

• thecraigc

  oooh! your funny!
  
  now thats [a type of] irony.
  
  do you agree yet?
  
  heres the link to my valid argument -- http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/428008#2592323
  

  I Hate Idiots
  
  Mike Shinoda.

  1.12.2006 12:17 #16

• ChiknLitl

  With this chip in it, maybe i'll get to watch about 45 minutes of a movie on my next iPod before the battery dies! Yeaahh!

  1.12.2006 12:30 #17

• Auslander

  craig, i already told you about that falsehood that makes your argument invalid.
  
  or, if we go with the traditional views of analogies as inductive arguments, it would be a weak argument, succumbing to my strong argument.

  1.12.2006 12:33 #18

• limelight

  How about a phone that gets a signal everywhere??
  
  What a thought!!!

  1.12.2006 13:44 #19

• gogochar

  They can make a satellite that can view objects from millions of lightyears away. They can make virtual reality a reality. They can clone sheep and other animals. But, they can't makeOriginally posted by limelight:a phone that gets a signal everywhere??Good grief!

  1.12.2006 21:48 #20

• 4thletter

  Anybody consider a portable video player/ mobile phone/ ipod that has an hdmi out so can play HD video on a big flat panel at full 720p, whats so bad about that ?

  2.12.2006 08:31 #21

• thecraigc

  i know. the big car size battery, with ultra small cells, that you would need...
  

  2.12.2006 08:57 #22

• jetyi83

  the purpose of this chip is not for cell phones, but probobly for personal video players, that have video out capabilities.
  
  there is no need to display high def on a small screen, especially considering how much bigger of a file a hd video would be. you would need a huge hard drive to playback that quality, unless you have a super highspeed streaming capability.
  
  this would be cool if your phone could hook up to your tv, but i think its mostly going to be used to prv's, like archos, that have huge hard drives 100+ gigs.
  
  

  2.12.2006 14:12 #23

• Tsoprano

  Q "at the size of a mobile phone's screen, what difference could hd possibly make?"
  
  A: Size is not the issue, it's clarity. With a smaller screen, more clarity is important. To get all those pixels in there 1280*720 92160 they have to make dot pitch very small. This also requires a powerful processor to run a smooth pagination, frame rate, and buffer for clean OTA (over the air) trasmission.
  
  Now, if we can only get cell phone TIVO ? We just need a holographic media disc about the size of your fingernail capable of holding about 12 gb, and we can have an HD movie on the phone - Now that's addiction to technology.
  
  P.S. One day - your grand children will call that OLD SCHOOL
  

  4.12.2006 11:34 #24

• Leningrad

  Watch movies on your dawm tv , this is why
  you bought it!!!!!!!

  15.12.2006 12:36 #25

• Tsoprano

  Owning a television makes no sense. Anything I want to watch can be done on a monitor. So whether you have an HD monitor at 80" Plasma or a 3.5 LCD on your phone, content is HD, and mobile content is both personable and portable.

  18.12.2006 13:46 #26