New NEC chip will cut Blu-ray player costs

New NEC chip will cut Blu-ray player costs
NEC Electronics has announced that it has successfully fitted "analog-to-digital conversion, HDMI output, and sound encoding/decoding", all the major functions of Blu-ray, onto a new single chip dubbed the EMMA 3PF.

The chip should being shipping in September and will help to reduce production costs of Blu-ray players and drives. NEC says the chip will "significantly" reduce the amount of physical space required for players so consumers hopefully will soon enjoy thinner, cheaper players.



Notably, the new chip will also include a multicore CPU that should greatly improve start up time for Blu-ray players, an issue that has bugged many buyers since Blu-ray players began hitting the market. The new chip supports Profile 2.0 and NEC says "monthly production is expected to be 1,000,000 units from the fourth quarter of 2008."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 6 Aug 2008 16:18
Advertisement - News comments available below the ad
  • 16 comments
  • 13thHouR

    what about the cost of the media?

    Quote:The razor blade magnate King C. Gillette was alleged to have said that he would give away the razors for free if he was guaranteed to sell replacement blades at extortionate prices.


    6.8.2008 16:32 #1

  • fergus100

    will this be introduced to the ps3's blue ray drive hopfully it will mean a price cut for x mas

    the dark knight is amaising

    6.8.2008 16:50 #2

  • DXR88

    Yeah, actually we heard the same story on aD about these price cutting chips months ago. yet here we are again.

    Don't get me wrong price reduction is great in all, but the question is can these chips handle the stress without bugging out.

    i actually see this splitting the market you'll have your high end Blue-ray multi chip application then your low end single chip with buggy/cut back features, a perfect ploy (Joe don't care Joe want movie now or Joe get angry)_ a way to draw the masses in.

    it wont make it into the PS3 that would require a complete hardware/architecture redesign. Both highly costly.

    7.8.2008 00:07 #3

  • ZippyDSM

    I want to see 100$ BR players by the end of 08, DO IT!

    7.8.2008 01:07 #4

  • DXR88

    ZippyDSM don't care ZippyDSM want $100 blue-ray now or ZippyDSM get angry by 08

    7.8.2008 01:14 #5

  • ZippyDSM

    Originally posted by DXR88: ZippyDSM don't care ZippyDSM want $100 blue-ray now or ZippyDSM get angry by 08ZOMG! NERD SMASH!!!!

    :P

    7.8.2008 01:16 #6

  • DXR88

    Quote:Originally posted by DXR88: ZippyDSM don't care ZippyDSM want $100 blue-ray now or ZippyDSM get angry by 08ZOMG! NERD SMASH!!!!

    :P
    Lol

    7.8.2008 01:26 #7

  • juankerr

    NEC has been manufacturing EMMA chips since 1998. It was the first MPEG decoder LSI for digital STB's.

    Here's more info on this new EMMATM 3PF chip:

    http://www.necel.com/news/en/archive/0808/0401.html?src=hp1

    Quote:NEC Electronics announced that it had developed the world's first single-chip LSI to integrate the main functions of Blu-ray Disc players. Sample shipments of the new LSI, named EMMATM 3PF, will begin in September 2008.

    The EMMATM 3PF has the following features.
    1. All of the main functions required for Blu-ray Disc players are included on one chip, including the digital conversion of analog data read from optical discs, the digital decoding of encoded images and sounds and a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) for output to televisions.
    2. The package area has been reduced by 50% due to the single-chip configuration, the integration of external memory and the internalization of peripheral functions.
    3. The EMMATM 3PF supports BD-ROM Profile 2.0, the latest Blu-ray Disc specification. This profile includes picture-in-picture playback, high quality sound, and network connections for downloading additional content.
    4. The EMMATM 3PF has a multi-core CPU, which delivers an industry-best 1150 DMIPS (Dhrystone MIPS), and a graphic processing accelerator.

    The EMMATM 3PF allows users to create compact, high performance Blu-ray Disc players. In the future, this new product will make an important contribution to the integration of Blu-ray Disc playback into all audio-visual systems.

    Monthly production is expected to be 1,000,000 units from the fourth quarter of 2008.
    We should see these chips in low cost players by mid to late 2009. Sub-$200 2.0 players are a big possibility next year, and sub-$100 players by 2010.

    Quote:it wont make it into the PS3The PS3 doesn't need a chip like this because it already does everything thru the Cell.

    7.8.2008 09:10 #8

  • fergus100

    ps3 will get a price cut soon cause of the failbox cuts
    and you know what they say you pay for what you get

    quality is better than quantity

    7.8.2008 16:41 #9

  • DXR88




    We will definitely see a drop in player's when this hits.

    7.8.2008 18:01 #10

  • fergus100

    blu ray player costs 600 euro min cost thats a 1000 dolars or over at todays exchange rate 1000 billion next week haha

    8.8.2008 11:08 #11

  • blueroad

    hmm if it would reduce the prices id say thats a definite "FINALLY" and a sure "ITS BOUT GODAMN TIME" ^^

    8.8.2008 11:10 #12

  • fergus100

    well this news is bad for sony and the ps3 if cheap blu ray players come out that means the ps3 will no longer be the cheepest one on the market meaning another incentive for them to cut the price on ps3

    also because of the cheap blue ray player componens will also get cheaper for the drive so sony will be able to aford another price cut

    thank good for mass consumerism and globalisation

    NERD SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    8.8.2008 13:54 #13

  • HDNow

    Originally posted by fergus100: well this news is bad for sony and the ps3 if cheap blu ray players come out that means the ps3 will no longer be the cheepest one on the market What are you talking about?

    The PS3 is already not the cheapest BluRay player on the market!

    Insignia BluRay player at Best Buy for $280:

    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...d=1204332499513

    Magnavox BluRay player at Walmart for $278:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9864613

    Samsung BluRay player at Walmart for $341.54

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9208444

    Sony BluRay player at Walmart for $329.54:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5984216

    Panasonic BluRay player at Walmart for $388.54:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8073610

    The cheapest PS3 is $399.99.

    8.8.2008 14:34 #14

  • DXR88

    Originally posted by fergus100: well this news is bad for sony and the ps3 if cheap blu ray players come out that means the ps3 will no longer be the cheepest one on the market meaning another incentive for them to cut the price on ps3

    also because of the cheap blue ray player componens will also get cheaper for the drive so sony will be able to aford another price cut

    thank good for mass consumerism and globalisation
    well im feeding it, this has nothing to do with stand alone drives. example, PS3 or PC Based Drives. its a Stand alone blue-ray player thing. stand alones had to work with multiple chips one for converting one for audio and one for video. it was a decentralized set of chips.

    this is one chip to rule them all.

    8.8.2008 15:03 #15

  • fergus100

    Quote:Originally posted by fergus100: well this news is bad for sony and the ps3 if cheap blu ray players come out that means the ps3 will no longer be the cheepest one on the market What are you talking about?

    The PS3 is already not the cheapest BluRay player on the market!

    Insignia BluRay player at Best Buy for $280:

    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...d=1204332499513




    Magnavox BluRay player at Walmart for $278:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9864613

    Samsung BluRay player at Walmart for $341.54

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9208444

    Sony BluRay player at Walmart for $329.54:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5984216

    Panasonic BluRay player at Walmart for $388.54:

    http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8073610

    The cheapest PS3 is $399.99.
    sorry boutthat im on about ireland the land of the overpriced goods
    cheapest blue ray player over here is like 600 euro witch is 1000 dolars

    wish i was american

    8.8.2008 19:19 #16

© 2024 AfterDawn Oy

Hosted by
Powered by UpCloud