Sigma Designs, a leader in digital media processing for consumer appliances, announced that TISNet, a subsidiary of Tatung Company, currently responsible for Tatung Company's worldwide DSTB, NPVR, digital home product sales, and software development and technical support, launched its set-top box (STB), the STB4000C, based on Sigma's Designs EM8620 and EM8622 media processors at last week's Supercomm 2005. The TISNet STB4000C supports up to 720p/1080i of high resolution video output, as well as manages multiple outputs to provide under 720p playback and PIP (Picture-in-Picture), simultaneously displaying video for up to four monitors or televisions.

"Today's set-top box needs the ability to support all the advanced codecs," said Luke Dang, President of TISNet. "Since Sigma is a leader in advanced codec and IPTV solutions, we were able to easily enter the market with a competitive product to address the burgeoning demand for IPTV set-top boxes."

The IPTV industry, which is now showing signs of impending growth on a worldwide basis, is rapidly moving toward advanced set-top boxes that feature both H.264 and VC-1. For telco operators, these advanced codec solutions enable the delivery of high-quality video services, such as live broadcasts and video-on-demand (VOD) over bandwidth-limited, broadband networks. To upscale competition, certain North American and Asian services are looking to use the added compression to feature high-definition channels. By deploying set-top boxes that incorporate all codecs, operators ensure that their investment in customer premise equipment can support future content streams in any major format.

TISNet's STB4000C presently supports the Linux 2.4 operating system, offering a browser, with support for Flash, Java VM, Multi-media API, and other extensions. The version to be delivered in July will also include the support of Windows CE 5.0 as well. For telecommunication customers, the STB4000C uses an x86-based host CPU, which provides the simplest environment for software development, allowing TISNet to quickly implement customized set-top boxes for their customers, and likewise enable Telcos to rapidly deploy new services.

"Tatung brings a substantial force in high volume manufacturing to the IPTV industry," said Ken Lowe, VP of strategic marketing, Sigma Designs. "We are excited to be working together with them on advanced set-top box solutions."

Availability

The TISNet STB4000C will be available in July.

About the EM8620L Media Processor

The EM8620L media processor from Sigma Designs provides a complete single-chip solution for next generation IP video and connected media players, featuring high definition Windows Media Video 9 support. The EM8620L offers a wide range of media processing functions for video decoding, audio decoding, and graphics processing based on REALmagic(R) HD technology, for the highest quality image possible on high definition displays. For single-chip systems, it features an on-chip RISC processor, PCI-bus, IDE controller and additional peripheral ports for supporting other subsystems.