Broadcom Debuts New Crystal HD Solution Bringing Affordable HD Playback to Netbooks

Broadcom (News - Alert), a provider of semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, has unveiled the BCM70015 single chip Crystal HD enhanced media accelerator solution that will bring low power consuming, affordable High Definition (HD) video playback to netbooks.

According to the company, the new advanced media processor is targeted for PC/x86 applications such as playback of streaming video content, Blu-ray Disc playback, file-based content, and broadcast and other TV sources. It is optimized for use in netbooks, notebooks, and Small Form Factor (SFF) and slim desktops.

The Crystal HD solution makes full use of Broadcom’s STB and consumer media player technologies to offer enhanced HD playback on low cost netbooks. With integrated support within the Adobe Flash media player, a vast library of online HD content from popular websites can now be watched from netbooks at a low cost without having to compromise on the advantages of netbooks’ portability and long battery life.

The BCM70015 single chip high-definition advanced media processor also provides software support for Adobe Flash Player (v10.1), Windows Media Player (v12), as well as support for other third-party media players including both commercial and open-source and features support for standard definition (SD) and HD multi-format video decode of industry standard codec (H.264/AVC, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV9, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid and AVS (News - Alert)), enabling users to enjoy a mobile media experience with no frame drops or jitter, even under a heavy CPU load.

Netbooks have grown in popularity in part because they are easily transportable. Broadcom’s new low power and low cost Crystal HD technology will allow netbook owners, for the first time, to use their netbooks as portable multimedia playback devices on which they can experience HD video anytime, anywhere.

Recently, Broadcom shipped the BCM7630, a single die Blu-ray chip, and released a new version of its InConcert wireless technology.