[opendtv] USB, Kleer plug into digital TVs

I think this is part of a trend to incorporate into DTV sets the
features that in the past have been assumed to belong to "home media
servers." It makes sense. TVs are a mass-market appliance. You need to
keep things simple.

Bert

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USB, Kleer plug into digital TVs

Rick Merritt
(12/17/2007 12:00 AM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204804894

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Two new interface efforts are gearing up as options
to link to digital TVs. The USB Implementers Forum is developing a
variant of its technology to link mobile devices and TVs, and startup
Kleer Corp. is announcing it has characterized its proprietary wireless
link for standard definition video.

The USB Implementer's Forum will roll out in 2008 a variant of wired USB
designed to move compressed high def video between displays and mobile
devices. The group claims the technology will be complementary to HDMI
which typically carries uncompressed video.

A spokesman for the USB group said developers could layer HDMI's HDCP
encryption on top of the new USB variant. No other details were
available about the effort.

In the wireless world, Kleer Corp. (Cupertino, Calif.) said it is ready
to demonstrate SD video at rates up to 1.5 Mbits/s on its proprietary
short-range wireless technology. The company's chip, primarily geared
for audio, emerged at CES this year enabling wireless ear buds for an
MP3 player from Thomson.

The company aims to enable video transfers between portable media
players or to wired adapters that link to TVs. It hopes to gather more
than a dozen backers of its proprietary protocol at an event at CES next
month where it may show the video capabilities.

However, Kleer does not expect customers to show at CES any design wins
for video streaming. "The big message at CES will be [protocol]
interoperability," said Ron Glibbery, vice president of marketing at
Kleer.

Even Kleer's next generation module, due by mid 2008, will focus on
audio. It will add sampling rates above the current 44.1 KHz, cut power
consumption to 20mW average and double the current 2.37 Mbits/s peak
data rate.

The company's goal is to win sockets in audio products as a lower power
alternative to Bluetooth. It uses a sub-sampling technique that does not
require all analog components to run at the full RF rates, saving power.

Bluetooth leader Cambridge Silicon Radio disputed Kleer's claims. Kleer
uses an external codec and other components that CSR integrates in its
chip. Adding in these components, Kleer actually consumes more power
(60mW vs. 50mW), consumes more space (134 vs. 64 square millimeters) and
costs more than Bluetooth ($6.80 vs. $5), the company said.

Silicon Image, the developer of HDMI, took a broad swipe at the whole
wireless category. "You will not be able to do video over wireless
anytime in the near future beyond about 720p and probably a reduced
frame rate version at that," said Stevan Eidson, a director of product
marketing for the company.

Indeed the question of what will be the conduit for digital video in the
home remains open. TV carriers, still leery of putting their premium
content on wireless, will ultimately have a major say in the decision.

"It would be lovely is there was a single answer," said Stephen Wood,
president of the WiMedia Alliance whose members are developing
ultrawideband and 60 GHz radios for the digital home. In the short term,
"there will be a lot of variation and experimentation," he added.

All material on this site Copyright 2007 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
 
 
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