Reference Design Platform will enable Consumer Electronic manufacturers to more quickly deploy Gemstar-TV Guide’s IPG for consumer electronics
Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. and LSI Logic Corporation have signed a multi-year agreement under which they will develop a reference design platform for TV Guide On Screen, Gemstar-TV Guide’s interactive program guide (IPG) for consumer electronics that is built directly into CE products.
Reference design platforms provide consumer electronics manufacturers with a design starting point to accelerate custom development of their products. The new reference platforms will combine TV Guide On Screen with the power of LSI Logic DoMiNo single-chip DVD and HDD recorder processors, providing manufacturers with a more efficient means of developing IPG-enabled digital recording devices. LSI Logic processors enable reduced cost, design complexity and time-to-market through high levels of system integration, as well as rich feature sets including the industry’s highest-quality video.
“As the demand for high-quality, cost-competitive digital recorders grows, it is extremely important to provide our CE manufacturer partners with optimal, cost-effective solutions to integrate TV Guide On Screen into their products,” said Doug Macrae, president of TV Guide Consumer Electronics. “Our collaboration with LSI Logic allows our CE partners to take advantage of cutting-edge technology while ensuring their products are brought to market quickly.”
“Gemstar-TV Guide is known as the leader in interactive programming guides, and LSI Logic as the leading supplier of silicon devices for the DVD Recorder market, we’re pleased to be working with them to enable next-generation DVD and HDD recorder models,” said Umesh Padval, executive vice president of the LSI Logic Consumer Products Division. “Together, we are quickly bringing consumers easy-to-use features that will continue to drive the fast-growing digital video recording market.”
TV Guide On Screen in North America has signed new licensing deals with more than a dozen consumer electronics manufacturers in the past two years. Licensees now include: Hitachi, Sony Corporation, JVC, LG/Zenith, Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Thomson (makers of the RCA, GE and Scenium brands), TiVo, and Toshiba.
TV Guide On Screen is an IPG built directly into consumer electronics products, including digital televisions, digital video recorders (DVRs) and DVD recorders. The guide offers interactive on-screen program listings from TV Guide, the most trusted name in television guidance, that enable viewers to quickly and easily navigate, sort, select, and schedule television programming for viewing and recording, all with simple remote control commands.
TV Guide On Screen provides powerful, easy-to-use recording and playback features for DVD and hard disc recorders. TV Guide On Screen’s patented technology delivers daily updated program listings to users, regardless of whether they receive their television signal via cable or an over-the-air broadcast. TV Guide On Screen works by simply plugging in the television or recording device and configuring the guide through a simple set-up process. The guide requires no subscription or phone connection and is available at no extra cost to the consumer.
TV Guide On Screen, Inc. is a subsidiary of Gemstar-TV Guide, International, Inc.
The LSI Logic line of DoMiNo DVD and HDD recorder processors consists of the industry’s first feature-rich, single-chip recorder solutions. The high level of integration on a single chip reduces design complexity and provides system designers with considerable savings on the overall bill of materials. The DoMiNo processors include LSI Logic’s DoMiNoFX proprietary pre- and post-processing technologies. These motion compensation-based technologies provide advanced progressive scan output and impressive noise handling on analog inputs. Additional advantages include the LSI Logic Direct Digital Dub technology that simplifies the transfer of personal digital content from a camcorder over FireWire, with one-touch control via a single remote.
About Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc.
Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., is a leading media and technology company that develops, licenses, markets and distributes technologies, products and services targeted at the television guidance and home entertainment needs of consumers worldwide. The Company’s businesses include: television media and publishing properties; interactive program guide services and products; and technology and intellectual property licensing.
