Philips Semiconductors announced the industry's first two-chip hybrid analog and digital TV (DTV) front-end solution, the TDA8980 input processor and TDA8961 DTV demodulator/decoder, that supports both ATSC Vestigial SideBand (VSB) and NTSC channel decoding. Designed for use in high-definition TV (HDTV), set-top box (STB) and multimedia PC applications, the chipset offers designers of DTV and receiver modules a complete front-end receiver solution for a range of broadcast signals for North American and other ATSC-based markets.

This second-generation chipset significantly reduces the chip count necessary to support these applications, while delivering outstanding reception at an attractive price. Furthermore, this solution reduces the risk of using multiple front-end ICs, delivering reliable DTV reception performance.

"The evolution of Digital TV is just beginning and we expect the market to grow in several directions. We predict one million HDTV sets will be sold over the next three years and sales of Digital TV set-top boxes to grow at an even faster pace. Many of these will have more than one receiver chip set. With an explosion of new computer applications, we also predict that over 20 million DTV receiver-ready PCs will ship by 2002," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group, an Arizona-based research firm. "With Philips Semiconductors as the worldwide leader for analog TV IC solutions, the TDA8980 and TDA8961 firmly position the company to continue its leadership position for Digital TV solutions."

"Since the transition to DTV will not happen overnight, we recognize the need to continue handling the analog devices found in homes today. Philips Semiconductors has combined support for both traditional NTSC analog signals and the evolving ATSC digital standards, making it useful today and in future applications," said Simon Wegerif, product marketing and business development manager for Consumer Systems, Philips Semiconductors. "By offering a highly integrated solution, OEMs are able to reduce their time to market and resource investments, which ultimately provides value to both the manufacturer and the consumer."

Designed specifically to reduce the chip count from first-generation, front-end receiver solutions, Philips Semiconductors delivers a highly integrated, high-performance DTV front-end chipset with only two ICs. The solution offers both analog and digital terrestrial channel decoding capability, with comprehensive analog audio and video source selection capabilities. The chipset also supports format conversion for a variety of commonly used analog devices such as VCRs, cable TV and set-top boxes. This range of compatibility is necessary to support the many potential input devices desired by consumers. Furthermore, the ability to process both analog and digital signals provides users with an easy transition to digital content while maintaining access to traditional media sources.

The highly integrated solution features the TDA8980 input processor and a specialized TDA8961 VSB decoder. The advanced input processor eliminates many components by integrating NTSC decoding, an IF circuit, picture and sound demodulation and VSB down conversion into a single device.

I don't think I buy In-Stat's numbers for DTV shipments in the next few years; I think it is going to be rather slower and will be determined by programming, not technology. Nonetheless, this chipset is not unexpected and will be one of the more chosen sets for the market. Philips experience in these areas is immense and it understand the consumer market probably better than any of its competitors. The actual division of labor between the two ICs is a little strange from a marketing perspective as I think the company is allowing other vendors an opening into offering their own versions of a standalone VSB decoder, whereas putting both the NTSC and 8-VSB decoding on a single part would have left most of the competition rather flustered.

The success of Philips' co-channel filtering will have to be seen in the field where NTSC interference on DTV co-channels, and DTV to NTSC interference, is already starting to be a problem, principally at cable head ends located some distance from the transmitters. Maybe Philips' technology will be the solution to the FCC not shutting down allocations -- as current rumors have it.