On2 Technologies Licenses VP6 Video Decoder Technology to videantis

On2 Technologies announced that videantis has licensed its VP6 video decoder source code for implementation in the videantis v-MPx programmable processor platform.

videantis makes flexible IP cores for advanced multimedia applications. With its optimized proprietary instruction set and parallel processing capabilities, the videantis v-MPx platform supports the implementation of high-performance video and image processing tasks using software updates instead of hardware changes. The v-MPx platform is used in customer integrated circuits ranging from mobile applications to home entertainment, automotive, and surveillance products. videantis's technology is fully proven in working silicon and FPGA prototyping systems.

"We're excited that videantis customers will have the best playback experience for high-quality VP6 content from their favorite video sites," said Matt Frost, interim CEO at On2.

"With the addition of On2 VP6 to our codec portfolio, our customer's products that use the videantis v-MPx processor platform are now able to access a wide range of popular, high-quality internet video with a simple software upgrade instead of a full silicon re-spin," said Young-Hun Kluge, VP of Sales & Marketing at videantis.

videantis v-MPx processor platforms featuring On2 VP6 are available for licensing immediately.

On2 VP7 Video Codec Selected by 21Vianet

On2 Technologies, a leader in video compression solutions, announced it has licensed its VP7 video codec to 21ViaNet (China), Inc.. Founded in 1996, 21ViaNet is the leading carrier-neutral IDC service provider in China.

21ViaNet was named in Deloitte's '2008 Technology Fast 50 Companies in China' in recognition of its achievements and market success. The company has expansive partnerships with China's major telecom operators including China Telecom and China Unicom, as well as major content providers like CCTV. As part of its ongoing commitment to provide its extensive customer base with value added services, 21ViaNet has launched a new video services business division, using On2 Technologies'VP7 video codec as a key component of its video distribution platform.

The On2 VP7 video codec requires less data for high quality video, thereby reducing overall bandwidth costs without compromise to the end user viewing experience. As proprietary technology to On2, the video codec is patent pool free. This brings additional cost efficiency for publishing and distributing all kinds of content, as the video codec is not subject to MPEG-LA royalties. For more information about On2 VP7 please visit www.on2.com/on2video

The new On2 VP7-enabled video services division enables 21ViaNet to offer more value added options to its customers, assisting content providers and owners, such as TV stations and Telecom operators, to generate more traffic and to broaden revenue streams. 21Vianet is also currently developing another product that deploys On2 VP7 which it hopes will help promote sales of Internet video service enabled TV sets.

56.com Switches to On2 Video

On2 Technologies announced today that 56.com, China's leading video sharing web site, is to standardize on On2 Flix Engine as its server-side transcoding and publishing platform for all web video uploads. In a move to dramatically reduce bandwidth costs and increase video quality, 56.com will switch to On2 VP6-based Flash video to encode and publish an average of 50,000 new video streams each day. 56.com serves video to over 35 million people each month.

56.com reviewed many encoding solutions as well as other formats for Flash video. On2 Flix Engine proved the most robust and reliable through rigorous testing and provided the broad input format support needed. The decision to choose On2 VP6 as the codec for Adobe Flash video was based on many factors including encode speed, compression metrics, features, playback performance, market acceptance and licensing terms.

"We recognized that On2 VP6 and H.264 main profile are comparable in video quality, when we compared to H.264 baseline profile to On2 VP6, VP6 was consistently better, in some cases needing almost 40% less data." says Mr. Tan Yi, Technology Officer at 56.com "This is significant as we reach out to China's mobile users as there is no support for main profile H.264 in mobile phones currently. To provide the best possible quality for the web and mobile in H.264 would mean maintaining two encode files. With On2 VP6 we only need one."

Tan Yi continues: "Furthermore, On2 VP6 also provides skip-free playback on less powerful PC's, which means we can reach a much wider audience with high-quality content. It is also faster to encode, so we will need fewer servers to maintain the same volume of content."

"We are pleased that 56.com has chosen On2 VP6 video for Flash, and feel this is yet more evidence of a market trend in China towards adoption of On2 Video," said John Fargis, VP of Asia Sales at On2 Technologies "With our technology we are able to provide 56.com customers the superior quality they deserve and expect, while also saving 56.com up to 40% on their bandwidth costs."

On2 Technologies Announces New HD Hardware Encoder IP

On2 Technologies, the leader in video compression solutions, announced the availability of the Hantro 7280 encoder Register Transfer Level (RTL) design. Supporting MPEG-4, H.263 and H.264 video, along with 16MP JPEG, the encoder is targeted for chipsets intended for devices with very low-power requirements such as: portable video cameras, mobile phones, remote security cameras, laptops and webcams. With a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 at 30 fps, the Hantro 7280 introduces a new level of performance and functionality.

Following the Hantro 6280, which was licensed by more than 15 leading chip manufacturers, the encoder brings further speed improvements to achieve resolutions up to 1280x1024 at 30 fps. Easily encoding full 720p H.264 at 30 fps in only 180 MHz clock frequency, the 7280 brings ultra-high performance to 65 nm and 90 nm low-power chipsets. Placing a CPU load of less than 1MHz, the Hantro 7280 allows even an entry level ARM9-based chipset to encode real-time HD H.264 video with plenty of headroom to spare. The new encoder also incorporates proprietary image stabilization technology which reduces the effects of camera shake prior to encoding resulting in higher quality video with better compression.

Optimized for rapid integration with ARM, MIPS and other embedded CPU and DSP cores, the Hantro 7280 marries high performance with ultra low-power and efficient silicon utilization. Silicon area can be further optimized for unique applications by selecting only the formats and screen resolutions required with area reduced to as small as 0.19 square millimeters per 139,000 gates. Additional area savings can be gained in a full codec solution by sharing internal memories with the Hantro 8190 multi-format decoder.

"For portable devices, battery-life is a critical success factor and manufacturers seek to optimize in every aspect." says Eero Kaikkonen, Chief Marketing Officer at On2. "The 7280 requires only 12 mW to encode VGA H.264 in real-time. Although in practice it is not possible, theoretically an ARM 11 would require as much as 500mW to achieve the same performance."

The Hantro 7280 is available now for licensing from On2. The product comes complete with RTL source code for VHDL or Verilog, an RTL test bench and test data, ANSI C driver source code and complete technical documentation.