The Emergence of New Audio Formats for High-Definition DVD Standards

The advent of next-generation high-definition DVD players, based on the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, presents significant design complexities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The emergence of new audio formats utilized in high-definition DVD standards accounts for no small part of these challenges. Current system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors do not adequately address the new set of lossy and lossless audio codec formats, which all require a higher bit rate, more memory, increased sampling frequency and better connectivity. OEMs need a single integrated circuit (IC) solution that reduces design complexities while balancing cost, quality and time-to-market.

This paper offers an industry perspective to help OEMs understand high-definition standards, their audio-specific processing complexities, and their impact on product designs. It also discusses current and future IC solutions for addressing the challenges they present.