H.264/AVC market growth

Satellite set top boxes continue to be the largest market for H.264 decoder ICs. In addition more and more DTVs are using H.264 decoder ICs rather than only MPEG-2. As a result In-Stat expects H.264 decoder ICs to grow at an annual rate in excess of 20% through 2013.

“Advanced compression, such as H.264, is becoming increasingly popular due to its lower bit rate and smaller file size that especially helps networked video solutions,” says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst. “The proliferation of video applications, such as user generated content and online video streaming, embedded DVRs and mobile video are serving to increase demand for low cost, high-quality encoders.”
 
Source: press release.

The biggest entertainment launch ever

Shattering its own day-one sales record, Activision Publishing, Inc. announced that Treyarch's highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Black Ops has become the biggest entertainment launch ever with an estimated sell-through of approximately $360 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone in the first 24 hours of its release, as compared to last year's estimated day-one sell-through of $310 million for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 2 in North America and the United Kingdom, according to internal Activision estimates.

"Call of Duty: Black Ops", marks the second year in a row that the Call of Duty franchise has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment.  In its first day on November 9, the blockbuster title sold through approximately 5.6 million copies in North America and the United Kingdom, as compared to 4.7 million copies for last year's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", according to internal Activision estimates.

Microsoft and Polycom join forces with SVC

Microsoft is among the first companies to announce its intention to adopt Polycom's H.264 SVC technology, furthering the recently announced strategic relationship between the two companies to deliver and market integrated Unified Communications (UC) solutions.

"Microsoft and Polycom are committed to support open, interoperable UC solutions," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president, Office Business Productivity Marketing Group, Microsoft. "Video collaboration can help improve customer productivity and lower costs. By integrating H.264 SVC technology within our broader solution offering, Microsoft and Polycom can make it easier for millions of people to leverage video communications within familiar Microsoft applications."

Read the press release and watch the video.

World of Warcraft coming to Google TV

Cloud gaming on your Internet connected TV just got a step closer with Blizzard's popular World of Warcraft coming to Google TV.

GameString Adrenalin offers what it calls "Personal Cloud Gaming", letting you stream the output from seemingly any game on your PC to a browser, where it can be played on a number of devices.

Adrenalin is optimized to let users remotely play the 3D games installed on their home PC through a web browser. Users can webcast games to others and can allow remote users to play by giving them control of the game.





Sources: App Market, Engadget, The Inquirer.