SVC honored by IEEE

The prestigious journal IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology awarded Heiko Schwarz, Detlev Marpe and Thomas Wiegand, of Fraunhofer HHI and the TU Berlin, the Best Paper Award for the most outstanding paper of the past two years in recognition of the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension of the H.264/AVC video coding standard.

The jury made special mention of the fact that the scientific work of the researchers was not merely documented in published papers but already in use by such leading companies as Cisco, Google and Hitachi.

The paper "Overview of the Scalable Video Coding Extension of the H.264/AVC Standard" is available here.

BDA on 3D

The Blu-Ray Disc Association announced it will complete the specs of 3D BD by the end of this year, followed by studios launching their first 3D discs in 2010.

BDA members made some decisions this week, notably regarding backward-compatibility requirements. Any produced 3D discs will include a 2D version of the film that can be viewed with existing Blu-ray Disc players. Additionally, 3D-capable Blu-ray players must be able to run existing 2D titles.

Coinciding with BDA’s 3D developments, Sony laid out plans for a 2010 line of stereoscopic 3D-enabled products, whereas Panasonic has already committed to its own line of advanced 3D TVs and Blu-ray players, also set to bow in 2010.

Source: Video Business.

Android goes HD

MIPS Technologies and Sigma Designs jointly developed an Android-based system displaying 1080p video on a full HD flat screen display. This HD video demonstration is a major milestone toward the creation of a reference platform for an Android-based set-top box, a goal that Sigma and MIPS have been jointly working toward with other members of the STB working group of the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF).

Ken Lowe, vice president of strategic marketing, Sigma Designs, declared "Support for Android is a priority on Sigma's roadmap as we enable our customers to quickly, easily and cost-effectively bring exciting new functionality to their next-generation of connected devices including DTVs, STBs and Blu-ray players."

The code is publicly available at www.mips.com/android.

Inexpensive OLED

Using a new double solvent approach, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Intellectual Property Strategies are able to create a better and less expensive OLED screen. Rather than using spin coated films as before, the dual-solvent concept makes electrospray-deposited films smoother than before. “Using this technology these devices could be manufactured as inexpensively as printing newspapers”, says Yutaka Yamagata.

Yamagata also notes that: “The advantage of using electrospray deposition is that we can fabricate both smooth films and nanostructured film using the same technology.” In the future he believes that this advantage “will also be useful in controlling the structure of organic semiconductor junctions for organic solar cells.”

3D Media Workshop

The 3D Media Workshop will be held at Fraunhofer HHI, Berlin between 15 and 16 October 2009.

It will provide an international forum to discuss and give guidance to future research, standardisation and development activities of 3D, bringing together production and post production companies, multimedia content providers, broadcast operators, regulators, manufacturers, and R&D organizations.

Topics to be presented and discussed cover the complete chain of 3D production to 3D displays for 3D cinema, (mobile) 3DTV, 3D games, and other immersive applications around 3D content.

The Workshop programme is now online.

Major studios sign deals for online videos

Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate will begin offering the first movie downloads that can be burned to disc using virtually any DVD or Blu-ray Disc burner for playback on a broad range of devices already in millions of consumer homes.

The four studios will offer the downloads through under-the-radar online movie service Film Fresh, which inked the first U.S. movie delivery deal with DivX, maker of a popular video format supported by millions of DVD players, Blu-ray players, TVs, mobile phones, the PlayStation 3 and other devices from the biggest consumer electronics brands, including LG, Samsung and Sony.

DivX has its own built-in copy protection so films can only be played back on certified DivX devices that a consumer registers for their downloads. Film Fresh will allow consumers to make an unlimited number of copies of movies in the Divx format for playback on registered devices.

Read the full story on Video Business and the press release on DivX website.

Avatar Day

August 21 was the Avatar Day, as 20th Century Fox launched the first "extended look" to the new, long awaited James Cameron's movie, filmed with an innovative 3D technology developed by the famous director.

AVATAR takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

Sony 3D Blu-Ray in 2010

CNET Australia reports that Yoshinami Takahashi, deputy senior general manager, Home Entertainment Group, Sony Corporation, confirmed that 3D Blu-Ray discs and players would most likely hit the market in October or November of 2010.

Takahashi conceded that shorter-length content was more suited to the technology. As many viewers suffer from headaches and nausea watching full length movies in 3D, documentaries and animated shorts would probably be in greater demand.