Stretch's Hybrid HD DVR Reference Design Examined

•Published Nov 19, 2009 00:00 AM

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Chipmaker Stretch has announced a reference design for a hybrid High Definition DVR system. For background on Stretch see our examination of Stretch's November 2009 investment.

The reference design, called the VRM6016, aims at reducing time and complexity of OEMs rolling out Hybrid DVR solutions (see the data sheet for details overview).

The two most differentiated features supported include:

Up to 2 channels HDcctv input in addition to up to 16 channels of analog input (see background on HDcctv).
Use of H.264 SVC for encoding (see background on SVC codec and contrast to 'traditional' H.264)

Stretch anticipates modest cost increases for use of HDcctv or SVC relative to H.264 AVC encoding of SD video.

Given the lead times involved in developing and incorporating reference designs, generally available products based on this are unlikely to appear until later in 2010. When they do appear, they are likely not to publicly reference Stretch as that is common in such OEM agreements.

For those of you interested in tracking HDcctv or SVC adoption, this is noteworthy.