Video Processing: The Silicon Optix Way

During a recent visit to Silicon Optix, I had the pleasure of learning some fascinating things about video processing and just how crucial of a role video processors play in virtually all home theatre products. Brian Hentschel, the Director of Marketing and Communications, was nice enough to give me a complete tour of the Canadian Silicon Optix office, located in Toronto. I couldn't be happier to share what I learned during this tour, with the readers of CANADA HiFi.

Silicon Optix, established in 2001, is a US company that designs and manufactures high performance video and geometry processing chips, with the goal of delivering what the company calls Hollywood Video Quality (HQV). Their Toronto office is home to nearly half of the Silicon Optix' staff and is responsible for research and development of chips designed for consumer products including standard and high definition DVD players, TVs, projectors and soon-to-be-released ultra-thin RPTVs (rear projection TVs). The Toronto team also produces the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark discs designed to test the performance of various video components. The company's US head office houses Teranex, a division of Silicon Optix, whose focus is on production of programmable video processing solutions for the professional broadcast and post production markets.

Of course, Silicon Optix is not alone in the video processing chip business; some of the other well known players include Genesis Microchip (Faroudja), Gennum, Sigma Designs and Silicon Image.

The Role of a Video Processing Chip

It's likely that you've noticed that sometimes while watching TV, parts of the picture don't look quite right. These imperfect parts of the picture, commonly referred to as picture artifacts, can appear as curved lines flashing in the picture, jagged edges in objects and various forms of picture noise - just to mention a few. Picture artifacts can be caused by poor de-interlacing and video processing as well as the transmission of the video signal itself.

In addition to the annoyance of picture artifacts, many consumers are shocked when they find out how poor standard definition signals look on their brand new big-screen HDTV. My old 27-inch tube TV looked better than this! Why does this happen? The conversion of video to fit a large screen can be very detrimental to the quality of the picture because every picture defect is magnified many times over.

A video processor has three main roles: to de-interlace 480i and 1080i signals properly, to minimize or eliminate picture artifacts and to up-convert lower resolution signals (such as a standard DVD) to the native resolution of an HDTV set. A high quality video processor can make a staggering improvement to the overall quality of the picture. Believe me, the picture performance of two similarly priced video components can vary wildly, depending on the video processor that each component uses.

Solutions from Silicon Optix

Silicon Optix' current product line-up consists of two video processors, named Realta and Reon, as well as a geometry processor, fittingly called the Geo.

Realta is the company's flagship video processor that is typically found in expensive, high-end consumer products. It takes many design queues from Teranex's professional broadcast-quality video processing platform. Silicon Optix says that the Realta chip was designed to pass every single challenging video test found on their HQV Benchmark discs. But perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Realta is completely future-proof, since it is fully software programmable via the Internet. This means that the Realta chip could potentially be updated with more advanced video processing algorithms when they become available.

Reon is a significantly more affordable video processing chip that is finding its way into an increasing number of mid to higher-end video components. Silicon Optix says that the Reon is capable of passing roughly 80 percent of the video tests from the HQV Benchmark discs. Samsung's latest BD-P1200 Blu-ray player and Toshiba's top-of-the-line HD-XA2 HD DVD player both use the Reon chip. Onkyo has also just raised the performance bar in a couple of their 2007 A/V receivers by incorporating the Reon chip.

Geo is a breakthrough video/graphics-geometry processing chip that makes it possible to design affordable rear-projection TVs almost as thin as plasma and LCD TVs. Silicon Optix states that these chips also help to eliminate hot spots (overly bright screen spots) and colour uniformity issues associated with LCD in projection-based displays. The Geo chip performs a completely different type of video processing compared to the Realta and Reon chips, so a separate video processor must be still used in conjunction with the Geo. The first flat panel rear-projection TVs are expected to be displayed in January at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

To see a complete, up-to-date list of the video components that use Silicon Optix video processor chips, visit their website www.hqv.com and click on 'HQV Products'.

In addition to the various chips, Silicon Optix also produces the HQV Benchmark discs in three different versions: standard DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD. The standard DVD contains 480i material that can be used to determine how well a video component de-interlaces and process this low quality signal. Proper handling of 480i material is an important feature of every video component since the vast majority of material out there today is still 480i; it will be years before everything is finally broadcast in HD. The Blu-ray and HD DVD discs both contain 1080i material to help evaluate how well a component de-interlaces and processes interlaced HD signals. This is also an important performance aspect to test for since many HD channels are broadcast in 1080i and some HD discs (such as concerts and documentaries) are recorded in 1080i.

These discs are an absolute must-have for anyone who wants to determine the performance of a video product; we started using them for all our video component reviews at CANADA HiFi. If you're concerned that these discs might be too complicated to use for you - please don't be. Every disc comes with a small instruction booklet explaining every test sequence so clearly that a child could almost use it. The guys at Silicon Optix did a truly amazing job with these benchmark discs. I strongly recommend these to all video enthusiasts.

The HQV Benchmark discs can be purchased for $20 US each or 2 for $30 directly from www.hqv.com. CANADA HiFi readers can save $5 on each disc by typing in "canadahifi" in the Coupon box of the Purchase Form.

As mentioned above, these chips can be found in various video components including standard and high definition DVD players, TV sets and projectors. It is becoming increasingly popular for consumer electronics manufacturers to specify which video processing chip their products use, in order to distinguish their higher performance models. But even if the product's manual or the company's website doesn't disclose this information, a quick Google search or a call to the company's product support line is likely to get you an answer. If a company can't tell you which video processor their product uses, it's safe to assume that it is probably a poor quality one.

Looking Forward

Our beloved big screen, high definition TVs can be very unforgiving when it comes to poor quality video material. As time goes on, there is no question that many more consumers will realize the significance of higher quality video processing. Silicon Optix is constantly working on developing more advanced video processing algorithms and clever video patterns to test component performance. The company's engineers are already hard at work at developing new video patterns to test for block and mosquito noise, chroma and motion compensation (relating to different TV refresh rates) that will eventually appear on newer versions of their HQV Benchmark discs. Myself - I'm very curious to see the next generation of RPTV based on the Silicon Optix Geo chip.

To learn more about Silicon Optix and their products, please visit www.siliconoptix.com and www.hqv.com.

Special Offer: Type in “canadahifi” in the Coupon box at www.hqv.com to save $5 off each HQV Benchmark disc.