联发科技主打八个热点发展数字电视

【导读】联发科技放话了，客厅多屏幕、DIAL、 4Kx2K、HTML5和NFC等八个热门特点将主导今年数字电视设计。如果你想了解2013年全球电视发展趋势，只需看看联发科技的打算就全明白了。当今消费电子产业龙头不再是索尼和松下，而是台湾的消费芯片厂商联发科技。

摘要：  联发科技放话了，客厅多屏幕、DIAL、 4Kx2K、HTML5和NFC等八个热门特点将主导今年数字电视设计。如果你想了解2013年全球电视发展趋势，只需看看联发科技的打算就全明白了。当今消费电子产业龙头不再是索尼和松下，而是台湾的消费芯片厂商联发科技。

关键字：  联发科技，  数字电视，  发展趋势

联发科技放话了，客厅多屏幕、DIAL、 4Kx2K、HTML5和NFC等八个热门特点将主导今年数字电视设计。如果你想了解2013年全球电视发展趋势，只需看看联发科技的打算就全明白了。当今消费电子产业龙头不再是索尼和松下，而是台湾的消费芯片厂商联发科技。

联发科技背靠包括亚洲手机与电视OEM/ODM在内的庞大客户群，目前地位极高：除了三星，可能还没有一家公司能够可靠地预言，手机上面开发出来的东西将如何决定新一代数字电视必须增加哪些特点与功能。

在最近举行的国际消费电子展(CES)期间，《EE Times》采访了联发科技总经理谢清江，并在该公司的private suite看到了一些展示。

联发科技确定与推崇的八个热门特点，可能在2013年驱动全球消费系统设计。这些特点包括：客厅多屏幕，DIAL，4Kx2K，HTML5，近场通讯(NFC)，快速启动，四核/更高GPU和HEVC (H.265)。

联发科技总经理谢清江出席最近举行的消费电子展

在接受采访时，谢清江强调HEVC编解码器将迅速成为智能手机、平板电脑与电视中的关键要素。他还表示，新兴的超高清标准4Kx2K已然是“品牌客户非常重要的营销工具”。

谢清江还指出，智能电视仍在发展进化，要求OEM与ODM通过多种方式使电视智能化。他说，其中包括智能电视dongle、智能电视机顶盒、基于Linux的智能电视以及全面支持HTML 5。

在众多新特点中，联发科技非常热衷并极力推动的是客厅多屏幕。

联发科技声称在业内率先整合Miracast认证的Wi-Fi与NFC，使智能电视与最新型联发科技四核智能手机平台实现无缝连接。据联发科技：“只需利用这个装置，就可能以无线方式把高清视频与其它多媒体内容从手机等设备发送到大屏幕高清电视，无需通过连接点进行连接。”

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但联发科技想更进一步。该公司认为，让多屏幕客厅等流行起来的王牌在于DIAL，这是一种新兴的开放协议。Netflix和YouTube一直在悄悄开发DIAL。

DIAL代表“发现与启动”，可以在智能手机上面实现第二屏幕应用。该技术可以发现同一个网络上支持DIAL的第一屏幕设备(例如智能电视)，并在该设备上面启动应用，不需要手动启动，也不需要用户进行配对工作。

谢清江称DIAL是“杀手应用”，可以把多屏幕应用引入客厅。

需要说明的是，DIAL的优点不只是能把智能手机或平板电脑上面显示的内容显示在大屏幕电视上面，它的价值在于弥补了第一个与第二个屏幕之间的空隙。

据DIAL的网站，当你在移动应用上发现一个视频并想把它显示在连网电视上时，有无DIAL的用户体验是不一样的。

如果没有DIAL

1. 使用普通遥控打开电视上的应用菜单

2. 找到相应的电视应用

3. 启动该电视应用

4. 在电视应用上转向配对的屏幕

5. 启动并转向移动应用中的配对屏幕

6. 在移动应用中输入9位密码

7. 在移动应用中按下“在电视上播放“按键

如果有DIAL

1. 启动移动应用

2. 在移动应用中按下“在电视上播放“按键

概括来说，有了DIAL，手机上的Netflix应用就能自动发现带有一个Netflix应用的设备可以连接到电视。然后它启动那个应用，立即实现连接。

缩短启动时间

当然，DIAL的设想类似于苹果的AirPlay。在苹果AirPlay中，可以无缝地发现iOS内容并将其显示在苹果电视上。苹果这方面在苹果开发的设备上面做得不错，而DIAL则是为了帮助非iOS设备供应商——实际上是所有其它厂商，在任何支持DIAL的智能电视、智能手机和其它连网设备上面实现那种无缝连接。

2013年联发科技力推的其它新电视特点包括加快安卓电视启动速度。

据联发科技的工程师，现在的安卓电视一般需要25秒启动。联发科技目前向电视厂商提供两各新的解决方案：“热启动”与“冷启动”。冷启动利用安卓代码的软件优化，启动时间可以缩短到12秒。在热启动方式下，在DRAM中创造一种待机的“暂停”状态，启动时间可以大幅缩短到2秒。

怀疑者仍在争论超高清电视能否普及(主要是因为电视价格较高，而且缺乏4K x 2K内容)，谢清江对这个问题持比较实际的看法。

联发科技认为，超高清电视的出现是推销其可提供4K x 2K帖速率转换的SoC的机会。谢清江也承认，中国OEM与ODM厂商为了营销目的而鼓吹4K x 2K电视，对其怀有过强的期望。另外，他预测“4K x 2K将很快出现”，提及日前的CES上宣布的Netflix-三星超高清电视合作。

谢清江解释道，CPU/GPU性能越来越强——已在智能手机领域得到充分证明，也开始日益用于智能电视之中。智能电视渴望运行更多的应用程序和提供更好的用户界面。尽管谢清江在接受采访时提到ARM的GPU正在变得更好，但他的公司目前似乎坚持使用Imagination Technologies公司的GPU技术。Imagination Technologies公司在1月中旬披露，与联发科技签署了一份新的许可协议，针对前者的PowerVR SGX Series5XT图形处理器家族的多核产品。联发科技据说将在面向数字电视市场的SoC器件中采用该技术。[!--empirenews.page--]

MediaTek sets 2013 digital TV design agenda

Junko Yoshida

Multi-screens in a living room， DIAL， 4K x 2K， HTML5， NFC and others are part of the eight hot features altering the DTV designs this year， identified by Mediak. MADISON， Wis.– If you want to know the global TV trends in 2013， look no further than what MediaTek has up its sleeve. The bellwether of the consumer electronics industry today is no longer either Sony or Panasonic. That title now belongs to the Taiwan-based consumer chip company.

MediaTek， backed up by a large customer base including both handset and TV OEMs/ODMs throughout Asia， is today in a rare position: other than Samsung， perhaps no other company is positioned to speak authoritatively on how things developed in handsets will dictate features and functions that must go into a new generation of digital TVs.

EE Times met with MediaTek President Ching-Jiang Hsieh and saw some of the demonstrations at the company’s private suite during the recent International Consumer Electronics Show.

Eight hot features， identified and pitched by MediaTek， are likely to drive global consumer system designs in 2013. They include: multi-screens in the living room， DIAL， 4K x 2K， HTML5， Near Field Communications (NFC)， fast boot time， quad-core/higher GPU and HEVC (H.265).

MediaTek President C.J. Hsieh at the company's private suite during the recent CES.

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During the interview， Hsieh stressed how quickly the HEVC codec will become a critical element in smartphones， tablets and TVs. He also said that 4K x 2K--an emerging ultra-high resolution standard--is already a “very important marketing tool for branded customers.

Hsieh also laid out that smart TV is still evolving， requiring OEMs and ODMs to follow multiple routes to get there. These include a smart TV dongle， a smart TV set-top， Linux-based smart TV and fundamental support for HTML 5， he said.

Among the plethora of new features， one area MediaTek is very keen on pushing is the multi-screen scenario in the living room.

MediaTek claimed an industry’s first by integrating Miracast-certified Wi-Fi display technology with NFC to seamlessly connect a smart TV with the latest MediaTek quad-core smartphone platform. “With a simple tap of the device， it is possible to wirelessly stream HD quality video and other multimedia content from mobile and other devices onto big screen HDTVs without connecting through an access point，” according to the company.

DIAL: 'Killer app'

MediaTek， however， wants to go a step further. The company believes the ace in the hole in popularizing such a multi-screen scenario rests on DIAL， an emerging open protocol that’s been quietly developed by Netflix and YouTube.

DIAL， which stands for “discovery and launch，” enables second-screen apps on smartphones. The technology can discover DIAL-ready first-screen devices (i.e. smart TVs) in the same network and launch apps on them--without requiring a manual launch or pairing process by the user.

Hsieh called DIAL a “killer app” to bring multi-screen usage to a living room.

To be clear， DIAL does a lot more than mirroring content displayed on one’s smartphone or tablet to a large-screen TV. Its virtue is in filling in the gap between the first and second screens.

According to DIAL’s website， the group describes differences in a user experience--with or without DIAL--when you discover a video on your mobile app and want to play it on your connected TV.

Without DIAL

1. Launch the apps menu on your TV with the normal remote control

2. Navigate to the TV app

3. Launch the TV app

4. Navigate to the pairing screen on TV app

5. Launch and navigate to the pairing screen on Mobile app

6. Input 9-digit pin on Mobile app.

7. Tap the Play on TV button on the Mobile app

With DIAL

1. Launch the Mobile app

2. Tap the Play on TV button on the mobile app

In sum， with DIAL， the Netflix app on your phone， for example， will automatically discover that there is a device with a Netflix app connected to your TV. It fires up that app， making the magical connection just happen.

Faster boot time

The idea of DIAL is， of course， similar to Apple’s AirPlay， in which iOS content is seamlessly discovered and displayed on Apple TV. While Apple does this well among Apple-developed devices， DIAL is designed to help non-iOS device vendors--practically everyone else on earth--make that seamless connection possible on any DIAL-supported smart TVs， smartphones and other connected devices.

Other features promoted by MediaTek for new TVs in 2013 include faster boot time for Android TVs.

In general， it takes 25 seconds for today’s Android TV to boot up， according to MediaTek engineers. MediaTek is now offering TV vendors two new solutions--“warm boot” and “cold boot.” Under MediaTek’s cold boot feature， which leverages the software optimization of Android code， the boot up time becomes 12 seconds. Meanwhile， by creating a standby “suspend” mode in DRAM for MediaTek’s warm boot solution， the boot-up time will see a dramatic reduction to two seconds， according to the company.[!--empirenews.page--]

While skeptics continue to debate the proliferation of ultra high-definition TVs (largely because of the high prices for TV sets and the lack of 4K x 2K content availability)， Hsieh holds a much more pragmatic view on the issue.

MediaTek sees the emergence of UHDTV as an opportunity to push its SoCs that offer 4K x 2K frame rate conversions. Hsieh also recognizes an unmistakably strong desire among OEMs and ODMs in China to tout 4K x 2K TVs， as a part of their marketing programs. Further， Hsieh， citing the Netflix-Samsung UHDTV collaboration at the recent CES， predicted that “4K x 2K will happen very soon.”

The proliferation of higher CPU/GPU power--already well evidenced in smartphones--is also fast becoming a reality for smart TVs which crave to run more and more apps and better user interface， Hsieh explained. Although Hsieh mentioned during the interview that ARM’s GPU is getting better， his company appears to be sticking to Imagination Technologies’ GPU technologies for the time being. Imagination disclosed in middle of January that it signed a new license agreement with MediaTek for a multi-core member of Imagination's PowerVR SGX Series5XT graphics processor family. MediaTek is said to deploy the technology in SoC devices targeting the digital TV market.