A universal component of the Conexant Set Top Box platform is the MPEG video processor. These MPEG devices serve as the basis of our Digital cable, Terrestrial and Direct Broadcast Satellite
end-to-end solutions.

Digital Cable
Conexant offers end-to-end solutions for the digital cable set top box. Ranging from the tuner input to the cable transceiver MAC to the MPEG-2 cores, Conexant’s products span all the key elements needed to complete a Digital Cable Set Top Box. In addition, Conexant is expanding its suite of technologies to address the emerging requirements for Digital Set Top Box platforms such as home networking, voice over IP, hard disk implementations and cable modem-based applications.

CX23415 MPEG Codec

CX23415 Product Brief
PCI Reference Design
USB 2.0 Reference Design
iVR™ Reference Design Digital VCR Set-top Box
iVR™ Linux Software Development Platform

The CX23415 is a low-cost, full-duplex MPEG-2 codec that integrates the functionality of several ICs in a single device
Conexant’s broadband communications portfolio includes a comprehensive suite of semiconductor solutions that enable the digital home and information network. The CX23415 codec is the industry’s first device to integrate such features as MPEG-2 audio/video encoding and decoding,Transport stream generation and OSD control in a single chip. The versatile, full-duplex CX23415 actually incorporates the functionality of up to five different chips, allowing Conexant™ to deliver this device at a price point that will enable consumer electronics and personal computer companies to reduce dramatically the cost of designing and manufacturing their next-generation digital video products.

Pre-filtering improvements in the CX23415 include built-in linear filters that dynamically change or soften images in the pre-processing stage. As a result, end-users obtain the best possible picture, even as the data rate is reduced and the recording time is lengthened. Other video quality improvements include a dramatically increased motion search range, the de-coupling of motion estimation from encoders, and an adaptive quantisation scheme. To reduce the overall cost of the CX23415 and achieve the highest video quality, Conexant devoted significant engineering resources to determining the optimal balance between hardware and software implementation of these processing improvements.The CX23415 incorporates an OSD for graphics control and advanced GUI acceleration to support user interfaces and the display of advanced menus containing broadcast and service information from electronic program guides. The controller includes a BITBLT acceleration engine and deflicker filter. It supports a variety of pixel formats, including 8-bit colour index and 32-bit RGBA 8:8:8:8.

Features
Video Encoding
High-quality real-time encoding (I-, B-and P-frames)
Supports MPEG-2 (MP@ML, SP@ML) and MPEG-1
  - 525/60 (NTSC) up to 720x480 @ 30 fps
  - 625/50 (PAL) up to 720x576 @ 25 fps
Variable and constant bit rate up to 15 Mbit/sec
Programmable GOP lengths
Adaptive field/frame (motion compensation type 8 DCT)
Field/frame motion estimation
  - B-frame: ±296(H) x ±184(V)
  - P-frame: ±326(H) x ±202(V)
  - Half-pel accuracy
4:2:2 to 4:2:0 conversion
Speckle noise reduction
Sharpness control
Recursive noise reduction
Inverse telecine (3:2 pulldown)
Scene change detection
Adaptive quantisation
Supports elementary, program and transport streams
VBI extraction
Video Decoding
Supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-1
  - 525/60 (NTSC) up to 720x480 @ 30 fps
  - 625/50 (PAL) up to 720x576 @ 25 fps
144-tap horizontal up and down filter
64-tap vertical up and down filter
Letterbox conversion from 16:9 to 4:3, 3:2 pulldown
Supports elementary, Program and Transport streams
Picture-in-picture (PIP)
Closed captioning
Audio Encoding and Decoding
Dolby Digital (AC-3) 2-channel, 5.1-channel (decode only)
MPEG-1 Layer II
Sampling rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz
Compressed bit rates up to 448 kbit/sec
Encode supports 16-bit samples
Decode supports 16-, 18- or 20-bit output (Dolby Class A)
On-Screen Display (OSD)
Supports a variety of pixel formats
  - 8-bit colour index
  - 32-bit ARGB 8:8:8:8
Full screen or windowed
Per-pixel alpha blend between OSD and video display
Deflicker filter
Hardware BITBLT acceleration
Interfaces
Video input: 4:2:2 YUV CCIR-656
Video output: 4:2:2 YUV CCIR-656
Audio input: Stereo Sony I 2 S
Audio output: Stereo Sony I 2 S or SP/DIF
MPEG input and output supports one of the following
  - PCI DMA master or PCI slave
  - 8-bit parallel program data
  - 8-bit parallel SPI transport data
  - 1-bit serial transport data
Two 64-Mbit SDRAMs for encode and decode
Host interface supports one of the following
  - 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI
  - 8-bit microcontroller
General-purpose input/output with 16 programmable pins
Package 452-ball PBGA

CX23416 MPEG Encoder

CX23416 Product Brief
PCI Reference Design
USB 2.0 Reference Design

The CX23416 is a low-cost, low-power MPEG-2 video and audio encoder that integrates the functionality of several ICs in a single device
Conexant’s broadband communications portfolio includes a comprehensive suite of semiconductor solutions that enable the digital home and information network. The CX23416 is a highly integrated MPEG-2 audio/video encoder. The versatile CX23416 actually incorporates the functionality of up to three different chips, allowing Conexant to deliver this device at a price point that will enable consumer electronics and personal computer companies to dramatically reduce the cost of designing and manufacturing their next-generation digital video products.

Pre-filtering improvements in the CX23416 include built-in noise filters that dynamically improve images in the pre-processing stage. As a result, end-users obtain the best possible picture, even as the data rate is reduced and the recording time is lengthened. Other video quality improvements include an increased motion search range, the de-coupling of motion estimation from encoding, and an adaptive quantisation scheme. To reduce the overall cost of the CX23416 and achieve the highest video quality, Conexant devoted significant engineering resources to determining the optimal balance between hardware and software implementation of these processing improvements.

Features
Video Encoding
High-quality real-time encoding (I-, B- and P-frames)
Supports MPEG-2 (MP@ML, SP@ML) and MPEG-1
  - 525/60 (NTSC) up to 720x480 @ 30 fps
  - 625/50 (PAL) up to 720x576 @ 25 fps
HDTV MPEG capture
Variable and constant bit rate up to 15-Mbit/sec
Programmable GOP lengths
Adaptive field/frame (motion compensation type 8 DCT)
Field/frame motion estimation
  - B-frame: ±296(H) x ±184(V)
  - P-frame: ±326(H) x ±202(V)
  - Half-pel accuracy
4:2:2 to 4:2:0 conversion
Speckle noise reduction
Sharpness control
Recursive noise reduction
Inverse telecine (3:2 pulldown)
Scene change detection
Adaptive quantisation
Supports elementary program and transport streams
Automatic VBI extraction
Audio Encoding
Dolby Digital (AC-3) 2-channel
MPEG-1 Layer II
Sampling rates of 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz
Compressed bit rates up to 448 kbit/sec
Interfaces
Video input: 4:2:2 YUV CCIR-656
Audio input: Stereo Sony I2S
MPEG input and output supports one of the following
  - PCI DMA master or PCI slave
  - 8-bit parallel program data
  - 8-bit parallel SPI transport data
  - 1-bit serial transport data
One 64 Mbit SDRAM
Host interface supports one of the following
  - 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI
  - 8-bit microcontroller
General-purpose input/output with 16 programmable pins

Package 233 BGA
Conexant provides complete software support for the CX23416, including an on-chip API function call layer and binary and source code examples. Evaluation boards are also available for the CX23416 encoder. Please contact Conexant for more details on these reference designs.

CX23880/23416 Audio/Video Reference Design

Audio/Video Reference Design

The reference design utilises the CX23880 peripheral component interconnect (PCI) audio/video broadcast decoder to capture and decode the video and audio portions of analog television broadcast signals, and the CX23416 MPEG-2 audio/video encoder to compress data into a digital format. The audio/video reference design is ideal for high-quality broadcast television viewing, personal video recorders (PVRs) and DVD recording and playback applications on a personal computer.

• Worldwide broadcast audio/video PCI decoder
• Hardware MPEG -1 and 2 encoder
• Built-in remote control
• Temporal noise reduction filter
• CX23880 in a 176-pin TQFP
• CX23416 in a 23mm BGA