Chipmakers joined multichannel video programming distributors (CD Feb...
Chipmakers joined multichannel video programming distributors (CD Feb 21 p10) in asking the Environmental Protection Agency to make more allowances in the coming Energy Star version 4.1 for set-top boxes, so consumer video devices that are smaller than STBs can…
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work with Ultra HD and high efficiency video coding (HEVC) and processing (HEVP). Broadcom and Entropic’s comments on EPA’s proposed revisions to v4.1 were posted Friday on the agency’s website (http://1.usa.gov/1gNEg3a). “Many manufacturers are designing client boxes with HEVC and UltraHD functionality,” wrote Broadcom (http://1.usa.gov/1fG3H2v). Thin clients connect to the bigger, higher-energy consuming gateway devices that send encrypted MVPD video to the smaller devices. “These client boxes require additional processing power for decoding UltraHD resolution HEVC streams and displaying it to an UltraHD output,” said Broadcom. EPA’s current base allowance for the clients doesn’t “take this additional processing power into consideration,” said the chipmaker. “Unfortunately, EPA’s Final Draft attempts to restrict these new Use Cases” of UltraHD display and enabling HEVP, wrote Entropic (http://1.usa.gov/1hfcTNQ). “The overwhelming demand/requirement for such next-gen Thin Client” system on chips is to support such “functionality,” said the company. “EPA’s restrictions on UltraHD and HEVP Allowances dis-incentivize efficient next-gen 4K-capable Thin Clients, and mistakenly incentivize higher-power full-featured STBs."