H.264 Moves to Center Stage in 2006

"Wave-300’s innovative combination of a single TI DM64x platform and a Linux OS, results in a highly efficient and cost effective solution with the flexibility to easily add and update services — a capability that gives operators a definite long-term edge when rolling out IPTV services," said Suman Narayan, Streaming Media Worldwide Business Development Manager, Texas Instruments.

Desktops
At the Macworld 2006 show, Apple revealed its new dual-core (dual processors within the same footprint of a traditional single processor) desktop and laptop. The desktop, which started shipping yesterday in the same "where’s the computer?" form factor as the iMac G5, more than doubles processing power of its predecessor. The same is true for the soon-to-be-shipped MacBook Pro (the follow-up to the Powerbook line, which is being retired) and several Windows-based computers that were revealed at CES2006. One primary benefit of these dual-core processors is the ability to play high-definition content on a desktop or laptop without requiring the user to stop all basic computing functions such as email, web browsing or working on a spreadsheet. In essence, the offloading of video processing to a second CPU both accommodates real-world usage patterns as well as solidifying Intel’s long-term strategic vision of moving as many specialized processes on to standard CPUs.

Gaming consoles and portable devices
Gaming devices, liked desktops and laptops, have traditionally fallen into two distinct categories. The first was the gaming console, the gaming world’s equivalent to the desktop computer, requiring external monitors but sporting very powerful chipsets. The second, handheld devices, lacked processing prowess but made up for the lack of firepower by allowing the user to game anywhere.

In much the same way that laptops and desktops are beginning to converge on processing partiy, the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 marks a similar path for gaming devices. And many of these devices, from the Xbox 360 to the handheld Sony PSP, support playback of H.264--so much so that companies selling products to transcode full-screen desktop video to iPod and Sony PSP-compatible video playback are beginning to pitch their products as H.264 transcoders rather than just iPod or PSP compatible.

The drive to support H.264 even comes from within Microsoft’s Xbox division. Eager to find a balance between the Blu-ray/HD-DVD combatants while at the same time pre-empting Sony’s impending gaming console and Apple’s launch of it’s remote-control playback software, Front Row, on a new Intel-based Mac Mini, Bill Gates announced during his keynote at CES 2006 that Microsoft will soon ship an HD-DVD drive as an attachment to the Xbox 360. The upshot in all this means that both of the Xbox’s optical drives will support H.264.

With Apple now firmly in the Intel camp, and the proliferation of hardware and software to back up H.264’s potential, the convergence of all these devices on H.264 as a key compression scheme means that content can be moved from high-definition DVD players to IP set-top boxes to gaming consoles and to desktop or laptop computers without transcoding or transrating; with a short wait on the user’s part, this content can also be moved to handheld gaming, business or entertainment devices, allowing H.264 media ubiquity unparalleled by even the DVD or VHS tape.

Will 2006 prove to be the year that H.264 will rapidly move to center stage? Check back this time next year. After all, I’ve been wrong before.