"Once you have experienced high-def (HD), you can not get back to SD." - CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. lectured on HD and showcased HD video demonstration

"Once you have experienced high-def (HD), you can not get back to SD."
CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. lectured on HD and showcased HD video demonstration

HD Processing Forum held a seminar, "Trend towards High-Definition that Accelerates the Information Appliance and PC market and the Challenges on Wednesday, December 19. Among the seminar was a presentation and HD video demonstration titled as "Current Status and Challenges of HD Movies in Game Development – 1080p video playback with Cell" by Misao Matsushita, Technical Officer (R&D Department) and General Manager at CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. (Figure 1)

CRI Middleware develops and provides middleware products such as "CRI Sofdec," a video playback system for game consoles and embedded systems, and relevant solution services, specializing in video images and sounds for games and entertainment.

Videos for game consoles also increasingly heading toward HD

　In the game software market for "PlayStation 3," made by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and "Xbox 360" made by Microsoft, Inc., about 80 percent of game titles already support HD. In the future, it is deemed that all major game consoles will be able to display HD video images.

　As the company belongs to the entertainment industry, Mr. Matsushita’s presentation utilized HD video game demonstrations from the very beginning, attracting a lot of attentions of the seminar participants.

　Next, he explained that the video system for current game consoles requires high-quality image, abundance of optional features, ease of integration, and so forth. Including introduction of product features of Sofdec developed by CRI Middleware, he described multi-stream playback, multilingual capability, and/or texture movie.

　In the demonstration, the company actually used PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to show smooth playback and/or dropping frames by changing the number of the processor cores for use in HD video playback processing (Figure 2).

　In his closing, Mr. Matsushita pointed out future issues such as whether HD is really necessary, as well as support for a variety of codec schemes and integration of real-time CG and actual images. Nonetheless, he concluded his presentation, mentioning, "As a matter of fact, once you have experienced HD, you can not get back to SD.”

　Regarding his presentation, some participants commented in the after-seminar survey as follows: "the problems and solutions of HD video were specifically shown"; "the demonstration was interesting"; and/or "it was useful information." Also, a lot of participants dropped by CRI Middleware’s demo exhibition space (HD video playback with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) in the backward of the seminar venue and were listening to the demonstrators (Figure 3 and 4).
(Junichi Oba =TechnoAssociates, Inc.)

Related Link:CRI Middleware Homepage