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H.264: Its really for SDTV
Starting in 2007, the number of standard-definition set-top boxes shipping with the ability to decode MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video streams will surpass the number of MPEG-4 AVC high-definition boxes. An upcoming study from IMS Research forecasts that 17% of set-tops shipping in 2007 will support MPEG-4 AVC, and of those, two-thirds will be standard definition. According to analyst Stephen Froehlich, “As the market for SDTV set-tops is still nearly ten times the size of the market for HDTV set-tops, even the first, relatively tentative deployments of H.264 SDTV set-tops will eclipse those of HDTV set-tops in volume.” “This is clearly the trend Broadcom is looking to exploit with its newly-announced MCB7118 chip.“ adds Froehlich. “Even though the initial market for H.264 set-tops was in HDTV, the primary H.264 market for the next five years will actually be SDTV.” The Worldwide Market for Semiconductors and Software in Set-top Boxes – 2007 Edition, due to be published near the end of January 2007 covers the market for the key hardware and software technologies contributing to the set-top box bill of materials, including MPEG decoders, hard drives, front-ends, operating systems, and middleware. http://www.imsresearch.com/
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