On2 Technologies announced that it has released its new flagship hardware video decoder design, the Hantro(TM) 9190. The 9190 is the tenth generation of the Hantro line of decoders, which are deployed in hundreds of millions of chips worldwide.

The 9190 design supports video playback up to full HD (1080p) resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) in multiple formats including On2 VP6 for Adobe Flash Player and Sun JavaFX, DivX 3, 4, 5, 6, H.264, H.263, Sorenson Spark, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1/WMV9 and RealVideo 8, 9 & 10, as well as up to 66 megapixel JPEG still images.

"We are very excited to release the Hantro 9190," said Jani Huoponen, General Manager, On2 Finland. "We have already licensed the On2 VP6 decoding technology in the 9190 design to several semiconductor companies, which indicates to us how eager the market is to have VP6 decoding directly available in hardware chips. The Hantro 9190 is fully configurable for resolution, format and feature support, which means our customers can minimize the silicon area and chip cost in every target application."

The First On2 VP6 Hardware Decoder Design

The Hatnro 9190 includes full decoding support for the On2 VP6 video format (both VP6-E and VP6-S profiles). VP6, through its inclusion in the Adobe Flash and Sun JavaFX application platforms, has become the video format of choice on popular sites including Hulu, NYTimes.com, CNN, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Toudou.com, Eurosport, CCTV.com and others, making VP6 playback a fundamental requirement for Internet-connected devices.

"The Hantro 9190 is the result of On2's U.S. and Finland engineering teams working closely to create the highest-quality implementations of On2 VP6 and other leading codecs in a single hardware design," said Matt Frost, interim CEO of On2. "As demand for VP6 video content on mobile and consumer electronic devices continues to grow, the Hantro 9190 will enable chip makers to support high-performance VP6 playback at up to 1080p HD resolutions."

For a complete list of the formats supported in the Hantro 9190, visit www.on2.com.

Advantages of Hantro Hardware Codecs Over Software Solutions

Hantro codec designs provide semiconductor manufacturers with a minimal-risk solution for integrating high-performance video capability in chipsets. By integrating a hardware video codec instead of software, chip-makers are able to extend the video playback time of battery operated devices while also enabling them to achieve full HD playback performance, even with the lowest-end device CPUs.

For example, the Hantro 9190 requires less than 100MHz clock frequency to decode 1080p video at 30 fps, a feat that is all but impossible in software. Compared to commercially available software solutions for digital signal processors (DSPs), the 9190 is up to 11 times more power efficient, consuming less than 50 milliwatts for HD video decoding, and less than 10 milliwatts when decoding standard definition (SD) video.

In addition, the Hantro 9190 configurable, multi-format architecture enables semiconductor manufacturers to support all of today's popular video codecs in a single chip design that also includes a suite of integrated image post-processing functions that further reduce expensive calculations in software.