Broadcom Next with Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Chip

Last month, NEC made the announcement that it was shipping an LSI chipset that incorporated all the codecs and system firmware needed for a console or component to play and record both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. But at that time, NEC appeared to be marketing its system-on-a-chip (SoC) toward manufacturers of single-format systems on both sides of the bond, as a low-cost alternative.

Today, Broadcom steps into the arena, hoping its customers haven't been checking out the NEC product catalog. It announced its own single-chip hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD controller, but this time, it's marketing the chip squarely at companies interested in producing components that support both formats. As the scoreboard currently stands, the number of companies committed to such development is zero, and counting.

Since both formats support mostly the same portfolio of codecs, Broadcom's BCM7440 SoC features support for the full gamut: H.264/AVC, VC-1 (originally developed by Microsoft), MPEG-2, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Tru-HD, and DTS-HD. Broadcom has not specified whose version of MPEG-2 it has chosen, which has often been an issue with companies producing DVD burning software.

Even more curiously, also omitted from Broadcom's announcement today is any mention of support for advanced copy protection. Support for the final 1.0 edition of Advanced Access Copy System (AACS) is a key feature of NEC's offering, which would enable components using that SoC to connect with content providers through the Internet.

This way, content providers could not only verify the authenticity of discs about to be played through a kind of challenge/response mechanism, but also enable the downloading of content directly from the Internet, and negotiate for the rights of users to duplicate content they've already purchased.

Manufacturers haven't exactly been keen on the idea of touting some of AACS' more startling functionality, which includes the capability to "self-destruct" systems discovered through the challenge/response system to be using unlicensed content. AACS was not completed in time for the first wave of HD DVD and Blu-ray players, yet demand for such a system in successive waves remains arguably low. Today's statement did, however, mention support for Ethernet networking, the necessity for which is only leveraged in both HD DVD and Blu-ray specifications by AACS.

Perhaps for that reason, Broadcom's announcement today omits any mention of copy protection, although its SoC could very well include it. Instead, the statement includes this optimistic projection from Computer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro: "Broadcom's product vision for a universal Blu-ray/HD-DVD solution solves one of the thorniest issues facing consumer electronics manufacturers in the high definition DVD market today."

The company's statement also quotes Richard Doherty, the high-def expert analyst with Envisioneering Group (not the high-def expert with the same name who works for Microsoft), as viewing the Broadcom SoC as being "best positioned" for driving the adoption of dual-format components.

It's a clever thing Broadcom did: specifically, using an outside analyst to deliver the term "dual-format" in the company statement. This effectively relieved the company's own officials from having to make similar comments, which might have boxed their new product into the less-than-burgeoning dual-format product realm (see the above reference to zero customers).

The closest that a Broadcom official would get to such an all-inclusive comment was this from the company's VP for consumer electronics, Peter Besen: "We are providing a platform for the future that allows OEMs to easily and cost-effectively deliver products that can also support the evolution of whole home entertainment connectivity." Thus, Besen expands his company's projected customer base from "zero customers" to "whole homes."