Philips Semiconductors
Integrated MPEG2 AVG decoder
Objective specification
SAA7201
• Flexible horizontal continuous scaling from 0.5 up to 4
allows easy aspect ratio conversion including support
for 2.21 : 1 aspect ratio movies
• Vertical scaling with fixed factors 0.5, 1 or 2 to support
picture scaling and up-sampling
• Scaling of incoming pictures to 25% of their original size
with anti-aliasing filtering to free screen space for
graphics applications like electronic program guides
• Non-full screen MPEG pictures will be displayed in a box
of which position and background colour are adjustable
by the external CPU
• Video output may be slaved to internally (master)
generated or externally (slave) supplied HV
synchronization signals; the position of active video is
programmable; MPEG timebase changes do not
affected the display phase
• Video output direct connectable to SAA718X encoder
family
• Various trick modes under control of external CPU:
– Freeze I or P pictures; restart on I picture
– Freeze on B pictures; restart at any moment
– Scanning and decoding of I or I and P pictures
– Single step mode
– Repeat/Skip field for time base correction.
Graphics
• Graphics is region based and presented in boxes
independent of video format
• Screen arrangement of boxes is determined by display
list mechanism which allows for multiple boxes,
background loading, fast switching, scrolling and fading
of regions
• Support of 2, 4, 8 bits/pixel bit-maps in fixed bit-maps or
coded in accordance to the DVB variable/run length
standard for region bases graphics
• Optimized memory control in MPEG video decoding
allows for storage of graphical bit-maps up to 1.2 Mbit in
50 Hz and 2.0 Mbit in 60 Hz systems
• VL/RL encoding enables full screen graphics at
8 bit/pixel in 50 Hz
• Fast CPU access enables full bit-map updates within a
display field period
• Display colours are obtained via colour look-up tables;
CLUT output is YUVT at 8-bit for each signal component
thus enabling 16M different colours and 6-bit for T
(transparency) which gives 64 mixing levels with video
• Bit-map table mechanism to specify a sub-set of entries
if the CLUT is larger than required by the coded bit
pattern; supported bit-map tables are 16 to 256,
4 to 256 and 4 to 16
• Graphics boxes may not overlap vertically; if 256 entry
CLUT has to be down loaded, a vertical separation of
1 field line is mandatory
• Internal support for fast block moves in the external
SDRAM during MPEG decoding
• Graphics mechanism can be used for signal generation
in the vertical blanking interval; useful for teletext, wide
screen signalling, closed caption etc.
• Support for a single down-loadable cursor of 1 kpixel
with programmable shape; supported shapes are
8 × 128, 16 × 64, 32 × 32, 64 × 16 and 128 × 8
• Cursor colours are determined via a 4-entry CLUT with
YUVT at 6, 4, 4 respectively 2 bits; mixing of cursor with
video + graphics in 4 levels
• Cursor can be moved freely across the screen without
overlapping restrictions.
1997 Jan 29
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