C-Cube Microsystems today announced that consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics has begun volume production of advanced DVD players designed with C-Cube’s next-generation DVD decoder, a solution that delivers industry-leading audio-video capabilities while reducing production costs.

“ZiVA-4 has enabled Samsung to design DVD players that set a new standard for video and audio quality,” said Mr. Young Soon Park, General Manager of Samsung Electronics“ DVD Research and Development Team. ”Our new ZiVA-4-based players deliver among the most advanced features and capabilities in the home-entertainment industry.’

ZiVA-4 builds on C-Cube’s highly successful ZiVA-3 solution with higher levels of integration and advanced audio and video features including MP3 audio decode to play back personalized CDs, x2 audio to scan through movies, on-the-fly video zoom of movies, and slow-motion forward and reverse. ZiVA-4 also has an integrated video encoder featuring full support for all major NTSC and PAL standards and four video-output DACs that support composite, S-video, and component video outputs, along with the European SCART standard.

Here are some of the features of the ZiVA-4 chipset:

• Dolby Digital(TM) audio decode
• MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 multi-channel audio decode
• MP3 audio decode
• Dedicated 54 MIPS audio DSP
• DTS(TM) digital out
• MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 video decode
• Zoom and fade-in/fade-out functions for still and motion pictures
• DiscView(TM) for simultaneous viewing of nine index images
• Full fast-forward, reverse and slow-motion trick play
• Support for 8 bit per pixel OSD (On Screen Display)