The Mysteries About NUON Revealed


	The Mysteries About NUON Revealed


	by Guido Henkel


	For well over a year now we have been hearing about Nuon, an enhancement for home entertainment media technologies developed by VM Labs, that could potentially revolutionize the way we approach these media. It all revolves around a small but powerful microchip that could be the heart of next-generation home entertainment hardware to expand the capabilities of these devices. Added interactivity in DVD movies, enhanced features on DVD releases, and videogames that can be played on DVD players are only a few of the many applications that can be created around the infamous Nuon chip.

Hand in hand with such a technology come a lot of myths and questions about what Nuon can and cannot do. I believe the most important thing to understand is that Nuon has no intentions of rendering current DVD players incompatible the way technologies such as the much dreaded Divx could have. Nuon is a fairly transparent extension of current capabilities that are designed to take the usability of the medium on step further instead of limiting it. In really simple terms this means, if your player is Nuon-enhanced, you may have access to additional features and may expect an increase in user friendliness that is not necessarily part of standard DVD players. Just like DVD-ROM, Nuon is an extension of capabilities, not a replacement.


	Just like DVD-ROM, Nuon is an extension of capabilities, not a replacement

So what exactly are the benefits you can get out of a Nuon enabled DVD player, such as the Samsung Extiva DVD-N2000 that is now available in stores? Although the Samsung player shows some weaknesses and has plenty of room for improvement, it also shows what the added CPU power of the Nuon chip can do. Many of these improvements are very subtle and not immediately noticeable, but important nonetheless--and let's not forget that the DVD-N2000 is the first player to walk in this uncharted territory.

MPEG-2, the video encoding used for DVD-Video, is a very CPU-intensive process, even during something as trivial as regular playback, and although not noticeable on the Samsung player, one area where Nuon could play up its strengths in the future is in the video decoding stage. With its added processing power Nuon players could at one point take over the entire video decoding, improving on current decoding technologies and allowing filtering of the video stream in real-time. An indication of what that means can be seen in the "Zoom" feature of the Samsung player. Unlike in regular players, the image is not simply scaled up or down to zoom in or out. A number of anti-aliasing filters are applied that create a much smoother looking image than achieved through simple scaling technologies.


	The opportunities are limitless with the increased power of an additional microprocessor that can completely concentrate on bells and whistles, rather than the basic operation of the DVD player


	Another field in which Nuon can flex its muscles is in the fast-forward, fast-backward section of a DVD player. Instead of creating jumpy and jerky images as traditional players do, Nuon players can create absolutely smooth fast-forwards by not only dropping frames, but by using the information from intermediate frames to create smoother transitions--a very CPU-intensive process--or simply by helping to shuffle data over the internal bus much more efficiently. Although once again this function is insufficiently implemented in the Samsung player, I have no doubt that future generations of Nuon-enhanced DVD players will handle especially this feature with never before seen fluidity. Potentially, even an approximation of the audio track could be made in these fast-forwards, very much like a tape recorder that is quickly winding its tape.

The capabilities to manipulate still images, to take a series of strobe images and to force the player to resize the image to fill your screen are more gimmicks than practical enhancements, but with some time, maybe even helpful features may arise from that. The opportunities are limitless with the increased power of an additional microprocessor that can completely concentrate on bells and whistles, rather than the basic operation of the DVD player.

Nuon can also give users an improved interface over what DVD traditionally has to offer. While running a movie you can make adjustments to the player's basic setup--which most standard DVD players can only do in "full stop" mode--as well as the selection of language tracks and subtitles on the fly, even on discs that are not explicitly designed to allow such functionality.

Like most DVD players, Nuon players can also play back standard audio CDs, a side of the technology that has so far been mostly underrated throughout the industry. So what can added processing power do here? While a lot of functionality comes to mind immediately, two functions are currently implemented in the Samsung player: the display of a real-time spectrum analyzer and the Virtual Light Machine. The spectrum analyzer displays a bar graph of the audio spectrum of the music you are listening to. Traditionally, what this feature does has so far been limited to high-end recording studio equipment. While most users certainly have no use for this feature, at least it creates some animated graphics on your


	Nuon enhanced players can also serve as simplistic videogame consoles

screen. If you want something flashier, the "Virtual Light Machine" brings psychedelic rainbow colored images to the screen that pulsate and move with the music. Whether used as relaxation or to hypnotize yourself, the feature once again offers something for the eye while listening to music, and can simply serve as a way to create an ambiance. Theoretically the applications are limitless, however, and in the future we may see features that are a lot more sophisticated, such as the possibility to EQ your playback, to supply dynamic or sonic compression of playback material and so much more. Once again, with the added processing power, anything is possible.

Apart from all these features that simply add to DVD's current functionality, Nuon enhanced players can also serve as simplistic videogame consoles. Although no competition for dedicated videogame hardware, Nuon players are capable of bringing great videogame entertainment to your home. Without the need for a separate machine, you simply insert the game disc in your DVD player and it will automatically behave like a traditional videogame console. Although software support may be somewhat limited, for casual players this is a great expansion of the DVD format as such, that comes free of charge. The players even come with a gamepad to play these games; Samsung's player currently contains the game "Ballistic." If the games in the Nuon line-up will be following the line of this colorful combination game, they will certainly fulfill the needs of many families.


	Nuon could potentially make selected DVD-ROM content available to all those users who do not have a DVD-ROM drive


	Apart from all these features that simply add to DVD's current functionality, Nuon enhanced players can also serve as simplistic videogame consoles. Although no competition for dedicated videogame hardware, Nuon players are capable of bringing great videogame entertainment to your home. Without the need for a separate machine, you simply insert the game disc in your DVD player and it will automatically behave like a traditional videogame console. Although software support may be somewhat limited, for casual players this is a great expansion of the DVD format as such, that comes free of charge.

The players even come with a gamepad to play these games; Samsung's player currently contains the game "Ballistic." If the games in the Nuon line-up will be following the line of this colorful combination game, they will certainly fulfill the needs of many families.

Since Nuon players are sold at the same price as regular DVD players, there is no premium for all these capabilities. As I pointed out in the beginning, Nuon is not a replacement but an extension of the DVD format. There won't be DVD movie releases that are playable on Nuon players only -- one thing many consumers may be afraid of. While there may be releases that support Nuon's unique capabilities just like DVD-ROM does, the common denominator on those releases will always be the standard set top DVD player. As a matter of fact, Nuon could potentially make selected DVD-ROM content available to all those users who do not have a computer with a DVD-ROM drive. I may be overly optimistic here, but with Nuon's capabilities, a Nuon-based DVD-ROM interface is not necessarily out of the question. And if you think that is far fetched, just imagine what Nuon could do with an Internet connection. Direct weblinks and access to real-time information are only one of the few applications that come to mind immediately.

Nuon has a promising future, but only if those in charge have a true vision for it. So far it is hard to tell where VM Labs, the creators of the Nuon chip, will take their technology, but without a doubt, it will yield some very interesting results. It is easy to dismiss Nuon for the power of the PlayStation2 or Microsoft's upcoming X-Box, but Sony and Microsoft will never see the DVD set top market as an interesting playing field for either platform; whereas Nuon can make for a DVD player with unlimited capabilities and a firm focus on the needs of home theater and general home entertainment enthusiasts.

Just like DVD-ROM, Nuon is an extension of capabilities, not a replacement.


	This article has originally been published in my monthly column �DVD Unclassified� in �Media Line� and is reprinted here by permission.


	November 17, 2000

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