Hantro Launches New High-Resolution Hardware-Based VGA Video Codec

Hantro, the leading mobile multimedia solution expert, has announced today the launch of their next generation hardware codec, providing up to VGA (640 x 480 pixels) resolution video compression/de-compression capability to wireless video-enabled devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and digital still cameras.

Oulu, February 18, 2003 - Hantro's CEO Eero Kaikkonen says: "The VGA solution is a natural successor to the Hantro CIF codec already being delivered to our existing customers, and it is our answer to the latest technological requirements. The calculation intensity required for successfully encoding full motion video at VGA resolution on a mobile device for wireless transmission has, until now, made it a commercially unviable concept. Hantro's new codec changes this. Our new codec makes it possible to capture full motion video at VGA resolution in handheld devices."

The increase in the use of video messaging creates higher and greater demands on the picture quality and resolution of the mobile video, especially in digital cameras and PDAs, but also in mobile phones. The possibility to watch video images on high-resolution screens in PCs also creates the need for even higher resolution – the camera phone being a sort of a camcorder mobile – ever-ready and ever-present.

The VGA resolution hardware video codec is delivered as an Intellectual Property (IP) module to be integrated into ARM AMBA bus based System-on-Chip designs. Hantro's MPEG-4 VGA codec is specifically tailored for low-power devices. Integrating the VGA codec will enable easy implementation of high-quality video applications, such as multimedia messaging, video streaming, and video telephony without resulting in a significant increase in the CPU load and power consumption. In addition, the MPEG-4 VGA codec is simple to configure through an Application Programming Interface (API), facilitating fast video application development.

About Hantro
Hantro provides its customers with video solutions for handheld devices. Hantro has both hardware and software based MPEG-4 and H.263 standards-based video codecs that have already been delivered to clients, and the quality and functionality of which have been proven. Hantro's product portfolio also includes video applications for video capturing, playback, messaging, streaming, and telephony. The company's products play a key role in the development of battery-operated, video-capable end products, such as cellular phones, still cameras, PDAs, camcorders, PC cameras, and web pads. Hantro's investors are funds managed by CapMan, Startupfactory, Menire, and Nexit Ventures.