Zoran announced its Activa 200, an DVD player/recorder system-on-a-chip, integrating the DVD read/write functions, and its analog companion Activa 250 chip are now sampling to DVD recorder manufacturers worldwide. In the Activa 200, Zoran has developed a digital DVD recordable front end technology (read/write channel, servo, data processor, CPU), and integrated it with the audio/video back-end functions (MPEG decode/encode CPU, analog video decoder/encoder, and progressive scan output) on a single system-on-a-chip (SoC).

Zoran has also developed the companion Activa 250 analog front-end chip, as an RF signal processing solution, optimized to work with the most popular optical pickup units (OPUs) and loader mechanisms.

The solution is delivered with complete system software including a graphical user interface.

On the back end, Activa 200 offers a high level of integration and peripheral support. Features include: an analog video decoder with native RGB input support, 3D Y/C separation and time base correction; a video encoder, a variety of high end I/O interfaces including an integrated stereo Class D output, a 1394 link, and a USB host controller with physical layer transceiver.

Also included in the Activa 200 is native support for authoring and editing in DVD-Video, DVD-VR, and DVD+VR formats.

Zoran expects that Activa 200-based DVD recorders will begin production early next year. The Activa 200 + Activa 250 chipset is priced at $25 in OEM quantities.