Harmonic announced that its Rhozet Carbon Coder video transcoding product will support Panasonic’s AVC-Intra high-definition (HD) compression technology.

Rhozet Carbon Coder will provide real-time transcoding of HD material using the AVC-Intra codec as a standard feature. Developed to provide greater image quality and flexibility in broadcast HD production, this intra-frame compression technology enables highly efficient compression without compromising HD quality.

“The AVC-Intra format is fast gaining ground with broadcasters, offering significantly better compression efficiency than older codec families, yet maintaining very high picture quality,” said David Trescot, VP of the Rhozet Business Unit at Harmonic. “Support for AVC-Intra confirms our commitment to deliver the format support our customers require, for broadcast, broadband or mobile applications.”

The AVC-Intra compression scheme complies with the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) open standard and provides 10bit 4:2:2 full-raster compression at the same bit-rate as DVCPRO HD and achieves DVCPRO HD quality at half the bit-rate, effectively creating a new level of HD production while lowering storage and distribution costs.

Carbon Coder with AVC-Intra support will be available in April 2008.

More Broadband Direct:

• NCTA asks that small ops get dual must-carry exemption 

• CMC, Motorola hook up on turnkey digital package 

• Comcast bulks up HD in Seattle, Spokane 

• Suddenlink surpasses 100,000 VoIP subscribers 

• Synacor integrates platform into WOW!’s online infrastructure 

• Harmonic’s Rhozet to support Panasonic’s AVC HD technology 

• OpenTV finds a home in 100M STBs, TVs; picked by Portuguese provider 

• Arris announces stock buyback program 

• Charter joins multicultural voter campaign 

• Broadband Briefs for 2/20/08