DVD Chipsets.

[Tony08]

Hello all.
From Chinese manufacture, there are 4 kind of DVD Player chipsets : MTK, ALI, ESS, WINBOND . Could you help me to know about it and advice, what kind is the best. Thank you very much.

[clayts]

ESS (US) were there right at the start, but their chipsets have always been criticised for blocky MPEG artefacts.

MTK or MediaTek (Taiwan) are producing really good quality chipsets, which add support for file types such as raw .mpg, .jpg, .wma, and for High Definition CD, as well as DVD-Audio support on some boards, as well as dts/Dolby Digital decoding. In addition their MT1379 boards support Progressive Scan output, in both PAL and NTSC flavours, something the early ESS boards couldn't do (indeed, they used to use a separate Prog Scan board, whereas MTK use one). The vast majority of Far Eastern players are now using MediaTek chipsets, and even Philips are using them on some of their cheaper players. ESS felt so threatened they started copyright inmfringement litigation against MediaTek last year (settled in the end), particular with their MT1369 chipset, which has subsequently been replaced by the far superior MT1379 in any case.

Ali or Acer Labs Inc (Taiwan) as they were called were in at the start, but like ESS used separate boards for Prog Scan until last year when they launched the M3351 - virtually identical to the MT1379 if truth be told, but just as effective. They are now a real challenger to MTK.

Winbond (Taiwan) I have to say I don't know a great deal about - my only knowledge of them is their EEPROMs used in early Sampo players

[Skynet107]

Good Answer!!

[Tony08]

Thank you Clayts.
All I can say is great answer that I needed for along time. Thanks again.

[Minh Nhat]

I give an addition :
ESS was very famous before. One year ago, it was seemed that all of DVD Player used ESS chip. But now, with the participation of Taiwanese Manufacturer (Mediatek, ALi, ...), especially with Mediatek, the pioneer in the integrated of Front-End and Back-End (MT1369), ESS lose their position.
Winbond has W9922 which is same as ES4408F. It's old but there aren't no new chip.
Nowaday, the Taiwanese Manufacturers have the high position due to their integrated, cheap, good performance chip. Mediatek has MT1379 with P-Scan, they intend to launch new chip with RF integrated, MPEG4 in the end of this year. ALi has M3353 with RF integrated. Sunplus, Cheertek will also launch their chips in the end of this year.

[sushix]

This is a interesting discussion. How about a list of dvd players with chipset. I'll start with the one I know.

Lasonic 8090- ESS
Sungale 2002AK - MTK 1369
Sungale 8208 - MTK 1369
Jwin JD-VD203, JD-VD503 - MTK


How about Zoran chipset? Are they any good?

[sushix]

Is it safe to say MTK makes the best chipset right now?

[bonzobanana]

Well carrying on this interesting topic.

There is also now sunplus with their SPHE8200A chipset. Its a pretty good chipset with a nice detailed picture and progressive scan functionality licensed from silicion images (SIL 504). This chipset is their first dvd chipset I believe. Previously the company made chipsets for talking teddy bears and other dolls/toys as its main business.

Here's a list of players I know and what chipset they use;

AMW P80L - using a Mediatek MT1379 (Doesn't even have a seperate dvd logic board its built into the dvd drive and cables for video output come from the drive!)

Ebench KH6777 - using a zoran Valddis 6 I think
Compacks DVD5000 - using a Mediatek MT1379
Toshiba 330 (I had one but don't know what its based on)
Prism dvd player - Mediatek
Maxim MX11-21 -Sunplus SPHE8200A
Kiss DP-450 - EM8500 (sigma designs)
Arcane DVM727 - Mediatek MT1389
Sharp DV-740H - ESS
yamada dvd portable - mediatek
Samsung HTDM150 (don't know but would guess Zoran Valddis)
Philips VR755 dvd/vcr (actually made by LG, would love to know whats in it as the picture is superb)

[stackner]

digitrex gk-1020 = MT1369 chip from MediaTek