From mini-vans equipped with DVD players to luxury sedans offering access to broadcast TV, passengers and drivers around the world are increasingly taking advantage of in-car entertainment options previously reserved for the home. Today at Convergence 2006 in Detroit, Michigan, NXP Semiconductors unveiled an advanced media processor, the Nexperia™ PNX9520, to address the growing demand for best-in-class audio and video applications in the car.

According to Strategy Analytics, increasing demand for new digital entertainment features in the car will result in the market for in-vehicle multimedia infotainment systems reaching US$36 billion by the end of 2012. The worldwide in-car infotainment market is also highly differentiated by region - in-car DVD players and broadcast video, for example, are most prevalent as an option for backseat passengers in North America, while terrestrial TV access is more prevalent in Japan where drivers and front-seat passengers regularly tune in during rush-hour traffic.

"As demand for automotive digital entertainment features continues to soar, developers should be focused on meeting the growing requirements for different combinations of advanced audio and video in the vehicle," said Joanne Blight, director, Automotive Multimedia and Communications Service, Strategy Analytics. "The shift toward digital multimedia means that automotive companies must embrace more universal standards such as MP3 and MPEG, as well as digital broadcasting. Flexible platforms that will allow developers to design automotive multimedia products that can meet changing consumer requirements, and be cost effective, will be the most successful."

The Nexperia PNX9520 processor from NXP is a highly integrated solution for automotive infotainment, which offers unprecedented flexibility so that car manufacturers and tier-one suppliers can deliver a wide range of vibrant media technologies tailored for the needs of different markets. The solution is unique in offering advanced software features, including the ability to implement the latest audio and video codecs as they become available, and add additional multimedia features as they develop and grow in popularity. Extremely high picture quality is made possible through a combination of highly efficient video decoding and advanced video post-processing, as well as powerful graphical user interface and acceleration features - all available in a single device. In addition, the PNX9520 enables multi-speed audio encoding - so that passengers and drivers can enjoy music from their CDs, DVDs and digital music players by storing them on the car's hard disk drive for playback on the go.

"By offering more functionality through software, NXP is making it possible for infotainment suppliers to bring highly differentiated in-car multimedia systems to market. With this level of flexibility, consumers can also be confident that their in-car infotainment systems can be kept up to date with the most advanced technologies," said Pierre Mehn, product marketing manager, car entertainment solutions business line, NXP Semiconductors. "The PNX9520 media processor makes the most of proven Nexperia technology - bringing the rich sensory experiences that consumers are accustomed to at home to the car."

Support for a broad range of popular standards and interfaces enables easy integration with existing automotive designs and third-party application software. The PNX9520 processor supports video decoding standards including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video, Windows Media Video, H.264 baseline as well as JPEG picture display. It also supports the DVB-T digital broadcasting standard for high-end picture quality and MPEGs, AC3 (Dolby Digital) and Window Media Audio decoding standards.