On2 Technologies Announces the Hantro 8270 Area and Speed Optimized 1080p Hardware Video Encoder

New encoder targets wireless, consumer and surveillance applications

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. and BARCELONA, Spain -- Feb. 16, 2009 -- Mobile World Congress -- On2 Technologies (NYSE Alternext US: ONT) announced today the introduction of its latest hardware design, the Hantro(TM) 8270 1080p Encoder. The new design supports H.264 Baseline, Main and High Profile video along with 16Mpixel JPEG still images. With a minimal clock frequency requirement, less than 250MHz needed for 30fps 1080p video, the Hantro 8270 is highly suited for low powered chipsets typically used in battery operated devices and consumer electronics.

Pre-processing features improve image quality and compression performance

The Hantro 8270 incorporates proprietary technologies for video stabilization and automatic scene change detection.

The video stabilization feature improves the quality of captured video by counteracting the effects of camera shake. Analyzing each frame of raw video, undesired movement is removed by cropping and re-positioning the frame. The process is executed prior to encoding, and thereby increases overall compression efficiency.

Automatic scene change detection brings significant value to real-time video surveillance, multi-camera broadcasting and off-line transcoding (PVR) applications. The technology identifies dramatic content changes and instructs the encoder to insert a key frame. This eliminates the unwanted compression artifacts that would normally be introduced over several frames as the encoder adapts to the change in content. With an increase of 4 to 8db in peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) to the frames immediately following a scene change, the technology brings measurable improvements to the viewing experience for transcoded content such as movies and TV shows, and consolidated streams from multiple cameras typical to surveillance systems and live event coverage.

"With power consumption a critical design issue for semiconductors, maintaining a low overall clock frequency is an imperative," says Mika Hakala, SVP and General Manager - Embedded Solutions, On2 Technologies. "A key challenge in designing a 1080p encoder is the transfer and encoding of the data needed with a clock frequency acceptable to the chip manufacturer. Through efficient pipeline utilization and smart parallelism for key functions, we have not only met, but exceeded our customers' expectations for 1080p video."

The Hantro 8270 will be available for licensing from March '09. For more information contact sales@on2.com

About On2 Technologies

On2 (NYSE Alternext US: ONT) creates advanced video compression technologies for desktop and wireless. Powering the video in many of today's leading web and mobile applications and devices, On2's customers include: Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, Move Networks, Adobe and Skype. On2 Technologies is headquartered in Clifton Park, NY USA. For more information please visit www.on2.com