Saa7162 devices

Introduction

In March 2005, Philips Semiconductors announced "the industry's first integrated PCI Express dual global video and stereo decoder for digital home PC desktops and notebooks" (press release). The new analog decoder chip, the saa7162, uses the increased bandwidth of the PCI Express bus to capture to two simultaneous analog channels of live tv or baseband video (cf. product flyer). There is of course currently no Linux driver for this decoder.

It appears that the SAA7162 can support four independent simultaneous digital TV streams.

Philips/NXP SAA7162 data sheet

Other PCIe information:

The CX23885/6/7/8 are PCIe chips. The PCI-SIG lists SAA7162 (dual A/V decoder) and SAA7160/SAA7161 (multimedia A/V bridge) as PCIe devices.

Alternative PCI Express Controller

Around the same time, Micronas Semiconductors announced the APB 7202A nGene dual-channel PCI-Express multimedia controller with support for two DTV transport streams and analog video, see product page. It is unclear which analog decoder chip is used.

Philips PCV290 Reference Design

Dual DVB-T and Dual DVB-S Reference Design

Uses 2xTDA8263 DVB-S Tuner, 1 x TDA10093 Dual Channel DVB-S channel decoder, 2xTDA8275A DVB-T Tuner, 2xTDA10046A DVB-T channel decoder, 1xSAA7162E TV video/audio decoder/PCI express interface)

PixelView PlayTV PCX600

This card, from Prolink Microsystems in Taiwan, was demonstrated already at CeBit 2005 as the first PCI Express dual channel multimedia controller; cf. press release. It uses the nGene controller.

They claim their PV-A425E model will be available "soon", but a year later there is no trace of it.

KWorld PCI Express Hybrid

An early example of a card that uses the saa7162 decoder chip is this hybrid card, which also supports Intel's serial digital video out (SDVO):

See product page.

DNTV Live! Dual Hybrid PCI Express

See details.

DNTV QuattroS PCI Express Dual DVB-T Dual DVB-S

This PCIe x1 card has the capability of decoding four simultaneous streams (2xDVB-T, 2xDVB-S). It also appears to have an analog S-Video/Composite/Audio In capability too, plus a reasonably complete remote.

Richard Dale is in the early stages of trying to develop a driver for this card - see DigitalNow QuattroS Driver Development for more details on the progress.

Windows Drivers

Twinhan BDA Drivers - 6090 model and DNTV Live! QuattroS and QuattroT