The UHAPI Forum Adds Personal Video Recording Functionality: Accelerates Wider Industry Adoption

The UHAPI Forum Adds Personal Video Recording Functionality: Accelerates Wider Industry Adoption

The Organization Releases the Universal Home API 1.1 to Assist Reducing Development Cycle for A/V Software in CE Devices

INTERNATIONAL CES, LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Universal Home Application Programming Interface (UHAPI) Forum today announced the availability of Universal Home API specification 1.1 for audio/video (A/V) technology. In addition to the UHAPI 1.0 functionality, the UHAPI 1.1 specification standardizes the handling of A/V for personal video recording (PVR) functionality that enables playing back to and from a hard disk drive (HDD), including trick mode functionalities. The release of the UHAPI 1.1 directly answers the industry's need to reduce resources spent on developing PVR capable devices.

Comprised of members from global, industry-leading companies, the UHAPI Forum continues to alleviate costs and time associated with the development of commonly used audio/video functions. To that end, the Forum is developing the UHAPI 1.2 specification that will address digital media adapter functionality in stand-alone devices as well as integrated in devices such as TV or set-top box. The UHAPI 1.2 specification is scheduled to be released in mid-2006.

"Our initial spec, released a year ago, laid the necessary groundwork for us to add many independent functions such as the PVR functionality in later versions," said Pieter Noordam, chairman of the UHAPI Forum. "With a widened scope, UHAPI 1.1 is applicable to more devices, including 52 million PVR units that are expected to be shipped worldwide in 2009.(1)"

The UHAPI specification accelerates a product's time-to-market by eliminating repetitive programming. It defines hardware-independent and operating system-independent software interfaces to configure and control audio/video-related functions. The UHAPI 1.1 expands the list of common functions such as fast forwarding and rewinding that can be developed quickly using UHAPI. As a result, the semiconductor and CE vendors can concentrate their engineering resources on developing their own, proprietary feature sets.

Presence at CES

The UHAPI Forum is exhibiting at 2006 International CES in booth #72536 in the Sands Expo and Convention Center. CES attendees can observe a set-top box and TV with the audio/video control based on the UHAPI specifications. Also, the results of the UHAPI4Linux project will be demonstrated. This demonstration shows an open source implementation of UHAPI on a Linux PC.

The UHAPI Forum's specifications are available online to all industry representatives, including non-members at the UHAPI site (www.uhapi.org). Forum membership is open to all companies and organizations in software, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.

About The UHAPI Forum

Founded in November 2004, the UHAPI Forum develops and maintains the Universal Home Application Programming Interface (UHAPI) for the home CE industry. The UHAPI serves as a hardware-independent bridge between the CE and middleware or application software industries and the semiconductor industry. The technology enables middleware and application software to be easily ported across multiple devices. Deployment of the UHAPI also frees software developers to focus solely on application development, which reduces development costs and speeds a product's time-to-market. Current UHAPI Forum members include ACCESS Co., Ltd., Atos Origin, BORES Signal Processing, the Digital TV Industry Alliance of China, HP, Mediabolic, NEC Electronics, NVIDIA, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. For more information about the UHAPI Forum or to become a member, visit www.uhapi.org.

(1) "TV Time-Shifting on the Rise: Worldwide PVR Unit Shipments More Than

Double in 2004", In-Stat/MDR, May 2005.

Source: The UHAPI Forum

CONTACT: Miho Hasuo of The UHAPI Forum PR, +1-503-595-2851, or
press@uhapi.org

Web site: http://www.uhapi.org/

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