San Jose, CA-based Chrontel, Inc. announced today its third generation PC-to-TV converter (technically called a VGA-to-NTSC/PAL encoder).

The CH7002 is the first single chip converter to provide superb picture quality without a cost penalty. The CH7002 is also the first PC-to-TV converter that is fully compliant with Microsoft's PC 97 standard.

Chrontel's new patented TrueScale technology will allow consumers to use their TV sets to display high-quality images from their PCs and video games and will enable a new generation of information appliances, network computers and Internet browsers costing less than $500. Market research firm Paul Kagan Associates projects a $6.6 billion dollar market for such information appliances by the year 2005.

Chrontel has packed a lot of sophisticated technology into this single integrated circuit. Chrontel's CH7002 has the ability to on-the-fly: scale TV image size; adjust TV brightness, contrast and color balance; and to filter the image to maintain image quality and stability. Unlike previous competitive solutions, Chrontel's chip neither compromises quality nor requires additional expensive memory chips to store PC screen images as they are being converted for TV display.

Other low cost solutions have had a number of annoying problems including a tendency for text displayed on the TV to shimmer (jitter) and for the edges of the PC screen image to be lost. Previous attempts to solve the latter problem often discarded PC screen information compromising the quality of the resultant image. Chrontel's CH7002 solves these two problems in a single chip and outputs TV screen images that meet consumer quality expectations.

"We are gratified with the reception of the CH7002," stated Jeff Winters, Chrontel's vice president of sales and marketing. "We currently have over 50 companies designing the CH7002 into their products -- including some of the biggest names in consumer and computer electronics manufacturing worldwide. With the CH7002 we have supplied the missing link between PCs and TVs for consumer applications. We expect to see a whole new generation of consumer products that exploit this technology, providing unparalleled image quality at affordable prices."

In addition to introducing the CH7002, Chrontel is displaying in its booth at COMDEX (No. M774 in the Sands), web browsers developed by Teknema and Cyrix, as well as Internet-ready TVs developed by Philips and Anam, based on Chrontel's advanced PC-to-TV technology.

Technical Details

The Chrontel CH7002 accepts either 640x480 or 800x600, RGB analog inputs from a VGA controller and converts this directly into NTSC or PAL (B,D,G,H or I) TV format with simultaneous composite and S-video outputs. The CH7002 features advanced 3-line digital flicker filtering, automatic TV detection, and a three-mode programmable power management feature. All features are programmable through a standard I2C port. The CH7002 supplies everything needed to use a TV as a primary display device in a system.

Pricing and Availability

The CH7002 is available now in a 44-pin PLCC, and is priced at $17.95 in quantities of 1,000.

Chrontel, Inc. designs and develops innovative mixed-signal integrated circuits for the consumer electronics and computer markets worldwide. For more information, contact the company at 2210 O'Toole Avenue, San Jose, CA 95131-1326. Phone: 408/383-9328. Fax: 408/383-9338.