Philips Enables High Definition LCD TVs for the Mass Consumer Market

The Nexperia™ TV520 Family of Hybrid Semiconductor Reference Designs Delivers State-of-the-Art Picture Quality at Significantly Lower Costs

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) today introduced the highly integrated, hybrid Nexperia TV520 reference design that allows best in class picture quality for LCD TVs at considerably lowered costs. The customer can design a product and bring it to market in as little as three months with this integrated production-ready design. The high integration level of the hybrid ATSC/DVB solution offers an easy design-in process for TV manufacturers and translates into a reduced bill of materials of up to 50% compared to alternative solutions. The new reference design supports both analog and digital TV broadcast standards and meets the rapidly growing demand for convincing High Definition picture quality and great sound experience on small screen LCD TV sets at an unprecedented price point.

“The LCD TV market is seeing greater than twenty percent price erosion per year, which means that manufacturers must be vigilant in removing cost from their products almost as soon as they hit the market. At the same time, regulations like the U.S. FCC mandate requiring all TVs to be digital by February 2007 means that TV makers must also have their new digital TVs ready for the Christmas season 2006, with a short time to market and the latest picture quality technologies that consumers expect from a new LCD TV,” said Paul O’Donovan, principal analyst, Gartner. “If you put these two driving forces together it is clear that system solutions which lower costs and add features in a short timeframe, are extremely well-suited to this environment.”

“The Nexperia TV520 family is expressly designed to facilitate the transition to Digital TV at very competitive price points,” said Jos Klippert, marketing director, Digital TV solutions, Philips Semiconductors. “Today people want to have digital reception functionalities on the TV and with this become truly Connected Consumers. As High Definition TV content becomes increasingly available, they are seeking LCD TVs that offer the highest quality viewing experiences in both analog and digital at an affordable price. LCD TVs built on the TV520 family are ideally positioned to fulfill both those needs and will greatly expand the market for new TV technology.”

The first two members of the TV520 reference design family are the TV520/20 and the TV520/30. The TV520/20 reference design was developed for mainstream LCD displays, but is supplemented by the TV520/30, which allows set makers to offer further picture quality enhancements. All members of the family are pin-to-pin compatible which means TV designers can re-use the investments across a range of products. The TV520/20 system solution also includes a field-proven ATSC software stack and customization tools that enable TV manufacturers to simplify the design cycle while offering best-in-class picture performance and auto picture control features.

The TV520 reference design is built on the Nexperia Home PNX853X media processor, which provides the IP blocks for MPEG de-multiplexing and decoding, video scaling, de-interlacing, noise reduction, all kinds of video featuring, video rendering, audio decoding, digital to analog conversion and audio featuring. It also contains a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and an SD/HD analog component input. The TV520 is also scalable to higher-end TV solutions by simply adding a variety of Philips companion processors, such as the Nexperia PNX505x.

Availability and Pricing
Using the TV520/20 system reference design will allow TV makers to reach a bill of material of less than USD $45 for the required analogue and digital processing functionality. Additional information can be found at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com.

About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s largest, with sales of EUR 30.4 billion in 2005. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 159,200 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com.

Nexperia is a trademark of Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.