Sampo launches new DV-R1 DVD recorder

Taiwan-based Sampo Corporation announced today the launch of its new DVD Recorder, the DV-R1, made ready for the mass market by Cirrus Logic's new silicon platform.

With an expected sub-$500 retail price, the DV-R1 will be available in retail outlets in the U.S., Taiwan and Europe later this month.

Based upon Cirrus’ flagship CS98200 DVD processor and CS92288 MPEG audio/video (A/V) CODEC, the DVD recording platform provides Sampo with a complete audio, video and software solution that is now ready for mass-market delivery, unlike many competing solutions, enabling customers such as Sampo to get to market quickly and affordably.

Cirrus’ CS92288 MPEG A/V encoding solution provides high-quality video recording over a wide range of bitrates, enabling consumers to enjoy up to six hours of high-quality content on DVD recordable media while retaining compatibility with the installed base of DVD players. Cirrus’ CS98200 DVD Processor is the industry’s highest performing DVD processor, supporting such capabilities as DVD-Audio and MPEG-4 simple profile support. In addition, the Cirrus platform enables Sampo to integrate IEEE-1394 functionality and supports Kodak Picture CD, and MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) audio formats. The Sampo DVD recorder also leverages Cirrus’ audio expertise by incorporating the CS5333 analog-to-digital converter and the CS4362 digital-to-analog converter.

“Cirrus Logic is providing us with the ready-made technology we need to take an early leadership position and accelerate the market for affordable digital video recording products,” said Wei-Hsu Luo, product manager of Sampo’s DVD Business Department Electronics Division. “With the DVD+RW Recording platform from Cirrus, Sampo intends to jump-start the market for consumer-friendly, affordable DVD recorders.”

“Cirrus’ DVD recording platform today provides manufacturers with all of the complete technology necessary to meet the growing consumer demand for DVD recorders,” said Brian Heuckroth, vice president of Video DVD Recording, Cirrus Logic. “We’re pleased to help enable Sampo to capitalize on the tremendous growth opportunity in this market by serving them with the industry’s most appealing platform solution.”

Cirrus provides integrated silicon/software platform solutions for DVD recorders and DVD players/personal video recorders (PVRs). These new high-growth markets are being driven by the digital consumer revolution, as consumers move away from more than 30 years of VCR technology and begin to store, view and manage their content in the digital domain, allowing for greater content selection, convenience and control than has ever been possible.