Pioneer Delivers Supreme High Definition Set-Top to the Industry

March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., a leader in cable television digital set-top boxes, announced today that it has begun shipping its Voyager 3510HD digital set-top box to Time Warner Cable. Engineered to meet the extraordinary demand for high-definition television entertainment, the new set-top box is competitively priced with many rich features. Pioneer's Voyager 3510HD offers viewers the ability to enjoy maximum picture quality from analog, digital and HDTV signals. With the Voyager 3510HD, cable customers will have the ability to view high-definition programs in all 16 ATSC formats supported by the cable industry including 720p, 1080i, as well as 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.

"Cable operators want to offer the most compelling HD tier to gain a distinct advantage over satellite," said Paul Dempsey, president of the Business Solutions Division at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "The Voyager 3510HD will ensure that cable operators can offer the most superior platform, at the most competitive price, guaranteeing a true value for their customers."

The Voyager 3510HD boasts a generous feature set, including:

• Graphics Over HD Video -- Pioneer's 3510HD supports full graphics over HD capability with video scaling, allowing cable customers to enjoy uninterrupted HD content while viewing program descriptions or utilizing other capabilities of an interactive program guide.



• High Definition Decoding Capabilities -- Decodes all 16 Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) high-definition digital formats supported by the cable industry including 480p, 720p and 1080i and outputs to a variety of devices including plasma, HDTV-ready TVs, and standard TVs.



• Aspect Ratio Control -- Allows for the user to determine the video format based on their TV and personal viewing preference for a variety of display options. Setting zoom, stretch or letterbox aspects are effortless through a simple on-screen user interface.



• Video Up and Down Conversion -- Customer configurable controls enable the Voyager 3510HD to output screen resolutions optimized for any display type. Incoming video resolutions are detected and up-converted or down-converted automatically based on the configured output.



• DVI (HDCP-compliant) and a host of other connections -- Digital Visual Interface when combined with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection technology provides additional security against recording and creates a protected digital connection for viewing high value digital content.



• Advanced dual processing power -- For optimum display of 65,000 colors on HD video simultaneously using an enhanced graphics engine.



• Allows for both interlace (1080i) and progressive (720p) scanning for greater flexibility.



• Allows both analog and MPEG2 digital channels to be displayed.



• Flexible memory configurations up to 32 MB of SDRAM memory -- Increases the number of instructions that the set-top box can perform.



• Built-in ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) digital decoder -- Doubles both vertical and horizontal resolution in analog displays.



• Supports leading audio standards -- From CD quality, digital sound including Dolby AC3.

Visit Pioneer Cable and Communications at www.pioneerbroadband.com .

Source: Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.