S-A unveils new HD box

[mhz40]

Jeff Baumgartner, CED

Scientific-Atlanta has launched its third-generation line of set-tops capable of churning out high-definition television programming.

The Explorer 3250HD features a smaller physical footprint, a 166 MHz processor -- 30 percent faster than those in previous S-A HD boxes -- and 40 Megabytes of application and program memory.

The new model also allows for "stretch and zoom" video for full-screen viewing on HDTVs, S-A said. On wide-screen HDTV, for example, viewers can stretch the sides of the video for a full horizontal image or stretch all four sides of the video to fill the screen with the box's zoom feature.

S-A, which shipped its first Explorer HD box in July 1999, said the box supports standard definition 480i and 480p scan rates and HD 720p and 1080i scan rates.

HD has proved to be an area of significant growth for S-A's set-top business. In January, S-A said it shipped 43,000 HD boxes in the second quarter. By the end of that financial period, the company had shipped almost 200,000 HD set-tops to 94 cable systems.

Pioneer Electronics and Pace Micro Technology also make HD set-tops that run on Scientific-Atlanta's digital platform.