Via Tunes Open-Source Media Player

Xine media player takes advantage of video accelerators in Via chipsets.

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service

Via Technologies has released a version of the open-source Xine media player that is designed to take advantage of hardware digital video acceleration capabilities in two of the company's PC chipsets, the CN400 and CLE266.

The Via-enhanced Xine Player version 3.0 (VeXP 3.0) was developed for Linux-based personal electronics devices that rely on the MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 acceleration functions of the Via chipsets, company representatives say.

VeXP 3.0 can reduce a processor's workload by more than 50 percent when using the video acceleration capabilities of the CN400 and CLE266 chipsets, according to Via. The player supports a range of video formats, including DVD.

Chipsets Suited

The CN400 and CLE266 chipsets are designed to be used with Via's C3 microprocessor. Chipsets are an integral component of PCs and other devices, connecting the processor with main memory and other components, such as a hard-disk drive.

The UniChrome CLE266 chipset includes an integrated MPEG2 decoder. It also supports DDR memory and for 10/100 Fast Ethernet.

The CN400 chipset was launched in March along with the compact Nano-ITX motherboard. The chipset has an integrated graphics core and hardware acceleration for MPEG2 and MPEG4 video, and supports up to 1GB of DDR DRAM, the company says.