We have organized our FAQs into four general categories: General, Technical, Support, and Design. Use the scroll bar to the right of the table below to view the entire list. Note that in an effort to provide our customers with the most up-to-date support, we are constantly adding information to this section, so please check back from time to time.  If you cannot find what you are looking for, do not hesitate to contact us directly.

GENERAL
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How does "their" processing compare to what you do?Our large kernel (neighborhood) processing provides many unique benefits that are not achievable otherwise. No one else is able to perform these sophisticated operations on video in real time in nearly as cost effective a manner as we do.
Can anyone else do such large kernel processing without infringing on your proprietary technology?No. Many have tried, but the required computational load using traditional techniques is too great.
With all those complex and demanding operations, does your processing really work in "Real Time?"YES. At the core of EVD’s enhancement technology is the requirement that it operate at real-time video rates. That typically means processing 30 (or 60) full video frames per second. This is done with NO lag in better seeing the details of the image, so that expert viewers who depend on true real-time video (e.g., pilots flying a plane, doctors performing surgery, etc.) can do their job better, without loss of response time or degraded hand-eye coordination.
Who are your competitors?This is not an easy question to answer, due mainly to the different ways the phrase "video enhancement" is used today. Many providers of scalers and deinterlacers include some form of enhancement in their products. These offerings typically consist of small-kernel edge enhancers or other compromised solutions. Other products include costly board-or box-level systems designed for a specific (i.e., narrow) application.

EVD's products have been designed from the ground up to provide the ultimate level of enhancement performance in a cost-effective, easy-to-use package with a broad range of applications. We don't know of anyone else offering this combination of features and benefits.
What is the delivery time after I place an order?Most orders ship from stock. Larger quanitities will depend upon when in our current production cycle your order arrives: the maximum time for non-stocking orders is approximately 20 weeks.

Custom production runs (e.g., extended temperature ranges, etc.) depend upon the nature of the order. Feel free to contact us with specific questions about lead times for your order.
What is the minimum order quantity?Standard MOQ for EVD1000/1500 ASICs is 90 pieces (due to the size of the trays in which the chips are packaged). Samples are available. Contact the factory with your precise requirements.



TECHNICAL
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How do I compare the effects of your contrast enhancement (numerically) to other processors?Our basic processing can be thought of as expanding local contrast by up to a factor of 8, removing up to 100% of the unwanted large-area "background" variation, and using a 2-D radially-symmetric convolution kernel ("neighborhood") up to several hundreds of pixels across. Additionally, our processing is locally adaptive in nature.
Why is large kernel processing such a big deal?By considering the data in a large neighborhood centered around each pixel as it is being processed, it allows us to address a much larger range of spatial frequencies in the image. Traditional small kernel processing can only enhance details in the very highest spatial frequencies, which typically contain little of the spectral content of the image, and is where noise is prevalent. Hence, small kernel processors must employ relatively large gain to have much noticeable effect on the image, thereby typically producing sharp outlining artifacts and greatly increased visibility of noise. Our large kernel processing (operating on much more of the "meat" of the image) can produce dramatic results with much lower gain, with the additional benefits of large area shading, yielding much more natural-appearing images with increased local contrast, added dimensionality, and improved visibility of subtle details and features.
What is meant by "locally adaptive" processing?Other methods (particularly those that are "global" in nature, including histogram-based ones) tend to simply crank up the gain uniformly across the entire image. In our case, for each pixel in the image, we vary the processing based on a large local "neighborhood" of image data surrounding that pixel. This "adapts" (adjusts) the processing to best fit the needs of each pixel's own area of the image.
What about latency? You say “no” lag; how much throughput latency is there REALLY, particularly at high-speed HDTV rates like 1080i and 1080p?Processing latency of detailed video data through the EVD1000/1500 for ALL video formats is on the order of a hundred pixel times or so (only a small fraction of a single line of video data), depending in detail somewhat on things such as input/output data format conversions if used. That means changes in the scene at the input are processed and output in microseconds; not minutes, seconds, or even milliseconds.
What is your processing engine?We don’t employ an “engine” per se. Other available products (even those designed for video use) either perform only a (very different) specific function, or use processing engines which are generally programmable to accommodate a wide range of potential functions and operations, and their applications do not employ our proprietary techniques. The EVD technology is implemented on the EVD1000/1500 in dedicated, optimized, gate-level hardware, with a high degree of parallelism, specifically designed to very rapidly and efficiently perform this particular class of proven beneficial image processing operations. It is also available for licensing as an FPGA core in special circumstances, although the available custom ASIC is truly hard to beat for cost effectiveness.
I have one (or more) DSPs already in place in my video system. Can't I just implement your algorithms in them and get the same results?DSPs are a fantastic resource for powerful, general-purpose processing power… and the available development tools permit remarkable functions to be implemented in relatively short timeframes. However, to realize EVD's level of enhancement performance in a DSP-based system you would first need to know how we do what we do, and then you'd need one (or more) DSPs totally committed to performing this function… along with the required memory, etc.

Assuming you got this far, you'd wind up with a solution costing $50-$100 per installation and using a good deal of circuit board real estate (not to mention all the precious development time). So while it might be "possible" to put our processing into DSPs, why would you want to?



SUPPORT
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How do I upload files to EVD?Obtain a login username/password from your contact at EVD, then from the main menu select "SUPPORT -> UPLOAD FILES." Follow the instructions on this page.
How do I program an EVD1000/1500?Programming is performed via an industry-standard two-wire serial interface. In general, there are two phases of programming:
  1. setting up the chip to operate in your specific environment (e.g., data I/O formats, etc.), and
  2. setting enhancement parameters to your specific requirements.
EVD provides technical assistance and recommended settings, in addition to development boards with Windows-based software which allow you to modify each register and observe first-hand the effects on your video data.
Why do you say your chip will operate at 1080p, when the demo board you send to me does not?The EVD1500 operates at clock speeds up through 150 MHz and will handle 1080p data just fine (standard 1080p pixel clock rate is 148.5 MHz). Our digital Technology Demonstrator board (see DDK1000) operates with HDMI input/output on ATSC standard (up through 1080i) signals. The limitation on this Demonstrator board is inherent in the standard HDMI receiver/transmitter chips and associated circuitry used, NOT the EVD technology. Our analog Demonstrator boards are typically designed for use with SD video (e.g., NTSC, PAL), and similar speed restrictions are fundamental in the off-the-shelf video decoders and encoders that handle the standard analog color video, particularly including color information modulated on a subcarrier.



DESIGN
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How many options do I have available to "tweak" your processing results to fit my particular imaging applications and/or tastes?The EVD1000/1500 has approximately 150 writable registers in total, accessed via a standard 2-wire serial control bus. About 40% of those control various aspects of the image processing algorithm, and can be changed for specific application needs. It is very rare that as many as a dozen or so of those are actually adjusted, as most situations are handled just fine by default settings. The other registers control basic operational modes, I/O formats, color space conversion, processing window, etc. as necessary.
Why are there so many I/O pins?The EVD1000/1500 has been designed to operate with all of the common CMOS-level parallel digital data formats, including RGB and YCbCr (4:4:4 and 4:2:2, and BT.656), which may be found in most digital video circuitry. The largest pin count of these comes in the 4:4:4 formats, with three channels at up to 10 bits each, for a total of 60 data pins; the other formats use subsets of those same pins. There are also a few pins for separate blanking and/or sync, if the application circuitry requires.
What are the differences between the EVD1000 and EVD1500?The EVD1000 operates at up to 75 MHz, and the EVD1500 operates at up to 150 MHz. The EVD1500 also has a heat sink incorporated on the bottom of the device to dissipate any additional heat generated from operating at the higher clock frequency. We purposefully made the pinout of the two parts identical for ease of upgrading from the EVD1000 to the EVD1500 in your application should you so desire. All of the performance descriptions, commanding, etc. apply equally well to both parts.
Does the EVD1xxx-series of chips require heatsinks?No external heatsinks are required for any of the EVD1xxx-series chips. The EVD1500 contains a "thermal bonding pad" in the bottom of the IC case, which should be soldered to a mating pad on the circuit board (see datasheet for additional details).
How wide is the digital data I/O bus on the EVD1xxx chips?The digital data I/O busses are 30-bits wide, to accommodate 10-bit per channel data. The chips may be configured to 24-bit bus (8-bits per channel) operation.