Conclusions

This paper has provided an overview of the system level issues and tradeoffs associated with the design of video distribution networks in automotive infotainment systems. Several options, including both analog and digital, for delivering video from source to display were examined, with the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. It was shown that the digital transmission techniques exhibit several key advantages over the more traditional analog approaches, and that one attractive solution is the Gigabit Video Interface from Sony.

In addition to the system level discussion, this paper has provided a discussion of the features, design, operation, and performance of the latest generation of IC's supporting Sony Semiconductor's Gigabit Video Interface. GVIF was shown to implement, respectively, substantially all of the transmitter and receiver signal processing functions required to reliably enable transmission of high rate digital data over a single shielded twisted pair cable. An important and industry first feature of these IC's was described to be the ability to deliver content protected video using the High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) protocol. The two way handshake required to provide key authentication is described along with the operation of the backchannel needed for this function.