Pixelworks Teases More 'Partners' in TrueCut Motion ‘Ecosystem’ Build

The TrueCut Motion image-grading platform for filmmakers, in development for three years at Pixelworks and formally launched for “end-to-end” commercial use in December, landed a significant win at CES 2022 when TCL became the first device manufacturer “to join and publicly endorse the TrueCut Motion ecosystem,” said Pixelworks CEO Todd DeBonis on a Q4 earnings call Thursday. Pixelworks bills TrueCut Motion as offering filmmakers advanced mastering tools to control how motion is rendered in their films when modern consumer displays with HDR, high resolution and high frame rates often can compromise “motion integrity.”

Pixelworks and TCL are actively promoting and co-marketing TrueCut Motion to expand the technology’s ecosystem, while simultaneously supporting plans “to bring the TrueCut Motion platform to TCL TVs in North America,” said DeBonis. Realizing TrueCut Motion’s full potential will require gaining its “firm acceptance from an ecosystem of partners,” including content creators, post-production studios, content distributors and device manufacturers, he said.

Though many in the ecosystem are “motivated by different objectives,” they share “one consistent belief” -- the need to create “high-frame-rate immersive content” that takes advantage of the image technology in modern display devices, he said. “This ecosystem collaboration will be able to deliver enhanced high-resolution HDR video with incredible motion, while consistently preserving the artistic intent of the filmmaker, regardless of the type or size of the screen, and all without the consumer having to manually adjust display settings on his or her device.”

The “primary focus” of the TrueCut Motion campaign throughout 2022 will be on “building out the supportive ecosystem,” said DeBonis. “TCL is simply the first partnership that agreed to be named publicly,” he said. “We continue to be in various stages of discussions and evaluations with several market leaders.” As Pixelworks makes progress throughout the year, “new ecosystem partners will be announced,” he said.

The TrueCut Motion ecosystem Pixelworks is trying to build involves "a new content delivery format and structure for implementing device-based certification," said DeBonis. Pixelworks didn't respond to questions Friday about whether it views TrueCut Motion as competitive with the UHD Alliance's Filmmaker Mode certification program, which also tries to preserve creators' movie-viewing intent by automatically undoing the motion-smoothing settings on modern TVs without consumers having to do so manually (see 1908270001).

In mobile, Pixelworks is on track to release its X7 visual processor for commercial production this quarter and expects the first smartphone models incorporating the processor to be launched in Q3, said DeBonis. Q4 revenue in the Pixelworks mobile business increased 29% sequentially from Q3 and was 190% higher year over year, he said.

With mobile gaming now a “dominant market trend” that nearly all smartphone OEMs are trying to exploit, Pixelworks thinks the X7 fits the industry bill for visual processing in HDR mobile gaming devices at higher resolutions and higher frame rates, without letting the devices go power-hungry or run excessively hot, said DeBonis. The X7 uses “proprietary algorithms” to boost resolution while the device remains in a “low power consumption state,” giving users “significantly enhanced visual quality” and extended game play without needing frequent recharging, he said.

Unlike with the streaming of video, “processing frames with low latency is critical for competitive gaming,” said DeBonis. The X7 is capable of a “sustained high-frame-rate gaming experience” on mobile devices without sacrificing operating performance, he said. X7 supports refresh rates up to 180 frames per second on LCD and OLED screens, he said.

The “independent software vendor agreement” that Pixelworks announced with MediaTek in mid-December was “a meaningful milestone” for the Pixelworks mobile business, said DeBonis. Pixelworks visual processing previously was embedded exclusively in mobile devices built on a Qualcomm platform, he said. The MediaTek collaboration is an opportunity for Pixelworks to significantly expand its serviceable available market in mobile, extending Pixelworks availability to mobile products that use MediaTek’s Dimensity 5G Open Resource architecture, he said. “We expect several new models from multiple customers to be announced this year.”

The current Pixelworks “pipeline” of “active mobile engagements” with tier 1 mobile device OEMs is “as strong as it has ever been,” said DeBonis. “We believe we can secure engagements with four tier 1 mobile customers and expand into adjacent unique personal display markets by the end of this year.” Asked in Q&A for more details, DeBonis said: “I’m in some very specific engagements and discussions with customers, and so I know exactly what that personal display device is. I just don't want to talk any more detail about that.”