MediaTek has announced the Pentonic 700 SoC for mainstream 4K TVs with support for 4K up to 144Hz, Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and for the first time in 4K TVs VVC decoding in addition to AV1.

After MPEG2 came MPEG4 and then HEVC. The next step in advanced video compression from the MPEG working group and ITU is VVC (Versatile Video Coding), also known as H.266.

VVC is said to be more effective than AV1 from Amazon, Google, Netflix and others, leading to better video quality at the same bitrate or similar video quality at lower bitrates. AV1 is currently being deployed by Netflix and YouTube but no streaming service have announced plans to deploy VVC at this time.

We had hoped to see the first TVs with hardware decoding support for VVC in 2022 to make them a little more future-proof. It may still happen this year, if we are to believe MediaTek's timeline for its new Pentonic 700 SoC. 

- "The Pentonic 700 is slated to power mainstream 4K smart TVs as part of MediaTek’s broader Pentonic chipset family. With the introduction of this newest chipset, the Pentonic series offers brands a full range of options for premium, high-end and mass market TVs to meet different market needs," announced MediaTek. "Smart TVs powered by Pentonic 700 are expected to be released in Q4 2022."


 MediaTek now offers Pentonic 700 for 4K TVs and Pentonic 2000 for 8K TVs

MediaTek in TVs from Samsung, Sony etc.
MediaTek chips power 70% of the world's Smart TVs, according the company, including TV models from Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Vizio and Xiaomi. You can see which SoC is used in a given TV model in FlatpanelsHD's TV Database.

In addition, Pentonic 700 supports 4K at up to 144Hz, HDR10+ Adaptive and Gaming, Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail, HDMI 2.1 features such as ALLM, and Dolby Atmos decoding. It also supports companion chips from MediaTek to enable WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 in Smart TVs.

- "Brands can also add on MediaTek’s Filogic Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity solutions to bring 4K smart TVs ultra-fast, reliable connectivity with low latency for the best streaming and cloud gaming experiences," said MediaTek.

 Also read: WiFi 7 will support up to 40 Gbps, offer improved cloud gaming and 8K streaming

Last year, MediaTek announced its flagship Pentonic 2000 SoC for premium 8K TVs but it has yet to appear in any TVs. Pentonic 700 is intended for mainstream 4K TVs.

Pentonic 700 SoC – specifications
Processors
CPU Type: Arm Cortex-A73
CPU Cores: Quad (4)
Max CPU Frequency: 1.4GHz
Memory: Up to 64-bit DDR4 @ 3200Mbps
GPU Type: Arm Mali-G52 MC1

Display
Max Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160 (4K) @ 144Hz
ME/MC: 3840 x 2160 (4K) @ 120Hz

HDR Standards:
Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail
BBC HLG
HDR10 (SMPTE2084)
Technicolor/Philips JHDR (ESTI TS 103 433)
HDR10+/10+ Adaptive/Gaming

Video Decoding:
HEVC (H.265)
VVC (H.266)
AV1
AVS3

Demod
Embedded, Full-Region Demodulators:
DVB-T/C/T2/S/S2/S2X
ISDB-T
DTMB

Audio
Audio Decoding:
Dolby Atmos
DTS Master HD
DTS Virtual X
MPEG-H Audio

Microphone
Yes

AI
Integrated AI Processor
MediaTek DLA

AI-Voice
Yes

AI-Display
AI-SR 2.0 4K
AI-PQ Scene Recognition 2.0
AI-PQ Object Recognition 2.5

Interfaces & Expansion
External Interfaces:
HDMI 2.1
USB 3.2 Gen-1 (5Gbps)
USB 2.0

Internal IO:
USB 3.2 Gen-1 (5Gbps)
eMMC 5.1
 FlatpanelsHD