As we had reported in our coverage of this year’s “Games Developers Conference”, Zoran Corporation has been working on a new software DVD decoder with improved picture quality. Today the company unveiled their new, 3rd generation player, SoftDVD III.

With SoftDVD III, Zoran, is once again setting the standard for video and audio quality, and automatic sensing and handling of different PC configurations. SoftDVD III is now available for use by qualified PC OEMs, graphics card suppliers, DVD ROM drive manufacturers, system integrators and PC game developers.

“Zoran’s no-compromise approach with SoftDVD III has resulted in a new level of video picture quality and audio performance,” stated Dr. Isaac Shenberg, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Zoran. “By taking advantage of the latest Intel and AMD processors, SoftDVD III will enrich the end user DVD viewing experience.”

With SoftDVD III, Zoran is utilizing the maximal MPEG-2 video decoding algorithmic precision to deliver a no-compromise solution for software DVD playback on today’s PCs. These full precision calculations combined with Zoran’s advanced software de-interlacing result in a clear, sharp picture, even in the most rapidly moving video sequences.

Audio playback is another key strength of SoftDVD III. Whether it is stereo with virtual 3D audio, 4 point surround, full 5.1 channel Dolby Digital or S/PDIF pass through, Zoran’s latest software enables all these environments. AutoSense(TM) detects the audio subsystem and configures SoftDVD to match the system audio capabilities. A single version of SoftDVD III will provide the optimal audio solution, even if the end-user later upgrades the system’s audio capabilities from stereo to 4 or more speakers or S/PDIF pass-through for the full 5.1 channel Dolby Digital experience.