Samsung to build next-generation Digeo set-top

LOS ANGELES: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will build the next-generation cable set-top box and media center for Digeo Inc., the company primarily owned by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, the firms said.

They said cable operators Charter Communications Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp. have committed to buying the new box to be called the Samsung Home Media Center. Both Charter and Adelphia already offer Digeo's current-generation box in certain markets.

Digeo, which Allen started in 1999, currently has about 100,000 boxes in the market. Its set-top unit tunes and records cable television programming and can handle high-definition and on-demand content.

The new unit will mark Samsung's most serious push into the U.S. cable set-top business, a market dominated by Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. The company hopes its increasingly high-end brand will challenge the long-term dominance of Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta.

"We've made somewhat of a quiet and kind of dedicated push into trying to figure out how to build a sustainable business (in cable)," Steve Goldstein, senior business development manager for Samsung Electronics of America, said.

Digeo Chief Executive Jim Billmaier said the new unit would be significantly less expensive than the current box because engineering had reduced the number of components dramatically. The new architecture reduces media center costs by about 40 percent, the company said.

The new box will handle multiple streams of high-definition content and digital recording, Billmaier said, and act as a central point for distributing music, movies and photos throughout the home.

"This is really a media center," he said.