DEVICE FOR RECEIVING SIGNAL AND METHOD OF SIGNAL LOSS MANAGEMENT DURING RECORDING OF ANALOGUE OR DIGITAL SIGNAL

• US 20060008243A1
• Filed: 05/22/2005
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Advanced Digital Broadcast SA (Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings SA)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Digital Broadcast SA (Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings SA)
• Inventors: Przybylek, Piotr
• Application Number:
  US10/908,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20060008243A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/215
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8715 involving the mixing of the reproduced video signal with a non-recorded signal, e.g. a text signal

Abstract

A device for receiving an analogue or digital signal is provided with a processor (120) managing operation of the device, a memory, a signal loss management block (121), a block (123) storing information on a recording process in the memory and a television signal recording management block (122) generating data describing the recording process of the analogue or digital signal and cooperating with the signal loss management block (121) and the block (123) storing information on the recording process. The information, received form the signal loss management block (121) and the signal recording management block (122), are stored in a recording description file. A signal playback block (124) fetches the information from the recording description file during signal playback and controls playback of a recorded signal according to the information fetched from the recording description file.

Claims

1. A device for receiving analogue or digital signal comprising

a processor (120);

a memory (170) linked to the processor (120);

a signal loss management block (121) managed by the processor (120);

a signal recording management block (122) managed by the processor (120) and generating data describing a recording process of an analogue or digital signal and cooperating with the signal loss management block (121);

a block (123) storing information on the recording process in the memory wherein the information is received form the signal loss management block (121) and the signal recording management block (122) and stored in a recording description file; and

a signal playback block (124) fetching the information from the recording description file during a signal playback and controlling the signal playback of a recorded signal according to the information fetched from the recording description file.

2. The device, according to claim 1, wherein the recording description file describing the recording process includes a record (301) informing about a start of a recording, at least one record (302, 303, 304) describing a status of the analogue or digital signal during recording of the analogue or digital signal and a record (305) providing information about the end of the recording and a file end.

3. A method of recording an analogue or digital signal, comprising the steps of

starting a signal recording process;

detecting a break in access to an analogue or digital signal during the signal recording process;

stopping the signal recording process of the analogue or digital signal until time of resuming access to the analogue or digital signal; and

storing information on the signal recording process.

4. The method, according to claim 3, wherein the information on the signal recording process consists of information on time of occurrence and duration of breaks in access to the analogue or digital signal and wherein the information on the signal recording process is stored in a recording description file.

5. The method, according to claim 4, wherein the recording description file consists of a record, informing about a start of the signal recording process, at least one record describing a status of the signal recording process during the signal recording process and a record providing information about an end of the signal recording process and a file end.

6. The method, according to claim 3, wherein the break in access to the analogue or digital signal is caused by a power supply shortage.

7. The method, according to claim 3, wherein the break in access to the analogue or digital signal is caused by lack of access to a correct analogue or digital signal.

8. The method, according to claim 3, wherein duration of the signal recording process consists of duration of breaks in access to the analogue or digital signal, which occurred during the signal recording process and time of a correct recording.

9. The method, according to claim 3, wherein during a playback of a recorded signal, at time when the break occurred in access to the analogue or digital signal occurred, description of which was stored in a memory, a defined image is displayed during the whole time of the break or a earlier-defined time, displaying at the same time a program duration or an elapsed time from a program beginning.

10. The method, according to claim 3, wherein during a playback of a recorded signal, at time when the break occurred in access to the analogue or digital signal, description of which was stored in a memory, a program duration or an elapsed time from a program beginning is displayed.

11. The method, according to claim 3, wherein during a playback of a recorded signal, at time, when the break occurred in access to the analogue or digital signal, it is made possible to advance to a place of resuming access to a correct signal.

12. The method, according to claim 11, wherein advancement to the place of resuming access to the correct signal is executed automatically or at a user request.

13. The method, according to claim 3, wherein the storing of information on the recording process starts from creation of a recording description file, which includes information determining if there was access to a correct analogue or digital signal at a given moment of program recording, and next it is checked if a signal status changed, while at change of the signal status, the change of status is registered in the recording description file, and when there is a lack of signal, the recording is stopped until time when the correct signal is received or until an end of recording, while time of the break duration is counted in the recording duration, and information on loss of the analogue or digital signal is inserted in the recording description file, otherwise, with an unchanged signal status, monitoring of the source signal is continued and after detecting the end of the recording procedure, information is inserted in the recording description file on the end of the recording and the recording description file is closed.

14. The method, according to claim 6, wherein after switching a receiver on, after the power supply shortage occurred, the last record of the description of recording, being in progress at the occurrence of power supply shortage, is checked and information related to the programmed recording is checked, the duration of the programmed recording, the current time and the real time of the recording and based on them, it is determined if the programmed recording shall be resumed, while after determining that the recording shall be resumed, the last record of the recording description file is updated and the recording is continued, while after determining that the programmed time of the recording has passed and the recording shall not be resumed, the last record of the recording description file is updated and the recording is ended.

15. The method, according to claim 3, wherein after initiating a playback of a recorded signal, a recording description file, stored in a memory, is opened, and the first record of a recording description is read, next, it is checked if the analogue or digital signal was correctly recorded, and when the analogue or digital signal was correctly recorded, the recording is played until an end of time specified by a read record, otherwise an action connected with a lack of the analogue or digital signal is executed, and next a check is made if the recording description file contains the next record and after finding the next record, the latter is analyzed, while in case of lack of the next record the playback is ended.

16. The method, according to claim 15, wherein the action connected with the lack of signal is determined by user options.