Contents transmission system, method of playing contents using integration media play program, method of transmitting contents using media format transcoding function, and method of determining whether contents are transmitted

• US 20060179109A1
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Ko, Seok-mo
• Application Number:
  US11/348,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20060179109A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A contents transmission system, a method of playing contents using an integration media play program, a method of transmitting contents using media format transcoding function, and a method of deciding whether the contents are transmitted. A home server of the contents transmission system includes a connector connected to a peripheral apparatus for interfacing various information transceived between the connector and the peripheral apparatus; a contents storage storing contents; and a contents list management unit reading out a list of contents stored in the peripheral apparatus, determining whether the read list is same as a contents list stored in the home server, and receiving untransmitted contents from the peripheral apparatus and storing the untransmitted contents in the contents storage when the contents lists are not same as each other.

Claims

1. A contents transmission system comprising:

a home server;

a peripheral apparatus that stores and plays content; and

a connector that connects the peripheral apparatus to the home server and interfaces various information between the server and the peripheral apparatus,

wherein the home server comprises;

a contents storage storing content; and

a contents list management unit that reads out a list of peripheral apparatus content stored in the peripheral apparatus, determines whether the list is the same as the content stored in the contents storage, and receives peripheral apparatus content not stored in the contents storage.

2. The contents transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral apparatus is of one a Dica-phone, a Camcorder-phone, an MP3-phone, an MP3 player, and a Personal Digital Assistants (PDA).

3. The contents transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the connector complies with a specification of the peripheral apparatus.

4. The contents transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising an adapter that provides an interface compatibility between the home server and the peripheral apparatus if interface specifications between the connector of the home server and the peripheral apparatus do not match.

5. The contents transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the home server further comprises:

a network interface unit that enables the home server to be connected to the Internet to carry out network communication;

an apparatus kind determination unit that determines a type of peripheral apparatus connected to the home server using a device identifier (ID) of the peripheral apparatus provided from the peripheral apparatus;

an audio/visual (A/V) format kind determination unit that determines an A/V format of content using file extension information of contents requested via the peripheral apparatus;

a database that stores a plurality of IDs, a plurality of codecs for decoding A/V files of various formats, and a plurality of transcoders for transcoding A/V files of predetermined format to A/V files of another format in response to kinds of respective peripheral apparatuses; and

an application program storage that stores an integration media play program as an application program used to decode an A/V file of contents requested for play using one of said plurality of codecs, and a format transcoding application program as an application program used to transcode the A/V file format of the contents requested for play, using one of the plurality of transcoders, to an A/V file format capable of being played by the peripheral apparatus.

6. The contents transmission system according to claim 5, wherein the home server further comprises a controller that enables the integration media play program stored in the application program storage to be run so that an integration media player is operated.

7. The contents transmission system according to claim 6, wherein the controller reads out from the database information of codecs corresponding to the file format of the contents requested for play, determines whether a codec matching the kind of the peripheral apparatus among the codecs is stored in the database, and selects the codec matching the peripheral apparatus and transmits the selected codec to the running integration media player if it is determined that the codec matching the peripheral apparatus is stored in the database.

8. The contents transmission system according to claim 7, wherein the controller, if it is determined that the codec matching the peripheral apparatus is not stored in the database, is connected to the Internet via the network interface unit, downloads a codec matching the peripheral apparatus connected to the home server, and transmits the downloaded codec to the running integration media player.

9. The contents transmission system according to claim 7, wherein the integration media player decodes the A/V file of content required to be played using the received codec while carrying out the play.

10. The contents transmission system according to claim 5, wherein the home server further comprises a controller that enables the format transcoding application program stored in the application program storage to be run if it is necessary to transcode the A/V file format of the contents requested for play.

11. The contents transmission system according to claim 10, wherein the controller compares the A/V file format of the contents requested for play with the A/V file format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus, and determines that the format transcoding of the contents requested for play is necessary if the A/V file format of the contents requested for play does not match the A/V file format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus.

12. The contents transmission system according to claim 10, wherein the controller, if the format transcoding of the contents requested for play is necessary, reads out from the database a predetermined transcoder for transcoding the A/V file format of the contents requested for play to the A/V format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus, and transmits the transcoder to the format transcoding application program.

13. A method of determining whether contents are transmitted, the method comprising:

connecting a peripheral apparatus to a home server;

reading out a list of contents stored in the peripheral apparatus, and determining whether the read list is same as a list of contents stored in the home server;

receiving untransmitted contents from the peripheral apparatus and storing the untransmitted contents in the home server if the list of contents stored in the home server does not match the list of the peripheral apparatus; and

providing information about the contents list transmitted to the home server to the peripheral apparatus.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising enabling the peripheral apparatus to display a list of contents transmitted to the home server when the information about the contents list transmitted to the home server is provided from the home server to the peripheral apparatus.

15. A method of playing contents using an integration media play program, the method comprising:

connecting a peripheral apparatus to a home server;

checking a device identifier (ID) of the peripheral apparatus and a file extension of contents requested for play on the peripheral apparatus;

enabling the integration media play program stored in an application program storage to be run to operate an integration media player;

determining a kind of the peripheral apparatus using the device ID of the peripheral apparatus;

determining an audio/visual (A/V) format kind of the contents requested for play using information of the file extension of the contents requested for play;

reading out from a database information of codecs corresponding to the the A/V format kind of the contents requested for play, and determining whether a codec corresponding to the kind of the peripheral apparatus among the codecs is stored in the database;

selecting the codec matching the peripheral apparatus if the codec corresponding to the kind of the peripheral apparatus among the codecs is stored in the database, and transmitting the codec to the operating integration media player; and

enabling the integration media player to decode the A/V file of the contents requested for play using the received codec while carrying out the play.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:

connecting to the Internet via a network interface unit if the codec corresponding to the kind of the peripheral apparatus is not stored in the database, downloading a codec matching the peripheral apparatus connected to the home server from the Internet, and transmitting the codec to the running integration media player; and

enabling the integration media player to decode the A/V file of the contents requested for play using the downloaded codec while carrying out the play.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the kind of the peripheral apparatus is determined by matching the device ID of the peripheral apparatus connected to the home server with each of device IDs stored in the database.

18. A method of transmitting contents using a media format transcoding function, the method comprising:

connecting a peripheral apparatus to a home server;

determining an audio/visual (A/V) file format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus;

determining whether format transcoding of contents requested for play is necessary;

executing a format transcoding application program when the format transcoding of contents requested for play is necessary;

reading out from a database a predetermined transcoder for transcoding the A/V file format of the contents requested for play to an A/V format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus, and transmitting the transcoder to the format transcoding application program; and

transcoding the A/V format of the contents requested for play to the A/V format capable of being played by the peripheral apparatus using the transcoder transmitted to the format transcoding application program, and transmitting to the peripheral apparatus the contents of which the file format is transcoded.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the determining whether format transcoding of contents requested for play is necessary comprises:

comparing the A/V file format of the contents requested for play with the A/V file format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus; and

determining that format transcoding of the contents requested for play is necessary if the A/V file format of the contents requested for play does not match the A/V file format capable of being decoded by the peripheral apparatus.

20. A contents transmission system comprising:

a peripheral apparatus that stores and plays content; and

a connector that connects the peripheral apparatus to a home server and interfaces various information between the server and the peripheral apparatus,

wherein the home server comprises;

a controller enabling an integration media play program stored in the application program storage to be run so that an integration media player is operated;

a network interface unit enabling the home server to be connected to an Internet to carry out network communication;

an apparatus kind determination unit that determines a type of peripheral apparatus is connected to the home server using a device identifier (ID) of the peripheral apparatus provided from the peripheral apparatus;

an audio/visual (A/V) format kind determination unit that determines an A/V format of content using file extension information of contents requested via the peripheral apparatus;

a database that stores a plurality of IDs, a plurality of codecs for decoding A/V files of various formats, and a plurality of transcoders for transcoding A/V files of predetermined format to A/V files of another format in response to types of respective peripheral apparatuses; and

an application program storage that stores the integration media play program as an application program used to decode an A/V file of contents requested for play using one of the plurality of codecs, and a format transcoding application program as an application program used to transcode the A/V file format of the contents requested for play, using one of the plurality of transcoders, to an A/V file format capable of being played by the peripheral apparatus.