WIRELESS PC TO AUDIO VISUAL LINK ASSEMBLY FOR A MOTION VIDEO DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

• US 20080227384A1
• Filed: 06/08/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Acetrax AG (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Acetrax Operations AG (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Placzek, Rolf Uwe, Karliczek, Ralph, Hoffmann, Frank J., Goldng, Leslie
• Application Number:
  US11/759,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20080227384A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114

Abstract

A wireless PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly for a video content distribution system is provided. The link assembly includes a symbiotic adapter, a wireless receiver, and a remote control. The symbiot has a control circuit including a data storage media, a remote control interface, a wireless A/V transmitter for transmitting video content, a PC-interface adapted to communicate with a connectivity enabled host-PC and, through the host-PC connected to a distributed network, with the video content distribution system. The storage media is encoded with an instruction set including a logical routine which upon establishment of communication between the host-PC and the symbiot determines whether dedicated content and access management software is installed on the PC and if not, the logical routine initiates an install application adapted to install the dedicated content and access management software on the host-PC. The wireless receiver is adapted to connect in functional communication with a video display and/or sound system and receive video transmitted by the wireless A/V transmitter of the symbiot and pass the video content on to the display device. The remote control has a user interface, is in functional communication with the wireless receiver and pass command signals on to the symbiot and is adapted to enable a user to remotely control operation of the symbiot, the wireless receiver and the content and access management software.

Claims

1. A wireless PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly for a multimedia content distribution system, the A/V link assembly comprising:

a symbiot having a control circuit including a data storage media, a remote control interface, an audio processor, a video processor, a wireless transmitter for transmitting multimedia content, PC-interface adapted to communicate with a connectivity enabled host-PC and, through the host-PC connected to a distributed network, with the video content distribution system, wherein the storage media is encoded with an instruction set including a logical routine which upon establishment of communication between the host-PC and the symbiot determines whether dedicated content and access management software is installed on the PC and if not, the logical routine initiates an install application adapted to install the dedicated content and access management software on the host-PC;

a wireless receiver adapted to connect in functional communication with a video display and/or sound system and receive audio/video transmitted by the wireless A/V transmitter of the symbiot and pass the video content on to the display device;

a remote control having a user interface, the remote control in functional communication with the remote receiver of the wireless receiver which passes on commands through the remote control interface of the symbiot on to the content access and management software and adapted to enable a user to remotely control operation of the symbiot, the wireless receiver and the content and access management software.

2. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the connectivity enabled host-PC is adapted to selectably link with a plurality of external devices, programs and systems and import data in many different formats therefrom, connectivity being the capability of the host-PC to attach to the external devices, programs and systems without further modification.

3. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot is external to the host-PC, and the PC interface is integrated with the symbiot and the PC interface includes a first interconnect cable means providing a first communications link between the symbiot and an I/O port of the host-PC.

4. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot receives operative electrical power via the first communications link between the symbiot and an I/O port of the host-PC.

5. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot controls the conversion of different A/V signals to a format compatible with the video display and sound system.

6. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 5, wherein the symbiot controls the conversion of different A/V signals to a format compatible with the video display and sound system, including video parameter setup (scaling, positioning, color adaptation, sharpness, hue, flicker, contrast, brightness) and audio parameter setup (stereo and 5.1 surround sound, such as DTS, THX, Dolby Pro Logic I/II).

7. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 3, wherein the PC interface of the symbiot comprises the first interconnect cable means having a USB-type connection providing the first communications link between the symbiot and the I/O port of the host-PC.

8. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the A/V interface is integrated with the symbiot and the A/V interface includes a second interconnect cable means to accomplish the second communications link between the symbiot and the video display and sound system.

9. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 8, wherein the A/V interface of the symbiot comprises the second interconnect cable means having a connector selected from the group of connectors consisting of:

a SCART connector, an optical S/PDIF, a stereo CINCH, an FP/dif coaxial, or optical connector to accomplish the second communications link between the symbiot and the video display and sound system.

10. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the PC-interface of the symbiot comprises:

a video conversion circuit receiving a conditioned video signal from the host-PC, the video conversion circuit adapted to convert the conditioned video signal as appropriate for communication to the A/V-interface; and

an audio processing circuit receiving a conditioned audio signal from the host-PC, the audio processing circuit functioning as an additional external sound card adapted to convert the conditioned audio signal as appropriate for communication to the A/V-interface

11. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot has a DVB-T receiver.

12. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot has a USB hub. $

13. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the symbiot has a media player interface adapted to receive inputs from a media player.

14. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the remote control user interface and the remote control receiver unit of the controller device are adapted to communicate via an RF signaling mechanism.

15. The PC-to-TV Audio/Visual (A/V) link assembly of claim 1, wherein the process application of the instruction set includes processes for searching the host-PC for a trace resident on the host-PC (e.g., a file, a flag, a driver, a registry entry, and application, etc.) of the video content distribution system, and a for establishing an Internet communication connection between host-PC and the video content distribution system.