NON-STANDALONE TV PC

• US 20100245667A1
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: HARDACKER, Robert, UNGER, Robert Allan, READ, Christopher Jensen
• Application Number:
  US12/409,795
• Publication Number:
  US 20100245667A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/552
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver

Abstract

A TV includes a TV processor and a TV display and a PC includes a PC processor but no PC monitor. A HDMI link is established between the processors for conveying multimedia content from the PC to the TV for display thereof on the TV display. Also, a link such as a USB link is established between the processors for exchanging control signals therebetween.

Claims

1. A portable computer (PC)-TV combination creating an all-in-one PC-TV providing full PC and full TV functionality, including keyboard, mouse, display, mass storage, processing power, TV tuning, USB ports, and network connection.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein the combination also has:

WiFi, PVR, optical disk, flash card readers, hard disk, and extensive PC software.

3. The combination of claim 1, wherein the PC is incomplete without the TV in that the PC has no monitor and is not usable without the TV.

4. The combination of claim 1, wherein the TV is complete in that the TV can function as a normal TV without the PC.

5. The combination of claim 1, comprising an interface for connecting the PC to the TV that goes beyond basic HDMI, which allows video from the PC to be sent to the TV as well as sophisticated control and data exchange between the two.

6. The combination of claim 5, wherein the interface includes HDMI and a USB port, the PC having a device USB port or an on-the-go USB port, instead of or in addition to a host USB port.

7. The combination of claim 1, wherein the PC can fit multiple TV sizes for flexible TV selection.

8. The combination of claim 1, wherein the TV can accept a wide range of PC capabilities including memory, processor, graphics, disk, optical drive to support flexible PC selection.

9. The combination of claim 1, wherein the PC can be upgraded by swapping it out with another PC.

10. The combination of claim 5, wherein the PC can be moved from one TV to another TV that supports the interface.

11. TV including a TV display and a TV processor executing logic comprising:

presenting on the TV display a list of input sources, the list including a personal computer (PC) having an optical disk player;

receiving from a wireless TV remote control (RC) a selection signal indicating that the disk player of the PC is desired as input source to the TV;

receiving multimedia content from the disk player of the PC over a high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) link in response to the selection signal;

receiving commands from the RC to control the disk player of the PC; and

exchanging control information over a universal serial bus (USB) link with the PC.

12. The TV of claim 11 wherein the PC has no input devices other than the RC.

13. The TV of claim 11, wherein the TV includes a USB host port communicating with a USB device port on the PC.

14. The TV of claim 11, wherein the TV also communicates with a disk player not associated with the PC, the list of input sources including the disk player not associated with the TV.

15. The TV of claim 11, wherein the PC receives input signals from a keyboard and/or mouse.

16. A personal computer (PC) adjunct to a TV comprising:

a PC processor;

a source of multimedia content communicating with the PC processor;

a HDMI port communicating multimedia content from the source to a HDMI port of the TV over a HDMI link for display thereof on a TV display associated with the TV; and

a USB device port exchanging over a USB link control signals with the TV.

17. The PC of claim 16, wherein the source is an optical disk.

18. The PC of claim 16, wherein the source is a network interface.

19. The PC of claim 16, wherein the PC includes a USB host port.

20. The PC of claim 16, wherein the PC has no output device other than the TV display.