AV SERVER DEVICE, TV RECEIVER INCORPORATING AV SERVER AND PERSONAL COMPUTER INCORPORATING AV SERVER

• US 20100284669A1
• Filed: 04/04/2008
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sasaki, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,495,752 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/252
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed

Abstract

There is provided an AV server device in a home network for enabling transmission/reception of an AV content between digital AV apparatuses connected with communication interfaces of different standards while protecting copyright. The AV server device includes an HDD (11) for recording a content and its attribute information; a format conversion portion (12) for converting the format of the content; and a plurality of communication interfaces (13, 14) for transmitting/receiving a content to/from an external apparatus through the HDD (11). When receiving a reproduction and output request of a content from the external apparatus, a CPU (16) judges whether the content can be reproduced or not based on the standard information and copyright protection information of the communication interface of a recording source included in the attribute information of the content, existence of authentication of copyright protection, and the standard information of the communication interface of reproduction output destination, and then delivers a content which can be reproduced and output after performing data conversion thereof to a format which can be received by the external apparatus of a request source.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. An AV server device to which a plurality of external apparatuses are connected, including a content recording portion for recording content information received from the external apparatuses, and outputting the content information recorded in the recording portion for a request from the external apparatuses to the external apparatuses, comprising:

at least two or more different communication interfaces having a copyright protection authentication function to which the external apparatuses are connected;

a control portion for recording the received content and attribute information including at least information of a standard of a communication interface of a recording source of the content, presence/absence of copyright protection information, and an authentication method of copyright protection if there is copyright protection (DRM), and for judging whether or not reproduction is possible based on the attribute information according to specification information of a communication interface extracted from the external apparatuses information, the authentication method of copyright protection (DRM), and a content to be reproduced for a reproduction request from the external apparatuses, wherein

in a case where reproduction and output is possible in the information of standards of communication interfaces of the both and where copyright protection authentication is further successful if there is copyright protection, reproduction and output is performed.

23. The AV server device as defined in claim 22, further comprising:

a format conversion portion which converts formats of a received content and a content to be transmitted according to an instruction from the control portion in transmitting/receiving the contents.

24. The AV server device as defined in claim 23, wherein

the format conversion portion converts the content to be transmitted into a format which can be received by an output requesting apparatus.

25. The AV server device as defined in claim 23 or 24, wherein

the format conversion portion further has a function of performing rate conversion conforming to a transmission band of an output destination according to an instruction from the control portion.

26. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

the two or more communication interfaces conform to an IEEE1394 standard and a DLNA standard.

27. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

when a format of a content received from the external apparatuses is MPEG2-TS, the content is recorded directly in the content recording portion.

28. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

when a format of a content received from the external apparatuses is the MPEG2-TS, the content is converted into a predetermined format in the format conversion portion, and then recorded in the content recording portion.

29. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

when a format of a content received from the external apparatuses is other than the MPEG2-TS, the content is recorded directly in the content recording portion.

30. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

when a format of a content received from the external apparatuses is other than the MPEG2-TS, the content is converted into a predetermined format in the format conversion portion, and then recorded in the content recording portion.

31. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

a communicate interface which conforms to any one of a USB standard, an IDE/ATA standard, a serial ATA standard, and an SCSI standard or a plurality of the standards is further included as a communication interface to which external apparatuses are connected.

32. The AV server device as defined in any one of claims 22 to 24, wherein

when there is a request for presenting the content information recorded in the content recording portion and a list of the attribute information according to the content from the external apparatuses connected through the communication interface, the control portion outputs only the list information according to a content which is receivable in communication interface standard rule information based on the external apparatus information.

33. A TV receiver incorporating an AV server incorporating any one of the AV server devices as defined in claims 22 to 24.

34. A personal computer incorporating an AV server incorporating any one of the AV server devices as defined in claims 22 to 24.