RECEIVING AUDIO/ VIDEO CONTENT

• US 20150304702A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: GUTTA, Sri Gopikanth
• Granted Patent: US 9,930,393 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4302 Content synchronisation processes, e.g. decoder synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43607 Interfacing a plurality of external cards, e.g. through a DVB Common Interface [DVB-CI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card

Abstract

An audio/video content receiver decoding audio/video signals modulated onto transmission channels as transport streams, at least one transmission channel carrying non-viewing information includes: a tuner arrangement capable of concurrently tuning to two or more transmission channels; a multiplexer configured to generate a composite signal from received audio/video signals of required programs for decoding; a content decoder capable of concurrently decoding two or more audio/video programs from the composite signal; a detector configured to detect whether one or more of the transmission channels tuned by the tuner arrangement are not currently in use for providing a program for decoding; a controller, responsive to detection that a transmission channel is not currently in use, controlling the tuner to tune that channel to a transmission channel carrying a transport stream including non-viewing information; and a non-viewing information decoder decoding the received non-viewing information.

Claims

1. An audio/video content receiver for receiving and decoding audio/video data signals modulated onto transmission channels as packetized transport streams, at least one transmission channel carrying non-viewing information, the receiver comprising:

a tuner arrangement capable of concurrently tuning to two or more transmission channels so as to output two or more respective packetized transport streams;

a multiplexer configured to generate a composite data signal from received audio/video signals relating to required programmes for decoding, each packetized transport stream being identified in the composite data signal by a local identification value allocated to that packetized transport stream by the content receiver;

a content decoder capable of concurrently decoding two or more audio/video programmes from the composite data signal;

a detector configured to detect whether one or more of the transmission channels tuned by the tuner arrangement are not currently in use in respect of providing a programme for decoding for viewing by a user or for recording;

a controller, responsive to a detection that a transmission channel is not currently in use, for controlling the tuner to tune that channel to a transmission channel carrying a packetized transport stream including non-viewing information; and

a non-viewing information decoder for decoding the received non-viewing information, the non-viewing information decoder identifying packets of the non-viewing information, at least in part, by reference to the local identification value associated with the packetized transport stream carrying that non-viewing information.

2. The receiver according to claim 1, in which the tuner arrangement comprises two or more tuners each operable to tune to a single respective transmission channel.

3. The receiver according to claim 1, in which each transmission channel tuned by the tuner arrangement carries encoded audio/video content as a respective packetized transport stream, each transport stream comprising one or more programmes having data packets identified by respective sets of one or more packet identifiers.

4. The receiver according to claim 3, in which the multiplexer is operable to generate a composite packetized data stream having programme data from two or more of the packetized transport streams.

5. The receiver according to claim 1, in which the content decoder comprises a series-connected arrangement of two or more content decoders.

6. The receiver according to claim 1, in which the non-viewing information comprises audio/video data at a data rate lower than a viewing data rate, the non-viewing information decoder comprising a store controller for controlling storage of the non-viewing information for later access.

7. The receiver according to claim 1, in which the non-viewing information comprises control information for use by the content decoder.

8. The receiver according to claim 1, comprising an identification generator configured to substitute the local identification value for a packetized transport stream into a packet synchronisation field in each packet of that packetized transport stream.

9. The receiver according to claim 1, in which, at any time, the local identification values are unique with respect to other local identification values allocated by that receiver.

10. A method of operation of an audio/video content receiver for receiving and decoding audio/video data signals modulated onto transmission channels as packetized transport streams, at least one transmission channel carrying non-viewing information, the method comprising:

concurrently tuning to two or more transmission channels so as to output two or more respective packetized transport streams;

generating a composite data signal from received audio/video signals relating to required programmes for decoding;

allocating, at the receiver, a local identification value to each packetized transport stream to identify data from that packetized transport stream in the composite data signal;

detecting whether one or more of the transmission channels tuned by the tuner arrangement are not currently in use in respect of providing a programme for decoding for viewing by a user or for recording;

in response to a detection that a transmission channel is not currently in use, controlling the tuner to tune that channel to a transmission channel carrying a packetized transport stream including non-viewing information;

identifying packets of the non-viewing information, at least in part, by reference to the local identification value associated with the packetized transport stream carrying that non-viewing information; and

decoding the received non-viewing information.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer program instructions, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to perform the method of claim 10.

12. (canceled)