System for communicating television signals or a plurality of digital audio signals in a standard television line allocation
First Claim
1. Apparatus for selectively transmitting horizontal television lines including video and digital audio components or equivalent digital data lines containing a plurality of audio program signals, comprising:
- first means for combining signals into a composite waveform;
means for coupling a first digital audio signal to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform;
second means for providing a multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals;
switch means for selectively coupling either a video signal or said multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform; and
means, operatively associated with said switch means, for coupling identification data to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform, wherein said identification data indicates whether said composite waveform includes the video signal or the multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system is provided for selectively transmitting horizontal television lines including video and digital audio components or equivalent digital data lines containing a plurality of audio program signals. A conventional television signal transmission places a digital audio signal in the horizontal blanking interval, followed by analog video information. In accordance with the present invention, the "window" containing the analog video information is replaced with a plurality of digital audio signals that are time division multiplexed within the window. An additional audio channel is placed in the horizontal blanking interval, at the same location the audio is placed when video information is transmitted. Selector switches are provided in the encoder and decoder for processing a composite waveform as either a video signal with an associated audio channel, or as a multiple channel digital audio signal. Independent encryption and decryption of each of the multiple audio channels is provided.
-
Citations
37 Claims
-
1. Apparatus for selectively transmitting horizontal television lines including video and digital audio components or equivalent digital data lines containing a plurality of audio program signals, comprising:
-
first means for combining signals into a composite waveform; means for coupling a first digital audio signal to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform; second means for providing a multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals; switch means for selectively coupling either a video signal or said multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform; and means, operatively associated with said switch means, for coupling identification data to said first means for inclusion in said composite waveform, wherein said identification data indicates whether said composite waveform includes the video signal or the multiplexed plurality of digital audio signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. Decoder apparatus for recovering video and digital audio information from a composite waveform comprising:
-
means for recovering an identification signal from a composite waveform; means responsive to said identification signal for determining whether the composite waveform is carrying a line of video information or a plurality of digital audio channels in place of video information; first means responsive to said determining means for recovering video and associated audio information when provided in said waveform; and second means responsive to said determining means for recovering a selected digital audio channel when digital audio channels are provided in said waveform without video. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. Apparatus for transmitting a plurality of digital audio programs comprising:
-
means for combining data packets from a plurality of digital audio programs into a corresponding plurality of program intervals in a waveform segment having a period equivalent to the period of a television line, each program interval having a duration that is no more than a television horizontal blanking interval; and means coupled to an output of said combining means for transmitting sequential waveform segments containing successive data packets from said plurality of digital audio programs; wherein the successive data packets for each digital audio program in the sequential waveform segments are separated by a time period that is equivalent to said television line period. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. A decoder for recovering a selected digital audio program from a plurality of such programs carried as data packets in program intervals of sequential waveform segments, said program intervals having a duration that is no more than a television horizontal blanking interval and said waveform segments having a period equivalent to a television line period, comprising:
-
means for selecting one of said digital audio programs for recovery; and means, responsive to said selecting means, for retrieving successive data packets for the selected program from sequentially received waveform segments at a rate that is equivalent to said television line period. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-
Specification