Home entertainment system for playing software designed for play in home computer
First Claim
1. A multimedia apparatus configured for use in a home entertainment system, said apparatus comprising:
- reading means for receiving a portable recording medium and reading a software program stored thereon;
a processing device structured configured to identify the software program being read by the reading means and whether said software program needs to be installed or has already been installed, and it need to be installed, whether installation information relating to the software program be read by the reading means is available to the processing device to be used to perform an automatic installation of the software program, said processing device further and configured to begin playing the software program if it has already been installed or automatically initializing an installation of the software program prior to playing the software program if the installation information is available; and
output means for providing audio and image data resulting from the playing of the software program to the home system.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A dedicated apparatus for playing unmodified prerecorded software in a home computer system, and more particularly an apparatus, housed in a home entertainment system chassis, for playing in a home entertainment environment the existing body of interactive multimedia software that has been formatted and published for compatibility with standard personal computer platforms such as the MPC CD-ROM platform. Video and audio output signals are generated in response to the processing of the multimedia software program, which are fed to the home entertainment system for presentation to an audience. A further aspect is the provision of a "drop & play" feature which automatically initiates playing of multimedia software in a sequence that appears to be similar to playing audio Cds, i.e., without requiring any further action from a user after selecting play. This feature is in part provided by a table containing installation information for each of numerous multimedia software titles; entries in this table are preferably indexed by an identifier that can be uniquely derived from a given CD-ROM or other published multimedia media such as a diskette.
109 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A multimedia apparatus configured for use in a home entertainment system, said apparatus comprising:
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reading means for receiving a portable recording medium and reading a software program stored thereon; a processing device structured configured to identify the software program being read by the reading means and whether said software program needs to be installed or has already been installed, and it need to be installed, whether installation information relating to the software program be read by the reading means is available to the processing device to be used to perform an automatic installation of the software program, said processing device further and configured to begin playing the software program if it has already been installed or automatically initializing an installation of the software program prior to playing the software program if the installation information is available; and output means for providing audio and image data resulting from the playing of the software program to the home system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A home entertainment system comprising:
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input means for receiving user commands; display means for presentation of image data; audio means for presentation of audio data; one or more audio or video components for playing audio or video recordings; and a multimedia apparatus having capability of playing software programs, comprising; reading means for receiving a portable recording medium and reading a software program stored thereon; a processing device structured and configured to identify the software program being read by the reading means and determine whether said software program needs to be installed or has already been installed, and should it need to be installed, whether installation information relating to the software program being read by the reading means is available to the processing device to be used to perform an automatic installation of the software program, said processing device further structured and configured to begin playing the software program if it has already been installed or automatically initializing an installation of the software program prior to playing the software program if the installation information is available; and output means for providing audio and image data resulting from the playing of the software program to the audio means and the display means. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of executing software program in a home entertainment system, said method comprising the steps of:
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providing a reading means for receiving a portable recording medium and reading a software program stored thereon; identifying the software program being read by the reading means; determining whether the software program needs to be installed or has already been installed, and should it need to be installed, whether installation information relating to the software program being read by the reading means is available to be used to perform an automatic installation of the software program; beginning the playing of the software program if it has already been installed or automatically initializing an installation of the software program prior to executing the software program if the installation is available; and providing audio and image data resulting from the playing of the software program to the home entertainment system. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification