Protocol and procedure for automated channel change in an MPEG-2 compliant datastream
First Claim
1. An automated method for effecting channel change of a time division multiplexed digital datastream in a transport and associated decoder, said method comprising:
- requesting a channel change by writing a new packet identifier value from the host processor to an appropriate register in the transport and automatically sending a Channel Change Request from the transport to the decoder in response thereto;
within the decoder, responsive to the Channel Change Request, automatically stopping decoding of an old datastream, stopping requesting data from the transport, and configuring the decoder for a new channel datastream;
after configuring the decoder for said new channel datastream, providing a Channel Change Acknowledgment from the decoder to the transport; and
at the transport, responsive to said Channel Change Acknowledgment from the decoder, automatically stopping the old datastream, purging data in the transport associated with the old datastream, and configuring the transport to receive the new channel datastream.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of changing the channels in a digital video and audio receiving system. The method includes receiving and decoding the encoded digital video and audio in a decoder, where the input is a multi-channel, time division multiplexed digital video and digital audio datastream. The datastream contains many Programs, each of the Programs includes a video packetized elementary stream, and an audio packetized elementary stream, each of which, in turn, contains a packet header, and packet data. The channel change method is a process of changing input channels from an old channel datastream to a new channel datastream with a minimum of latency. The method includes setting appropriate flags to request the channel change, acknowledging the requests, flushing buffers, muting audio output and/or freezing video output, and activating a data request line for new channel bitstream data.
-
Citations
16 Claims
-
1. An automated method for effecting channel change of a time division multiplexed digital datastream in a transport and associated decoder, said method comprising:
-
requesting a channel change by writing a new packet identifier value from the host processor to an appropriate register in the transport and automatically sending a Channel Change Request from the transport to the decoder in response thereto; within the decoder, responsive to the Channel Change Request, automatically stopping decoding of an old datastream, stopping requesting data from the transport, and configuring the decoder for a new channel datastream; after configuring the decoder for said new channel datastream, providing a Channel Change Acknowledgment from the decoder to the transport; and at the transport, responsive to said Channel Change Acknowledgment from the decoder, automatically stopping the old datastream, purging data in the transport associated with the old datastream, and configuring the transport to receive the new channel datastream. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. An automated system for effecting channel change of a time division multiplexed digital datastream comprising:
-
a transport adapted to send a Channel Change Request from the transport to a decoder in response to receipt of a new packet identifier value from a host processor; said decoder being adapted to automatically stop decoding of an old datastream responsive to the Channel Change Request, and to stop requesting data from the transport and configure for decoding of a new channel datastream; wherein said decoder is further adapted to send a Channel Change Acknowledgment to the transport after configuring for the new channel datastream; and said transport is further adapted to, responsive to said Channel Change Acknowledgment received from the decoder, automatically stop the old datastream, purge data in the transport associated with the old datastream, and configure the transport to receive the channel datastream. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification