Worldwide television tuning system with object-based tuning control modules

• US 6,340,997 B1
• Filed: 04/08/1998
• Issued: 01/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Borseth, Jay Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisenzopf, Reinhard J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Natnael, Paulos M.
• Application Number:
  US09/057,785
• Time in Patent Office: 1,385 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.550, H04/N.544, H04/N.546, H04/N.327, 348/731, 348/732, 348/733, 348/726, 348/725, 348/554, 348/555, 348/558, 348/729, 455/161.2, 725/131, 725/132, 725/139, 725/140, 725/151, 725/152
• US Class Current: 348/731
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/0058 provided with channel identification means arrangements for monitoring the use made of broadcast services H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/46 for receiving on more than one standard at will deflecting circuits of multi-standard receivers H04N3/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital

Abstract

A worldwide television tuning system is configurable to the television standards and channel frequencies of multiple different countries based on a country'"'"'s ITU long-distance country code. The television tuning system is architected in parallel hardware and software components. The hardware components include tuner circuitry to tune to various television frequencies carrying television video signals and video decoder circuitry coupled to receive a television video signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television video signal to digital video data. The software components include a tuner module coupled to adjust the tuner circuitry to a particular television frequency and a video decoder module to decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard. A driver interface layer interfaces the software layer and the hardware circuitry. When a new channel is requested, the tuner module generates and sends a beginning tuning packet to inform the video decoder module of an impending change to the new channel. In addition to the video decoder module, this tuning packet also propagates to all downstream modules (e.g., audio decoder module, VBI decoders, etc.). The tuner module then controls the tuner circuitry to tune to a new television frequency that corresponds to the new channel. Afterward, the tuner module generates and sends an ending tuning packet to inform the video decoder module that the channel change is complete. The tuning packet includes a designation of country within which the tuning system is configured to receive television signals, a channel to be tuned, the particular video standard, and flags indicating whether the tuning packet represents a beginning of a tuning operation or an ending of the tuning operation.

Claims

1. A television tuning system comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data;

a tuner software module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency;

a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to a particular video standard;

a tuner driver to interface the tuner software module with the tuner circuitry; and

a video driver to interface the video decoder software module with the video decoder circuitry.

2. A television tuning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the tuner software module is embodied as a dynamic linked library.

3. A television tuning system as recited in claim 1, wherein the video decoder software module has a VBI (vertical blanking interval) component to capture VBI data in the television signal and a video capture component to process video data in the television signal.

4. A television tuning system as recited in claim 3, further comprising one or more VBI decoding modules coupled to the video decoder software module to receive the VBI data and to decode various types of VBI data including closed captioning data and electronic programming guide data.

5. A television tuning system as recited in claim 2, comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data;

a tuner software module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency;

a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to a particular video standard; and

wherein the tuner software module generates and sends tuning packets to the video decoder software module.

6. A television tuning system as recited in claim 5, wherein individual tuning packets comprise a designation of country within which the tuning system is configured to receive television signals, a channel to be tuned, and the particular video standard.

7. A television tuning system comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data;

a tuner software module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency;

a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to a particular video standard; and

wherein the tuner software module and the video decoder software module are implemented as filter objects in a filter graph.

8. A television tuning system comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data;

a tuner software module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency;

a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to a particular video standard; and

wherein the tuner software module supports an application program interface to expose functionality of the tuner software module to an application program.

9. A television tuning system comprising:

tuning/decoding circuitry to tune to a particular television channel frequency and decode a television signal carried on the channel frequency using a particular video standard; and

a filter graph containing one or more interconnected filter objects that define television tuning and decoding functions, the filter objects specifying the particular channel frequency and the particular video standard for use by the tuning/decoding circuitry.

10. A television tuning system as recited in claim 9, wherein the filter graph comprises a tuner filter object to specify the particular television channel frequency used by the tuning/decoding circuitry.

11. A television tuning system as recited in claim 9, wherein the filter graph comprises a video decoder filter object to specify the particular video standard used by the tuning/decoding circuitry.

12. A television tuning system as recited in claim 9, wherein the filter graph comprises:

a tuner filter object to control to specify the particular television channel frequency used by the tuning/decoding circuitry;

a video decoder filter object to specify the particular video standard used by the tuning/decoding circuitry; and

one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) filter objects to process data from the decoded television signal.

13. A television tuning system comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data;

a tuner software module to select the particular television frequency and a particular video standard;

a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to the particular video standard; and

wherein when a new channel is requested, the tuner software module generates and sends a tuning packet to inform the video decoder software module of an impending change to the new channel, the tuner software module also instructing the tuner circuitry to tune to a new television frequency that corresponds the new channel.

14. A television tuning system as recited in claim 13, wherein the tuner software generates a beginning tuning packet prior to changing to the new channel and an ending tuning packet after changing to the new channel.

15. A television tuning system as recited in claim 13, wherein the tuning packet comprises a designation of country within which the tuning system is configured to receive television signals, a channel to be tuned, the particular video standard, and flags indicating whether the tuning packet represents a beginning of a tuning operation or an ending of the tuning operation.

16. A television tuning system as recited in claim 13, wherein further comprising:

a crossbar software module;

a tee software module;

an audio decoder software module;

one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) software modules to process VBI data in the digital video data; and

the tuner software module routes the tuning packet to the crossbar software module, the crossbar software module routes the tuning packet to the video decoder software module and the audio decoder software module, the video decoder software module routes the tuning packet to the tee software module, and the tee software module routes the tuning packet to the VBI software modules.

17. A television tuning system comprising:

(A) hardware circuitry to receive and process a television signal, the hardware circuitry comprising;

tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries an analog television signal, the tuner circuitry separating the television signal into an analog video signal and an analog audio signal;

video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the analog video signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the analog video signal to digital video data;

audio decoder circuitry coupled to receive the analog audio signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the analog audio signal to digital audio data;

(B) a software layer to control the hardware circuitry, the software layer comprising;

a tuner module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency;

a video decoder module to decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard; and

an audio module to control the audio decoder circuitry; and

(C) a driver interface layer to interface the software layer and the hardware circuitry, the driver interface layer comprising;

a tuner driver to interface the tuner module with the tuner circuitry;

a video driver to interface the video decoder module with the video decoder circuitry; and

an audio driver to interface the audio module with the audio decoder circuitry.

18. A television tuning system as recited in claim 17, wherein the software layer exchanges control information synchronously while the hardware circuitry receives and processes the television signal.

19. A television tuning system as recited in claim 17, wherein the tuner module generates a tuning packet containing tuning instructions for each tuning change, and sends the tuning packet to the video decoder module and the audio module.

20. A television tuning system as recited in claim 19, wherein the tuning packet contains the particular video standard that the video decoder module uses to decode the digital video data.

21. A television tuning system as recited in claim 17, wherein the tuner module generates and sends a beginning tuning packet to the video decoder module and the audio module at a beginning of a tuning operation and subsequently generates and sends an ending tuning packet to the video decoder module and the audio module at an end of a tuning operation.

22. A television tuning system as recited in claim 21, wherein the audio module turns off the audio decoder circuitry in an interim between receiving the beginning and ending tuning packets.

23. A television tuning system as recited in claim 17, wherein the software layer further comprises one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) modules to process VBI data in the digital video data.

24. A television tuning system as recited in claim 23, wherein the tuner module generates and sends a beginning tuning packet to the VBI modules at a beginning of a tuning operation and subsequently generates and sends an ending tuning packet to the VBI modules at an end of a tuning operation, and the VBI modules cease processing the VBI data in an interim between receiving the beginning and ending tuning packets.

25. A television tuning system as recited in claim 17, wherein the software layer further comprises:

a crossbar;

a tee;

one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) modules to process VBI data in the digital video data; and

the tuner module generates a tuning packet containing tuning instructions for each tuning change, and routes the tuning packet to the crossbar, the crossbar routes the tuning packet to the video decoder and the audio decoder, the video decoder routes the tuning packet to the tee, the tee routes the tuning packet to the VBI modules.

26. A television tuning system as recited in claim 25, wherein an additional VBI module is added to the software layer and the tee automatically routes the tuning packet to the additional VBI module.

27. In a tuning system having multiple software modules, a tuning packet data structure embodied on a computer-readable media to share tuning-related data among the software modules, comprising:

a country code field to hold a country code for a country within which the tuning system is configured to receive television signals;

a channel field to hold a reference to a channel to be tuned;

a video standard field to hold a video standard that is used to decode a television signal for the country identified by country code in the country code field; and

a flags field to differentiate between a beginning tuning operation and an ending tuning operation.

28. In a television tuning system having tuner circuitry to tune to a particular television frequency that carries a television signal and video decoder circuitry coupled to receive the television signal from the tuner circuitry and to convert the television signal to digital data, wherein the television tuning system also has a tuner software module to adjust the tuner circuitry to the particular television frequency and a video decoder software module to decode the digital data according to a particular video standard, a method comprising the following steps:

receiving a channel at the tuner software module;

to determining a frequency that corresponds to the channel;

generating a tuning packet at the tuner software module, the tuning packet containing the channel and a television standard;

passing the tuning packet to the video decoder software module;

sending the frequency to the tuner circuitry;

tuning to the frequency to receive a television signal carried by the channel;

converting the television signal to digital video data; and

decoding the digital video data at the video decoder software module using the television standard received in the tuning packet.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, further comprising the step of scanning for a better quality frequency within the channel.

30. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the generating and passing steps are performed prior to the tuning step, and further comprising the steps of generating a second tuning packet at the tuner software module and passing the second tuning packet to the video decoder software module after the tuning step.

31. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the determining steps comprises looking up the frequency in a lookup table that correlates the channel with the frequency.

32. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the television tuning system has a software layer comprising the tuner software module, a crossbar software module, an audio software module, the video decoder software module, a tee software module, and one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) software modules, and wherein the passing step comprises the following steps:

routing the tuning packet to the crossbar software module;

routing the tuning packet from the crossbar software module to the video decoder software module and the audio decoder software module;

routing the tuning packet from the video decoder software module to the tee software module; and

routing the tuning packet from the tee software module to the VBI software modules.

33. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps in the method as recited in claim 28.

34. A television tuning system comprising:

hardware circuitry that receives and processes a television signal, the hardware circuitry comprising tuner circuitry, video decoder circuitry, and audio decoder circuitry;

a software layer that controls the hardware circuitry, wherein the software layer comprises a tuner module configured to adjust the tuner circuitry, a video decoder module configured to control the video decoder circuitry, and an audio decoder module configured to control the audio decoder circuitry; and

a driver interface layer that interfaces the software layer and the hardware circuitry.

35. A television tuning system as recited in claim 34, wherein the software layer exchanges control information synchronously while the hardware circuitry receives and processes the television signal.

36. A television tuning system as recited in claim 34, wherein the tuner module is configured to generate a tuning packet that contains tuning instructions and to send the tuning packet to the video decoder module and the audio decoder module.

37. A television tuning system as recited in claim 34, wherein the tuner module is configured to send data packets to the video decoder module and the audio decoder module at a beginning and an ending of a tuning operation.

38. A television tuning system as recited in claim 34, wherein the software layer further comprises:

a crossbar;

a tee;

one or more VBI (vertical blanking interval) modules to process VBI data in the digital video data; and

the tuner module generates a tuning packet containing tuning instructions for each tuning change, and routes the tuning packet to the crossbar, the crossbar routes the tuning packet to the video decoder and the audio decoder, the video decoder routes the tuning packet to the tee, the tee routes the tuning packet to the VBI modules.

39. A television tuning system as recited in claim 38, wherein an additional VBI module is added to the software layer and the tee automatically routes the tuning packet to the additional VBI module.

40. A television tuning system as recited in claim 34, wherein the software layer comprises a VBI (vertical blanking interval) module configured to process VBI data.