Worldwide television tuning system with country code based tuning

• US 7,042,526 B1
• Filed: 04/08/1998
• Issued: 05/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Borseth, Jay Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, HAI V
• Application Number:
  US09/057,786
• Time in Patent Office: 2,953 Days
• Field of Search: 348/10, 348/11, 348/554, 348/555, 348/558, 348731-733, 455/185.1, 455/186.1, 455/186.2, 455/161.2, 455/168.1, 455/6.2, 725/143, 725/151, 725131-132, 725139-140
• US Class Current: 348/731
• 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

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 tuning system maintains a country code table listing a plurality of countries according to their ITU codes. The tuning system also maintains multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables that correlate channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table. The country table indexes the channel-to-frequency mapping tables. During configuration, a user or application selects a particular country by passing in the ITU code. The tuning system uses the ITU code to locate an entry for that country in the country code table. The table entry contains an index to an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country. The tuning system loads and saves the channel-to-frequency mapping table for subsequent use. The channel-to-frequency table also identifies the appropriate television standard for the selected country. During tuning, the user or application enters a particular channel number. The tuning system uses the channel number to lookup a corresponding television frequency in the channel-to-frequency table. The tuning system then tunes to the television frequency. The tuning system stores a set of tuning frequencies for corresponding channels within a particular locale. If the tuning system is transported to another locale and then back to the original locale, the tuning frequencies may be retrieved from memory to restore operation within the original locale, rather than having to reconfigure the system.

Claims

1. A television tuner comprising;

a tuner software module to expose functionality of the tuner software module to an application program via an application programming interface and to find a particular television frequency and a video decoder module to decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard using;

a country table listing a plurality of countries; and

multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables correlating channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table, the channel-to-frequency mapping tables being indexed by the country table so that selection of a country in the country table references an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country; and

a tuning device to tune to the found particular television frequency within the channel-to-frequency mapping table associated with the selected country upon selection of a corresponding channel.

2. A television tuner as recited in claim 1, wherein the country table lists the countries according to a uniquely assigned country code.

3. A television tuner as recited in claim 1, wherein the country table lists the countries according to an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) code.

4. A television tuner as recited in claim 1, wherein the channel-to-frequency mapping tables also contain a television standard for the associated countries.

5. A television tuning component for a television tuning system, comprising a tuner software module to expose functionality of the tuner software module to an application program via an application programming interface and to adjust the television tuning circuitry to a particular television frequency, and a video decoder module to decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard using:

a country table listing a plurality of countries; and

multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables correlating channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table, the channel-to-frequency mapping tables being indexed by the country table so that selection of a country in the country table references an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country and selection of a channel in the channel-to-frequency mapping table maps to a corresponding frequency.

6. A television tuning component as recited in claim 5, wherein the country table lists the countries according to a uniquely assigned country code.

7. A television tuning component as recited in claim 5, wherein the country table lists the countries according to an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) code.

8. A television tuning component as recited in claim 5, wherein the channel-to-frequency mapping tables also contain a television standard for the associated countries.

9. A television tuning component as recited in claim 5, embodied in software as a dynamic linked library stored on a computer-readable storage medium.

10. A television tuner incorporating the television tuning component as recited in claim 5.

11. A television tuning system comprising:

tuner circuitry to tune to various television frequencies carrying television video signals;

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;

a tuner module coupled to adjust the tuner circuitry to a particular television frequency, wherein the tuner module supports an application programming interface to expose functionality of the tuner module to an application program;

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

wherein the tuner module has a country table listing a plurality of countries and multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables that provide video standards and correlate channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table, the channel-to-frequency mapping tables being indexed by the country table so that selection of a country in the country table references an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country; and

wherein the tuner module selects a channel-to-frequency mapping table based upon input of a particular country and outputs a video standard to the video decoder for use in decoding the digital video data, the tuner module further selecting a television frequency from the selected channel-to-frequency mapping table based upon input of a corresponding channel and outputting the selected television frequency to the tuner circuitry to cause the tuner circuitry to tune to the selected television frequency.

12. A television tuning system as recited in claim 11, wherein the country table lists the countries according to an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) code.

13. A television tuning system as recited in claim 11, wherein the tuner module is embodied as a dynamic linked library.

14. A television tuning system as recited in claim 11, further comprising a second tuner module different from the tuner module, the second tuner module being used to replace the tuner module during upgrade without replacing the tuning circuitry and the decoding circuitry.

15. A television tuning system as recited in claim 11, wherein the tuner module stores a set of television frequencies that map to corresponding channels within the particular country for subsequent retrieval.

16. A television tuning manager for a television tuner, the television tuning manager being implemented in software stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the television tuning device comprising:

a country table listing a plurality of countries;

multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables correlating channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table the channel-to-frequency mapping tables being indexed by the country table so that selection of a country in the country table references an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country;

a code segment to select a channel-to-frequency mapping table based upon input of a particular country;

a code segment to output a broadcast frequency from the selected channel-to-frequency mapping table based upon input of a corresponding channel; and

an application programming interface configured to expose functionality of the television tuning manager to an application program, and to find a particular television frequency; and

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

17. A television tuning manager as recited in claim 16, wherein the country table lists the countries according to a uniquely assigned country code.

18. A television tuning manager as recited in claim 16, wherein the country table lists the countries according to an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) code.

19. A television tuning manager as recited in claim 16, wherein the channel-to-frequency mapping tables also contain a television standard for the associated countries.

20. A television tuning manager as recited in claim 16, further comprising a code segment to store a set of broadcast frequencies that map to corresponding channels within the particular country for subsequent retrieval.

21. A television tuning manager as recited in claim 16, embodied as a software dynamic linked library stored on a computer-readable storage medium.

22. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer to expose an application program interface for a television tuning system to an application program, adjust the television tuning system, find a particular television frequency, and decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard, the application program interface being embodied on the computer-readable medium and having methods for performing the following functions:

setting a current TV channel;

retrieving the current TV channel;

setting a country code;

retrieving the country code;

setting a storage index for regional channel to frequency mappings; and

retrieving the storage index.

23. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer to expose an application program interface for a television tuning system to an application program, adjust the television tuning system, find a particular television frequency, and decode the digital video data according to a particular video standard, the application program interface being embodied on the computer-readable medium and having methods for performing the following functions:

retrieving all analog video TV standards supported by the tuning system;

retrieving a current analog video TV standard in use;

setting a current TV channel;

retrieving the current TV channel;

retrieving highest and lowest channels available;

scanning for a precise signal on the current TV channel'"'"'s frequency;

setting a country code;

setting a storage index for regional channel to frequency mappings;

retrieving the storage index;

retrieving a number of TV sources plugged into the tuning system;

setting a type of tuning system;

retrieving the type of tuning system;

retrieving a current video frequency; and

retrieving a current audio frequency.

24. A method comprising executing a software module configured to:

expose functionality of the software module to an application program via an application programming interface, and to find a particular television frequency and to decode the digital video data through a video decoder according to a particular video standard;

receive an ITU (International Telecommunications Union) code for a particular country; and

select, based on the ITU code, a set of TV channel-to-TV frequency mappings for use in the particular country.

25. A method as recited in claim 24, further comprising the step of selecting, based on the ITU code, a TV standard for use in the particular country.

26. A method as recited in claim 24, further comprising the step of storing the selected set of TV channel-to-TV frequency mappings.

27. A method comprising exposing functionality of a tuner software module to an application program via an application programming interface, and to find a particular television frequency and to decode the digital video data through a video decoder according to a particular video standard for:

receiving a reference to a country;

selecting, based on the country reference, asset of channel-to-frequency mappings correlating channels to corresponding TV frequencies in the country and television standard;

receiving a channel;

selecting, based on the channel, a TV frequency that maps to the channel 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.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein the country reference is an ITU (International Telecommunications Union) code.

29. A method as recited in claim 27, further comprising the step of scanning for a better quality frequency within the channel.

30. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein the step of selecting a set of channel-to-frequency mappings comprises the following steps:

looking up the country in a country table that lists multiple countries; and

indexing from an entry for the country in the country table to a particular channel-to-frequency table, the particular channel-to-frequency table containing mappings of channel numbers to TV frequencies for the country.

31. A method as recited in claim 30, wherein the step of selecting a TV frequency comprises the step of looking up in the particular channel-to-frequency table a TV frequency that corresponds to the channel.

32. A tuning system comprising:

a tuner software module configured to expose functionality of the tuner software module to an application program via an application programming interface and to find a particular frequency using;

a country table listing a plurality of countries; and

,

multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables correlating channel numbers to corresponding frequencies for associated countries in the country table, the channel-to-frequency mapping tables being indexed by the country table so that selection of a country in the country table references an associated channel-to-frequency mapping table for the selected country, and wherein said tuner software module adjusts to a particular video standard based on a selected channel from one of the multiple channel-to-frequency mapping tables.

33. One or more computer-readable media having computer readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

expose functionality of the computer readable instructions to an application program via an application programming interface;

receive data regarding a selected country;

map to channels available for the selected country;

receive data regarding a selected channel;

map to an appropriate video standard based on at least one of the selected country and selected channel; and

,

format a tuning component to the appropriate video standard.