Method and apparatus for remotely controlling a receiver according to content and user selection

• US 7,305,694 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2004
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: D&M Holdings US Incorporated (DEI Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Digital Networks North America, Inc. (DEI Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Commons, Christopher, Wachter, Marty R., Bouterse, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): SALCE, JASON P
• Application Number:
  US10/935,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20050100312A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,183 Days
• Field of Search: 725 39- 40, 725 43- 44, 725/48, 725/52, 725/53, 725/59, 725/80, 725/82, 725/85, 725/131, 725133-134, 725/139, 725/141, 725/151, 725/153, 348/706, 348554-555, 700/94, 381/56, 715716-717, 715/727, 715/728
• US Class Current: 725/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

System and method for automatically controlling a media receiver by instructing the media receiver to use a particular receiver connection and to play a selected media unit using one of a plurality of play modes according to characteristics of the media unit. Media units may be encoded using any of a variety of encoding formats. The media management system may interface with a media receiver to select media receiver connections in accordance with the media type of the media unit. The media management system may also interface with the media receiver to set media receiver settings for playing the selected media unit according to the media receiver settings selected for a play mode corresponding to the characteristics of the selected media unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling a media receiver having a plurality of receiver connections, the apparatus comprising:

a media player interface comprising a plurality of output connections for outputting media signals to a corresponding receiver connection of the plurality of receiver connections;

a user interface for querying a user to associate each encoding format of a plurality of encoding formats with a receiver connection of the plurality of receiver connections;

a media database comprising (i) media unit data that identifies an encoding format of each playable piece of media of a plurality of playable pieces of media, and (ii) receiver connection data that identifies the receiver connection associated with each of the encoding formats; and

a processor for interfacing to a play selection function that (i) determines from the media unit data an encoding format of a selected playable piece of media, and (ii) determines from the receiver connection data a receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media,

wherein the processor (i) sends to the media receiver a control signal instructing the media receiver to use the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media for receiving a media signal of the selected media, and (ii) outputs the media signal of the selected media to the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a play mode record stored in the media database,

wherein the play selection function (i) retrieves the play mode record for the selected media from the media database, and (ii) determines a play mode selection for the selected media based on at least one characteristic of the selected media and the play mode record, and

wherein the processor requests the media receiver to play the selected media according to the play mode selection.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one characteristic is selected from the group consisting of:

a title, a song, a genre, a location, a label, an artist, an encoding format, and a date.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the play mode selection is for a play mode selected from the group consisting of:

rock arena, jazz club, classic concert, mono movie, matrix, 5-channel stereo, 7-channel stereo, stereo, pure direct, direct, super stadium, wide screen, cinema, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, Digital Theater System, and THX.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the play mode selection defines one or more media receiver settings selected from the group of consisting of:

tone settings, equalization settings, noise reduction settings, level adjustment settings, balance settings, delay time settings, and bass settings.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

a user interface for correlating the play mode selection for the selected media with the at least one characteristic of the selected media,

wherein the at least one characteristic is selected from the group consisting of;

a title, a

song, a genre, a location, a label, an artist, an encoding format, and a date.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding format of the selected media is an encoding format selected from the group consisting of:

motion picture experts group—

audio layer 3 (MP3), compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc audio (DVD-audio), DVD-movie, super audio CD (SACD), pulse code modulation (PCM), free lossless audio codec (FLAC), advanced audio coding (AAC), and waveform audio format (WAV).

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a media receiver type record stored in the media database, wherein the media receiver type record identifies the media receiver, and wherein the receiver connection is further based on the media receiver type record.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a media type configuration record stored in the media database, wherein the play selection function retrieves the media type configuration record to determine the receiver connection.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding format of the selected media consists of an encoding format selected from the group consisting of:

compressed media, uncompressed media, and a combination of compressed and uncompressed media.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the encoding format of the selected media consists of an encoding format selected from the group consisting of encrypted media and unencrypted media.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media is a connection selected from the group consisting of:

(i) a digital connection, and (ii) an analog connection.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface for choosing the selected media.

14. An apparatus for controlling a media receiver, the apparatus comprising:

a media player interface comprising a plurality of output connections for outputting media signals to the media receiver;

a user interface for querying a user to associate each characteristic of a plurality of media characteristics with a play mode of a plurality of play modes;

a media database comprising (i) media unit data that identifies at least one characteristic of a selected piece of media playable by the media receiver, an encoding format of the selected media, and a receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media, and (ii) a play mode record that identifies a play mode corresponding to the at least one characteristic of the selected media; and

a processor for interfacing to a play selection function to (i) determine from the media unit data the at least one characteristic of the selected media, the encoding format of the selected media, and the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media, (ii) determine a receiver connection selection based on the selected media and a media type configuration record, wherein the receiver connection selection is communicated to the processor from the play selection function, and (iii) determine from the play mode record the play mode corresponding to the at least one characteristic of the selected media,

wherein the processor sends to the media receiver a control signal instructing the media receiver to play the selected media according to the play mode and to use the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media for receiving a media signal of the selected media, and

wherein the processor outputs the media signal of the selected media to the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media comprises a connection selected from the group consisting of a digital connection and an analog connection.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a media receiver type record stored in the media database, wherein the media receiver type record identifies the media receiver, and wherein the receiver connection selection is further based on the media receiver type record.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the user interface queries the user to associate each encoding format of a plurality of encoding formats with a receiver connection of a plurality of receiver connections.

18. A method for controlling a receiver having a plurality of receiver connections, the method comprising:

querying a user to select a receiver connection of the plurality of receiver connections to correspond with each encoding format of a plurality of encoding formats;

retrieving media unit data that identifies an encoding format of a playable piece of media selected to be played by the receiver, wherein the identified encoding format is one of the plurality of encoding formats;

retrieving receiver-connection data that identifies the receiver connection corresponding with the identified encoding format; and

sending to the receiver a control signal instructing the receiver to use the identified receiver connection for receiving a media signal of the selected media.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

retrieving play mode data that correlates a particular play mode with a particular characteristic identified in the media unit data, and

requesting the receiver to play the media unit according to the particular play mode.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

querying a user to select the particular play mode from a plurality of play modes to correspond to the particular characteristic.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

continuing to query the user to select a play mode from the plurality of play modes until each of a plurality of characteristics is correlated with one of play mode of the plurality of play modes.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

displaying the query on a display terminal; and

storing in the play mode data the selected play modes corresponding to each of the plurality of characteristics.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the particular play mode is a mode selected from the group consisting of:

rock arena, jazz club, classic concert, mono movie, matrix, 5-channel stereo, 7-channel stereo, stereo, pure direct, direct, super stadium, wide screen, cinema, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, Digital Theater System, and THX.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the particular play mode defines one or more receiver settings selected from the group of consisting of:

tone settings, equalization settings, noise reduction settings, level adjustment settings, balance settings, and delay time settings, and bass settings.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

continuing to query the user to select a receiver connection from among a plurality of receiver connections to correspond to each encoding format of a plurality of encoding formats until each encoding format of the plurality of encoding formats corresponds to a selected receiver connection.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

displaying the query on a display terminal; and

storing the selected receiver connections corresponding to the encoding formats in a media type configuration record.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of retrieving the media unit data occurs in response to loading a disc into a disc player.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of retrieving the media unit data occurs in response to receiving a stream of data from a data storage device.

29. A media management system comprising:

a media port coupled to a media source, wherein the media port receives a media signal of a playable piece of media selected to be played by a media receiver, and wherein the media port receives the media signal from the media source;

a media player interface comprising a plurality of output connections for outputting media signals to a corresponding receiver connection of the media receiver;

a user interface for querying a user to (i) associate one of the receiver connections with an encoding format of the selected media, and (ii) associate a play mode with a characteristic of the selected media;

a media database comprising (i) media unit data that identifies an encoding format and characteristic of the selected media, (ii) receiver connection data that identifies the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media, and (iii) a play mode record that identifies the play mode associated with the characteristic of the selected media; and

a processor for interfacing to a play selection function to determine (i) from the media unit data, the encoding format and characteristic of the selected media, (ii) from the receiver connection data, the receiver connection data associated with the encoding format of the selected media, and (iii) from the play mode record, the play mode associated with the characteristic of the selected media,

wherein the processor sends to the media receiver a control signal instructing the media receiver to (i) use the receiver connection associated with the encoding format of the selected media, and (ii) to play the selected media according to the play mode selection.