Digital cable TV receiver, diagnosis method for the same, and data structure of HDMI status report

• US 7,904,934 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2006
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kwon, Kwang Hun, Cha, Sang Hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton; Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): OKEKE, ONYEDIKA C
• Application Number:
  US11/593,467
• Publication Number:
  US 20070056010A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,582 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/139
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/04 Changes in size, position or resolution of an image
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/047 using display data channel standard [DDC] communication
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/12 Use of DVI or HDMI protocol in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/418 External card to be used in combination with the client device, e.g. for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver

Abstract

A communication card includes a controller configured to forward a request to a device external to the communication card. The controller is further configured to receive HDMI status information associated with at least one HDMI port in response to the request.

Claims

1. A cable card of an open cable system, the cable card comprising:

a controller configured to forward a request to a host in the open cable system; and

the controller is further configured to receive High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) status information associated with a plurality of HDMI ports in response to the request,

wherein the HDMI status information is received through a CPU interface, the CPU interface including a generic diagnostic resource assigning diagnostic identifiers to corresponding diagnostic items, respectively, and wherein a single diagnostic identifier of the diagnostic identifiers is assigned to the HDMI status information

wherein the generic diagnostic resource enables the cable card to receive the HDMI status information including audio coding format, audio sampling frequency and audio sample size associated with audio utilized on each of the HDMI ports,

wherein the HDMI status information further includes information indicating whether each of peripheral devices linked to each of the HDMI ports uses HDMI or digital visual interface (DVI),

wherein when the HDMI status information includes multiple diagnostics corresponding to the plurality of HDMI ports, the multiple diagnostics are identified by the same diagnostic identifier, and

wherein the HDMI status information includes connect status information indicating whether a connection exists on each of the HDMI ports, host HDCP status information indicating whether a HDCP is enabled on each of the HDMI ports, device HDCP status information indicating a HDCP status of each of the peripheral devices connected to the host, and video format information indicating a current video format used on each of the HDMI ports.

2. The cable card of claim 1, wherein the HDMI status information identifies whether each of the HDMI ports associated with the HDMI status information is one of an HDMI input port, an HDMI output port, and an HDMI input/output port.

3. The cable card of claim 1, wherein the video format information includes at least one of horizontal_lines information, vertical_lines information, aspect_ratio information, prog_inter_type information.

4. The cable card of claim 1, wherein the cable card communicates with the host based on the generic diagnostic resource.

5. A method of communicating with a host in an open cable system, the method, comprising:

forwarding a request to the host from a controller of a cable card; and

receiving High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) status information associated with a plurality of HDMI ports in response to the request in the controller of the cable card,

wherein the HDMI status information is received through a CPU interface, the CPU interface including a generic diagnostic resource assigning diagnostic identifiers to corresponding diagnostic items, respectively, and wherein a single diagnostic identifier of the diagnostic identifiers is assigned to the HDMI status information,

wherein the generic diagnostic resource enables the cable card to receive the HDMI status information including audio coding format, audio sampling frequency and audio sample size associated with audio utilized on the HDMI port,

wherein the HDMI status information further includes information indicating whether each of peripheral devices linked to each of the HDMI ports uses HDMI or digital visual interface (DVI),

wherein when the HDMI status information includes multiple diagnostics corresponding to the plurality of HDMI ports, the multiple diagnostics are identified by the same diagnostic identifier, and

wherein the HDMI status information includes connect status information indicating whether a connection exists on each of the HDMI ports, host HDCP status information indicating whether a HDCP is enabled on each of the HDMI ports, device HDCP status information indicating a HDCP status of each of the peripheral devices connected to the host, and video format information indicating a current video format used on each of the HDMI ports.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising retrieving information in the HDMI status information that identifies whether each of the HDMI ports associated with the HDMI status information is one of an HDMI input port, an HDMI output port, and an HDMI input/output port, in the controller.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising forwarding the request using the generic diagnostic resource, in the controller.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the video format information includes at least one of horizontal_lines information, vertical_lines information, aspect_ration information, prog_inter_type information.