Post processing displays with on-screen displays

• US 8,421,921 B1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pixelworks Semiconductor Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Pixelworks Incorporated
• Inventors: Woodall, Neil D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harold, Jefferey
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAIEM, SEAN N
• Application Number:
  US12/533,703
• Time in Patent Office: 1,355 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 348/569
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42653 for processing graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440281 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. by frame skipping television signal recording using magnetic recording on tape for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44504 Circuit details of the additional information generator, e.g. details of the character or graphics signal generator, overlay mixing circuits

Abstract

An apparatus has at least one port to receive a data stream of image and on screen display data, an image processor to process the image data separate from the on screen display data and produced processed image data, and a display port to combine the on screen display data and the processed image data and transmit the combined data to a display. A method of processing on screen display data with an image post processor includes receiving a data stream from a video processor at a post processing device having at least one port, the data stream having both image data and on screen display data, separating the on screen display data from the image data, storing the image data and the on screen display data in separate areas of a memory, performing image processing on the image data with the post processor to produce processed image data, and transmitting the processed image data and the on screen display data through a display port.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one port to receive frames of data in the form of a combined data stream containing both image and on screen display data from a system processor;

an image processor to separate the image data from the on screen display data and process the image data separate from the on screen display data and produced processed image data; and

a display port to combine the on screen display data and the processed image data and transmit the combined data to a display.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one port comprises a first and a second port, both the first and second port arranged to receive the combined data stream, the first port to capture the display data and the second port to capture the on screen display data.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first and second port share the same connector to a video processor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one port comprises one port arranged to switch between capturing image data and capturing on screen display data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one port comprises one port arranged to capture both image data and on screen display data.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to:

read the image data from the memory;

process the image data;

access the memory to read the on screen display data; and

overlay the on screen display data over the image data.

7. A display system, comprising:

a video processor to produce a video output, the video output including combined image data and on-screen display data as frames of data;

a post processing device, the post processing device comprising;

at least one port arranged to receive the video output from the video processor and to separate the image data from the on-screen display data;

an image processor to separate the image data from the on-screen display data and process the image data separate from the on-screen display data to produce processed image data;

a memory arranged to receive and store the on screen display data; and

a display port to transmit the processed image data and the on screen display data; and

a display to receive and display the image data and the on screen display data.

8. The display system of claim 7, wherein the video processor resides on a system on a chip.

9. The display system of claim 7, wherein at least one port comprises two ports, both ports arranged to receive the video output, a first port to capture the image data from the video output and the second port to capture the on screen display data from the video output.

10. The display system of claim 7, wherein at least one port comprises one port.

11. The display system of claim 10, wherein the one port is arranged to switch between capturing the image data and the on screen display data.

12. The display system of claim 10, wherein the one port is arranged to capture both the image data and the on screen display data.

13. The display system of claim 10, further comprising a frame buffer controller arranged to point to the image data for the image processor for processing and to point to the on screen display data to overlay the on screen display data on the image data.

14. A method of processing on screen display data with an image post processor, comprising:

receiving a combined data stream from a video processor at a post processing device having at least one port, the data stream having both image data and on screen display data in frames of data;

separating the on screen display data from the image data;

storing the image data and the on screen display data in separate areas of a memory;

performing image processing on the image data separate from the on screen display data with the post processor to produce processed image data; and

transmitting the processed image data and the on screen display data through a display port.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving a data stream comprises receiving the image data and the on screen display data as separate frames.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing image processing on the image data includes performing frame rate conversion on the image data.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein performing frame rate conversion on the image data comprises one of replicating the image data for frame rate conversion or interpolating the image data for frame rate conversion.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein replicating the image data comprises replicating the image data to achieve one of either a 30 frame per second rate or a 24 frame per second rate.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the data stream comprises receiving a data stream containing on screen display data only when the on screen display data changes, and performing image processing comprises replicating frames of image data only as needed.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving the data stream comprises receiving a data stream having the on screen display data and the image data in alternating frames, the frames containing the on screen display data also including an alpha blend channel.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein performing image processing includes merging the on screen display data with the processing image data to be displayed as one of either side-by-side or the on screen display data as an overlay of the image data.