Digital program management
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for management of digital programs, comprising:
- an input port configured to receive at least one transport stream, the at least one transport stream including a plurality of program elementary streams, each program elementary stream comprising a plurality of packets each including a packet identifier (PID) that identifies a corresponding program elementary stream for a respective program and program content data for the respective program;
plural content modifying units arranged in a communication path between the input port and an output port of the apparatus, the plural content modifying units being operative to;
select at least one program corresponding to at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams based on a respective control signal to provide a selected program;
modify at least the program content data of the selected program, the program content data including actual program content of the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program; and
a processor programmed to provide the respective control signal signals to each of the content modifying units based on user-programmable management data stored in associated memory, wherein the user programmable management data defines rules that characterize conditions for modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the conditions specify at least one of an encryption format, a bitrate and an encoding format for the modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the processor selectively controls the plural content modifying units to satisfy the conditions for the modified program content provided at the output port;
the plural content modifying units being further operative to modify the actual program content in the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program by performing at least two of transcryption, transrating, and transcoding of the actual program content based on the respective control signal to provide the modified program content data at the output port.
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Abstract
An apparatus and methods are disclosed for managing an incoming transport stream. The system can include controls configured for modifying program content as well as for remapping the packet identifiers. These controls thus can be employed for adapting incoming stream information to facilitate the specified actions on the incoming content that is to be managed.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus for management of digital programs, comprising:
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an input port configured to receive at least one transport stream, the at least one transport stream including a plurality of program elementary streams, each program elementary stream comprising a plurality of packets each including a packet identifier (PID) that identifies a corresponding program elementary stream for a respective program and program content data for the respective program; plural content modifying units arranged in a communication path between the input port and an output port of the apparatus, the plural content modifying units being operative to; select at least one program corresponding to at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams based on a respective control signal to provide a selected program; modify at least the program content data of the selected program, the program content data including actual program content of the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program; and a processor programmed to provide the respective control signal signals to each of the content modifying units based on user-programmable management data stored in associated memory, wherein the user programmable management data defines rules that characterize conditions for modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the conditions specify at least one of an encryption format, a bitrate and an encoding format for the modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the processor selectively controls the plural content modifying units to satisfy the conditions for the modified program content provided at the output port; the plural content modifying units being further operative to modify the actual program content in the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program by performing at least two of transcryption, transrating, and transcoding of the actual program content based on the respective control signal to provide the modified program content data at the output port. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus for management of digital programs, comprising:
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a receiver configured to receive at least one transport stream that includes a plurality of program streams, each program stream comprising a plurality of packets each including a packet identifier (PID) that identifies a corresponding elementary stream for a respective program and program content data for the respective program; plural content modifying units arranged in a communication path between an input port and an output port of the apparatus, the plural content modifying units being operative to; select at least one program corresponding to at least one of the plurality of program streams based on a respective control signal to provide a selected program; modify at least the program content data of the selected program, the program content data including actual program content of the at least one of the plurality of program streams corresponding to the selected program; memory storing user-programmable management data that define parameters for controlling each of the plural content modifying units, at least some of the parameters being stored in the memory in response to user input via a user interface; a processor programmed to provide the respective control signals to control each of the content modifying units based on the user-programmable management data stored in the memory; and an output interface configured to provide an output transport stream to the output port based on modified program content data, wherein the user programmable management data defines rules that characterize conditions for the modified program content data provided at the output port, wherein the conditions specify at least one of an encryption format, a bitrate and an encoding format for the modified program content data provided at the output port, wherein the processor selectively controls the plural content modifying units to satisfy the conditions for the modified program content data provided at the output port; wherein the modifying of the at least the program content data by the plural modifying units comprises modifying the actual program content in the at least one program stream corresponding to the selected program by perform at least two of transcryption, transrating, and transcoding of the actual program content based on the respective control signal to provide the modified program content data at the output port. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus for management of digital programs, comprising:
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an input port configured to receive at least one transport stream, the at least one transport stream including a plurality of program elementary streams, each program elementary stream comprising a plurality of packets each including a packet identifier (PID) that identifies a corresponding program elementary stream for a respective program and program content data for the respective program; plural content modifying units arranged in a communication path between the input port and an output port of the apparatus, the plural content modifying units being operative to; select at least one program corresponding to at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams based on a respective control signal to provide a selected program; modify at least the program content data of the selected program, the program content data including actual program content of the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program; a processor programmed to provide the respective control signal to each of the content modifying units based on user-programmable management data stored in associated memory; and an update module programmed to update at least one of program specific information and service information (PSI/SI) based on the user-programmable management data to reflect modifications of the program content data being made by the plural content modifying units, wherein the user programmable management data defines rules that characterize conditions for modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the conditions specify at least one of an encryption format, a bitrate and an encoding format for the modified program content provided at the output port, wherein the processor selectively controls the plural content modifying units to satisfy the conditions for the modified program content provided at the output port; wherein the modifying of the at least the program content data by the plural content modifying units comprises modifying the actual program content in the at least one of the plurality of program elementary streams corresponding to the selected program by perform at least two of transcryption, transrating, and transcoding of the actual program content based on the respective control signal to provide the modified program content at the output port.
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Specification