Transmission system and relay device

• US 8,732,785 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2011
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kabuto, Nobuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): EKPO, NNENNA NGOZI
• Application Number:
  US13/316,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20120229706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• Field of Search: 725/141, 725/153, 348/723
• US Class Current: 725/141
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/02 Details of power systems and of start or stop of display operation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/04 Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/06 Consumer Electronics Control, i.e. control of another device by a display or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/12 Use of DVI or HDMI protocol in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/18 Use of optical transmission of display information
• 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: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/38 Transmitter circuitry for the transmission of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/63 Generation or supply of power specially adapted for television receivers

Abstract

Provided is a system for supplying a power from a sink device to a source device. Not only the source device but also a cable or a repeater device to be connected thereto has compatibility in power supply. A physical address obtained from information of an EDID memory forms a base of CEC message exchange, but a physical address of the cable or repeater device is overlapped with the source device or unknown. The cable or a repeater device uses changes the type of a message while using the same physical address as the source device or use such a message having the physical address information of the source device is described in a parameter of the message using the unknown physical address. The message having a supply or reception current for each device described therein is exchanged with the sink device or the source device to adjust current reception.

Claims

1. A transmission system for transmitting a video signal from a source device to a sink device via a relay device,

wherein the sink device supplies a power to the relay device on the basis of a request from the relay device, and

wherein each of the source device and the relay device has an acquirer for acquiring physical address information of the sink device provided from the sink device and an input terminal number thereof and a communication unit for transmitting or receiving messages to or from another device, a transmission message in the messages includes information about whether a transmission originator is the source device or the relay device, the transmission message of the relay device in the messages includes information about a power required by the relay device, the sink device starts supply of powers required by the source device and the relay device on the basis of the message received by the sink device and transmits a message including information about the power supply.

2. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein one of the source device and the relay device which receives at least power supply has a voltage detector for detecting a reception power, and performs such control as not to increase or to decrease the reception power when a voltage detected by the voltage detector is not higher than a predetermined voltage.

3. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the sink device transmits a previous notice message to decrease an amount of supply power, keeps the power supply amount when receiving such a message as to request maintenance of the power supply amount from the source device or the relay device as a power supply destination, transmits the previous notice message at intervals of a predetermined time, and decreases the power supply amount even when receiving the request message after transmitting the previous notice message by a predetermined number of times.

4. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the sink device and/or the relay device has the communication unit for transmitting information about a connection position and information about a power supply capability to the relay device or to the source device, the connection positional information is information about sequential addition of a predetermined value to an initial value of the sink device in a connection order, and the relay device transmits a message including the positional information of the relay device.