Media gateway

• US 8,931,027 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2005
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edito Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: icube Corporation
• Inventors: Cho, Keun-Ho
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US11/575,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20070297427A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,630 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/127
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2854 Wide area networks, e.g. public data networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 11/20 Conversion of the manner in which the individual colour picture signal components are combined, e.g. conversion of colour television standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/139 Format conversion, e.g. of frame-rate or size
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/01 Conversion of standards , e.g. involving analogue television standards or digital television standards processed at pixel level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0125 one of the standards being a high definition standard
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/52 Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal assembling of a multiplex stream by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, assembling of a packetised elementary stream at server side H04N21/236; disassembling of a multiplex stream, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, extraction or processing of Service Information, disassembling of packetised elementary stream at client side H04N21/434

Abstract

Disclosed is a media gateway that processes AV signals offered over various channels into AV stream data and wirelessly transmits the AV stream data to a client such as PC or TV The media gateway includes: a broadcast signal receiver for selecting a broadcast signal and dividing the selected broadcast signal into video and audio signals; a video decoder for decoding the video signal into a displayable image signal; an A/D converter for digitally converting the audio signal; an encoder for encoding the digitally converted audio signal and the image signal; a data communication unit for transmitting/receiving AV stream data and a client control command to/from a data communication unit on a client side; and a main processor for controlling a tuner in the broadcast signal receiver according to a client control command conforming to HTTP standards received through the data communication unit and transmitting AV stream data obtained by encoding a broadcast signal of a channel selected by the tuner to a client side.

Claims

1. A media gateway, comprising:

a video signal inlet configured to receive video broadcast media according to at least two different video transmission standards via at least two different input terminals, respectively;

a broadcast signal receiver configured to select, in response to a client control command, a video broadcast medium according to one video transmission standard from among the video broadcast media according to the at least two different video transmission standard to receive a broadcast signal corresponding to the selected video broadcast medium, and to divide the broadcast signal into video and audio signals;

a video decoder configured to decode the video signal into a displayable image signal;

an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter configured to digitally convert the audio signal;

an encoder configured to encode the digitally converted audio signal and the image signal;

a data communicator configured to receive Audio-video (AV) stream data from the encoder and to transmit AV stream data to a data communication unit on a client side, and to receive the client control command from the data communication unit on the client side and to transmit the client control command; and

a main processor configured to receive the client control command transmitted from the data communication unit, to control a tuner in the broadcast signal receiver to select the video broadcast medium according to the client control command received through the data communication unit, and to transmit the AV stream data obtained by encoding the broadcast signal of the channel selected by the tuner to the client side, wherein the at least two different input terminals are configured to receive a CVBS (Composite Video Blanking Sync) signal and an S-Video (Separate-Video) signal, respectively.

2. The media gateway of claim 1, wherein the main processor comprises:

a streaming engine configured to output the AV stream data obtained by segmenting AV encoding data outputted from the encoder into frames and assigning timestamps to the frames;

a communication protocol processor configured to interpret the client control command, to process the AV stream data according to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Real-time Transfer Protocol (RTP), and to transmit the AV stream data to the data communication unit;

a tuner controller configured to control the tuner;

an encoder controller configured to control the encoder; and

a command processor configured to process the client control command interpreted in the communication protocol processor.

3. The media gateway of claim 2, wherein the data communicator comprises at least one of a local area network (LAN) card and a wireless LAN card.

4. The media gateway of claim 1, wherein the data communicator comprises at least one of a LAN card and a wireless LAN card.

5. The media gateway of claim 1, wherein the selected video broadcast medium comprises satellite broadcast, cable broadcast, or on-air broadcast.

6. A media gateway, comprising:

a video signal inlet configured to receive video broadcast media according to at least two different video transmission standards via at least two different input terminals, respectively;

a broadcast signal receiver configured to select, in response to a client control command, a video broadcast medium according to one video transmission standard from among the video broadcast media according to the at least two different video transmission standards to receive a broadcast signal corresponding to the selected video broadcast medium, and to divide the received broadcast signal into video and audio signals;

a video source selector configured to receive the video signal from the broadcast signal receiver and an external video signal, and select either the video signal or the external video signal as a video source;

an audio source selector configured to receive the audio signal from the broadcast signal receiver and an external audio signal, and select either the audio signal or the external audio signal as an audio source;

a video decoder configured to decode an output of the video source selection unit into a displayable image signal;

an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter configured to digitally convert an output of the audio source selection unit;

an encoder configured to encode the digitally converted audio signal and the image signal;

a data communicator configured to receive Audio-video (AV) stream data from the encoder and to transmit AV stream data to a data communication unit on a client side, and to receive the client control command from the data communication unit on the client side and to transmit the client control command; and

a main processor configured to receive the client control command transmitted from the data communication unit, to select the video and audio sources according to the client control command received through the data communication unit, to process the AV stream data obtained by encoding the selected source according to HTTP or Real-time Protocol (RTP), and to transmit the AV stream data to the client side through the data communication unit, wherein the at least two different input terminals are configured to receive a CVBS (Composite Video Blanking Sync) signal and an S-Video (Separate-Video) signal, respectively.

7. The media gateway of claim 6, further comprising an infrared (IR) transmitter configured to remotely control an AV source connected via a cable to the video signal input terminal.

8. The media gateway of claim 7, wherein the main processor comprises:

a streaming engine configured to output the AV stream data obtained by segmenting the AV encoded data outputted from the encoder into frames and assign timestamps to the frames;

a communication protocol processor configured to interpret the client control command, process the AV stream data according to HTTP or RTP, and transmit the AV stream data to the data communication unit;

a tuner controller configured to control a tuner in the broadcast signal receiver;

an encoder controller configured to control the encoder;

an IR transmission controller configured to control the IR transmitter; and

a command processor configured to process the client control command interpreted in the communication protocol processor.

9. The media gateway of claim 6, wherein the main processor comprises:

a streaming engine configured to output the AV stream data obtained by segmenting the AV encoded data output from the encoder into frames and to assign timestamps to the frames;

a communication protocol processor configured to interpret the client control command, to process the AV stream data according to HTTP or RTP, and to transmit the AV stream data to the data communication unit;

a tuner controller configured to control a tuner in the broadcast signal receiver;

an encoder controller configured to control the encoder;

a source selection controller configured to control the video source selection unit and the audio source selection unit; and

a command processor configured to process the client control command interpreted in the communication protocol processor.

10. The media gateway of claim 6, wherein the selected video broadcast medium comprises satellite broadcast, cable broadcast, or on-air broadcast.