USING SCALABLE CODECS FOR PROVIDING CHANNEL ZAPPING INFORMATION TO BROADCAST RECEIVERS

• US 20100329328A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nokia, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Jarvinen, Roope Olavi, Kontola, Kalervo Mikael
• Granted Patent: US 8,989,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Scalable codecs are used for transmitting channel zapping data for one or more programs using timeslicing. The main codec layer may be utilized also for the zapping data, and the higher layers may be used in the primary channels. Zapping data may be provided to mobile terminals via a wireless multicast network, such as a DVB-H network, using timeslicing and providing the scalably encoded zapping data as part of the source stream.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

scalably encoding a core stream of data for a digital broadcast service;

scalably encoding at least one enhancement layer of data for the digital broadcast service; and

broadcast transmitting, in a common timeslice for the time-sliced digital broadcast service, the scalably encoded core stream of data and the scalably encoded at least one enhancement layer of data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the core stream of data includes channel zapping content that comprises a low resolution version of the time-sliced digital broadcast service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the scalably encoding steps are performed based on a spatio-temporal resolution pyramid and wherein the scalably encoding steps further combine downsampling and interpolation filters with lattice vector quantization.

3. (canceled)

5-7. -7. (canceled)

8. A method comprising:

receiving a scalably encoded core stream of data and at least one scalably encoded enhancement layer of data;

decoding the scalably encoded core stream of data; and

rendering as channel zapping content the decoded core stream of data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the scalably encoded core stream of data and the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layer of data are received in a common timeslice for a time-sliced digital broadcast service.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

decoding the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layer of data and rendering the decoded core stream of data and the decoded enhancement layers of data as a primary content service.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

decoding all or fewer than all of the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layers of data and rendering the decoded core stream of data and fewer than all of the decoded enhancement layers of data as channel zapping content.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the primary content service is rendered in response to user input selecting the primary content service for consumption.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the primary content service includes video content.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the primary content service include audio content.

15. An apparatus having a computer readable medium that contains computer executable instructions for causing the apparatus to perform operations comprising:

scalably encoding a core stream of data for a digital broadcast service;

scalably encoding at least one enhancement layer of data for the digital broadcast service; and

broadcast transmitting, in a common timeslice for the time-sliced digital broadcast service, the scalably encoded core stream of data and the scalably encoded at least one enhancement layer of data.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the core stream of data includes channel zapping content that comprises a low resolution version of the time-sliced digital broadcast service.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the scalably encoding steps are performed based on a spatio-temporal resolution pyramid and wherein the scalably encoding steps further combine downsampling and interpolation filters with lattice vector quantization.

17. (canceled)

19-21. -21. (canceled)

22. An apparatus having a computer readable medium that contains computer executable instructions for causing the apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a scalably encoded core stream of data and at least one scalably encoded enhancement layer of data;

decoding the scalably encoded core stream of data; and

rendering as channel zapping content the decoded core stream of data.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the scalably encoded core stream of data and the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layer of data are received in a common timeslice for a time-sliced digital broadcast service.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

decoding the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layers of data and rendering the decoded core stream of data and the decoded enhancement layers of data as a primary content service.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising:

decoding all or fewer than all of the at least one scalably encoded enhancement layers of data and rendering the decoded core stream of data and fewer than all of the decoded enhancement layers of data as channel zapping content.

26. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the primary content service is rendered in response to user input selecting the primary content service for consumption.

27. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the primary content service includes video content.

28. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the primary content service include audio content.

29-30. -30. (canceled)