Television – Basic receiver with additional function
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-26
2001-12-11
Lee, Michael (Department: 2614)
Television
Basic receiver with additional function
C348S725000, C348S552000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06330035
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a television signal receiver comprising a plurality of processing means for executing respective processing operations on a received television signal. A receiver of this type is, for example, a television apparatus, a video recorder or a CDI player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Receivers of the type described in the opening paragraph are generally known. The signal received from a tuner, tape or disc is subjected, in the receiver, to a plurality of processing operations each having a predetermined function. For example, a television apparatus comprises, inter alia, the following processing means:
a sync separator which separates synchronizing signals from the video signal for deriving horizontal and vertical deflection signals for a display screen;
a color decoder which splits the television signal into chrominance signals and a luminance signal for generating three elementary color signals R, G and B;
a teletext decoder which regenerates a data signal in the vertical retrace period of the television signal, stores the data of a selected page, and reads, decodes and displays this data at a desired picture frequency;
an audio decoder for decoding the audio signal; and
an operating circuit.
In the known television receivers, said processing means are realized in the form of specially developed integrated circuits (ICs). Each IC has a given processing power for executing the processing operation, this processing power being determined, to a considerable extent, by previously fixed requirements of picture quality, sound quality and convenience of operation. The processing power of an IC becomes manifest in the quantity of chip surface area. The plurality of ICs and peripheral components in the receiver represents the overall processing power of the receiver. This overall processing power is also dependent on the extent to which the receiver has features such as teletext, picture-in-picture, stereo sound and multi-standard reception.
The overall processing power of the known television receiver is determined by the sum of the processing power of all processing means. The processing power is fixed as soon as the ICs have been chosen and interconnected and is independent of the fact whether a given processing operation is executed or not executed. The functionality of the known receiver is also fixed invariably.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a television signal receiver which is constructed in an alternative manner.
The receiver according to the invention is characterized in that each processing operation is laid down in a control program stored in a memory, and in that the plurality of processing means is constituted by a processing unit which consecutively executes selected control programs in synchronism with the television signal.
Such a receiver is very flexible. This is understood to mean that functions can be modified or added by modification or addition of an appropriate control program. Due to this flexibility, new apparatuses can be rapidly developed and marketed. By modifying or adding control programs, it is also possible to upgrade apparatuses which have already been manufactured. If desired, upgrading may even be carried out by the user, for example, by means of a smartcard or by downloading data from a transmitter. A user may also give his/her television apparatus a personal touch. He/she may choose a sub-set of the stored control programs as long as the processing power of the processing unit is not exceeded.
An embodiment of the receiver is characterized in that the processing unit is adapted to select the control programs to be executed in dependence upon operating signals which are received from an operating unit. A further embodiment of the receiver is characterized in that the processing unit is adapted to select the control programs to be executed in dependence upon output signals of a processing operation. These embodiments are based on the recognition that a television receiver need not execute all processing operations simultaneously. Some processing operations are only necessary in user-selected operating modes (for example, teletext or picture-in-picture). Other processing operations are only necessary if a television signal in accordance with a given standard (PAL, SECAM, NTSC) is received. The processing power of the processing unit is thus adaptively used in said embodiments for the processing operations to be actually executed. No processing power of the processing unit is necessary for a processing operation which is not executed. The overall processing power may thus be smaller than that of the known receivers in which the processing power of all processing operations is fully and continuously present.
A very favorable embodiment of the receiver is characterized in that at least one processing operation is laid down in at least two control programs of different complexity, the processing unit being adapted to select the most complex control program which can be executed. For example, in a mixed TV/TXT mode, in which both color decoding and teletext decoding are operational, a less sophisticated teletext control program may be executed than in a teletext-only mode. After a change of channels, a qualitatively better control program can also be executed for sync processing so that the receiver captures a new station more rapidly at the expense of, for example, a (temporarily) lower picture quality.
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Sijstermans Franciscus W.
Van Zon Cornelis C. A. M.
Goodman Edward W.
Lee Michael
U.S. Philips Corporation
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