Television – Receiver circuitry – Tuning
Patent
1996-11-12
1999-09-21
Hsia, Sherrie
Television
Receiver circuitry
Tuning
348735, 348552, H04N 550
Patent
active
059560975
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for video reception, in particular a control system for subjecting the channel selection of a video receiver to the channels of another video receiver. The invention is applicable notably to the automatic tuning of a video cassette recorder (VCR) connected to a television (TV) receiver.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In known VCR machines, when a user wishes to record a TV program he must adapt his VCR to the channel corresponding to the TV's reception channel. In practice, when selecting the channel on the VCR, he must make sure that the number of the selected channel appears on the VCR's display; this is the only way of making sure that the right channel has been selected.
If we assume that such a user always has a TV receiver that can operate at the same time as the VCR he intends to use, the invention proposes to use the TV receiver for selecting the program (channel) to be recorded and for automatically adjusting the VCR to the channel selected on the TV receiver.
In these conditions, when the user wishes to record a TV program received via an antenna or a cable network, for example, he selects on his TV receiver the channel on which the program will be broadcast. The VCR connected to this TV will then be adjusted automatically to the same receiving channel as the TV receiver. The European patent application EP 0618 721 A2 describes a VCR fitted with a reception circuit that can be tuned to several channels and connected to a TV receiver which in turn can be tuned to several receiving channels. Once the TV receiver is tuned to a given channel, it displays the video signals and emits the audio signals received while also feeding them to the VCR. The latter also includes a circuit for comparing at least one component of the signal received directly by the VCR with the corresponding component of the signal that the VCR receives from the TV receiver. This comparison circuit is designed to output an "equality" signal if the signals compared are the same, i.e. when the two devices are tuned to the same channel, and an "inequality" signal when this is not the case, in which case the VCR will automatically search for the channel being received by the TV receiver. However, two different channels may have two vertical synchronization signals in phase. In this case, the comparison circuit chances to validate the tuning of the VCR receiver on a channel different from the one to which the TV receiver is tuned.
The object of the invention is liberate from this problem of tuning of the VCR receiver on a channel different from the one to which the TV receiver is tuned in case two different channels have two vertical synchronization signals in phase, which is a significant improvement over the device described in the patent application EP 0618 721 A2.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns a video receiving device (A) that includes a circuit for receiving first video signals from a remote transmitter, a circuit for receiving second video signals from another video receiver (TVS), a circuit for automatic searching for transmission channels, and a circuit for phase comparison between the vertical synchronization signals of said first video signals and the vertical synchronization signals of said second video signals that can output an "outphasing" signal that is used for controlling the operation of said automatic channel search circuit, wherein said video receiving device (A) also includes a control circuit (CC) that enables the video signals that it is receiving to be displayed for a pre-determined time on said other video receiver (TVS).
An important characteristic of the invention is that said control circuit (CC) includes a timer (TIME) controlled by the control unit of said video receiving device when it is informed that the phases of said vertical synchronization signals are the same. Said timer orders, for a pre-determined time period, the transmission of the video signals received by said video receiving device to said other vid
REFERENCES:
patent: 4622583 (1986-11-01), Watanabe
patent: 5291343 (1994-03-01), Goto
patent: 5661526 (1997-08-01), Hamamoto
Maetz Yves
Nguyen Jino
Emanuel Peter M.
Hsia Sherrie
Shedd Robert D.
Thomson Multimedia S.A.
Tripoli Joseph S.
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