MXPA99002481A - Set top terminal for an interactive information distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

A set top terminal (100) for receiving information transmitted from a service provider, for receiving control information transmitted by a service provider, and for transmitting control information from the set top terminal (100) to the service provider to interactively control the services that are being received. The set top terminal (100) receives display images via an information channel carrying both conventional analog television signals and digital television signals. Additionally, set top terminal (100) control signals are sent from the service provider via a command channel and the set top terminal (100) sends control signals to the service provider via a back channel.

Description

TJ DISPOSAL TERMINAL INTERACTIVE INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM This application claims the benefits of the application of the Provisional patent of the United States of America 60 / 026,229, registered on September 17, 1996.

The present invention relates to a system of distribution of interactive information and with greater particularity, to a disposition terminal to interactively communicate with the information distribution system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Recent advances in digital signal processing techniques and, in particular, advances in digital compression techniques, have led to an abundance of proposals to provide new digital services to subscribers at home through REF. 29742 coaxial and telephone networks. For example, it has been proposed to provide hundreds of cable television channels to the subscribers by compressing the digital video, transmitting the compressed digital video over conventional coaxial cable television cables, and then decompressing the video in the subscriber layout terminal. Another proposed application of this technology is a movie on demand system in which a subscriber communicates directly with the provider of the video service through telephone lines to request a particular video program from a video library and the video program requested is sent to the subscriber's house through telephone lines or through coaxial television cables to see immediately.

However, these present on-demand movie video systems are not truly interactive systems where a subscriber can select selective access to a larger audio, video or data library and control the present ation of the selected information on a user-friendly basis. real time, as well as when a video program is played using the conventional video recorder of the observer. Most of the systems currently available have a simple interface control which allows the subscriber to simply order the information without any other control for the presentation of the information. Typically the layout terminals in these forms of the systems simply demodulate the signal from the cable network and present these to the viewer on the conventional television of the viewer. The information control of the terminal of provision to the service provider is typically carried out by the telephone network. As well as, only rudimentary commands are allowed, otherwise a telephone line would be necessary for this.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a provisioning terminal that is capable of interacting with an interactive information distribution system to provide real time interaction with the services provided by the service provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The disadvantages hitherto associated with the prior art are overcome with the present invention. The present invention is a disposition terminal for receiving the information transmitted from a service provider, upon receiving the control information transmitted by the service provider, and transmitting the control information from the disposition terminal to the service provider interactively control the services that have been received. More specifically, the disposition terminal receives information in band from the service provider, for example, the menu of images, data, video, audio, and the like, in a frequency band of 50-750 MHz. The transmitted control information by the disposition terminal it is transported in a frequency band of 15.5 to 29.5 MHz. Thus, the disposition terminal communicates using three independent communication channels: (a) an information channel; (2) a command channel; and (3) a return channel. The information of the return channel is modulated by a disposition terminal using a modulator with switch for the binary phase change (BPSK). The control channel of the control information received by the layout terminal from the network is transmitted using modulation of the switch for quadrature phase change (QPSK). The information in the bandwidth carried by the information channel is modulated using modulation of the quadrature amplitude (QAM) or a modulation scheme of the conventional analog modulated television signal such as NTSC, PAL, or SECAM. Before it is demodulated on the carrier frequency, the command channel data and the information channel data were condensed using a transport protocol such as the Moving Pictures Experts Group transport protocol, a modified version of this protocol, or some other protocol that facilitates the condensation sent and direction.

More specifically, the layout terminal present invention contains a coupler which is coupled at its input to an RF feed from a source of video and control information. The coupler has a single power path for use by the return channel, the command channel and the information channel. The coupler, which acts as a T-filter, couples the signals from the RF feed to a signal splitter, which in turn couples the signal with two tuners (one tuner for the signals of the command channel and another tuner for the signals of the information channel). The tuner of the command channel and the demodulator select a particular frequency carrying the information of the control channel towards the disposition terminal, demodulating this information, decondensing the data and providing a data stream of the control information towards a microprocessor that controls the disposal terminal.

The tuner of the information channels selects a particular channel in which the information for the disposition terminal is received and the RF signal is converted to an IF signal. The IF signal, if it is an analog video signal, is processed by a NTSC demodulator in a conventional manner. Parallel to the NTSC demodulator is a digital television signal demodulator that demodulates the QAM modulation, extracts data packets directed to this layout terminal using a decoder of the information channel transport and finally, decodes the compressed video using an MPEG decoder to produce both signals digital video and digital audio. The digital video signal is then encoded using an NTSC encoder to produce a luanance and chrominance signal that is multiplexed and demodulated using an RF modulator to generate a composite video signal in the channel for reception by a conventional television. In addition, there is an S video output, a composite video output and a stereo audio output. For the control of the information, the user manipulates a remote control of infrared rays to send commands to the terminal of disposal which has an infrared receiver that digitizes the information and couples this in a collective data / address conductor for the microprocessor . The information in the collective conductor is processed by the microprocessor, formatted in transmissible data which is modulated in a carrier wave using the BPSK return channel modulator. The output of the modulator is amplified and coupled to the diplexer such that a single input into the disposition terminal is used to transmit and receive information. The energy level and the transmission frequency used by the disposition terminal are controlled by the microprocessor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The teachings of the present invention can be easily understood by considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows a high-level block diagram of an arrangement terminal according to the present invention; FIG. 2 shows a detailed block diagram of an apparatus for increasing the density of the signal when transported in the information channel; Y FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the command channel.

To facilitate understanding, identical numerical references have been used, where possible, to designate the identical elements that are in common with the figure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 represents a block diagram of the layout terminal 100 of the present invention. The layout terminal contains an entry station 102 which is coupled to either a conventional cable or a hybrid coaxial-fiber cable network (not shown). This network carries "an information channel, a command channel, and a return channel. The information channel carries both analog signals (e.g., conventional cable television signals) and digital signals (e.g., interactive television signals). Specifically, at the end of the reception of the network is an equipment providing the interactive information service that provides the requested information and the analogue television signal through the information channel as well as the command and the control information for the command terminal in the channel. The service provider team also accepts requests and commands from the disposition terminal transmitted through the return channel. The information of the return channel is generally carried using a frequency within the band of 15.5 to 29.5 MHz. The information of the command channel is generally carried on a carrier wave in the band of 70 to 110 MHz, but it can be transmitted on any frequency in the 50 - 750 MHz band. The information channel occupies the band from 50 to 750 MHz. All these channels are propagated through a simple network using frequency multiplexing.

An analog signal multiplexer 103 has an input signal coupled to the input station 102 and a second input coupled to an RF modulator 184. This "bypass" multiplexer couples the input port of the RF signal directly to a television or couples a H modulated channel signal to television. The information carried by the modulated channel signal a is described below.

A diplexer 104 is a filter T which couples the signal of the return channel from the modulator of the return channel 115 in the RF feed path to the station 102 and passes the information channel and the command channel through the diplexer to its respective tuners 106 and 108. An RF splitter 105 is coupled to the output of the diplexer 104. The splitter couples the RF signal to both the tuner of the command channel 108 and the tuner of the information channel 106.

The tuner of the command channel 108 is selected by means of programming elements by tuning these the disposition terminal once installed has a particular frequency which will receive all the information of the command channel, but this frequency can be changed by means of commands from the service provider. The modulation received by means of the command channel is interrupted by quadrature phase change (QPSK) having a data rate of 1 megabit per second. The data is carried using a modified MPEG-2 transport packet format subdivided into 23-bit cells. After the condensation and before correcting the information error the effective bandwidth of the channel is 750 ilobits per second. The tuner selects a frequency within several frequencies available for demodulation. The IF signal from the tuner is filtered by a 1 MHz SAW 109 filter and amplified by the AGC amplifier 114. A mixer 110 reduces the frequency of an RF signal from the bridge-selectable tuner by mixing the output of the selectable tuner with a 40.75 MHz signal from a VCXO 112. The mixer 110 produces a signal in the baseband which is then filtered by a low pass filter 113. The amplified signal is then converted to a digital signal using a 6-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) ) 116 which produces a 6-bit sample sequence of the baseband command channel signal at a sampling rate of 2 MHz. The digitized signal is coupled to a conventional QPSK 154 demodulator. The QPSK demodulator also controls the VCXO 112 by means of a control signal amplified by amplifier 111. The QPSK demodulator is available within an integrated circuit of the demodulator available by Broa dcom with the model BCM3115.

To complete the demodulation of the QPSK signal and restore the data of the command channel, the output of the QPSK demodulator (eg, increase the signal density) is processed by a portion of a programmable field of composite networks 120. The apparatus for the increase of the signal density is discussed in detail with respect to FIG. 3 below. The apparatus for increasing the signal density is implemented within a programmable field of gate networks (FPGA) 118 such as the model 8820 EPLD available from Altera. This FPGA is used to implement other circuits within the layout terminal that include a directed decoder, an interrupt controller, a splitter clock, a shift controller, an LED driver, an IR receiver controller, an apparatus for increasing the the density of the signal of the information channel, a controller modulator of the return channel, and an error control circuit with clock of 27 MHz.

The control channel data is transported within a condensed signal using a modified MPEG transport protocol. Specifically, the data of the command channel is transported as a payload of a packet having 4 bits of transport hop and 184 bits of payload data The payload comprising a plurality of data blocks of different length . Each block is preceded by a 16-bit address and a designator with an 8-bit length. The data block usually contains an unknown sequence, message number, data and a CRC for the data. Once the signal density of the data block is increased it is coupled to the 16-bit microprocessor 126. The microprocessor 126 implements any instruction that is contained in the data stream.

To synchronize the process of increasing the signal density, the apparatus for increasing the signal density of the command channel finds the synchronization code in the head of the transport packet and confirms that it has a value of 0 x 47. Once the correct code has been determined, the apparatus for increasing the signal density searches in the field of the synchronization code in the transport head every 188 bits. If the value of 0 x 47 is not found in the spindle, the device for increasing the signal density waits for the next spindle to resynchronize. Once synchronized, the device for increasing the signal density ignores all information in the spindle. The device for increasing the density of the signal compares the address of 16 bits in each data block. If the block has an address that corresponds to an address set by the microprocessor, the block goes to the microprocessor. All other blocks are ignored.

The output signal IF of the tuner 106 is coupled, via the selector 140, to both the demodulator circuit of the digital signal 130 as well as the demodulator of the analog signal 132. The analog demodulator contains a demodulator module of the conventional NTSC signal 134, a visual display indication unit (ODS) 136 and a Y / C separator 138. The output of the NTSC demodulator module 134 is a baseband video signal as well as a baseband audio signal. The baseband video is coupled to the OSD unit 136 which accepts commands from the microprocessor such that the functionality of the OSD is provided in a conventional manner. The combined baseband video signal as well as the OSD information is coupled to the Y / C separator 138. The Y / O separator 138 generates a luminance signal and a chrominance signal derived from the baseband video. Thus, the inventive arrangement terminal demodulates all available conventional NTSC cable television channels in addition to the interactive services described below. Similar circuits would be used to demodulate signals using other analogue television formats such as PAL or SECAM.

The digital demodulator 130 contains a SAW filter 142 having a bandwidth and an amplifier 144. The band of the SAW filter limits the IF signal of the tuner 106. The amplifier 144 is better controlled by the demodulator 154 to compensate for the insertion loss of the SAW filter 142 and the amplitude variations of the input signal. The output of the amplifier 144 is coupled to a mixer 148 which combines 38.75 MHz generated by the oscillator 146 with the IF signal to produce a complex output signal, for example, a signal having in-phase and quadrature components.

The complex signal is filtered by the bass filter 150 and then converted from analog to digital (A / D) by the 10-bit A / D converter 152. The A / D converter 152 produces a digital representation of the complex signal generated by the 150 low filter.

The output signal of the A / D converter is coupled to a QAM demodulator integrated circuit available by Broadcom as model BCM3115. This demodulator is supported by a controlled crystal oscillator with a voltage of 20.248840 MHz (VCXO). The demodulator signal of demodulator 154 is coupled to the apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the information channel 158. The apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the information channel 158 is further described with reference to the FIG. 2 immediately. Suffice it to say that the signal density increase apparatus eliminates the heads of the transport package and downloads any irrelevant programming material that is not directed to this particular disposal terminal. The output from the increase of the density of the transport signal 158 in a program stream containing the program required by the subscriber using this particular layout terminal.

The program stream is coupled to the compressed video decoder 160 (e.g., an MPEG decoder) which is available by LSI Logic as the LSI64002 model. The decoder is supported by a megabit of fortuitous access memory 162 is also supported by a generator clock 166 that supplies the decoder with a stable reference of 27 MHz. The output signals of the MPEG decoder are a digital video signal and a digital signal. digital audio The generator is coupled to a portion of the programmable field of the gate network 118 which is programmed as an error control circuit with clock 166. In operation, the clock error control circuit 166 compares the local SCR information that occurs by the microprocessor 126 with the SCR generated by the decoded MPEG. The decoded SCR information is extracted from the program material by the MPEG decoder. The difference between the local SCR and the extracted SCR generates an error signal indicative of the regulation error between the service provider and the disposal terminal. The error signal coupled as a control voltage to the generator with clock of 27 MHz 172 (Microclock model number MT 27701-015). The generator with clock 172 derives the signal 27 MHz from a signal generated by an oscillator 14.31818 MHz. The frequency of the synchronized signal of 27 MHz is used by the device for increasing the density of the transport signal 158, the NTSC encoder 175 and the MPEG 160 decoder to produce the video and audio signals carried by the information channel. Additionally, a clock divider which is part of the programmable field of the composite network 118 is used to generate an audio clock derived from the 27 MHz reference clock.

The digital video signal is coupled to an NTSC 175 encoder which is available by Phillips Consumer Electronics as model SAA7185. This encoder uses digital video as well as the 27 MHz clock to generate luminance and chrominance signals as well as the composite video signal. The output signals of the NTSC encoder are coupled to an input of an analog multiplexer 176. The other pair of inputs to the analog multiplexer 176 is generated by the Y / C separator 138. The multiplexer, under control of the selection line of the video output 178, selects the luminance and chrominance signals as well as the composite video generated from the digital video or the luminance and chrominance signals as well as the composite video generated from the analog video signals as an output signal for the terminal of disposition (for example, an S-video output).

The composite video output of the analog multiplexer 176 is coupled to an RF modulator 182. The RF modulator is controlled by a channel selection signal a 3 which informs the RF modulator on which television channel the output signal should be modulated. In response to this signal, the RF modulator 182 performs an upconversion of the composite video signal on any channel 3 or channel 4 of the television broadcasting band. The upconverted signal is coupled to the second input of the multiplexer 103.

The audio signals (the base band of the analog signal audio and the digital audio of the digital signal) are processed by the audio decoder 188 which is available by Phillips Consumers Electronics as model number TTA9855WPA. The digital audio of the decoder is coupled to a digital to analog (D / A) audio converter 190 which converts the digital audio signal into an analog audio signal and is coupled to an analog multiplexer 194 within the audio decoder 188 The audio decoder contains a stereo decoder 192, an analog multiplexer 194, a volume control unit 196 and an audio threshold 198. The stereo decoder operates in the audio baseband from the NTSC demodulator and provides an output signal. of stereo audio which is coupled to an input of the analog multiplexer 194. The other input of the analog multiplexer 194 is a stereo analog signal derived from the digital audio. The analog multiplexer selects, under control of the microprocessor 126 by means of the I2C control 212, of the audio channels corresponding to the video that is then present in the output port of the layout terminal as well as providing a monophonic audio signal to the RF modulator. The monophonic audio is combined with the video signal and is generated as an RF output signal on any channel 3 or channel 4. This RF output signal is a television broadcast signal that contains the video and audio information in the NTSC format.

The 16-bit microprocessor 126 is supported by a 25 MHz 200 crystal, a memory only for reading the instructions (ROM) 202, direct access memory (RAM) 204, a light-emitting diode (LED) indicators 206, and an infrared receiver 208 to the FPGA 118 and, ultimately, the microprocessor 126. If the instruction can be implemented locally (eg, the change channel, power on / off, volume control, and the like), the microprocessor 126 directly implements the command. However, if the instruction requires interaction with the service provider team (for example, a new interactive menu, movie selection, question system regarding advertising and the like), the microprocessor transmits the instruction to the provider of the service through the return channel.

Specifically, the instruction is digitally modulated on a frequency carrier wave using the BPSK modulation. The BPSK modulator 115 contains a data forming filter 121, a mixer 123 driven by a synthesizer 119, a power amplifier 125 and a band pass filter 127. The mixer 123 upconverts the data formed using a frequency of the synthesizer 119 The frequency and level of energy used by the modulator are established by the microprocessor 126 by means of the signals on the control lines 124 and 125. The frequency and energy level are typically fixed by means of the command channel. The LED 206 is activated by the FPGA 118 to indicate when the disposition terminal is activated as well as other operational states. The infrared receiver 208 receives command and control instructions from the infrared remote control unit used by the subscriber.

The layout terminal of FIG. 1 demodulates NTSC formatted analog television signals as well as digital television signals. In addition, the disposition terminal receives the command and control information through a command channel and generates information in the return channel using a return channel modulator. Thus, a disposition terminal develops extensive functions to present and manipulate video information as shown on a conventional television.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the channel 158 implemented as part of the FPGA 118. The apparatus for increasing the transport signal 158 contains a shift recorder 250, a head separator 252, a comparator 254, flip-flop D 256, a register of the identification program (PID) 258, logic control 260, and a clock activator 262 (a circuit that is the output of the FPGA 118 and contained in the generator clock 172). The MPEG transport pack stream is coupled to the shift recorder 250 as well as the D terminal of the Jogger D 256. The Jogger D has a pulse control port connected to ground, this Jogger D synchronizes all the data of the transport currents to through the MPEG decoder. The shift register separates the transport packet and the pairs of information packets to the separator 252 which removes the transport head from the transport pack stream in a conventional manner. The output of the header separator is coupled to an input of a comparator 254. The PID register 258 contains the identification code of the program that is being received by the disposition terminal. A PID is contained in each packet of the transport stream. The comparator 254 compares the identification code of the program stored in the PID recorder 258 with the PID of each packet in the program stream generated from the header spacer 252. When a comparison occurs that indicates that the PID is a packet it is the same that the PID of the PID of the recorder, the comparator 254 activates the pulse control port of the clock activator 26-2 (e.g., a clock activator that can be activated and deactivated). In response to the comparator's output signal, the clock activator couples the 27 MHz clock with the MPEG 160 decoder. If the PIDs do not match, the clock activator does not pair the clock with the decoder and the decoder does not work. Whereas, data with packets that do not carry the appropriate PID are ignored. Alternatively, the comparator output signal could be coupled to the jog dial D control port and the control of the MPEG data passage to the decoder instead of controlling the clock's functionality.

To facilitate the efficient operation of the apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the information channel 158 was implemented in an FPGA, the logic control 260 originates the comparison of PID to achieve it in two steps. Although a comparison step (13 bits) is possible, it is more efficient to first compare the five most significant bits (MSB) of the PIDs. If there is no correspondence, the package is ignored. If there is a correspondence, then the remaining bits are compared.

In operation, the server typically provides the disposition terminal with a transport stream that may contain programming data from 10 higher terminals of different receiving devices (known as a neighborhood). Thus, the apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal effectively produces a reduction of 10 to 1 of the data, for example 1 output of every 10 packets of program currents is decoded and the rest is rejected. Under normal conditions, this results in each disposition terminal processing a 2.6 Mbps data channel. However, if a channel with high bandwidth is required for certain programming events, the server only needs to send more programming PID codes directed to a disposition terminal so that the terminal receives the channel with the highest bandwidth. In other words, if a double bandwidth is required (for example, 5.2 Mbps), then instead of having 1 output of 10 packets directed to the disposition terminal, 2 outputs of 10 packets would be directed to a disposition terminal. Thus, a particular program would receive an effectiveness of double the bandwidth.

The apparatus for increasing the density of the transport signal of the command channel 120 has a shape similar to that shown in FIG. 2. However, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3, the PID register is replaced with TID and the diffusion TID register 304. These registers contain TID codes to facilitate the device for increasing the density of the signal 120 to search the data blocks carrying a targeted TID that corresponds to the particular terminal. In addition, all terminals use a broadcast TID to allow the service provider to send global instructions to all terminals of the receiving device. Thus, a terminal will receive and process any command that has the TID or the broadcast TID. To control the processing of the data blocks, the comparator 308 is coupled to the pulse control port of the flip-flop D 310. Thus, the comparator controls the activation and deactivation of the flip-flop D 310. The logic control 306 which is coupled to the separator of the head 302 and the TID comparator 308 contains the counter circuit 312 which is set early with a value contained in the length designator of each data block. The counter circuit then counts down while the bits in the data block are clocked through the shift register 300. When the counter reaches zero, the apparatus for increasing the signal density captures the following address for TID comparison and re-set the counter with the new value of the designator of the new length. If the data blocks are of fixed length, then a counter circuit may not be necessary and the logical control simply allows the comparison process each predetermined number of bits. Therefore, to increase the comparison speed, the comparison of TID is achieved in two steps, for example, two comparisons of 8 bits.

Although different embodiments which incorporate the techniques of the present invention have been shown and described in detail here, those skilled in the art can easily conceive other varied modalities that still incorporate these techniques.

It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Having described the invention as above, the content of the following is claimed as property.

Claims (10)

1. The subscriber apparatus for use in a system for interactively communicating with the information service provider, characterized in that said apparatus comprises: a radio frequency (RF) terminal; a diplexer, having a simple power path and coupled to said RF terminal, for coupling an RF signal of said RF terminal to an output, and for coupling a control signal of the return channel with said RF terminal of an output; a receiver of the information channel, coupled to said output of the multiplexer, to receive, by means of an information channel, information services from said information service provider; a receiver of the command channel, coupled to said output of the diplexer, to receive, by means of the command channel, command information from said information service provider; a transmitter of the return channel, coupled to said diplexer input, to provide said control signal of the return channel; Y a controller, coupled to said receiver of the information channel, the receiver of the command channel and the transmitter of the return channel, to control the information transactions with said information service provider.

2. The subscriber apparatus of claim 1, characterized in that said receiver of the command channel comprises: a tuner, coupled to said diplexer output, for selecting a frequency of the command channel associated with said subscriber apparatus; Y a demodulator, coupled to said tuner of the command channel, to extract the command information present in said selected frequency of the command channel.

3. The subscriber apparatus of claim 2, characterized in that said receiver of the information channel comprises: a tuner, coupled to said output of the diplexer, for selecting a frequency of the information channel associated with said subscriber apparatus; Y a demodulator, coupled to said tuner of the information channel, for demodulating the information of the provider present in said frequency of the selected information channel to produce an intermediate frequency (IF) signal.

4. The subscriber apparatus of claim 3, characterized further comprises: a demodulator of the analog television signal, coupled to said demodulator of the information channel, for demodulating said IF signal if said IF signal is a analog television signal; Y a demodulator of the digital information signal, coupled to said demodulator of the information channel, for extracting information directed to said subscriber apparatus from said IF signal if said IF signal is a digital information signal.

5. The subscriber apparatus of claim 1, characterized in that said transmitter of the return channel comprises: a switch modulator for the binary phase change (BPSK), coupled to said controller, with the BPSK modulating an instruction received from said controller; a mixer, coupled to said controller, for performing an upconversion of said instruction modulated by BPSK with a frequency determined by said controller; Y a controllable amplifier, coupled to said mixer, to controlly amplify said up-converted BPSK signal, said controllable amplifier controlled by said controller in response to the control information received by means of the control channel.

6. The subscriber apparatus of claim 1, characterized in that: said information channel, said control channel and said return channel occupy mutually exclusive spectral regions.

7. The subscriber apparatus of claim 1, characterized in that: said controller, in response to a subscriber instruction produced by an input device, evaluates said instruction to determine whether said instruction is related to a local function or a remote function; Y in case said instruction relates to the remote function, said controller causes said return channel transmitter to transmit said instruction to said provider.

8. The subscriber apparatus of claim 2, characterized in that it further comprises: an apparatus for increasing the density of the signal, coupled to said receiver of the information channel, to increase the density of the signal of a transport current equal to MPEG containing a series of packets in the transport stream similar to MPEG, which examines a terminal identification (TID) included in each of said packets of the transport stream as MPEG, and which passes to an output of these packets having an appropriate TID; and a decoder, coupled to said apparatus for increasing the signal density, for decoding said packets having an appropriate TID.

9. An additional method of the subscriber for exchanging information with an information provider in an interactive information distribution system, said distribution system comprising a simple communication element that supports an information control, a control channel and a return channel, said Subscriber's additional method comprises the steps of: receiving, by means of a simple power diplexer, said information channel and said command channel; coupling said information channel and said command channel with the respective receivers; retrieving, from said information channel, information of the provider having an appropriate terminal identifier, said terminal identifier being one of a predetermined terminal identifier or a terminal identifier retrieved from said command channel; Y transmitting, by means of said simple power diplexer, the instructions of the back channel to said information provider.

10. The method of exchange of additional information of the subscriber of claim 8, characterized in that said recovery step comprises the steps of: examine each of the packets of said transport stream as MPEG with increased signal density; compare a terminal identification (TID) included in each packet of the transport stream as MPEG with a local TID; Y decode those packages like MPEG that have a corresponding TID. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A provisioning terminal (100) for receiving the information transmitted from a service provider, for receiving the control information transmitted by a service provider, and for transmitting the control information from the disposition terminal (100) to the provider of the service. service to interactively control the service that is being received. The disposition terminal (100) receives images displayed on the screen by means of an information channel that carries both the analog television signals and the digital television signal. Accordingly, the disposition terminal (100) controls the signals that are sent from the service provider via the command channel and the disposition terminal (100) sends control signals to the service provider via a return channel .