RU68215U1 - INTERACTIVE DIGITAL MPEG-2/4, SD / HD VIDEO RECORDER WITH PERSONAL CHANNEL FUNCTION - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to interactive digital receivers and can be used to receive digital television channels broadcasting in DVB standards with MPEG2 / 4 compression, as well as to receive additional information content and to send various types of messages to broadcasters' servers. The utility model has the functions of "fast forward and pause" and a personal channel. The technical effect - the expansion of functionality, the reception of both digital cable, digital satellite, digital terrestrial multistandard broadcasting, and digital IP broadcasting, support for fast-forward and pause functions and a personal channel, and increased device reliability - is achieved due to the fact that the interactive the digital receiver contains an STB 7100 chip connected by a two-way communication with a built-in hard disk, with a system memory of the type DDR SDRAM with a capacity of 128 MB, with video memory type and 64 MB DDR SDRAM, with 8 MB flash memory, with a 10/100 BaseT Ethernet controller, with a RS 232 digital interface controller, with two smart card controllers, with a CI interface controller, with a USB port controller and SMS / GPRS a module connected by one-way communication with the receiver of infrared commands from the remote control, with SCART, S-Video output connectors for connection with analog television receivers and video recorders, HDMI for connection with digital LCD and plasma panels, with S / PDIF connectors and stereo audio outputs RCA for connection there are audio reproducing devices and an RF modulator with a high-frequency audio / video output, and two digital tuners are connected to the inputs of the STB 7100 chip. 2 ill.

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The utility model relates to interactive digital television receivers. The utility model can be used to receive both digital television channels of the SD or HD format with compression MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, as well as additional information content, as well as to send various messages to broadcasters' servers. The utility model supports the functions "fast forward and pause" and a personal channel.

BACKGROUND

In connection with the development of digital methods for delivering to the consumer audio / video information of the new standard - HD, using the new MPEG-4 compression algorithm, as well as various kinds of information content providing feedback from the consumer to the broadcaster, the creation of television receivers that provide reception as audio / HD video information, MPEG4 standard and information content, with the functions of "fast-forward and pause" and a personal channel is currently an extremely urgent task.

A well-known digital interactive broadcasting system of the French company Canal + Technologies, which uses a digital interactive receiver based on the G2 platform "Pilotime", selected as a prototype (See the User Guide "Pilotime"). Figure 1 presents a diagram of this interactive receiver, including:

- two digital tuners (1),

- built-in hard drive with a capacity of 80 GB (2),

- random access memory device type SDRAM with a capacity of 64 MB (3),

- flash memory with a capacity of 4 MB (4),

- two smart card receivers (5), one of which is for a conditional access card, and the second can be used for a bank card (electronic wallet) or for any other smart card,

- the return channel represented by the telephone modem (6),

- USB 1.1 digital interface controller (7),

- digital interface controller RS 232 (8),

- a receiver of infrared commands from a remote control (9),

- dual processor system using chips STi5514 (10) and ST40GX1 (11),

- digital six-channel audio output S / P DIF (12),

- SCART connector for connecting to a television receiver (13),

- SCART connector for connecting to a VCR (14),

- RCA stereo audio output (15).

This hardware platform, together with Mediahighway mid-level software installed on it, supports the following applications:

1) basic applications: channel search, parental control, user preferences, personal information manager, technical settings, receiver control, application management, menu bar, "mosaic" (simultaneous display of 16 television channels in small windows on a TV screen),

2) personal digital video recorder,

3) "time shift" - the pause function when watching a broadcast television program,

4) recording one channel with the ability to simultaneously view another channel,

5) electronic program guide (EPP):

- the main menu of the EPG,

- grid of programs,

- information about programs,

- search for programs,

- recording planning;

6) support for limited Internet access and extended TV.

However, to implement the above functionality, the G2 "Pilotime" platform was developed using a complex dual-processor system, which leads to a higher cost of the device and a decrease in the overall reliability of the system.

And at the same time, this complex system does not allow reception of HD broadcasts and broadcasts using the MPEG-4 compression algorithm.

DISCLOSURE OF A USEFUL MODEL

The purpose of the proposed utility model is to expand the functionality, increase the reliability of the device and ensure compatibility with new broadcast standards.

Based on the goal, the technical problem solved in the proposed device is: creating an interactive receiver that would have the optimal configuration of the hardware platform, which would provide a low cost receiver, would support common real-time operating systems, which would provide versatility and easy installation of the application software and at the same time would provide the properties possessed by both digital receivers compatible with the new standards (MPEG4, HD), and Interactive digital receivers that accept digital content, have a reverse channel and support the fast-forward and pause and personal channel functions.

The problem is solved through the use of a highly integrated chip and entire modules, specially designed to provide the above properties. The main chip that defines the entire structure of the hardware platform and its compatibility with real-time operating systems is a chip that integrates the high-performance processors necessary to process the received digital stream with audio / video information compressed using MPEG2 or MPEG4 algorithms, image output modules and sound of both SD and HD formats, peripheral input / output devices and control circuits. As such a microcircuit, a microcircuit from STMicroelectronics - STB 7100 is used. Such high

integrated circuits are called "System-On-Chip" (System in a chip).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 presents a diagram of an interactive receiver G2 "Pilotime", adopted as a prototype of this utility model. The elements shown in FIG. 1 are disclosed above in the description of the prior art.

Figure 2 shows a diagram of an interactive digital receiver with the function of a personal digital video recorder, containing:

- two digital tuners of the DVB standard (16),

- built-in hard drive (17),

- system random access memory type DDR SDRAM with a capacity of 128 MB (18),

- 64 MB video memory (19),

- flash memory with a capacity of 8 MB (20),

- two smart card ports (21), one of which is for a conditional access card, and the second can be used for both a conditional access card and a bank card (electronic wallet) or for any other smart card,

- USB 2.0 digital interface controller (22),

- digital interface controller RS 232 (23),

- GSM GPRS / SMS module (24),

- a receiver of infrared commands from a remote control (25),

- SCART connector for connection to a television receiver (26),

- digital video output standard HDMI (27),

- S-Video output (28),

- audio output S / P DIF (29),

- stereo audio output RCA (30),

- RF modulator with high-frequency output of audio / video signal (31),

- 10/100 BaseT Ethernet controller (32),

- STB 7100 chip (33),

- CI interface (34).

IMPLEMENTATION OF A USEFUL MODEL

The claimed device operates as follows. Using tuners of the DVB standard (16), controlled by signals emitted by the STB 7100 microcircuit (33), two high-frequency streams with MPEG 2/4 compression are received, in DVB standards, which are demodulated in the tuners, digitized and on buses designed to receive transport streams enter the STB7100 chip (33). Further, depending on the mode chosen by the user, traffic flows either to the hard disk (17 to implement the functions of a personal video recorder and a personal channel, or, having passed through a demultiplexer located in the microcircuit (33), are fed to the decoding nodes located there, for further output of information to television receivers (not shown on the diagram), in this case, video frames of both SD standard and HD standard can be formed, with graphics and sound superimposed on them if necessary, which issued on SCART connectors (26), HDMI (27), S-Video (28), S / P DIF (29), RCA (30) and RF-modulator (31) with a high frequency output of the audio / video signal.

The software, which includes the operating system, as well as application programs, is stored in flash memory with a capacity of 8 MB (20) connected to the STB 7100 chip (33). System memory 128 MB (18) and video memory (19) are also connected to the STB 7100 chip (33). A complete set of peripheral devices is installed on the system board, which allows implementing a wide range of user services. Such peripherals include: controllers of two smart card readers (21) and CI interface (34), connected directly to the STB 7100 chip (33) via a specialized bus. The presence of two smart card readers (21) and CI interface (34) allows not only to use pay-TV services, but also to carry out various kinds of payment transactions using special cards. The USB 2.0 port controller (22), connected via a specialized bus directly to the STB 7100 chip (33), allows you to connect a wide range of devices with a USB interface to a digital receiver. Such devices may be various audio / video equipment. The 10/100 BaseT Ethernet controller (32) is connected to the STB 7100 chip (33) via the EMI bus, which allows you to connect a digital

receiver to the local network. The presence of an Ethernet port also opens up great opportunities for connecting other switching devices necessary for organizing feedback. Such devices can be cable modems of the DOCSIS standard, ADSL modems. Thus, the proposed digital receiver allows you to receive both digital cable, digital satellite, and digital IP broadcasts. The hardware platform allows you to connect a GSM module through the RS 232 port, which makes it possible to use SMS and GPRS protocols to organize a reverse channel.

A modern high-performance SATA interface is used to connect the hard drive, which allows you to write to and read digital streams from the hard drive at a faster speed than when using the IDE interface.

The presence of a serial port of standard RS 232 (23) provides a connection to a digital receiver of a personal computer for possible modification of software, home automation controllers, as well as wireless switching devices. Using the receiver of infrared commands, remote wireless control of the digital receiver is carried out using the remote control.

The presence of an RF modulator (31) makes it possible to output an audio / video signal to several television receivers.

The proposed technical solution is new and unknown from the prior art at the moment. The device is practically applicable - based on the proposed technical solution, a multifunctional digital receiver with an optimal price and new additional technical capabilities has been developed:

- digital broadcasting with compression algorithms MPEG 2/4 and DVB standards,

- simultaneous recording to the hard disk of up to 12 channels,

- installation of popular Linux, Windows CE operating systems,

- viewing on the TV screen additional information, including Internet pages.

Claims (1)

Interactive digital receiver with fast-rewind and pause and personal channel functions, compatible with DVB, MPEG-2/4, SD / HD standards, containing STB 7100 chip, connected by two-way communication with built-in hard disk, with system random access memory like DDR 128 MB SDRAM, 64 MB DDR SDRAM video memory, 8 MB flash memory, 10/100 BaseT Ethernet controller, RS 232 digital interface controller, two smart card controllers, USB port and SMS controller / GPRS module, with CI interface controller, soy one-way communication with the receiver of infrared commands from the remote control, with SCART, S-Video output connectors for connection with analog television receivers and video recorders, HDMI for connection with digital LCD and plasma panels, with S / PDIF connectors and RCA audio / stereo outputs for connection with sound reproducing devices and with an RF modulator having a high-frequency audio / video output, moreover, two digital tuners are connected to the inputs of the STB 7100 chip.