MY109048A - Apparatus and method using compressed codes for recorder programming - Google Patents

Abstract

ENCODED VIDEO RECORDER/PLAYER TIMER PROGRAMMING INFORMATION LISTED IN A TELEVISION CALENDER ALLOWS A TIMER PROGRAMMING FEATURE ON A VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER VCR TO BE PROGRAMMED USING A COMPRESSED CODE OF AS FEW AS 1 TO 8 DIGITS, WHICH ARE DECODED BY A DECODER BUILT INTO EITHER THE VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDER OR A REMOTE CONTROLLER TO CONVERT THE COMPRESSED CODE INTO CHANNEL, DATE, TIME AND LENGTH INFORMATION. THE CHANNEL, DATE, TIME AND LENGTH INFORMATION IS COMMUNICATED TO A VCR AND USED TO AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATE THE VCR TO RECORDED A GIVEN TELEVISION PROGRAM WITH THE CORRESPONDING CHANNELS, DATE, TIME AND LENGTH. ALTERNATELY, THE CHANNEL, DATE, TIME AND LENGTH INFORMATION IS DECODED DIRECTLY IN A REMOTE CONTROLLER AND ONLY START RECORD, STOP RECORD AND CHANNEL SELECTION COMMANDS ARE SENT TO THE VCR AT THE APPROPRIATE TIMES.WHEN THE DECODER IS MOUNTED IN A REMOTE CONTROL, THE REMOTE CONTROL INCLUDES MEANS TO THE TRANSMIT IN MULTIPLE DIRECTIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY.ALGORITHMS FOR DECODING THE COMPRESSED CODES CAN BE A FUNCTION OF TIME TO ENSURE SECURITY OF THE DECODING METHOD. ONE OF THESE SECURITY DECODING METHODS INVOLVES PERMUTING THE DIGITS OF THE COMPRESSED AS A FUNCTION OF TIME, AN EXTRACTED DAY CODE OR OTHER VARIABLE.