Patent Application
20080180518
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-022367, filed Jan. 31, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a video communication apparatus which has a communication function of performing transmission and reception at a plurality of transfer speeds, a video communication system, and a video communication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently digital instruments become widespread, and the digital instruments have communication functions and enable a coordination operation. However, such digital communication functions are not always stably operated, and there is a demand for continuing the communication by taking a proper measure against a communication error.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-9075 discloses a communication apparatus for encrypted image communication, in which it is determined whether or not it is operated in an encrypted mode, and when not, the transmission is performed in a normal mode.
Although Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-9075 discloses a general encryption communication, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-9075 does not show an effective measure against error for the communication function intended for video signals having a plurality of communication speeds such as HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface).
That is, an inferior cable exists in HDMI and sometimes connection error is generated. In HDMI 1.3 Deep Color, because a transmission speed approximately doubles as compared to the conventional one, there is a risk of increasing the connection error caused by the inferior cable. Most contents transmitted through HDMI are encrypted, and the encryption cannot be deciphered when a communication defect is generated in a TMDS line. As a result, a picture and sound cannot be reproduced at all. When repeated authentication is performed, the encryption is stopped or HDMI 1.3 Deep Color is stopped, and an automatic changeover is set such that the picture is reproduced at a low speed. When the changeover is performed, a user is notified of the changeover. Similarly, in the case of DP (display Port), communication quality can be monitored from error correction data of a high-speed line.
Thus, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-9075 does not show the effective measure against error for the communication function intended for the video signals having a plurality of communication speeds such as HDMI.
A general architecture that implements the various feature of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, there are provided a video communication apparatus which takes a measure against error for a communication function of performing transmission and reception of video signals at a plurality of transfer speeds, a video communication system, and a video communication method.
One embodiment for achieving the object is a video communication apparatus comprising:
a first communication unit (17) which conducts communication of management information with an external device (D2) through a cable (C1) at a first communication speed;
an encryption unit (14) which encrypts a video signal;
a second communication unit (16) which transmits the video signal encrypted by the encryption unit to the external device through the cable at a second communication speed faster than the first communication speed;
a detecting unit (11) which observes a communication situation to detect an error signal from the external device through the first communication unit; and
a control unit (22) which reduces the second communication speed of the second communication unit when the detecting unit detects the error signal.
Therefore, even if a failure occurs to temporarily generate the error in the communication cable such as HDMI, the communication is not interrupted but continued for example by lowering the communication speed.
An embodiment of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawing.
Usually, when a communication error is generated in digital data communication typified by a computer, transmitting and receiving sides recognize the communication error, and re-transmission is performed to ensure communication quality. However, in the digital video communication typified by HDMI, even if an error is generated in part of video data, video service is not completely broken although a noise is generated on a screen, and the data is not re-transmitted. HDMI and DVI can be cited as typical representatives of digital video signal transmission, and new transmission methods such as Display Port are also proposed. Generally the new transmission method is standardized such that high-resolution video can be transferred. Therefore, high quality is required in not only a transmitter and a receiver but also a cable.
Although in HDMI the cable quality is arbitrary in a design stage, quality test of authentication is performed to avoid the trouble in use. However, actually all the cables cannot be tested. Additionally, with the progress of the high-resolution digital video and voice format, a plurality of data transfer speeds are defined, whereby the communication quality depends on the video and voice format (data transfer speed). For example, in the cable in which communication can be conducted with no trouble in 1080i, sometimes an error is generated in 1080p. The method of transferring the finer digital signal is defined in recently-standardized HDMI Ver.1.3 Deep Color. In HDMI Ver.1.3 Deep Color, although resolution is similar to that of the conventional HDMI 1.2a, the actual transfer speed is defined up to 3.4 Gbps which is substantially double of the conventional transfer speed for the fine video data transfer.
In the digital video communication typified by HDMI, the receiving side can read the video and voice format using a low-speed communication path different from a digital video signal path. The low-speed communication path is realized by the cable having communication quality specifications lower than that of the high-speed digital video communication. However, both the transmitting and receiving sides do not measure the inferior quality in the communication path. As a result, only the transmitter selects and transmits the high-quality data which is obtained through the low-speed communication path based on the video and voice format, and a user cannot properly recognize a transfer situation when screen anomaly is generated by the cable quality.
Examples of a video communication apparatus and a video communication method having a function of detecting communication path quality in the digital video communication typified by HDMI to be able to continue the good digital video and voice signal communication in the way matched with the detected communication path quality are disclosed in the following embodiment.
(Video Communication Apparatus)
A video communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
(Error Detection and Speed Change on Transmitting Apparatus Side)
(Configuration)
First, as shown in
For example, the video transmitting apparatus D1 is a broadcast receiving apparatus 100 of
For example, the video receiving apparatus D2 is a digital television having the HDMI communication function. The video receiving apparatus D2 includes an EDID storage unit 21 and a DDC communication unit 24. EDID data for transmitting the video and voice format to the HDMI video transmitting apparatus D1 is stored in the EDID storage unit 21. The DDC communication unit 24 conducts the DDC line communication at a low speed through the DDC line which is the communication path P1. The video receiving apparatus D2 also includes a TMDS receiving unit 25, a control unit 22, an HDCP decryption unit 23, and the audio and video processing unit 10. The TMDS receiving unit 25 receives a TMDS signal defined by HDMI, and the TMDS receiving unit 25 converts the TMDS signal into a signal to which the subsequent data processing can be performed. The control unit 22 observes the communication situation of the video receiving apparatus D2 to supply a communication situation signal to the video transmitting apparatus D1 through the DDC communication unit 24, and the control unit 22 controls the entire operation. The HDCP decryption unit 23 decrypts an HDCP encrypted video signal supplied from the TMDS receiving unit 25. The audio and video processing unit 10 is a main part of the digital television shown in
In the video transmitting apparatus D1 and video receiving apparatus D2 thus configured, the video receiving apparatus D2 supplies the signal indicating the communication situation to the video transmitting apparatus D1. The video transmitting apparatus D1 determines whether or not the communication error exists based on the signal indicating the communication situation, and the video transmitting apparatus D1 supplies a signal for an acceptance screen (
(HDMI Terminal and Display Port Terminal)
An HDMI terminal and a display port terminal will briefly be described with reference to
Referring to
Referring to
(Operation)
A communication operation performed by the video transmitting apparatus D1 and video receiving apparatus D2 will be described in detail with reference to flowcharts of
Which the video transmitting apparatus D1 or the video receiving apparatus D2 performs the processing is not particularly described in the flowchart of
That is, in the flowchart of
Then, the control unit 12 confirms the video and voice formats which can be received by the HDMI video receiving apparatus D2, and the control unit 12 determines whether or not the confirmed video and voice formats support the video and voice format whose TMDS communication speed is slower than that of the current video and voice format (Step S14). When HDMI is used, the HDMI video transmitting apparatus D1 can read the receivable video and voice formats from the data of EDID 21 included in the HDMI video receiving apparatus D2. The control unit 12 selects the video and voice format in which a data speed in the high-speed communication path can be set to a low level from the receivable video and voice formats, and the control unit 12 display a message of “Communication error is observed. Video and voice format is changed to 480p?” on a screen of the receiving side as shown in
The message of
The new video and voice format is selected from the data of EDID 21 such that the image becomes the highest quality in a range where the data is thought to be transferable while the transfer speed is slower than that of the video and voice format to be originally displayed in the setting different from the setting in displaying the message of
Examples of the message displayed for the user by the HDMI video receiving apparatus D2 will be described with reference to
However, sometimes a 100% effect cannot be drawn depending on performance of the TV signal processing or display device on the receiving side. Sometimes deterioration of the image quality can be reduced when the quantization is decreased to the conventional 12/14/10/8 bit rather than the decrease in resolution. In such cases, to propose a method of interrupting HDMI Ver.1.3 Deep Color or changing the quantization to the small bit is effective as shown in the message of
As shown in
In
Thus, which the video transmitting apparatus D1 or the video receiving apparatus D2 performs the processing is described in the flowchart of
(Error Detection and Speed Change on Video Transmitting Apparatus D1 Side: Flowchart of
The error detection and speed change performed on the side of the video transmitting apparatus D1 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of
In the video receiving apparatus D2, for example, the control unit 22 observes the HDCP decryption unit 23 to perform situation analysis of communication/encryption operation (Step S21). A signal indicating the communication situation is supplied to the video transmitting apparatus D1 through the low-speed communication path P1.
Then, in the video transmitting apparatus D1, the error detecting unit 11 determines whether or no the error exists (Step S22). When the error detecting unit 11 detects the error, the control unit 12 determines whether or not the encryption communication is currently performed (Step S23). When the encryption communication is currently performed, the HDCP encryption unit 15 interrupts the encryption processing of the contents such as the video signal (Step S24).
In the video transmitting apparatus D1, for example, the control unit 12 determines whether or not the video receiving apparatus D2 supports the speed slower than the current TMDS speed (Step S25). When the control unit 12 determines that video receiving apparatus D2 does not support the speed slower than the current TMDS speed, the message that the communication error is observed is displayed as shown in
The video receiving apparatus D2 receives these signals to display the acceptance screen for changing the video and voice format as shown in
The video transmitting apparatus D1 determines whether or not the acceptance for changing the video and voice format is obtained according to the acceptance signal (speed changing request signal) and the selection signal (Step S28). When the acceptance is obtained, the video transmitting apparatus D1 changes the video and audio format according to the selection signal for the selection screen of the video and voice format (such as luminance resolution, the number of bits, and color resolution) (Step S29).
In the video transmitting apparatus D1, the control unit 12 determines whether or not the encryption is required for the video and voice signal of the currently transmitted contents (Step S30). When the encryption is required, the encryption processing is resumed (Step S31) and the video and audio transfer processing is resumed between the video transmitting apparatus D1 and the video receiving apparatus D2 at the new communication speed corresponding to the new video and voice format (Steps S32 and S33).
Thus, the error determination processing and the communication speed changing processing can be performed on the side of the video transmitting apparatus D1.
(Error Detection and Speed Change on Video Receiving Apparatus D3 Side)
The configuration and communication processing in the case where the error detection and speed change are performed on the side of a video receiving apparatus D3 will be described with reference to
(Configuration)
The video receiving apparatus D3 also includes the TMDS receiving unit 25, the control unit 22, the HDCP decryption unit 23, a packet error detecting unit 26, an image message unit 27, a superimposing unit 28, and the audio and video processing unit 10. The TMDS receiving unit 25 receives the TMDS signal defined by HDMI, and the TMDS receiving unit 25 converts the TMDS signal into the signal to which the subsequent data processing can be performed. The control unit 22 observes the communication situation of the video receiving apparatus D2 to supply the communication situation signal to the video transmitting apparatus D1 through the DDC communication unit 24, and the control unit 22 controls the entire operation. The HDCP decryption unit 23 decrypts the HDCP encrypted video signal supplied from the TMDS receiving unit 25, and the HDCP decryption unit 23 supplies the decryption error to the control unit 22 when detecting the decryption error. The packet error detecting unit 26 observes the TMDS receiving unit 25 to detect a packet error. The image message unit 27 generates image information on the acceptance screen for a communication error report and the video and voice format change. The superimposing unit 28 superimposes the image information and the decrypted video signal. The audio and video processing unit 10 is a main part of the digital television shown in
(Operation)
The case in which the error detection and the communication speed change determination are performed on the side of the video receiving apparatus D3 having the configuration of
In the video receiving apparatus D3, the packet error detecting unit 26 continuously observes the TMDS receiving unit 25, and the packet error detecting unit 26 supplies the detection signal to the control unit 22 when the packet error detecting unit 26 detects the packet error. When the decryption error is detected from the HDCP decryption unit 23, the decryption error is supplied to control unit 22, performing the situation analysis of the communication/encryption operation (Step S41). As a result, when the control unit 22 detects the error signal (Step S42), the image message unit 27 displays the message screens of
On the other hand, in the video transmitting apparatus D1, the control unit 12 receives the speed changing request signal (Step S45), and the control unit 12 determines whether or not the received speed changing request signal is the compatible video and voice format (Step S46). When the control unit 12 has determined that the speed changing request signal is the compatible video and voice format, the current video and voice format (luminance resolution, the number of bits, and color resolution) is changed to the new video and voice format (Step S47). Then, in the video transmitting apparatus D1, the video and audio transfer processing is resumed with the video receiving apparatus D2 at the new communication speed corresponding to the new video and voice format (Steps S48 and S49).
Similarly to the case sown in
Therefore, when the communication error is generated, the current video and voice format is changed to the optimum video and voice format by changing the transfer speed of the high-speed transmission line, so that the image can be transmitted in the optimum video and voice format.
(Broadcast Receiving Apparatus)
An example of a broadcast receiving apparatus to which the video communication system of the embodiment is applied will be described below with reference to
In this case, the broadcast receiving apparatus is described as a digital television apparatus by way of example. However, the video communication apparatus of the embodiment includes various modes, and all the modes should be included in the scope of the invention.
In a broadcast receiving apparatus 100 of
The broadcast receiving apparatus 100 of
The broadcast receiving apparatus 100 also includes an operation unit 132 which is connected to the control unit 130 through the data bus to receive user's operation or operation of a remote controller R. In the remote controller R, the substantially same operation as the operation unit 132 provided in the main body of the broadcast receiving apparatus 100 can be performed. A tuner operation, a programmed recording setting, and various settings can be performed in the remote controller R.
Thus, the video communication apparatus of the embodiment can be applied to the communication unit of the broadcast receiving apparatus (such as digital television). According to the embodiment, even if the communication error is generated in HDMI due to the insufficient cable quality, the video is not completely interrupted, but the video signal can continuously be transmitted in the state in which the communication speed is lowered.
Those skilled in the art can implement the invention by the various embodiments described above, and it is further understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can easily be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention covers the broad range which is consistent with the disclosed principle and the novel feature, and the invention is not limited to the embodiments.
While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-022367 | Jan 2007 | JP | national |
