The present disclosure generally concerns multimedia devices and particularly concerns encoding/decoding, processing, features and applications for high definition television (HDTV) devices and products.
High definition television (HDTV) devices are becoming increasingly more feature-rich as they become more commonplace. Also becoming more commonplace are internet-enabled television receivers, which can bring media and other content into the home at streaming speed through a high-speed broadband Internet connection. HDTV units must first scan for available channels, which may vary with geographical location. The channel scanning procedure generally involves a phase locked loop (PLL), which steps through every possible channel, seeking and decoding channel signals and storing acquired channels to memory. As most HDTV units are capable of receiving in excess of one hundred channels, the scanning process can be time-consuming and wasteful, due to the need to scan for nonexistent channels. It may therefore be desirable for HDTV channel scanning to improve upon the conventional brute-force approach, scanning only likely channels and providing a shorter, faster autoscan procedure.
Embodiments of the invention concern a system and method for improved PLL channel scanning for HDTV devices. In embodiments, a user may input data corresponding to the location of the user or HDTV device. In embodiments, the HDTV device may receive a list of potential channels associated with the location data via querying a dataset, the list ordered based on relative signal strength or another criterion. In embodiments, the HDTV device may then designate the first potential channel as an active channel. In embodiments, the HDTV device may then attempt to decode the active channel. In embodiments, when the active channel is successfully decoded, the HDTV device may then add the active channel to memory and store any associated channel information. In embodiments, the HDTV device may then delete the potential channel from the list and designate the next potential channel on the list as the active channel. In embodiments, the HDTV device may then continue by attempting to decode the new active channel. In some embodiments, the HDTV device may divide the list of potential channels into groups of channels with strong, moderate, and minimal signal strengths respectively. In embodiments, when an active channel is not successfully decoded and the associated potential channel is in a group of potential channels having minimal signal strength, the HDTV device may halt the scanning algorithm, indicate that scanning is complete, and delete all remaining potential channels.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not necessarily restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
The advantages of the invention may be better understood by those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying figures in which:
Features of the present invention in its various embodiments are exemplified by the following descriptions with reference to the accompanying drawings, which describe the present invention with further detail. These drawings depict only selected embodiments of the present invention, and should not be considered to limit its scope in any way.
In embodiments, an HDTV system according to the present invention may query for potential channel information 110 by submitting location data 102 to a database. In embodiments, location data 102 may be a city and state, a street address, or a ZIP code. The query may return a list no of potential channels 120 available at a location based on a variety of factors: local terrain and forestation, weather and atmospheric conditions, distance from broadcast towers, and the precise equipment used at either end of an HDTV transmission. A potential channel 120 may represent a digital terrestrial television channel or HDTV channel that a user's HDTV device (ex.—receiver) may or may not be able to receive. In embodiments potential channel information 110 may include, for each potential channel 120: relative signal strength 122; a station identity, call letters, or network affiliation 124; a virtual channel 126; an RF channel 128; or signal power 130. In embodiments, a list no of potential channels 120 may be ordered according to relative signal strength 122, with potential channels 120a of high signal strength preceding potential channels 120b of moderate signal strength and potential channels 120C of minimal or no signal strength.
In embodiments, the set no of potential channels may further be divided into a first group 140 and a second group 150 based on relative signal strength 122 or other similar criteria. First group 140 may include those potential channels 120a, 120b having strong or moderate relative signal strength, while second group 150 may include those potential channels 120C having minimal or no relative signal strength.
In embodiments, location data 102 may be provided to the locator module 220. In embodiments, locator module 220 may query available datasets 20 (ex.—FCC digital reception maps) based on the provided location data 102 to obtain a set 110 of potential channels. In embodiments, tuner 230 may include a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit for channel scanning. In embodiments, rather than employ a brute-force scan through every possible division setting corresponding to a channel, tuner 230 may direct the PLL to scan for only those channels corresponding to the set no of potential channels. In embodiments, tuner 230 may designate the potential channel 120 of highest relative signal strength as an active channel and then attempt to decode the active channel. For example, in embodiments the tuner 230 may calculate an N-value (ex.—integer value, integer divisor) corresponding to the active channel 120 and calibrate the PLL with the N-value. In embodiments, the tuner 230 may then attempt to decode the channel signal associated with the N-value. In embodiments, if a channel signal is decoded, the tuner 230 may then save the active channel and store any associated channel information (ex.—PSIP data, digital subchannels) to memory 240. In embodiments, the tuner may then delete the active channel 120, designate the next potential channel 120 as the active channel, and increment the N-value accordingly.
In some embodiments, if the tuner 230 is unable to decode the channel signal associated with an N-value, and the current active channel is one of a group 150 of potential channels 120 with minimal or no signal strength, the tuner 230 may exit the autoscan process by deleting any remaining potential channels 120 and indicating that scanning has completed.
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The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “connected”, or “coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are various vehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other technologies described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the processes and/or systems and/or other technologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet again alternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles by which the processes and/or devices and/or other technologies described herein may be effected, none of which is inherently superior to the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choice dependent upon the context in which the vehicle will be deployed and the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of the implementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art will recognize that optical aspects of implementations will typically employ optically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein.