The present invention relates to video signal transmitting/receiving systems for transmitting and receiving digital video signals.
In recent years, as typified by the digital visual interface (DVI) standard, signal transmitting/receiving systems for performing video-signal transmission and reception between video sources and video monitors using uncompressed digital signals, i.e., baseband digital video signals, have been developed.
In conventional video signal transmitting/receiving systems, as disclosed in International Publication No. WO97/48056, when digital video signals are transmitted from a transceiver to a receiver via signal lines associated with a plurality of transmission channels, the receiver reproduces received digital video signals based on the assumption that the video signals are synchronized with each other among the transmission channels.
Hereinafter, a conventional video signal transmitting/receiving system will be described.
However, the above conventional configuration is based on the assumption that no skews occur in signal transmission among the transmission channels. Therefore, if a skew occurs in transmission channels resulting from an error in the lengths of signal paths, a delay of an internal clock signal or others in a transmitting/receiving system, correct video data is not displayed in actual use. Hereinafter, this problem will be described in detail.
In
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a video signal transmitting/receiving system capable of displaying correct video data even when a skew occurs in signal transmission among a plurality of transmission channels.
In order to achieve this object, according to the present invention, the boundary between a blanking region and an effective region in a digital video signal transmitted to a receiving section is detected for each transmission channel, and it is determined how the boundary differs among transmission channels. Then, for each transmission channel, a video signal is delayed by a period corresponding to the amount of the difference in boundary so that the phases of video signals are coincide with each other for all the transmission channels. In this manner, occurrence of a skew is avoided.
Specifically, a video signal transmitting/receiving system according to the present invention is a video signal transmitting/receiving system in which a video signal region is made of an effective video region and a blanking region, the effective video region includes pixel signals, the blanking region includes control signals for display control, and the pixel signals and the control signals constitute a digital video signal. The video signal transmitting/receiving system transmits and receives the digital video signal via a plurality of transmission channels. The video signal transmitting/receiving system includes: a transmitting section for transmitting the digital video signal; a receiving section for receiving the digital video signal; and a plurality of communication lines associated with the respective transmission channels and connecting the transmitting section and the receiving section to each other. The transmission section includes video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits for inserting video guard band signals into the respective transmission channels immediately before transition from the blanking region to the effective video region. The receiving section includes, for each of the transmission channels, a signal path for outputting a received digital video signal without a delay, and a delay path for delaying the received digital video signal in synchronization with a clock signal, and further includes a video-guard-band-signal detector for detecting the video guard band signals inserted into the respective transmission channels by the video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits. The video-guard-band-signal detector selects either the signal path or the delay path for each of the transmission channels, based on the detection of an associated one of the video guard band signals.
In one embodiment of the above video signal transmitting/receiving system, the digital video signal conforms to an HDMI standard in which the control signals for display control and audio signals are included in the blanking region.
Another video signal transmitting/receiving system according to the present invention is a video signal transmitting/receiving system in which a video signal region is made of an effective video region and a blanking region, the effective video region includes pixel signals, the blanking region includes control signals for display control, and the pixel signals and the control signals constitute a digital video signal. The video signal transmitting/receiving system transmits and receives the digital video signal via a plurality of transmission channels. The video signal transmitting/receiving system includes: a transmitting section for transmitting the digital video signal; a receiving section for receiving the digital video signal; and a plurality of communication lines associated with the respective transmission channels and connecting the transmitting section and the receiving section to each other. The receiving section includes, for each of the transmission channels, a signal path for outputting a received digital video signal without a delay, and a delay path for delaying the received digital video signal in synchronization with a clock signal, and further includes an effective video boundary detector for detecting a boundary of transition from the blanking region to the effective video region, for each of the transmission channels. The effective video boundary detector selects either the signal path or the delay path for each of the transmission channels, based on the detection of the boundary.
In one embodiment of the above video signal transmitting/receiving system, the digital video signal conforms to a DVI standard in which only the control signals for display control are included in the blanking region.
A video signal transmitting/receiving system according to the present invention is a video signal transmitting/receiving system in which a video signal region is made of an effective video region and a blanking region, the effective video region includes pixel signals, the blanking region includes control signals for display control, and the pixel signals and the control signals constitute a digital video signal. The video signal transmitting/receiving system transmits and receives the digital video signal via a plurality of transmission channels. The video signal transmitting/receiving system includes: a transmitting section for transmitting the digital video signal; a receiving section for receiving the digital video signal; and a plurality of communication lines associated with the respective transmission channels and connecting the transmitting section and the receiving section to each other. The transmission section includes video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits for inserting video guard band signals into the respective transmission channels immediately before transition from the blanking region to the effective video region. The receiving section includes, for each of the transmission channels, a first holder for holding a received control signal or pixel signal for a given period corresponding to at least three clock cycles, a second holder for holding, for the given period, a control signal or pixel signal subsequent to the control signal or pixel signal held by the first holder, and a third holder for holding, for the given period, a control signal or pixel signal subsequent to the control signal or pixel signal held by the second holder. The receiving section further includes a video-guard-band-signal detector for detecting the video guard band signals inserted into the respective transmission channels by the video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits. The video-guard-band-signal detector selects one of the first, second and third holders for each of the transmission channels, based on the detection of an associated one of the video guard band signals.
In one embodiment of the above video signal transmitting/receiving system, the digital video signal conforms to an HDMI standard in which the control signals for display control and audio signals are included in the blanking region.
A video signal transmitting/receiving system according to the present invention is a video signal transmitting/receiving system in which a video signal region is made of an effective video region and a blanking region, the effective video region includes pixel signals, the blanking region includes control signals for display control, and the pixel signals and the control signals constitute a digital video signal. The video signal transmitting/receiving system transmits and receives the digital video signal via a plurality of transmission channels. The video signal transmitting/receiving system includes: a transmitting section for transmitting the digital video signal; a receiving section for receiving the digital video signal; and a plurality of communication lines associated with the respective transmission channels and connecting the transmitting section and the receiving section to each other. The receiving section includes, for each of the transmission channels, a first holder for holding a received control signal or pixel signal for a given period corresponding to at least three clock cycles, a second holder for holding, for the given period, a control signal or pixel signal subsequent to the control signal or pixel signal held by the first holder, and a third holder for holding, for the given period, a control signal or pixel signal subsequent to the control signal or pixel signal held by the second holder. The receiving section further includes an effective video boundary detector for detecting a boundary of transition from the blanking region to the effective video region for each of the transmission channels. The effective video boundary detector selects one of the first, second and third holders for each of the transmission channels, based on the detection of the boundary.
In one embodiment of the above video signal transmitting/receiving system, the digital video signal conforms to a DVI standard in which only the control signals for display control are included in the blanking region.
With the foregoing configurations, according to the present invention, in the receiving section, an inserted video guard band signal or the boundary of transition from the blanking region to the effective video region is detected for each transmission channel, and the phase of a video signal is adjusted depending on each transmission channel. Accordingly, even when a skew occurs in signal transmission among a plurality of transmission channels, with reference to the timing of outputting a received video signal associated with a transmission channel with the longest delay, the output timings of the received video signals associated with the other transmission channels are delayed. As a result, the skew occurring among the transmission channels is eliminated, thus enabling display of correct video data.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In
Video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits 5a through 5c associated with the three transmission channels are respectively placed between the video signal generators 6a through 6c and the associated transmitters 1a through 1c. As shown in
On the other hand, the receiving section B includes: three receivers 2a through 2c associated with the respective transmission channels 0, 1 and 2. The outputs of the receivers 2a through 2c are respectively connected to signal paths 7a through 7c for transmitting received video signals to the next stage without change. The outputs of the receivers 2a through 2c are also connected to delay paths 9a through 9c provided in parallel with the signal paths 7a through 7c and including respective delay circuits 8a through 8c each for delaying a received video signal by a given number of cycles (e.g., one cycle 1T in
The receiving section B includes a video-guard-band-signal detector 11. The video-guard-band-signal detector 11 detects video guard band signals VGB included in video signals associated with transmission channels and received by the respective receivers 2a through 2c, and controls operation of the selectors 10a through 10c based on the detection (detection timings) of the video guard band signals VGB for the three transmission channels.
Now, operation of the video signal transmitting/receiving system, especially operation of the video-guard-band-signal detector 11, will be described.
First, in the transmitting section A, the video-guard-band-signal inserting circuits 5a through 5c insert respective video guard band signals VGB into video signals immediately before transition from the blanking region to the effective video region. Accordingly, as shown in
On the other hand, as shown in
As shown in
The video-guard-band-signal detector 11 controls the selectors 10a through 10c such that the selectors 10a through 10c select video signals obtained when all the video guard band signals VGB for the transmission channels 0 through 2 are synchronized with each other. Specifically, a video signal transmitted through the delay path 9a is selected on the transmission channel 0, a video signal transmitted through the signal path 7b is selected on the transmission channel 1, and a video signal transmitted through the delay path 9c is selected on the transmission channel 2. As a result, as shown in
Now, a video signal transmitting/receiving system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
In the video signal region shown in
The effective video region detector 12 in the receiving section B receives video signals associated with respective transmission channels and received by receivers 2a through 2c, and detects the timing of transition from the horizontal blanking region to the effective video region in each of the video signals. Since the video signal generators 6a through 6c generate only control signals CS in the horizontal blanking region, the timing of transition to the effective video region is easily detected only by distinguishing the control signals from pixel signals even in the absence of video guard band signals VGB, unlike the first embodiment.
As a result, as shown in
Now, a video signal transmitting/receiving system according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the receiving section B shown in
The receiving section B includes holding units 15a through 15c associated with the respective transmission channels 0 through 2. Each of the holding units 15a through 15c includes first through third holders (15a1 through 15a3) through (15c1 through 15c3.) As shown in
Video signals selected by the selectors 10a through 10c are input to synchronizing circuits 16a through 16c, respectively. Each of the synchronizing circuits 16a through 16c uses a clock signal associated with the transmission channel 0 as a synchronizing clock signal and takes a video signal from an associated one of the respective selectors 10a through 10c associated with the same transmission channel based on the synchronizing clock signal. As the synchronizing clock signal, a clock signal associated with another transmission channel 1 or 2 or a dedicated synchronizing clock signal may be used.
Accordingly, in this embodiment, as shown in
In this embodiment, the holding units 15a through 15c include the first through third holders (15a1 through 15a3) through (15c1 through 15c3) each for holding a control signal CS or a pixel signal for a given period corresponding to three clock cycles. Each of the first through third holders may, of course, hold a control signal or a pixel signal for a given period corresponding to four or more clock cycles.
In
The receiving section B shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2002-326480 | Nov 2002 | JP | national |
This Non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.§119(a) on Patent Application No. 2002-326480 filed in Japan on Nov. 11, 2002, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.