Extendable interface and method for digital television
OwnerYan-Lang Chou, Juin-Ming Tsaiinventors
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Abstract
An extendable interface and method for digital televisions are disclosed. According to the pre-defined specifications of the interface, any extendable peripheral is appended to a back end of the digital television conveniently for extension. The extendable peripheral may comprise: a front end of the digital television, a network service module, a storage memory module and others compliant with the pre-defined specifications of the interface.
Claims9
An extendable interface for a digital television (TV) for providing a communication link between a back end of the digital TV and a plurality of connected extendable peripherals, the back end providing the digital TV and related digital services to a user and the extendable peripherals providing other extended digital services to the user, the extendable interface including:
- a serial bus, which enables the back end to initialize settings and perform bi-directional data access on the extendable peripherals;
- a parallel bus, which enables the bi-directional data access between the back end and the extendable peripherals;
- a signal transport port, which allows the back end to receive signals transmitted from the extendable peripherals;
- a control signal port, which allows the back end to control, set, and identify the extendable peripherals;
- and
- a power supply port, which enables the back end to provide power to the extendable peripherals;
- wherein the serial bus, the parallel port, and the signal transport port are selectively employed to connect different types of the extendable peripherals to the back end of the digital TV.
An extension method for a digital television (TV) for providing a communication link between a back end of the digital TV and a plurality of connected extendable peripherals, the back end providing the digital TV and related digital services to a user and the extendable peripherals providing other extended digital services to the user, the extendable interface including:, which comprises the steps of:
- providing the power supply port, which supplies power from the back end to the front end;
- providing the control signal port for the back end to control, set, and identify the front end;
- providing the serial bus for transmitting channel selection information made at the back end via the serial bus to the front end;
- and
- providing the signal transport port so that after the front end demodulates a received digital TV signal according to the channel selection information into a signal transport flow, the signal transport flow is transmitted back to the back end via the signal transport port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.