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US 9,319,627 B2Granted
High definition video extender and method
AssigneeVideo Products, Inc.
InventorsMadalin Cirstea, Adrian Bica
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method for extending high definition multimedia signals from a source to a display over long distances (e.g., up to 300 feet) using a single cable medium having a plurality of twisted pair conductors contained therein. The extender transparently supports HDMI and/or DVI signaling, which allows encrypted video content to be displayed at the remote display (or other sink device). Display data channel control (DDC) information is sampled and transferred in packet from the local unit to a remote unit to comply with high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP).
Claims20
A method for extending high definition multimedia signals over a single twisted pair cable medium between a source and a display, the single twisted pair cable medium having a plurality of twisted pair conductors, the method comprising:
- receiving a plurality of source differential multimedia signals and control information from the source at a local unit, wherein the plurality of source differential multimedia signals include a plurality of source video signals and a source clock signal;
- generating a plurality of local unit differential multimedia signals at the local unit based on the plurality of source differential multimedia signals, the plurality of local unit differential multimedia signals including a plurality of local unit differential video signal pairs and a local unit differential clock signal pair;
- converting at least a portion of the control information into converted data display channel (DDC) information at the local unit;
- transmitting the plurality of local unit differential video signal pairs and the local unit differential clock signal pair from the local unit to a remote unit over a first channel and a second channel, the first channel comprising a first conductor pair and a second conductor pair of the plurality of twisted pair conductors of the cable medium and the second channel comprising a third conductor pair and a fourth conductor pair of the plurality of twisted pair conductors of the cable medium;
- transmitting the converted DDC information from the local unit to the remote unit as a differential common mode signal over the first and second conductor pairs of the first channel;
- powering one of the local unit and the remote unit through the first and second channels, the first and second conductor pairs of the first channel being coupled to a first voltage and the third and fourth conductor pairs of the second channel being coupled to a second voltage, the second voltage being different than the first voltage;
- receiving the plurality of local unit differential multimedia signals and the converted DDC information at the remote unit;
- extracting the converted DDC information at the remote unit from the first channel;
- generating reconstructed DDC information at the remote unit from the converted DDC information;
- generating a plurality of remote unit differential multimedia signals at the remote unit based on the received plurality of local unit differential multimedia signals;
- and
- outputting the plurality of remote unit differential multimedia signals and the reconstructed DDC information from the remote unit to the display based at least in part on the control information.
9 more elements
An extender for extending high definition multimedia signals over a single twisted pair cable medium between a high definition video source and a video sink, the single twisted pair cable medium having a plurality of twisted pair conductors, the extender comprising:
- a local unit comprising:
- a first local port for receiving high definition multimedia signals and source control information from the high definition video source, wherein the high definition multimedia signals include a plurality of video signals and at least one clock signal;
- a second local port for receiving the twisted pair cable medium;
- first local circuitry for generating a plurality of differential video signal pairs based on the high definition multimedia signals;
- second local circuitry for converting at least a portion of the source control information into data display channel (DDC) information;
- third local circuitry for transmitting a first two differential video signal pairs of the plurality of differential video signal pairs on a first channel and transmitting the DDC information as a differential common mode signal on the first channel with the first two differential video signal pairs, and for transmitting a second two differential video signal pairs of the plurality of differential video signal pairs on a second channel out of the second local port over the twisted pair cable medium, the first channel comprising a first two conductor pairs of the plurality of twisted pair conductors and the second channel comprising a second two conductor pairs of the plurality of twisted pair conductors of the cable medium, none of the twisted pair conductors of the second channel being part of the first channel;
- a first local unit power terminal coupled to the first channel;
- and
- a second local unit power terminal coupled to the second channel;
- a remote unit comprising:
- a first remote port for receiving the twisted pair cable medium including the first and second channels;
- first remote circuitry for converting the first two differential video signal pairs and the second two differential video signal pairs received at the first remote port into a plurality of remote high definition multimedia signals;
- second remote circuitry for extracting the DDC information from the differential common mode signal received at the first remote port on the first channel;
- third remote circuitry for reconstructing the DDC information from the extracted DDC information to provide remote display control information;
- a first remote unit power terminal coupled to the first channel;
- and
- a second remote unit power terminal coupled to the second channel;
- a second remote port coupled to the first and third remote circuitry for outputting the plurality of remote high definition multimedia signals and the remote display control information to the video sink;
- wherein power is provided to one of the local unit and the remote unit through the first and second channels by coupling first and second voltages to one of the first and second local unit power terminals or the first and second remote unit power terminals, the first and second voltages being different.
16 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.