Method of increasing the storage capacity of service information in a digital TV transmissions receiver

US6493043B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Nokia Technology · DE

Inventors

• Tilman Bollmann · Essen, DE
• Stephan Hartwig · Essen, DE
• Thomas Rautenberg · Bochum, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 26, 1999
• Grant date: Dec 10, 2002
• Expiry date: Mar 26, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04N21/4345
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The invention concerns a method of increasing the storage capacity of service information data (SI) in a receiver for digital TV transmissions, such as e.g. in accordance with the MPEG 2 and the DVB standard. The increase takes place to enable keeping a larger quantity of service information data ready for recall, which is used to create the display of an interactive electronic program guide that is shown as an “On Screen Display” (OSD) on the screen. Such a program guide is designed to make the transmission choice easier and to automate the adjustment of the receiver for the desired transmission. The object of the invention is to provide a solution which makes it possible to expand the storage capacity, especially the mentioned cache area, without additional hardware. To achieve the object the unoccupied area of the image memory (MPEG-RAM) is used as a cache area by the video decoder (V-DEC) while graphic displays are shown on the full screen surface as a “Full Screen OSD”. To create the electronic program guide the microcomputer (&mgr;C), which is responsible for managing the receiver, uses this cache area to buffer as large a portion as possible of the se…