U.S. Philips Corporation

Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

Atma Heerah

Thomas C Mackereth

Anthony J Field

Stefan Ridderheim

A system, apparatus, and method for local insertion of analog or digital material into a television broadcast signal. A central insertion control unit controls the insertion of additional material while a remote insertion control unit locally controls the insertion of the additional material. The central insertion control unit contains a processor, storage media, and an encoder for encoding control and information signals into a broadcast signal. The control signal contains a cue signal for information about play lists, and an action signal for triggering insertion of the additional material. The control signal is encoded into a line of the vertical blanking interval. Once the control is detected by the remote insertion control unit the additional material is played and broadcast.

Apparatus and method for insertion of material in broadcasting

A video signal processing arrangement for television signals encoded in digital form comprising means for compressing and/or expanding the size of the television picture represented by the video signal and means for rotating the television picture represented by the video signal is disclosed. The rotating means is separate from the compressing and/or expanding means and is switchable between a position prior to the compressing and/or expanding means in the video signal processing chain and a position subsequent to the compressing and/or expanding means. An arrangement having two separate video signal paths which are later combined to produce a composite picture is also described in which the rotating means can also be positioned after the combining means as well as before or after the compressing and/or expanding means in either path.

Video signal processing arrangement

A television special effects generator operating on digitally encoded video signals is disclosed. The generator includes a frame store, input addressor and output addressor. The input addressor means is controlled to write picture information into the frame store in a desired manner while the output addressor includes an up/down counter whose count direction can be reversed when a given count is reached. By reversing the up/down counter count direction part way through a line or field scan, the displayed picture appears in two parts, one being the mirror image of the other.

Television special effects generator

A video signal processing apparatus comprises an input (1) for receiving an input video signal and an output (2) at which the processed signal is produced. The apparatus includes a vertical filter (3), a horizontal filter (4), a vertical interpolator (5) a horizontal interpolator (6), and a field store (7) arranged in cascade. The cut-off frequencies of the vertical and horizontal filters (3,4) are adjustable by means of signals passed over paths (18 and 19) from the control circuit (8) to the filters (3,4). A control apparatus comprising a potentiometer (25), a switch (23), and an analogue to digital converter (26) produces signals which are passed over a path (24) to the control circuit (8). These signals are used to cause the control circuit (8) to produce signals over paths (18,19) to the filters (3,4) which reduce the cut-off frequencies of the filters to a value which is below that appropriate to the picture size. This produces a soft focus effect.

Digital video signal processing apparatus for providing zoom and

A video signal processing arrangement comprises an input (1) for receiving an input video signal and output (2) at which the processed signal is produced. The arrangement includes a vertical filter (3), a horizontal filter (4), a vertical interpolator (5) a horizontal interpolator (6), a field store (7) and a control circuit (8). The control circuit (8) produces control signals which are fed via paths (20,21,22) to the vertical and horizontal interpolators (5,6) and the field store (7) to re-configure their positions in the signal processing chain in dependence on whether the television picture represented by the input video signal is to be squeezed or zoomed.

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Cambridge, United Kingdom

Atma Heerah