Alcatel Lucent

David Cecil Robinson

Alistair John Parker

Shaheedur Reza Haque

Sean Gordon Higgins

Andrey Kisel

Jeff Furlong

Geoffrey Cristallo

Gino Louis Dion

Richard Andrew Morrell

Tiaan Schutte

Gerard Anthony Brian Keating

An adaptor is provided for a games console which allows users to gain access to interactive television services through the games console. The adaptor includes a television tuner for receiving broadcast television channels, a communications controller which controls communications between the adaptor and the games console and an interface for interfacing the adaptor to the games console. In a preferred embodiment, the adaptor also includes a hard disc for storing video data and for storing game history data. The adaptor may also include a modem via which the user can gain access to remote servers connected to a data network.

Games console adaptor unit

The PIP system enables display of a mosaic of favorite channels in a Picture-in-Picture (PIP) format to a subscriber terminal. Picture-in-Picture support is efficiently provided by sending only I-Frames of the secondary video channel to the end-user. That is, any unnecessary packets (null, B-P frames, audio, etc.) in the secondary video channel are stripped away. This method uses very little bandwidth and is STB agnostic.

Picture-in-picture mosaic

Growing community of inventors

Maidenhead, United Kingdom

David Cecil Robinson