Thomson Licensing

Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc.

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Gabriel Alfred Edde

Ivonete Markman

Michael D Landis

David Michael Browning

Max Ward Muterspaugh

David J Duffield

Michael David Landis

A Wireless Regional Area Network (WRAN) receiver comprises a transceiver for communicating with a wireless network over one of a number of channels, and an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) signal detector for use in forming a supported channel list comprising those ones of the number of channels upon which an ATSC signal was not detected, wherein the ATSC signal detector is a threshold-based detector and detects an ATSC signal as a function of at least one threshold, and wherein the ATSC signal detector is responsive to at least one of a carrier tracking loop lock signal, a symbol timing recovery lock signal and a synchronization (sync) lock signal.

Digital detector for ATSC digital television signals

There are provided, in a clock generator for generating a plurality of output clock signals, an apparatus and method for synchronizing the clock generator to an input reference clock in the presence of a jittery input clock provided to the clock generator from a PLL. The clock generator and the PLL each have a divider with the same ratio. The apparatus includes a synchronizer () and a state machine (). The synchronizer receives the input reference clock and the jittery input clock, and generates there from a synchronized input clock signal with respect to the jittery input clock. The state machine receives the synchronized input clock signal and the jittery input clock, synchronizes with the synchronized input clock signal using the jittery input clock, and abstains from a re-synchronizing operation when the jittery input clock has a jitter of up to a pre-defined maximum number of clock widths.

Method and apparatus for synchronizing a clock generator in the presence of jittery clock sources

A receiver comprises a demodulator for providing a demodulated signal and a centroid calculator responsive to the demodulated signal for identifying a correct carrier phase for use in the centroid calculation and in removing carrier phase ambiguity in the demodulator. In addition, the centroid calculator may include a limiter.

Carrier phase ambiguity correction

A centroid calculator calculates the channel virtual center for an adaptive equalizer, based on some type of training signal (e.g., the segment sync of a ATSC-DTV signal), with internal limiting capability that improves its performance. In addition, a centroid calculator with internal limiting capability that improves performance.

Symbol timing ambiguity correction

A television set includes an ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) receiver, which includes an NTSC (National Television Systems Committee) co-channel interference detector based on carrier tracking of the NTSC video carrier signal. The NTSC co-channel interference detector includes a carrier tracking loop and a decision device. The carrier tracking loop processes a received signal for detecting the possible presence of the NTSC video carrier signal and for providing a tracking signal representative thereof. The decision device receives the tracking signal and recovers a DC offset therefrom. The decision device then determines that NTSC co-channel interference is present if the DC offset signal is greater than a predefined threshold.

Apparatus and method for detecting NTSC co-channel interference

An ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) VSB (Vestigial Sideband) receiver includes a carrier tracking loop (CTL) for processing a received ATSC VSB signal and a CTL lock detector. The CTL lock detector includes an averaging filter for averaging the down-converted received ATSC VSB signal to provide a DC offset, an estimator for providing an estimate of the DC offset, and a comparator for providing a lock signal as a function of a comparison between the estimate of the DC offset and the DC offset, wherein the lock signal is representative of either a locked condition or an unlocked condition of the CTL.

Carrier tracking loop lock detector

A demodulator for a high definition television receiver includes a first circuit element which receives a signal, and is operative in a first arrangement to produce an output signal having a first dynamic range, and operative in a second arrangement to produce an output signal having a second dynamic range different from the first dynamic range. A second circuit element is arranged for optimally processing a signal having a substantially predetermined fixed dynamic range. A gain control circuit is coupled between the first and second circuit elements, and produces a signal having the substantially predetermined fixed dynamic range.

Gain control for a high definition television demodulator

A communications receiver receives a signal which has not been filtered by a matched pulse shaping filter. In the receiver, a circuit element processes the received signal and as a part of that process introduces additional linear distortion into the processed received signal. A matched filter, coupled to the circuit element, generates a fully matched filtered signal compensated for the distortion intrinsic to the received signal pulse shape and the distortion introduced by the circuit element.

Matched pulse shaping filter

A symbol timing recovery detector receives a sample stream, representing an input signal having successive symbol times sampled at successive sample times. The sample stream includes samples representing successive symbols alternating with samples representing transitions between surrounding symbol representative samples. The detector includes a first circuit which determines a transition value from a transition representative sample and surrounding symbol representative samples. A second circuit determines the slope between the surrounding symbol representative samples. A third circuit generates a signal representing the phase error between the sample times and the symbol times of the input signal from the slope and the transition value.

Apparatus and method for symbol timing recovery

A multi-protocol serial data bus system includes two clock lines and a data line. A controller generates a first clock signal and a first data signal according to a first serial data bus protocol during a first mode of operation of the system, and generates a second clock signal and a second data signal according to a second serial data bus protocol during a second mode of operation. The first clock signal and the first data signal are provided on the first and third signal paths, respectively, during the first mode of operation. The second clock signal and the second data signal are provided on the second and third signal paths, respectively, during the second mode of operation.

Multi-protocol data bus system

In an electronic instrument subject to power line interruptions and having a standby power supply, an external timer is used to time a predetermined brief period (e.g. 15 seconds to 1 minute). If the timer has not yet expired when standby power is once again developed, then a controller will cause a real time clock to start timing, using the currently held time of day. If the timer has expired when standby power is once again developed, the controller will cause the time of day clock to indicate that its time is no longer accurate. Moreover, if the timer has expired, then the controller will not cause the receiver to be turned on. If the timer has not expired, then the controller will determine if the receiver was turned on when the AC power line failure occurred, and if so, the controller will cause the receiver to turn on. If the receiver was turned off when the AC power line failure occurred, then the controller will cause the receiver to remain in standby mode. If, however, a reset was caused by an extremely fast phenomenon, such as a kine arc, then the receiver would not have had time to store status bytes. Upon waking up, the receiver would note that it was inoperative for only a short time, and that certain functions, such as degaussing need not be performed.

Apparatus for determining if the duration of a power failure exceeded

A system for processing a television signal including a data component, such as extended data services data, includes a decoder for processing the data component to provide data representing time information. A control device responds to the data for modifying time information, e.g., time of day, that is maintained in the system. The time information decoded from the video signal is compared to the time information maintained in the system to determine a time difference. If the time difference is in a predetermined range, the time difference indicates that the time information from the television signal is invalid. The control device responds to the time difference being in the predetermined range by preventing modification of the time information maintained in the system. A user may provide an input via a device such as a remote control to control the manner in which the control device responds to the time difference.

System for controlling updates of extended data services (EDS) data

A television receiver includes a decoder for decoding a data component of a television signal, such as extended data services (EDS) data. The data component includes data representative of time of day information. A controller in the receiver processes the time of day information to set the time of day stored in the television receiver to a time value that is accurate to seconds.

Apparatus and method for accurate setting of time of day clock in a

To accomplish automatic error correction in an electronics instrument, the instrument includes a controller, coupled to at least one peripheral unit via a communications bus for bidirectional communication with the peripheral unit, coupled to a memory circuit for storing data indicative of the operational status of the peripheral unit, and coupled to a power supply which supplies power to the peripheral unit. The controller reads the operational status data from the peripheral unit and upon detection of an error condition, writes data indicative of status to the memory circuit and causes a removal of power, for a predetermined time, from said peripheral unit, followed by the reapplication of the power. The power supplies themselves are also monitored and, in the event of a detected error in power supply output, the power supply is turned off and turned on in an attempt to clear the problem. In this way, a peripheral unit not having an external reset pin can, nevertheless, be reset by the controller to clear problems caused by transient interference. If the problem persists after a predetermined number of attempts to clear it, the electronics instrument is automatically shut off.

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Indianapolis, IN, United States of America

Gabriel Alfred Edde