Warner Music Group, Inc.

Intel Corporation

Wea Manufacturing, Inc.

George H Lydecker

Alan J McPherson

Gregory B Thagard

Edwin Outwater, Iii

Richard L Maliszewski

Brendan Traw

James A Moorer

Charles M J Mecca

Todd Yvega

An apparatus for recording a multichannel program includes an audio converter adapted to convert said multichannel program at least partially into a modified program requiring less channels than said multichannel program. The audio converter including control elements used to modify the conversion process used to generate said modified program. A coefficient generator coupled to said converter to generate a coefficient indicative of the operation of said controls. A mixer is arranged to mix the coefficient with program data. A recorder is arranged to record the mixed data on a medium, whereby the medium can be played either using a multichannel player device or a reduced channel player device by using said coefficient.

Apparatus and method for down converting multichannel programs to dual channel programs using a smart coefficient generator

The invention is a system for recording and reading both program data and acoustical control data and playing back the data to optimize performance of audio reproduction and recreate the effect of an original acoustic environment. The system has a recording apparatus, a playback apparatus and a recording media. The recording apparatus produces recording media having both acoustic control information and audio data. The playback apparatus gives the user some ability to override otherwise automatic parameter adjustments. Optionally, a metadata display system takes information about the physical arrangement of instruments and other characteristics of the recording session and the recording studio and makes that visually available to the listener. A player type register identifies the characteristics of the playback device to cause an adjustment of the characteristics of the playback system.

Recording and playback control system

A method and apparatus for verifying automatically that a plurality of derivative audio (or other multimedia) files have acceptable sound quality. In one embodiment, each derivative file is compared on a byte-by-byte basis to a corresponding original file to generate a difference. The difference is compared a threshold value (that may be determined empirically). If the difference is too large for many bytes, the derivative file is tagged as having an unacceptable sound quality. In another embodiment, segments of the original and derivative files are converted to the frequency domain and analysis is performed in this domain. The resulting signal could be a tag indicating that whether the derivative file is acceptable, or could be a more comprehensive signal indicative what kind of errors were detected and in what temporal and/or spectral region for diagnostic purposes.

Method and system for verifying derivative digital files automatically

A test signal generator adapted to generate a test signal for an audio program having at least a left and right program track, the test signal generator including a memory means holding digital data descriptive of a unique image; and converter adapted to convert the digital data into a pseudo audio test signal having a left test track and right test track. The pseudo audio test signal is attached or mixed with the respective audio program and the resulting composite signal is recorded on a respective media and/or transmitted by other means to a remote location. At the remote location, the test signal is separated and displayed using the left track and right tracks as two orthogonal components to generate a reproduction of the image. The relative orientation, spatial and geometric characteristics of the reproduced image is indicative of various parameters of the received audio program.

Method and apparatus for checking audio signals

Playback of digital multimedia content by a player application may be modified according to title specific parameters. The method includes accessing the digital multimedia content, accessing title specific parameters associated with the digital multimedia content, and processing the digital multimedia content to render the content to a user according to the title specific parameters. The title specific parameters may be stored with the digital multimedia content on a removable storage medium such as a digital versatile disk (DVD) or received from a source over a computer network, satellite, or cable. The title specific parameters may be used to modify at least one of the decoding, decompressing, and downsampling of at least one track or title of the content. In one embodiment, the content is digital audio data in the DVD-Audio format.

Method and apparatus for multimedia playback with title specific parameters

A program distribution system is disclosed for the simultaneous release of a program at a plurality of locations. The locations may include local broadcasters, or even individual devices. A program is modified so that it cannot be played without a release control signal and is then copied and distributed .either fixed in a media or electronically, i.e. via private network, the Internet, etc.) At the receiver the receiver first detects the release control signal and then replays the program at will. The program may include a time stamp in which case the receiver cannot replay the program until a control indicative of a current time/date corresponding to the date stamp. Alternative the program can be encrypted in which case the release control signal includes the decryption key. The release control can be broadcast over a tv channel, a radio channel and so on and is preferably imbedded into the signals of the standard tv or radio signals.

Remote control system for audio and video content

Methods and apparatus for recording and playing back multi-channel digital audio having different sampling rates for different channels are provided. Recording is accomplished by sampling a plurality of channels of audio data and arranging the samples of the plurality of channels of audio data in most nearly the order needed during playback. Playback is accomplished by accessing the samples of the plurality of channels of audio data and converting the samples from digital to analog form. The playback may include deriving audio signals in a different format from the format in which the programming is recorded.

Using different sampling rates to record multi-channel digital audio on a recording medium and playing back such digital audio

An ABX testing device for comparing for example two video or audio programs is provided to determine if the two programs can be distinguishable. The device selects randomly one of the programs and the tester can listen or view and compare sequentially the random selection to either of the programs. The tester then can vote by designating one of the programs as being the randomly selected program. The designations are accumulated and statistics are generated regarding the same. Preferably the device includes a control box, a switch mechanism and a PC coupled to both by standard parallel cable.

Growing community of inventors

Burbank, CA, United States of America

George H Lydecker