U.S. Philips Corporation

Jan Dewolf

Gerardus C Lokhoff

Abraham Hoogendoorn

Norbert C Vollmann

Anton Stoger

Gunther Bernauer

Marco V Koningsberger

Transmission system for transmitting and receiving, and subband encoding methods for generating for transmission, digital signals containing modulated bit allocation information; and record carriers containing such a signal. The transmission system include a transmitter which encodes in accordance with the subband encoding method a wide-band digital signal into subband signals which are each made up of successive signal blocks having a predetermined number of samples of that subband signal. The samples in the signal blocks of the subband signals are quantized to produce quantized samples in the signal blocks, and bit allocation information denoting how many bits the samples in the signal blocks are to be quantized by is generated. The bit allocation information (or a portion thereof) is modulated to obtain modulated bit allocation information. The quantized samples in the signal blocks and the modulated bit allocation information are included in a digital signal applied by the transmitter to a transmission medium. The transmission system also includes a receiver for receiving a replica of the digital signal applied to the transmission medium. The modulated bit allocation information is demodulated to obtain the bit allocation information. The quantized samples in the signal blocks and the bit allocation information are used to obtain replicated samples in the signal blocks which substantially correspond to the original samples in the signal blocks of the subband signals. The replicated samples are used to produce a replica of the original wide-band digital signal.

Encoding methods for generating a digital signal containing modulated

Transmission system, and transmitter and receiver for use in the transmission system for transmitting and receiving digital signals containing modulated bit allocation information. The transmitter encodes a wide-band digital signal into subband signals which are each made up of successive signal blocks having a predetermined number of samples of that subband signal. The samples in the signal blocks of the subband signals are quantized to produce quantized samples in the signal blocks, and bit allocation information denoting how many bits the samples in the signal blocks are to be quantized by is generated. The bit allocation information (or a portion thereof) is modulated to obtain modulated bit allocation information. The quantized samples in the signal blocks and the modulated bit allocation information are included in a digital signal applied by the transmitter to a transmission medium. The receiver receives a replica of the digital signal applied to the transmission medium. The modulated bit allocation information is demodulated to obtain the bit allocation information. The quantized samples in the signal blocks and the bit allocation information are used to obtain replicated samples in the signal blocks which substantially correspond to the original samples in the signal blocks of the subband signals. The replicated samples are used to produce a replica of the original wide-band digital signal.

Transmission system, and transmitter and receiver used in the

A device for reproducing music includes a non-volatile memory for storing, for two or more magnetic record carriers (2), a start position signal for a favorite piece of music on each one of these record carriers. The device further including an address signal generator (29) for generating an address signal in conformity with the record carrier inserted into the device, and an operating circuit (39) for generating an activation signal upon operation of the operating circuit. If a user has listened to a record carrier, an FTP mode can be switched on by operating the operating circuit (37), while the memory (25) is adapted to supply the start position signal at an output (37) in response to the address signal, the start position signal being stored in the memory for this one piece of music on the record carrier inserted into the device. The output (37) of the memory is coupled to an input (22) of a comparator for applying the start position signal to the comparator, while another input (21) of the comparator (20) receives a position signal in conformity with the current position of the reproducing head (1) with respect to the record carrier. The device further includes a transport control circuit (9) adapted to transport the record carrier at a raised transport speed to the start position of the piece of music in response to the control signal at an output (43) of the comparator and in response to the activation signal, and to switch off the transport after the start position of the piece of music has been reached.

Device for reproducing a piece of music from a magnetic record carrier

When recording n pieces of music on a magnetic record carrier (3), two groups of pieces of music are formed. A first group of g.sub.1 pieces of music is recorded on the A-side of the record carrier and a second group of g.sub.2 (=n-g.sub.1) pieces of music is recorded on the B-side. The groups are selected such that the total time duration of each of the two groups T.sub.tot (g.sub.1), T.sub.tot (g.sub.2) is nearest to half the total time duration of all the n pieces of music (T.sub.tot /2).

Combination of a signal source and a recording device for recording n

A cassette comprises a housing which accommodates a magnetic tape partly wound on two reel hubs. A main wall of the housing has two openings which are coaxial with the reel hubs to allow the passage of reel spindles of a drive apparatus. The cassette further comprises a slide cover for covering the openings, which slide cover comprises blocking members which can cooperate with the reel hubs to inhibit their rotation. For this purpose the wall with openings has diametrically opposed recesses or cut-outs to allow the blocking members to engage with inner teeth provided in the reel hubs.

Growing community of inventors

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Jan Dewolf