Sony Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Tetsuya Hiroe

Akihisa Kawamura

Hiroshige Okamoto

Sho Murakoshi

Toshiroh Nishio

Naoki Ejima

Hidekazu Suzuki

Tomohiro Koyata

A server system in the form of an automatic vending machine is disposed in a store. A distributor has a main server. A reproducing and connecting device is disposed in a home. The server system and the main server are connected through a bi-directional dedicated line and whole music information (music data and additional information) is transmitted therebetween. The main serverand the reproducing and connecting device are connected through the Internet. Additional information of music information is transferred from the main server to the reproducing and connecting device. The user searches for a song that he or she will buy corresponding to the additional information and decides to buy the selected song. In the store, the user can record a song that he or she has decided to buy corresponding to buying information to a record medium.

Communication system, communication apparatus, communication method, record medium, and program

Digital audio data which have a predetermined packet structure are divided into units including a predetermined number of bits; each unit of the divided digital audio data is converted into specific data to be encoded; the encoded data are arranged in blanking intervals of video data; the digital audio data are transmitted as well as the video data using a transmission line for the video data, and the video data and the audio data may be simultaneously and favorably transmitted, adopting an existing video-data transmission format such as the DVI standard.

Transmission method, transmission system, sending device and reception device

This invention provides a data transmission method and a data receiving method which enable audio data to be multiplexed into video data and be transmitted using a DVI standard cable or the like satisfactorily with a simple configuration. From a data transmitting end, a superimposed video/audio data signal in which audio data are superimposed over a video blanking interval of video data in superimposition timing that is generated using a video blank sync signal and a pixel clock, are transmitted to a data receiving end through the DVI cable, together with the video blank sync signal and the pixel clock. On the data receiving end, a timing signal for extracting the audio data from the superimposed video/audio data signal is generated using the transmitted video blank sync signal and pixel clock, and the superimposed video/audio data signal is separated into video data and audio data using the generated timing signal, as well as the digital audio data are converted into an analog audio signal using an audio clock that is generated by dividing the frequency of the pixel clock.

Data transmitting method, data receiving method, data transmitting device, and data receiving device

The present invention is relative to a video signal transmitting/receiving system in which digital video signals are transmitted from a transmitter () to a receiver () using a line () as a transmission channel. The transmitter () converts the video signals to be transmitted to a bit string longer in data length than a pixel making up the video signals, allocates a plural number of the bit strings to a blanking period during which pixel data in the pixel string is not transmitted and, using these bit strings, transmits the same superposed data a plural number of times. The receiver () extracts the specified bit strings indicating the blanking period from the received data and performs majority processing on the results of demodulation of the extracted bit strings to decide on output data. This reduces errors in reception of supplementary data to simplify the circuit structure as well as to ameliorate the error rate.

Data transmission method, data receiving method, video data transmission apparatus and video data receiving apparatus

An error-correction coding method and an error-correction decoding method utilize error detection and error correction for an audio signal when a video signal and the audio signal are multiplexed and transmitted by a DVI. After an error correction code is added to each sample (sample data unit) of the digital audio signal, n continuous (n: integer equal to or larger than 2) pieces of the samples (sample data units) of the digital audio signal, to which error correction codes are added, are interleaved to generate a coded audio signal.

Error correction encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses for DVI audio data

Digital audio data that have a predetermined packet structure are divided into units including a predetermined number of bits; each unit of the divided digital audio data is converted into specific data to be encoded; the encoded data are arranged in blanking intervals of video data; the digital audio data are transmitted along with the video data using a transmission line for the video data, and the video data and the audio data are simultaneously and favorably transmitted, adopting an existing video-data transmission format, such as the DVI standard.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Tetsuya Hiroe