Deutsche Thomson-brandt Gmbh

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Bts Broadcast Television Systems Gmbh

Uwe Riemann

Dietmar Hepper

Hans-Joachim Platte

Jens Cahnbley

Erich Geiger

Dieter Haupt

Martin Plantholt

Dietrich Westerkamp

Gerd Brand

In case of a loss of power supply a short-circuit between the corresponding pins of the two IEEE 1394 connectors of a device is established. Preferably this will be achieved by a relay controlling switches. If power is available, the relay is powered and the switches are open. The device then behaves like without this extension. If power is lost, the relay is not powered any longer, and the switches are closed. By this way, the device simply disappears from the cluster, which will then be reorganised according to IEEE 1394 rules.

IEEE 1394 cable connector with short circuit switch

The method according to the invention is distinguished by the fact that a transmitter identifier (SK) is contained in the received channel (EK), the program locations (P) are assigned once to the received channels (EK), and in the event of a deviation from this assignment, the microprocessor (&mgr;P) controls a search (SL) in order that the desired received channel (EK) is assigned anew to the program location (P).

Method and apparatus for programming a television receiver

In the process of generating a compatible 4:3 letterbox format television signal, a wide aspect ration 16:9 progressive scan television signal is vertically transcoded from 575 to 431 image lines, converted to line interlaced form and horizontally compressed. A vertically transcoded interlaced luminance component is converted back to progressive scan form via interpolation, and subtracted from a vertically transcoded original progressive scan luminance component to produce a difference (helper) signal. The difference signal is time compressed and multiplexed into upper and lower edge bar regions of the letterbox format. The compatible letterbox signal also is encoded with additional information including vertical high frequency information and horizontal high frequency information separated during the transcoding and compression processes, respectively. The encoding includes modulating the color subcarrier frequency with luminance information, and intraframe averaging. The difference signal and encoded additional information are used by a 16:9 widescreen receiver to produce a 16:9 progressive scan image display with the transcoded number of lines and good resolution.

Auxiliary signal to assist conversion of a letterbox standard aspect

A test pattern generator provides a test pattern signal timed for insertion in the foreground signal of a chromakey mixer to occupy the area of particular shape in any desired part of a monitor screen. The test pattern signal provides a color scan signal which becomes part of the foreground signal within the test pattern area and which is also supplied to the decoder along with the foreground signal. Decoder responds to the color scan signal in the test pattern by substituting the background signal of the portion of the color scan displayed corresponding to colors to which the decoder responds by switching in the background signal. This enables determination of the exact range of response of the decoder while the mixer is operating also of observance of changing of the setting of the response of the decoder so that it can be more accurately set to the desired color range.

Method and apparatus for testing and checking the criteria of a key

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Braunschweig, Germany

Uwe Riemann