The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 10, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 26, 1999
Nokia Technology GmbH, Pforzheim, DE;
Abstract
The invention concerns a method of increasing the storage capacity of service information data (SI) in a receiver for digital TV transmissions, such as e.g. in accordance with the MPEG 2 and the DVB standard. The increase takes place to enable keeping a larger quantity of service information data ready for recall, which is used to create the display of an interactive electronic program guide that is shown as an “On Screen Display” (OSD) on the screen. Such a program guide is designed to make the transmission choice easier and to automate the adjustment of the receiver for the desired transmission. The object of the invention is to provide a solution which makes it possible to expand the storage capacity, especially the mentioned cache area, without additional hardware. To achieve the object the unoccupied area of the image memory (MPEG-RAM) is used as a cache area by the video decoder (V-DEC) while graphic displays are shown on the full screen surface as a “Full Screen OSD”. To create the electronic program guide the microcomputer (&mgr;C), which is responsible for managing the receiver, uses this cache area to buffer as large a portion as possible of the service information (SI) extracted from the receiver by a demultiplexer.