Patent ID: 8978081
Filing Date: 2015-03-10
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A portable test apparatus for transporting to a set top box user's home or other set top box user's premises where the set top box is installed for testing a set top box at the set top box user's home or other set top box user's premises, comprising: a controller operable to control the apparatus to apply an automated test procedure to the set top box; a portable content server; a memory for storing at least one video input test signal, wherein the controller is configured to control the portable content server to provide the at least one video input test signal from the memory to the set top box; a receiver for receiving from the set top box at least one video output provided by the set top box in response to the at least one video input test signal; a processor for determining automatically the outcome of at least one test of the test procedure in dependence on the at least one video output; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting the outcome of the at least one test to a remote server; and a housing for housing each of the controller, the portable content server, the receiver and the processor, wherein the at least one video input test signal is representative of a test sequence, the test sequence comprising a sequence of frames, each frame comprising an image of a respective different one of a plurality of frame identifiers; the processor is configured to obtain a sequence of sets of frame data by processing the video output, each set of frame data representative of a respective frame; the processor is further operable to process each set of frame data to determine a frame identifier for that frame; the at least one test comprises a frame sequence test on the sequence of sets of frame data, the frame sequence test comprising at least one of comparing determined frame identifiers for different frames in the sequence or comparing determined frame identifiers for the sequence to stored frame identifiers, to determine whether the video output stream represent the sequence of frames correctly, thereby to detect freeze frame or skipping errors; the processor is configured to repeatedly determine whether the set top box has failed the frame sequence test, each such determination being performed in response to the testing of a set of frame data or plurality of sets of frame data in the sequence; the processor is further configured to test at least one of those sets of frame data before the set top box completes the receiving of the video output stream to obtain further sets of frame data representative of later frames in the sequence; and the processor is further configured to terminate the frame sequence test prior to complete receipt and processing of the test stream if the test is failed mid-stream.