Abstract:
An apparatus for converting an image format of data and a method thereof is disclosed. An apparatus for converting an image format of data comprises an image converter ( 126 ) for converting parameters of the image format, an encoder ( 127 ) for encoding the format changed data and a file system converter ( 128 ) for changing the encodes data into a file system supported by an external interface ( 121 ). Also, a method for converting an image format of data comprises converting the image format of data into another image format, encoding the format changed data into a compressed data, and converting data into a file system which an external interface supports.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
       [0001]    This application is a Continuation Application of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/299,060 filed Oct. 30, 2008, which is a National Stage application under 35 U.S.C. §365 of International Application No. PCT/KR2007/002142 filed on May 2, 2007, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Korean Application No. 10-2006-0039573 filed on May 2, 2006, whose entire disclosures are hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Field 
         [0003]    The present disclosure relates to converting image format. 
         [0004]    2. Background 
         [0005]    Heretofore, a digital broadcasting receiver such as a digital television and a set-top box (STB) having a digital broadcasting reception function receives digital TV broadcasting data of an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) MPEG-2 Transport Streams (TSs). The digital broadcasting receiver performs a MPEG decoding and a signal processing for the received digital TV broadcasting data, and outputs video data of high picture quality and audio data of high speech quality. 
         [0006]    Further, a digital broadcasting receiver with a Personal Video Recording (hereinafter, referred to as PVR) function has also been developed and commercialized. The PVR can store received digital TV broadcasting data of ATSC MPEG-2 TSs in a high capacity hard disk, and reproduce the stored digital TV broadcasting data at a time desired by a user. 
         [0007]    However, a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and a Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) device has a lower resolution and smaller size than those of conventional digital broadcasting format. 
         [0008]    The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background. 
       DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION 
       [0009]    Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to converting image format that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. 
         [0010]    An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method/device that can directly or automatically convert high resolution and large size digital TV broadcasting programs into low resolution and small size programs. 
         [0011]    Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a digital television and method that can solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described hereinafter. 
         [0012]    A further object of the present disclosure is to provide a digital television and method that can convert first received data format into a different second converted data format so that the received data can be transmitted in the second format for playback in an external apparatus. 
         [0013]    Additional advantages, objects, and features of the disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the disclosure. The objectives and other advantages of the disclosure may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. 
         [0014]    To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the disclosure, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a method for converting an image format of data comprising converting the image format of data into another image format, encoding the format changed data into a compressed data, and converting the encoded data into a file system which an external interface supports. 
         [0015]    To further achieve the above objects in a whole or in part, according to another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided an apparatus for converting an image format of data comprising an image converter for converting parameters of the image format, an encoder for encoding the format changed data and a file system converter for changing the encoded data into a file system supported by an external interface. 
         [0016]    It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present disclosure are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosure as claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0017]    The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the disclosure and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the disclosure. 
           [0018]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a receiver according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0019]      FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of a receiver according to another embodiment of the present disclosure; 
           [0020]      FIG. 3  illustrates a flowchart of converting image format; 
           [0021]      FIG. 4  illustrates a television screen displaying a control panel; 
           [0022]      FIG. 5  illustrates the control panel illustrated on  FIG. 4 ; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 6  illustrates the control panel illustrated on  FIG. 4  with a different setting. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0024]    Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. 
         [0025]    Embodiments according to the disclosure can be applied to various types of receivers such as STBs and digital TVs with PVR functions, which receive digital TV broadcasting data and store the received digital TV broadcasting data in a storage device such as a hard disk. 
         [0026]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a receiver according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the receiver can include a digital antenna  11 , a digital tuner  12 , an demultiplexer  13 , storage such as a personal video recorder (PVR)  14 , a video processor  15 , a data processor  16 , an audio processor  17 , a display  18 , and a speaker. 
         [0027]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the receiver can further include a digital antenna  22 , an analog tuner  23 , and an A/D converter  24 . A mobile terminal (not shown) can be coupled to the receiver through an external interface  21 . 
         [0028]    First of all, the digital antenna  11  receives broadcast signals as a form of ATSC MPEG-2 streams by tuning the digital tuner  12  according to a user request to select a digital TV broadcasting channel. The digital tuner converts the received MPEG-2 streams into MPEG-2 Transport Streams (TSs). The demultiplxer  13  decodes the MPEG-2 TSs into high resolution (e.g., 1920*1080i pixels) data for large screen television. The video processor  15  can signal process the decoded video data to output video signals of high picture quality, and the audio processor  17  can perform signal processing and amplification for the decoded audio data to output audio signals of high speech quality. The ATSC MPEG-2 TSs of the tuned digital TV broadcasting program can also be stored in the storage  14  such as PVRs. 
         [0029]    Moreover, the receiver can receive analog broadcasting programs by analog antenna  122  and analog tuner  123  and converts the analog signals into digital signals through the ND converter  124 . The ND converted signals are processed using the same video  15 , data  16  and audio processors  17 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 2  includes a format converter  125  in addition to the elements illustrated on  FIG. 1 . The video format converter  126  can perform an image downsizing operation of converting the video data decoded by the demultiplxer  113 , e.g., a picture sequence with a resolution of 1920.times.1080 pixels, to a picture sequence with a reduced resolution (e.g., 352.times.288 pixels), which can be employed by the DMB receiver, or the H.264 compressed format. In addition, the video format converter  126  can perform an aspect ratio control operation for adjusting the aspect ratio of the video data to be proper for the aspect ratio of an LCD screen with a reduced size (e.g., 2.2, 3.5 or 7 inch), which the mobile terminal can employ. For example, an aspect ratio for conversion may be preset or modified through an environment setup menu, which is provided by the controller  14  through an already embedded Graphic User Interface (GUI), as conversion conditions. 
         [0031]    The audio also can be converted from the audio data decoded by the demultiplexer  113 , e.g., 5.1 CH Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) audio data, to data of a format that, e.g., the DMB device can support, i.e., 2 CH PCM audio data. 
         [0032]    The encoder  127  can encode the video data converted by the video format converter  126  into, e.g., a DMB format video data according to a H.264/AVC standard. The encoder  127  also can encode the audio data converted by the video format converter  126  into, e.g., a DMB format audio data according to an ISO/IEC 14496-3 BSAC standard. 
         [0033]    The file system converter  128  converts the encoded data by the encoder  127  into a file system that the external interface  121  supports. The external interface includes Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE 1394, and EPF. 
         [0034]    The MPEG-2 TSs can be stored in the storage  114 . For example, the storage  114  separately stores the format converted MPEG-2 TSs and the ATSC MPEG-2 TSs of the digital TV broadcasting format outputted from the demultiplxer  113  as different data files. 
         [0035]      FIG. 3  illustrates a flowchart of converting image format according to one embodiment of the disclosure. The embodiment of the method of  FIG. 3  can be applied to and will be described using the receiver shown in  FIG. 2 . However, the disclosure is not intended to be so limited. 
         [0036]    The digital tuner  112  tunes one random digital TV broadcasting channel according to a user&#39;s request. The ATSC decoder (not shown) can demodulate the audio/video signals from the antenna  111  and stores at the storage  114  the demodulated audio/video signals (S 210 ). The video format converter  126  converts the format of the stored audio/video signals into another format of audio/video signals (S 220 ). The encoder ( 127 ) encodes the audio/video data into a compressed data (S 230 ). The file system converter  128  converts the encoded data into a file system which the external interface  121  supports (S 240 ). The external interface  121  outputs the encoded data to an external device (not shown). 
         [0037]      FIG. 4  illustrates a television screen displaying a control panel. The television main screen  400  includes preview window  410  and control panel  420 . The preview window  410  provides thumbnail images of the format-converted image signals before the format conversion settings are applied to a specific mobile terminal. The control panel  420  is enlarged in  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 . 
         [0038]      FIG. 5  illustrates the control panel illustrated on  FIG. 4 . The control panel  420  comprises a current image format part  420   a  and a changeable format part  420   b . The current image format part  420   a  further comprises a current image format  421 , current voice (audio) format  422 , and current compression format  423 . The changeable format part further comprises change format to manual or automatic  424 , width and height sizes  425 , change voice format to mono or surround  426 , change compression format to MPEG-2 TS or H.264 427, and user interface as USB, IEEE 1394 or EPF  428 . 
         [0039]      FIG. 6  illustrates the control panel illustrated on  FIG. 4  with a different setting. It is possible to select manual or automatic format change. User can input desired format change parameters manually. Also, when the user put the format change to automatic and input the model name and number, the receiver automatically find corresponding prestored parameters. 
         [0040]    Any reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “example embodiment,” etc., means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with any embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the purview of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other ones of the embodiments. Furthermore, for ease of understanding, certain method procedures may have been delineated as separate procedures; however, these separately delineated procedures should not be construed as necessarily order dependent in their performance. That is, some procedures may be able to be performed in an alternative ordering, simultaneously, etc. 
         [0041]    The foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present disclosure. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The description of the present disclosure is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the claims, means- plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures. 
         [0042]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present disclosure without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosures. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure covers the modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. 
         [0043]    By converting a high resolution, large size image format of a broadcasting program to a low resolution, small size image format, a portable device including PDA, mobile phone and DMB can save and display the high definition television quality broadcasting programs. 
         [0044]    Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this disclosure. More particularly, various variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.