Abstract:
A video signal processing system is used for generating a plurality of kinds of video signals, and each kind of video signal corresponds to a video format. The video signal processing system includes a bus for transmitting data and a plurality of signal processing modules, each of which is used for generating a kind of video signal. The plurality of signal processing modules, which are connected to each other via the bus, include a predetermined signal processing module to be a master processor for controlling operations of the video signal processing system.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The invention relates to a video signal processing system and related method for generating a plurality of video signals, and more particularly, to a video signal processing system and related method for utilizing a bus for coupling a plurality of signal processing modules to each other and utilizing a predetermined signal processing module to control operations of the video signal processing system.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 are all ISO/IEC standards developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) proven to be beneficial in digital television, interactive graphics, and interactive multimedia. Unlike its predecessors, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 that basically standardized a way to sequentially present a series of pictures to the user, MPEG-4 represents a totality of possible multiple media objects, each of which may be real or generated by a computer. The media objects are described and synchronized in such a way that they can be combined to form compound audiovisual scenes easily transmitted over a network.  
         [0005]     MPEG-1 is the first standard introduced by the MPEG organization, which is defined by a video resolution of 320×240 at approximately 30 frames per second with a video compression ratio of 1.2 Mbps and an audio compression of approximately 250 kbps. The audio and video data are blended together into a video clip played at approximately 1.5 Mpbs, which is stored in a CD-ROM and played with a CD-Player at double speed. The MPEG-2 standard greatly improved the shortcomings of the MPEG-1 standard not only by improving the picture and sound quality but at the same time providing additional features such as multi-lingual, multi-subtitle, multi-angle, scene division, and the like. In terms of sound quality, MPEG-2 adapts a similar audio compression method as MPEG-1 but added advanced audio coding (AAC). The picture quality of MPEG-2 is boosted up to a resolution of 720×480 by implementing some new video and audio compression techniques to improve picture clarity and to provide more efficient compression ratios. Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which is a functional block diagram of a prior-art typical MPEG signal processing system  10  that can be mainly used to generate data conforming to the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 specifications. The MPEG signal processing system  10  includes a processor  12  and an MPEG codec module  14 . The processor  12  is electrically coupled to the MPEG codec module  14  for controlling operations of the MPEG codec module  14  and other operations. The MPEG codec module  14  can process data conforming to the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 specifications via an encoding/decoding procedure to transform a received A/V signal to an audio signal and a video signal conforming to the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 specifications. Afterwards, the audio signal and the video signal will be respectively transmitted to an audio device, a displayer, a storage device, a VCD/DVD player, or a recorder via the control of the processor  12 . In addition, when being implemented with hardware, the processor  12  and the MPEG codec module  14  can be respectively individual integrated chips or be integrated onto a single integrated chip.  
         [0006]     The MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications are similar and can be easily simultaneously implemented in a present DVD player/recorder, while the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications have great difference in compression operation so that the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications are hard to integrate/implement in a single apparatus. Nowadays, since all the electronic devices are required to be equipped with a data-transmission function, an urgent requirement emerges for integrating various compressing techniques (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4) into a single apparatus.  
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
       [0007]     It is therefore one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide a video signal processing system and related method for generating a plurality of video signals to solve the above-mentioned problems.  
         [0008]     In the claimed invention, we disclose a video signal processing system that can operate network transmission and generate a plurality of the video signals. The plurality of video signals conforms to various formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 specifications and other video/audio formats. The video signal processing system of the present invention includes a bus and a plurality of signal processing modules, wherein the bus can be used to couple a plurality of signal processing modules of the video signal processing system to each other and a predetermined signal processing module among the plurality of signal processing modules can be used to control the video signal processing system. Therefore, under various conditions, different compression techniques can be utilized to generate corresponding video signals to meet various requirements.  
         [0009]     According to the claimed invention, a video signal processing system for generating a plurality of video signals is disclosed. Each video signal corresponds to a video format, and the video signal processing system comprises a bus for transmitting data and a plurality of signal processing modules, utilized for generating at least a video signal, coupled to each other via the bus.  
         [0010]     According to the claimed invention, a method for processing a plurality of video signals in a video signal processing system is disclosed. The video signal processing system comprises a bus and a plurality of signal processing modules. The method comprises: utilizing the bus to be coupled to the plurality of signal processing modules; utilizing a predetermined signal processing module to control operations of the video signal processing system; and utilizing the plurality of signal processing modules to generate the plurality of video signals.  
         [0011]     According to the claimed invention, a video signal processing system for processing a plurality of video signals is disclosed. The plurality of video signals respectively correspond to a plurality of video formats, and the plurality of video formats at least comprise a first video format and a second video format. The video signal processing system comprises: a peripheral component interconnect bus (PCI Bus) for transmitting data; a first signal processing module coupled to the bus for generating the video signal of the first video format; a second signal processing module coupled to the bus for generating the video signal of the second video format; a multiplexing device electrically coupled to the first signal processing module and the second signal processing module for receiving an A/V signal and for transmitting the A/V signal to the first signal processing module or the second signal processing module; and a network module electrically coupled to the bus for providing network service.  
         [0012]     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  is a functional block diagram of a prior-art typical MPEG signal processing system.  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of a video signal processing system according to the present invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart of a method embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0016]      FIG. 4  is a functional block diagram of another embodiment of a video signal processing system according to the present invention.  
         [0017]      FIG. 5  is a functional block diagram of a detailed embodiment.  
         [0018]      FIG. 6  is a functional block diagram of software architecture according to the present invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 7  is a functional block diagram of a detailed embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0020]      FIG. 8  is a flow chart of a first embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0021]      FIG. 9  is a flow chart of a second embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0022]      FIG. 10  is a flow chart of a third embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0023]      FIG. 11  is a flow chart of a fourth embodiment according to the present invention.  
         [0024]      FIG. 12  is a flow chart of a fifth embodiment according to the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0025]     Regarding the structure of the present invention, please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of a video signal processing system  20  according to the present invention. The video signal processing system  20  includes a first signal processing module  22  and a second signal processing module  24 . The first signal processing module  22  is used to generate the video signal of a first video format, while the second signal processing module  24  is used to generate the video signal of a second video format. The video signal processing system  20  further includes a bus  26  used to couple the first signal processing module  22  and the second signal processing module  24  to each other; that is, in the video signal processing system  20  of the present invention, the bus  26  is used to build the interconnection between the first and the second signal processing modules  22 ,  24  so that the video signal can be transmitted between the first and the second signal processing modules  22 ,  24 .  
         [0026]     One of the characteristics of the present invention is that the video signal processing system  20  utilizes a predetermined signal processing module to control operations of the whole video signal processing system  20 . In the present embodiment, the first signal processing module  22  can be set as a predetermined signal processing module, while the second signal processing module  24  can be controlled by the first signal processing module  22 . In other words, the first signal processing module  22  is a master processor, and the second signal processing module  24  is a slave processor. The master processor (the first signal processing module  22 ) can control the slave processor (the second signal processing module  24 ). Actually, in the present embodiment, the predetermined signal processing module (the master processor) is not constrained to be the first signal processing module  22  or the second signal processing module  24 . The present embodiment utilizes two signal processing modules (the first signal processing module  22  and the second signal processing module  24 ) to process two video signals (the video signal of the first video format and of the second video format), and determines a signal processing module as the master processor to control the video signal processing system  20 , so that the control operation can be unified to avoid the interference among the signal processing modules.  
         [0027]     When being implemented, the bus  26  can be a peripheral component interconnect bus  26  (PCI Bus), the first video signal corresponding to the first video format conforms to an MPEG-1 specification or an MPEG-2 specification, while the second video signal corresponding to the second video format conforms to an MPEG-4 specification. Therefore, the first signal processing module  22  can transform a received A/V signal or other signals into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 specifications. Similarly, the second signal processing module  24  can receive various signals and generate the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. In addition, the first signal processing module  22  shown in  FIG. 2 , which can be implemented with a single integrated chip, can be treated as the MPEG signal processing system  10  shown in  FIG. 1 . According to the above-mentioned of the video signal processing system  20 , a method embodiment of the present invention for processing the video signals of two different formats can refer to  FIG. 3  with following steps included.  FIG. 3  is a flow chart of a method embodiment according to the present invention. 
        Step  100 : utilize the bus  26  to couple the first signal processing module  22  to the second signal processing module  24 ;     Step  102 : set the first signal processing module  22  or the second signal processing module  24  as a predetermined signal processing module; set the predetermined signal processing module as the master processor to control the video signal processing system  20 ; set the other signal processing module as the slave processor (controlled by the master processor);     step  104 : utilize the first signal processing module  22  to generate the video signal of the first video format and utilize the second signal processing module  24  to generate the video signal of the second video format.        
 
         [0031]     Actually, the video signal processing system  20  does not necessarily need to include just two signal processing modules (the first signal processing module  22  and the second signal processing module  24  shown in  FIG. 2 ); that is, the apparatus and method of the present invention can be used to process the video signals of a plurality of video formats. Therefore, the video signal processing system  20  of the present invention can include a plurality of signal processing modules respectively corresponding to the plurality of video formats, while the bus  26  is utilized to connect the plurality of signal processing modules to each other so that the video signal processing system  20  can generate the video signals of a plurality of video formats. Moreover, a predetermined signal processing module among the plurality of signal processing modules is chosen as the master processor and is used to control the video signal processing system  20 , while other signal processing modules among the plurality of signal processing modules are set as slave processors complying with the control of the master processor. Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a functional block diagram of another embodiment of a video signal processing system  30  according to the present invention. The amount of the signal processing modules should not be constrained in the present embodiment. The more signal processing modules that are integrated into the system, the more video formats can be processed. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the video signal processing system  30  of the present embodiment includes a peripheral component interconnect bus  36 , a first signal processing module  32 , a second signal processing module  34 , and a third signal processing module  35 . The first, second, and third signal processing modules  32 ,  34 ,  35  are coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  36  respectively used to generate the video signals of first, second, and third video formats. Users can determine a predetermined signal processing module from the first, second, and third signal processing modules  32 ,  34 ,  35  as the master processor to control the video signal processing system  30 .  
         [0032]     Based off of the structure shown in  FIG. 2 , a video signal processing system  40  having the function of network transmission is shown in  FIG. 5 , which is a functional block diagram of a detailed embodiment. The video signal processing system  40  includes a peripheral component interconnect bus  46  (PCI Bus), a multiplexing device  41 , a first signal processing module  42 , a second signal processing module  44 , and a network module  48 . The first signal processing module  42  is coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  46  and used to generate the video signal of the first video format; the second signal processing module  44  is also coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  46  and used to generate the video signal of the second video format. The multiplexing device  41  is electrically coupled to the first signal processing module  42  and the second signal processing module  44  and used to receive an A/V signal and to transmit the A/V signal to the first signal processing module  42  or the second signal processing module  44  for advanced process. The network module  48  is electrically coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  46  and used to receive a video signal from a network environment, such as a WLAN. In addition, the network module  48  can communicate with the first signal processing module  42  and the second signal processing module  44  via the peripheral component interconnect bus  46  to output the video signal generated by those two signal processing modules to the network environment in order to provide network services. When being implemented, if the first video format conforms to the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 specifications and the second video format conforms to the MPEG-4 specification, the network module  48  can be mainly used to receive and output the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification.  
         [0033]     Users can set the first signal processing module  42  as the master processor to control operations of the second signal processing module  44  and the network module  48 . Please notice that when the second signal processing module  44  is controlled by the first signal processing module  42 , the multiplexing device  41  can be electrically coupled to only the first signal processing module  42  (the multiplexing device  41  is not electrically coupled to the second signal processing module). When users want to set the video format as the first video format, the first signal processing module  42  will transmit the A/V signal to the first signal processing module  42  for transforming the A/V signal into the video signal of the first video format; when users want to set the video format as the second video format, the first signal processing module  42  can transmit the A/V signal to the second signal processing module  44  for transforming the A/V signal into the video signal of the second video format. Since the corresponding software architectures of the first signal processing module  42  and the second signal processing module  44  are different, an interface has to be included between the software architectures of the first signal processing module  42  and the second signal processing module  44  so that the first signal processing module  42  can smoothly control the second signal processing module  44 . Please refer to  FIG. 6 , which is a functional block diagram of a software architecture  50  according to the present invention. The software architecture  50  includes two software structures of two signal processing modules shown in  FIG. 5 . A first software structure  52  and a second software structure  54  respectively correspond to the first signal processing module  42  and the second signal processing module  44  shown in  FIG. 5 . The first software structure  52  includes a first driver software layer  51  and a first streaming layer  53 . The first streaming layer  53  includes a service layer  58  and a UI &amp; App layer  56 . The second software structure  54  includes a second driver software layer  55  and a second streaming layer  57 . Please notice that in the first software structure  52 , the service layer  58  can be treated not only as an operating interface of the second software structure  54  but also as the interface between the first and the second software structures  52 ,  54 . Therefore, by the operations of the service layer  58 , the first and the second software structures  52 ,  54  can communicate with each other at the streaming layer (the first streaming layer  53  and the second streaming layer  57 ) so that the first signal processing module  42  can control the second signal processing module. The design of the software architecture aims at the characteristic of the hardware structure of the present invention. In addition, due to the service layer  58 , users can control the service layer  58  so as to operate the second software structure  54  after slightly modifying the UI &amp; App layer of the first software structure  52  without needing to adjust the content of the first driver software layer  51  and the second driver software layer  55 .  
         [0034]     Please refer back to  FIG. 5 . The structure shown in  FIG. 5  can be electrically connected to various audio devices, displayers, storage devices, VCD/DVD players, or recorders. Please refer to  FIG. 7 , which is a functional block diagram of a detailed embodiment shown in  FIG. 5 . The video signal processing system  40  shown in  FIG. 7  is equal to the structure shown in  FIG. 5  added with an integrated device electronics (IDE) interface  60 , a DVD recorder  62 , a DVD player  64 , a hard disk  66 , and a display device  68 . The VCD/DVD player  64 , the hard disk  66 , and the display device  68  are electrically coupled to the first signal processing module  42 , and the DVD recorder  62  can directly be coupled to the first signal processing module  42  or coupled to the second signal processing module  44  via the IDE interface  60 . Based off of the structure shown in  FIG. 7 , a first method embodiment of the present invention can refer to the following steps shown in  FIG. 8 : 
        Step  200 : users determine the desired video format (from an OSD image) to conform to the MPEG-2 specification, and the multiplexing device  41  will transmit an A/V signal to the first signal processing module  42  for processing;     Step  202 : set the first signal processing module  42  as the master processor, and transform the A/V signal into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification;     Step  204 : utilize the first signal processing module  42  to transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification to the hard disk  66  for being stored, or transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification to a DVD recorder  62  so as to record the video signal onto a DVD disk.        
 
         [0038]     The first embodiment shown in  FIG. 8  mainly describes the procedure in which an A/V signal from analog source, such as a TV, CVBS, or S-Video, is transformed into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification via the first signal processing module  42  and is then stored with digital format. In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 8 , the second signal processing module  44  is not utilized, and the first signal processing module  42  does not communicate with the second signal processing module  44  so that the service layer  58  of the first software structure  52  shown in  FIG. 6  is not utilized. The following embodiment shown in  FIG. 9  will utilize the peripheral component interconnect bus  46  and set the first signal processing module  42  as the master processor to control the video signal processing system  40 . Please refer to  FIG. 9 , which shows the procedure that the video signal read from a DVD player  64  is played with the format conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. 
        Step  300 : utilize the first signal processing module  42  to read a video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification from the VCD/DVD player  64 ;     step  302 : the first signal processing module  42 , the master processor, will determine to transmit the video signal that conforms to the MPEG-2 specification to the second signal processing module  44 , and simultaneously emit an execution command to the second signal processing module  44  to make the second signal processing module  44  transform the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification;     Step  304 : the second signal processing module  44  receives the execution command and the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification to perform a trans-coding process so as to transform the video signal conforming to the MPEG-2 specification into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. Afterwards, perform an MPEG-4 decoding procedure so that the display device  68  can play the decoded video signal;     Step  306 : After the second signal processing module  44  generates the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification, the first signal processing module  42  transmits the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification back to the first signal processing module  42 . Afterwards, the display device  68  will play the (decoded) video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification.        
 
         [0043]     Similar to the embodiment shown in  FIG. 9 ,  FIG. 10  shows the procedure that the video signal received by the network module  48  is then played with the format conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. 
        Step  400 : the network module  48  receives a video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification; utilize the first signal processing module  42  to transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to the second signal processing module  44 . Please notice that the video signal received by the network module  48  may conform to any specification;     Step  402 : the first signal processing module  42  emits an execution command to the second signal processing module  44  so that the second signal processing module  44  will perform an MPEG-4 decoding process. If the original video signal does not conform to the MPEG-4 specification, the second signal processing module  44  will transform the video signal of any other video format into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification and perform the MPEG-4 decoding process;     step  404 : After the second signal processing module  44  generates the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification, the first signal processing module  42  will transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification back to the first signal processing module  42  and then to the display device  68  for playing.        
 
         [0047]     A fourth method embodiment and a fifth method embodiment are disclosed in the following paragraphs. The fourth embodiment shown in  FIG. 11  mainly describes a procedure that an A/V signal is transformed into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification via the second signal processing module  44  and then stored with digital formats. The fifth embodiment shown in  FIG. 12  mainly describes a video signal received by the network module  48  and then stored with the format conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. In the fourth and fifth embodiments, the first signal processing module  42  is required to emit an execution command to the second signal processing module  44  to ask the second signal processing module  44  to execute an MPEG-4 encoding procedure to store the (encoded) video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification.  FIG. 11  includes following steps: 
        Step  500 : users determine the desired video format from an OSD image to conform to the MPEG-2 specification, and the multiplexing device  41  will transmit an A/V signal to the second signal processing module  44  for processing;     Step  502 : the first signal processing module  42 , the master processor, emits an execution command to the second signal processing module  44  to ask the second signal processing module  44  to transform the A/V signal into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification. The first signal processing module  42  also asks the second signal processing module  44  to perform an MPEG-4 encoding process to generate the (encoded) video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification;     step  504 : after the second signal processing module  44  generates the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification, the first signal processing module  42  will transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification back to the first signal processing module  42  and then to the hard disk  66 . The first signal processing module  42  can also transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to the DVD recorder  62  for recording the video signal onto a DVD. Certainly, the first signal processing module  42  can transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to any digital recorder  62  via the IDE interface  60  coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  46 .        
 
         [0051]      FIG. 12  includes following steps: 
        Step  600 : the network module  48  receives a video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification; utilize the first signal processing module  42  to transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to the second signal processing module  44 . Please notice that the video signal received by the network module  48  may conform to any specification;     step  602 : the first signal processing module  42  emits an execution command to the second signal processing module  44  to ask the second signal processing module  44  to execute an MPEG-4 encoding process. If the original video signal does not conform to the MPEG-4 specification, the second signal processing module  44  will transform the video signal of any other video format into the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification and perform the MPEG-4 decoding process;     step  604 : after the second signal processing module  44  generates the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification, the first signal processing module  42  will transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification back to the first signal processing module  42  and then to the hard disk  66 . The first signal processing module  42  can also transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to the DVD recorder  62  for recording the video signal onto a DVD. Certainly, the first signal processing module  42  can transmit the video signal conforming to the MPEG-4 specification to any digital recorder  62  via the IDE interface  60  coupled to the peripheral component interconnect bus  46 .          
         [0055]     In the present invention, we disclose a video signal processing system with the function of network transmission. The video signal processing system can be used to process and generate a plurality of video signals, which conform to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 specification, or other video formats. Therefore, under various conditions, different compression techniques can be utilized to generate corresponding video signals to meet various requirements.  
         [0056]     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.