Abstract:
A television recorder defines a recessed memory storage device bay and a rack mounted in the memory storage device bay. The recorder includes a carrier for removeably locking a hard disk drive into the rack. The television recorder connects with a television and television broadcast source for simultaneously recording television programming and replaying recorded programming. The carrier engages the rack to removeably insert the hard disk drive into the television recorder

Description:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE:  
       [0001]     WIPO publication no. WO 00/07368 published on Feb. 10, 2000, and WIPO publication no. WO 99/52279 published on Oct. 14, 1999, by applicant TiVo, Inc. are incorporated herein by reference.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention pertains to media switching, and more particularly to television recorders having high-speed digital recording media.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     ReplayTV, Inc. and TiVo, Inc. have developed television recorders incorporating media switches. In time, it is expected that these recorders will replace traditional VCR technology. Instead of recording a television input stream directly to a magnetic tape, these television recorders record and convert the television input streams, manipulate the input stream into digital data, convert the digital data stream into a television output stream, and selectively play back the output stream to a television. A hard disk drive is used to record both the input stream and to play back the output stream.  
         [0004]     Many advantages that are realized through the use of hard drive media in combination with a television recorder having a media switch. ReplayTV, Inc. outlines some of the advantages on their web site www.replaytv.com:  
         [0005]     Watch your favorite TV programming—on your schedule. ReplayTV will forever change the way you watch television. It sets you free from those TV schedules that are never where you left them. It pauses live TV. It records without videotape. It lets you skip over the boring parts. It searches and records shows with the touch of a button. It gives you control over live television. With ReplayTV, you can digitally record up to 30 hours of the shows you want to see and then watch them whenever you want. What doesn&#39;t ReplayTV give you? A monthly bill.  
         [0006]     Pause Live TV (and perform other cool tricks). Watching your favorite tennis stars in a doubles match? Pause live programming to answer the phone or grab a snack—then resume watching without missing a single forehand crush or masterful lob. Bored with a rain delay? Skip ahead to get to the action. Want a closer look at a crucial line call? Use multispeed forward and reverse to get there, then catch every detail in Slo-Mo and frame advance. (And feel free to disagree with the referee!)  
         [0007]     Go wherever you want at warp speed. Want to skip a scene that&#39;s too long or just plain boring? Use QuickSkip™ to jump forward to the good stuff. Plus you can digitally fast forward and rewind at 2 to 20 times normal speed. Now that&#39;s power. Are you starting to feel omnipotent yet? Read on.  
         [0008]     Not sure what you&#39;re in the mood for? No problem. ReplayZones let you browse through more than 100 show categories—it&#39;s the easiest way to find the best of any television genre. Whether it&#39;s Sitcoms, Cartoons, Four Star Movies or Biographies, ReplayTV puts them all at your fingertips.  
         [0009]     Know what you want? Find it fast. If you can spell “ER,” ReplayTV can find it-instantly. With the Find Shows feature, you type in a show title or for that matter any keyword and, POW! up comes a list of every single show that matches your search. Find Shows even gives you a description of each show it&#39;s found so you can decide which ones to record. Tap the Record button and ReplayTV will do the rest.  
         [0010]     The first day you own ReplayTV is the last day you watch boring television. Check out the on-screen Channel Guide, a complete listing of everything that&#39;s on for the coming week. When you find a show you like, simply press the Record button—it&#39;s that easy. Press it twice and ReplayTV will record that show every time it&#39;s on.  
         [0011]     Live Instant Replay, Slow Motion, and Frame-by-Frame Advance. Okay, so the good guys somehow escaped the jaws of death—but it all happened so quickly, you missed a part. Tap the Instant Replay button and watch the last crucial 7 seconds again. And again. And again. Still puzzled about our heroes&#39; escape? Dissect the scene using the digital Slow Motion or Frame-by-Frame Advance. So that&#39;s how they saved the world and fell in love! 
         [0012]     Say “so long” to the VCR Programming Blues. Recording with ReplayTV is easy—no, really. Highlight a show, press the red record button once, and the show is recorded once. Press twice, and your show is automatically recorded every week. This means you&#39;ll never miss your favorite show again! Not only that ReplayTV digitally records up to 30 hours of programming.  
       Get Into the Zone  
       [0013]     Not sure exactly what you&#39;re looking for? Use ReplayZones™ to browse and record programming by category such as sitcoms, talk shows and four-star movies. You can even find new favorites you didn&#39;t even know about! With ReplayZones you can always find what&#39;s best on TV.  
         [0014]     Know what you want? Find it fast. If you can spell “ER”, ReplayTV can find it—instantly. The Find Shows menu searches the next seven days of channel guide content using “keywords” you provide. Search for Eastwood . . . murder . . . millionaire . . . or whatever. ReplayTV lists all matching shows, and you select the ones you want to see.  
         [0015]     One technical drawback to the systems described above involves the capability of a hard disk drive to record, cache, and replay streamed television signals. Hard disk drives have a mean time between failure that may extend ten years or more. If the drive is used continuously, this mean time may be reduced. Continuous hard drive operation causes heat to accumulate in the drive. Heat may reduce the mean time between failure, cause drive failure, or cause data loss. What is desired is a way of cooling hard disk drives that are used in television recorders.  
         [0016]     Another drawback of the systems described above is that there is limited recording capability. ReplayTV, for example, has a thirty-hour limit for recording. Accordingly, television broadcasts, home movies, and other recorded events exceeding thirty hours, can not be stored on the recorder. A standard VCR may be used for archiving purposes. What is desired is a way of increasing the storage capacity of television recorders. What is further desired is a way of archiving stored programming without requiring a standard VCR machine.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0017]     A television recorder defines a recessed memory storage device bay and a rack mounted in the memory storage device bay. The recorder includes a carrier for removeably locking a hard disk drive into the rack. The television recorder connects with a television and television broadcast source for simultaneously recording television programming and replaying recorded programming. The carrier engages the rack to removeably insert the hard disk drive into the television recorder.  
         [0018]     According to one aspect of the invention, the carrier includes a face with a fan. The fan draws air from beyond the recorder to within the recorder to cool the hard disk drive.  
         [0019]     According to another aspect of the invention, the carrier has lateral sides, the rack has lateral rails that mate with the sides of the carrier to enable the carrier to slide with respect to the rack. The lateral rails and sides have an opening for allowing air to flow. A fan mounts near the opening, either on the rails or on the sides to cool the hard disk drive. The rail-mounted fans cooperate with the face-mounted fans. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]      FIG. 1  shows an exploded perspective view of a docking adapter in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0021]      FIG. 2  shows an exploded perspective view of a docking adapter in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  shows perspective view of a television recorder and docking adapter exploded from the television recorder.  
         [0023]      FIG. 4  shows a perspective view of a television recorder having multiple docking adapters. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0024]      FIG. 1  shows a docking adapter for memory storage devices, generally designated with the reference numeral  22 . The docking adapter  22  includes a rack  24  and a carrier  26 . The carrier  26  holds a hard disk drive  28 . It can be appreciated that while the docking adapter  22  is shown removeably docking the hard disk drive  28 , the present invention is not limited to use with only hard disk drives. Optical drives can be removeably docked in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0025]     The carrier  26  shrouds the hard disk drive  28  to protect the hard disk drive  28  and related components from impact during handling and transport. The carrier  26  has a top cover  30 , a tray  32 , a face  34  and a vent  36 . The carrier  26  includes a first lateral side  38  and a second lateral side  40  that extend perpendicularly from the face, defining portions of the tray  32 . The carrier  26  includes a backplane  42  with a data connector  44 . The lateral side  40  of the carrier  26  has a periphery  46 . The periphery defines an opening  48 . The periphery  46  is generally rectangular in shape to enable air to exit the tray  32  of the carrier  26  to cool the hard disk drive  28 .  
         [0026]     The rack  24  has a fan  50 , a first lateral rail  52 , a second lateral rail  54  and a backplane  56  with a data connector  58 . The data connector  58  couples with the data connector  44  and the opening  48  aligns with the fan  50  when the carrier  26  inserts into the rack  24 . Preferably, the lateral sides  38  and  40  of the carrier  26  slidably engage the lateral rails  54  and  52  of the rack  24 , respectively, to enable the carrier  26  to slide into the rack  24 .  
         [0027]     Although a single fan  50  mounted on the first lateral rail  52  is shown, it can be appreciated that additional fans can mount on the rack  24 . For example, a fan  50  can mount on the second lateral rail  54  in accordance with the invention to improve cooling of the hard disk drive  28 . It can also be appreciated that the carrier may have additional openings to accommodate any additional rack-mounted fans.  
         [0028]     The first lateral rail  52  includes a seal  56 . The fan  50  has a square periphery with four sides. The seal  56  surrounds the four sides of fan  50 , sealing the first lateral rail  52  against the lateral side  40  of the carrier  26  when the carrier  26  inserts into the rack  24 . The seal  56  is positioned adjacent the opening  48  to optimize airflow through the opening  48  when the carrier  26  inserts into the rack  24 . It can be appreciated that although the seal  56  fully surrounds the fan  50 , the seal  56  may alternatively surround only a portion of the fan  50 . The seal  56  shape and configuration depend on the configuration of the carrier  26 , the top cover  30 , the backplane  58  and rail  52  of the rack  24 .  
         [0029]     It can be appreciated that the seal  56  may be rigid or compliant. According to one aspect of the invention, the seal  56  is compliant, being fabricated from rubber. It can also be appreciated that the seal may attach to the carrier  26  periphery  46 , instead of attachment to the rack  24 . According to one aspect of the invention, the carrier side  40  and the rack rail  54  fit tightly to seal the fan  50  against the carrier side  40 .  
         [0030]     The lateral rail  52  is box-shaped to form a conduit  57  through the lateral rail  52 . The conduit enables the lateral rail  52  to direct air from the carrier  26  through the distal end of the rack  24 , out past the rack backplane  58  in the direction of the arrow  59 .  
         [0031]     Preferably, the opening  46  is at least ¼ square inches in area to enable the airflow to be sufficient to cool the hard disk drive  28 . More preferably, the opening  46  is between ¼ and 1 square inches in area to effectuate hard drive cooling.  
         [0032]      FIG. 2  shows the docking adapter  22  where the carrier  26  includes fans  50  mounted on the periphery  46  of the first lateral side  38  and the second lateral side  40  of the carrier  26 . The rack  24  has a distal end  55 .  
         [0033]     The first rail  52  and the second rail  54  of the rack  24  each have a periphery  60  defining an opening  62 . When the carrier  26  inserts into the rack  24 , the carrier fans  50  of each lateral side  38  and  40  align, respectively, with the rack opening  62  to blow air from the carrier  26  through the rack opening  62 . The rack opening  62  on the lateral rail  52  enables air to blow through the conduit  57 , exiting exit from the distal end  55  of the rack  24 . Preferably, each rack opening  62  is at least ¼ square inches in area to enable sufficient airflow to cool a carrier-mounted memory storage device. More preferably, each opening  62  is between ¼ and 1 square inches in area.  
         [0034]      FIG. 3  shows a television recorder generally designated with the reference numeral  70 . The television recorder  70  includes a hard drive bay  72 . The rack  24  mounts in the bay  72 . The carrier  26  holds a hard disk drive  28  and removeably slides into the rack  24  to electronically couple the hard disk drive with the television recorder  70 .  
         [0035]     The carrier  26  enables removal of the hard disk drive  28 . The carrier encases the hard disk drive  28  to protect the hard disk drive  28  from damage during transport and storage. Once the hard disk drive  28  and carrier  26  are removed from the recorder  70 , a replacement carrier and hard disk drive can be inserted into the bay  72 . This enables archiving television programming, home movies and other video on the removed hard disk drive  28 . Providing a removable hard disk drive enables virtually unlimited archiving potential.  
         [0036]     The television recorder  70  includes a TV monitor  74 . The TV monitor  74  electronically couples to the television recorder  70  to enable users to view television programming.  
         [0037]     According to one aspect of the invention, the television recorder  70  includes a tape slot  76  for receiving a VCR tape and enabling the television recorder  70  to archive recorded programming on both VCR tapes and on the hard disk drive  28 .  
         [0038]     The television recorder  70  includes a MPEG coder and decoder. The recorder  70  captures selected television program broadcast signals, converts the signals into an MPEG stream, decodes the MPEG stream, and selectively provides output to the TV  74 . A discussion of an exemplary system for performing these functions is presented in WIPO publication WO 00/07368, published on Feb. 10, 2000, and incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0039]      FIG. 4  shows the television recorder  70 . The recorder  70  includes various input and outputs. Preferably, the recorder  70  includes a phone line connector  80 , a serial connector  82 , audio inputs  84  and  86 , a video input  88 , an S-video input  90 , an s-video output  92 , an antenna input  94 , RF output  96 , and various audio and video outputs generally designated  98 . The various outputs  98  enable a television monitor and a VCR, for example, to connect with the recorder  70 . The inputs  84  and  86  are connectable to receive broadcast television programming from satellite, cable, video cameras and VCR&#39;s, for examples. The input  94  receives broadcast television programming from an antenna source.  
         [0040]     The television recorder  70  includes memory storage device bays  72 . A rack  24  is integrated into each bay  72 . The bays  72  are sized to accept carriers  26  with standard 5¼ inch hard disk drive. The rack  24  includes lateral rails  52  and  54 . The lateral sides  38  and  40  of the carrier slidably engage the lateral rails  52  and  54  of the rack  24  to insert the carrier  26  into the television recorder  10  and electronically couple the carrier  26  and the rack  24 .  
         [0041]     It can be appreciated that the present invention is described in terms of a particular embodiment. It is appreciated that there are many ways to modify the invention described that still are covered by the inventor&#39;s concept and the claims below. For example, the configuration of the rack and carrier may be changed. An optical drive, or other memory storage device may be substituted for the hard disk drive of the present invention. The fans may be removed or modified to fit in an alternate location. Accordingly, the present invention is to be limited only by the following claims.