Patent Publication Number: US-2006020979-A1

Title: Tv signal processing module having a multiple-deck minipci sockets

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The invention relates to a TV signal processing module, and more particularly, to a TV signal processing module comprising a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket.  
      2. Description of the Prior Art  
      In recent years, video media have played an important role in people&#39;s recreational lives. TV programs, for example, take people&#39;s pressures away and give people more happiness. Therefore, quality and convenience of video media have become a goal of today&#39;s technology industry.  
      Microsoft® provides a lot of video software for promoting the quality of a household digital video system, and furthermore, makes consumers feel more comfortable and entertained. These new software packages are mainly used in a DVD player, a digital TV displaying device, an audio playing device, or other displaying media. Surely, in order to cooperate with the promotion of software, a hardware platform is disclosed by many personnel computer producers or video hardware producers to achieve the promotion of the whole video system through cooperation between the hardware and the software.  
      Nowadays, a laptop (notebook) is frequently used because of its small size. Therefore, the laptop has to be compatible with many video media, just like the personnel computer. For example, the laptop can be used to receive a TV signal for viewers to watch TV, which has become a necessary function now. But in today&#39;s market, because the TV module of the laptop has a bigger size, about the size of a floppy-disk module or a DVD playing module, the floppy-disk module or a DVD playing module has to be moved out of the laptop to integrate the TV module and the laptop. However, although the above-mentioned method can achieve the function of watching TV on the laptop, it causes great inconvenience to users. For example, because the DVD playing module and the TV module cannot be positioned in the laptop at the same time, users cannot utilize the DVD playing module to record a TV program when watching TV through the TV module.  
      In the prior art, in order to solve the aforementioned problem, the computer producers disclose an external TV module. That is, the external TV module is electrically connected to a laptop through a USB 2.0 port. But, because the TV module is not built-in to the laptop, users have to carry a TV module. Therefore, this not only causes inconvenience to the users, but also has the disadvantage of complex electrical connections. So the external TV module does not conform to the demands of modern integrated laptops.  
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
      It is therefore one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide a TV signal processing device comprising a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket, to solve the above-mentioned problem.  
      According to an exemplary embodiment of the claimed invention, a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket for positioning at least one MiniPCI card is disclosed, the multiple deck MiniPCI socket comprises a plurality of MiniPCI sockets arranged in decks, wherein each socket comprises a plurality of plugs or pins.  
      Furthermore, a TV signal processing module is disclosed. The TV signal processing module comprises a TV module for processing TV signals; an internal transformer electrically connected to the TV module for transferring the TV signals to the TV module, the internal transformer comprising a high-voltage blocker for preventing a high-voltage from entering the TV module; and an external cable for transferring the TV signals from a TV cable to the internal transformer; wherein one end of the external cable is electrically connected to the TV cable and the other end of the external cable is electrically connected to the internal transformer.  
      In addition, another TV signal processing module is disclosed. The TV signal processing module comprises a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket for positioning the TV module. The multiple-deck MiniPCI socket comprises a plurality of MiniPCI sockets arranged in decks, each socket comprising a plurality of plugs or pins, wherein the TV module is plugged in one of the MiniPCI sockets of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket.  
      Additionally, a method for transferring a TV signal to a TV module is disclosed. The method comprises providing an external cable; electrically connecting one end of an internal transformer to the external cable; electrically connecting the other end of the internal transformer to the TV module; electrically connecting a TV cable to the external cable; utilizing the external cable to receive the TV signal from the TV cable; utilizing the internal transformer to receive the TV signal from the external cable; utilizing the internal transformer to filter out high voltage signals from the TV signal; and utilizing the TV module to receive the filtered high voltage TV signals.  
      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 that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a diagram of a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of an embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a sectional diagram of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket shown in  FIG. 1  through the line  2 - 2 ′.  
       FIG. 3  is a diagram of a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of another embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 4  is a diagram of a TV signal receiving interface of an embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 5  is a diagram of a TV signal processing module of an embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 6  is a diagram of a TV signal processing module of another embodiment according to the present invention.  
       FIG. 7  is a diagram of a method for transferring a TV signal to a TV module of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of an embodiment according to the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which is a diagram of a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of an embodiment according to the present invention. Many of today&#39;s laptops contain a MiniPCI socket for positioning a wireless LAN module. The MiniPCI socket is a standard interface which occupies only a small space. Therefore, the MiniPCI socket is well-suited for use as a connection interface between the TV module and external TV signals. The present invention utilizes the MiniPCI socket to position a TV module in order to achieve the function of playing the TV programs on the laptop. In this embodiment, the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  is a double-deck MiniPCI socket. And each of the MiniPCI sockets of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  comprises a plurality of plugs in order to plug pins of a device, which conforms to the MiniPCI standard. The two MiniPCI sockets  14 ,  15  are arranged in decks of different heights corresponding to the motherboard. Therefore, although a plurality of peripheral interface cards are plugged in the MiniPCI sockets, the occupied area of the motherboard by the interface cards is not increased. The multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  comprises a plurality of conductive slices, which are arranged in parallel. Each conductive slice is electrically connected to the motherboard, and comprises two plugs, wherein the two plugs are located on two corresponding positions of different decks. This means that when the two peripheral interface cards are plugged in the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10 , the two peripheral interface cards can transfer electrical signals to the motherboard through every two corresponding pins corresponding to each conductive slice. The above-mentioned conductive slices are separated by insulators. Furthermore, the number of conductive slices of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  is determined according to the number of pins of the aforementioned peripheral interface cards. Now taking a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket having 128 parallel conductive slices for example, the conductive slices are illustrated as follows:  
      Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a sectional diagram of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket shown in  FIG. 1  through the line  2 - 2 ′. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the first MiniPCI socket (the bottom deck)  14  has 128 plugs, A 1 -A 128 . In addition, the second MiniPCI socket (the top deck)  15  also has 128 plugs, B 1 -B 128 . Here, please note that 128 plugs of different decks correspond to each other. That is, A 1  corresponds to B 1 , A 2  corresponds to B 2 , . . . , and A 128  corresponds to B 128 .  FIG. 2  also shows 128 parallel conductive slices M 1 , M 2 , M 3 , . . . , M 128 . The conductive slice M 1  establishes the electrical connection between the motherboard and a pin of a peripheral interface card, which is plugged in the bottom deck plug A 1 , and establishes the electrical connection between the motherboard and a pin of another peripheral interface card, which is plugged in the corresponding top deck plug B 1 . Therefore, the two MiniPCI sockets  14 ,  15  utilize the conductive slices M 1 -M 128  to establish the electrical connection between the motherboard and the peripheral interface cards. Please note that the arrangement of the conductive slices in this embodiment is only for illustration, and is not a limitation. As mentioned above, although the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  has an additional MiniPCI socket, the occupied area is not increased. This structure of multiple-deck MiniPCI socket makes it possible to use the wireless LAN module and the TV module at the same time.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 3 , which is a diagram of a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of another embodiment according to the present invention. In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 3 , the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is a 4-deck MiniPCI socket, where each MiniPCI socket of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  comprises a plurality of plugs. Therefore, although many interface cards can be plugged in the above-mentioned MiniPCI sockets, the occupied area of the motherboard is not increased due to the interface cards. The multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  comprises a plurality of conductive slices (not shown in  FIG. 3 ), which are arranged in parallel. Each conductive slice is electrically connected to the motherboard, and comprises 4 plugs, wherein the 4 plugs are located on 4 corresponding positions of different decks. This means that when the 4 peripheral interface cards are plugged in the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20 , the 4 peripheral interface cards can transfer electrical signals to the motherboard through every 4 corresponding pins corresponding to each conductive slice. The above-mentioned conductive slices are separated by insulators. Furthermore, the number of conductive slices of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is determined according to the number of pins of the aforementioned peripheral interface cards. In above-mentioned two embodiments in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 3 , the number of MiniPCI sockets is determined according to the number of devices of the laptop. That is, if each deck of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket has only one MiniPCI socket, more interface cards (such as the aforementioned WLAN module and TV module) need more decks of the MiniPCI sockets (not shown). Furthermore, in the embodiment of  FIG. 3 , the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is a 4-deck MiniPCI socket. Comparing the 4-deck MiniPCI socket with the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10 , the only difference between them is the number of plugs of each conductive slice. That is, each conductive slice of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  has 4 plugs, which are located on 4 corresponding positions of different decks, and each conductive slice of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10  has only 2 plugs, which are located on 2 corresponding positions of different decks. Please note that in these embodiments, pins of the interface cards are plugged in the plugs of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10 ,  20 . In fact, the plugs of the interface cards could also be plugged in the pins of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  10 ,  20 . Furthermore, each conductive slice can be designed to have no plugs. That is, the conductive slice only needs to have a plurality of contact windows in order to make electrical contact. The above-mentioned changes all belong to the spirit of the present invention.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a diagram of a TV signal receiving interface  30  of an embodiment according to the present invention. The TV signal receiving interface  30  comprises an external cable  24 , a high-voltage blocker  23 , and an internal cable  22  (the integration of the high-voltage blocker  23  and the internal cable  22  can be called an internal transformer, in other words, the internal transformer comprises the high-voltage blocker  23  and the internal cable  22 ). The external cable  24  is electrically connected to a TV cable (not shown) to receive TV signals from the TV cable. The high-voltage blocker  23  is respectively electrically connected to the external cable  24  and the internal cable  22  for receiving TV signals from the external cable  24  and blocking or absorbing high voltage signals of the received TV signals, and then the high-voltage blocker  23  transfers the filtered TV signals to the internal cable  22 .  
      In the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , the TV signals received by the TV cable can be wireless TV signals from an antenna (here, the antenna is electrically connected to the TV cable to transfer the received TV signals to the TV cable), or cable TV signals from a cable TV business owner. Because the TV cable is normally a coaxial cable and its corresponding connector is bigger than a normal connector (for example, the RJ-45 connector), if the TV cable is directly connected to the laptop, the laptop cannot be designed with a thin size. Therefore, the external cable  24  is mainly used to electrically connect the TV cable to the laptop. The two ends of the external cable  24  have different diameters, wherein the bigger end is connected to the TV cable, and the other end is connected to the high-voltage blocker  23  of the laptop. In this embodiment, the TV cable is external to the laptop, and the high-voltage blocker is inside the laptop. In order to easily connect the TV cable to the high-voltage blocker  23  of the laptop, the high-voltage blocker has a connector  23   a  for connecting to the smaller end of the external cable  24  (of course, because the connector  23   a  is only used for electrical connection between the high-voltage blocker  23  and the external cable  24 , if other connection methods are used, the connector  23   a  can also be omitted).  
      The high-voltage blocker  23  is used to block an impulse or electrical surge, which can be caused by lightening. Because an antenna is often used at the top of a house or a car and the antenna is conductive, the antenna may be struck by lightening, which is a very high voltage signal. If the high-voltage blocker  23  is not used and the antenna is struck by lightening, the high voltage signal is transferred through the TV cable, the external cable  24 , and the internal cable  22  into the laptop. This may cause major damage to many devices of the laptop (in a normal computer or laptop, a device can endure only 3.3 V, that is, if a signal more than 3.3 V is received, this can cause damage to the device). In order to prevent from this problem, the high-voltage blocker  23  is used to efficiently block or absorb high voltage signals. In this embodiment, the high-voltage blocker  23  comprises a diode. It is well-known that the diode can block high voltages. Therefore, the high-voltage blocker  23  utilizes the characteristic of the diode to achieve the function of blocking high voltage signals, and grounds the high voltage signals to absorb the lightening (not shown). In the aforementioned embodiment, although the present invention utilizes the external cable  24 , the external cable  24  can be omitted according to design demands.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 5 , which is a diagram of a TV signal processing module  40  of an embodiment according to the present invention. The TV signal processing module  40  comprises a TV signal receiving interface  30 , a TV module  18 , and a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20 , wherein the TV signal receiving interface  30  comprises an external cable  24 , a high-voltage blocker  23 , and an internal cable  22 . In the embodiment of  FIG. 5 , the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is a 4-deck MiniPCI socket, wherein each deck has a MiniPCI socket. Each MiniPCI socket is used for plugging in a MiniPCI interface card (such as the TV module  18  or aforementioned WLAN module). In this embodiment, the TV module  18  can be plugged in each of the MiniPCI sockets, and 4 MiniPCI sockets are stacked on the motherboard. Because the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is illustrated above, it is omitted here. In this embodiment, one end of the internal cable  22  is electrically connected to the TV module  18 , and since connection relationships between other devices have been illustrated above, they are omitted here, also.  
      The operation of the embodiment of  FIG. 5  is illustrated as follows:  
      First, the external cable  24  transfers received TV signals to the high-voltage blocker  23 . Second, the high-voltage blocker  23  blocks or absorbs the high voltage signals of the TV signals and transfer the filtered TV signals to the internal cable  22 . Third, the TV module  18  transforms the TV signals from the internal cable  22  into signals conforming to the MiniPCI socket. At last, the signals conforming to the MiniPCI socket are transferred to the prior art south-bridge chip through the motherboard in order to perform further processing (for example, to display TV images). Because the TV module  18  and the south-bridge chip are well-known by those skilled in the art, they are omitted here for simplification.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 6 , which is a diagram of a TV signal processing module  50  of another embodiment according to the present invention. The TV signal processing module  50  comprises a multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20 , a TV module  18 , and a TV signal receiving interface  32 , wherein the TV signal receiving interface  32  is a wireless receiving module. The TV signal receiving interface  32  is connected to the TV module  18  for replacing the TV signal receiving interface  30  shown in  FIG. 5 , receiving wireless TV signals, and transferring the received wireless TV signals to the TV module  18 . And the TV module  18  can be plugged in one of the sockets of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  for transforming the wireless TV signals from the TV signal receiving interface  32  into signals conforming to the MiniPCI socket. Here, the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket  20  is connected to the motherboard (the connection relationships are illustrated in the above embodiments, so they are omitted) for transferring the signals conforming to the MiniPCI socket to the prior art south-bridge chip through the motherboard to perform further processing.  
      Please refer to  FIG. 7 , which is a diagram of a method for transferring a TV signal to a TV module of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket of an embodiment according to the present invention. It comprises the following steps:  
      Step  100 : Provide the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket; the structure of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket is taught above;  
      Step  105 : Plug a TV module into a MiniPCI socket of the multiple-deck MiniPCI socket; 
          Step  110 : Electrically connect one end of an internal transformer to an external cable, and electrically connect the other end of the internal transformer to the TV module;     Step  120 : Electrically connect a TV cable to the external cable;     Step  130 : Utilize the external cable to receive the TV signal from the TV cable;     Step  140 : Utilize the internal transformer to receive the TV signal from the external cable;     Step  150 : Utilize the internal transformer to filter out high voltage signals from the TV signal; wherein the internal transformer comprises a high-voltage blocker to block or absorb the high voltage signals, and the internal transformer utilizes a diode to block the high voltage signals or grounds the high voltage signals to absorb them; and     Step  160 : Utilize the TV module to receive the filtered TV signal.        

      In the prior art, in order to integrate the TV module in the laptop, the floppy-disk module or DVD playing module must be removed to make room for the TV module. However, although this can achieve the function of watching TV in the laptop, this also causes inconvenience to users. Users cannot simultaneously utilize the TV module to watch TV and utilize the DVD playing module to record TV programs. The prior art computer producers disclose an external TV module, which is electrically connected to the laptop through a USB 2.0 port. Because the TV module is not built-in the laptop, users have to carry another TV module, which causes inconvenience and the trouble of connecting the TV module and other devices to the laptop. So the external TV module does not conform to the demands of modern integrated laptops.  
      In contrast to the prior art, the present invention utilizes the above-mentioned multiple-deck MiniPCI socket and protects the socket from high voltage signals to solve the problems of the prior art. This also enables users to watch TV on the laptop and simultaneously record TV programs on writable optical media.  
      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.