Patent ID: 7690015

Claim:
A program and system information protocol (PSIP) converter for selectively receiving a digital terrestrial broadcasting transport stream (TS) or a digital satellite broadcasting TS, converting them into a corresponding digital cable broadcasting TS, and outputting the same, said PSI converter comprising: a protocol data extractor for demultiplexing the terrestrial broadcasting TS or the satellite broadcasting TS, extracting audio/video (MV) data and PSIP/PSI (program specific information) data from the terrestrial broadcasting TS, and extracting A/V data and SI (system information)/PSI data from the satellite broadcasting TS; a protocol data converter for converting the PSIP/PSI data or the SI/PSI data extracted by the protocol data extractor into PSIP/PSI data of a corresponding digital cable television broadcasting standard; a protocol data inserter for inserting the digital cable television broadcasting standard PSIP/PSI data generated by the protocol data converter into the A/V data extracted by the protocol data extractor through TS multiplexing, and generating a digital cable broadcasting TS; and a system controller for checking states of the protocol data extractor, the protocol data converter and the protocol data inserter, and controlling their operation; wherein the protocol data converter comprises: a table data manager for receiving the terrestrial broadcasting PSIP/PSI data or the satellite broadcasting SI/PSI data from the protocol data extractor, splitting them according to tables corresponding to the PSIP or the SI and the PSI, and extracting data for generating digital cable broadcasting PSIP/PSI tables; a common protocol data manager for using the data extracted by the table data manager, a data input by a system manager through an user interface, and data stored in a database to configure data needed for generating the digital cable broadcasting PSIP/PSI tables; a scheduler for outputting control signals corresponding to each table generation period of the digital cable broadcasting PSIP/PSI; and a PSIP/PSI table generator for generating the digital cable broadcasting PSIP/PSI tables by using the data input by the common protocol data manager according to the control signals outputted by the scheduler, and outputting the same to the protocol data inserter.