Patent ID: 7719616

Claim:
A system for producing a NTSC television broadcast signal, comprising: a digital video conditioner configured to receive a digitized broadcast-compatible video signal and to produce a conditioned video signal and a pilot signal; a digital stereo BTSC encoder configured to receive at least two digitized audio signals and the pilot signal and to produce a combined audio signal; a digital modulator configured to receive the conditioned video signal and the combined audio signal, wherein the digital modulator is configured to (a) provide frequency modulation to the combined audio signal at a broadcast frequency without the need for use of an intermediate frequency signal, (b) provide amplitude modulation to the conditioned video signal, and (c) produce a complete digital television broadcast signal as a function of the combined audio signal and conditioned video signal; an analog-to-digital stage operatively coupled to the digital video conditioner and configured to convert an analog broadcast-compatible video signal to the digitized broadcast-compatible video signal; an analog-to-digital stage operatively coupled to the digital stereo encoder and configured to convert at least two analog audio signals to the at least two digitized audio signals; and a digital-to-analog converter operatively coupled to the digital modulator and configured to receive the television broadcast signal, and convert the television broadcast signal to an analog NTSC format signal.