AUDIO VIDEO CONTENT INPUT/OUTPUT CHASSIS SYSTEM

摘要

The typical home has one primary television, and many entertainment appliances which provide audio-video content to that television. Prior to the present invention, there has never been an efficient way of managing the control of these appliances with a single remote control (universal remote control), and the switching of input ports such that a user can control which appliance is currently displaying its content on the television (content switching).;The reason these two functions have never been managed efficiently is because they are always performed by separate devices, which have no integration or cooperation with each other. Many homes have both, a hub-based universal remote control system, and a content switcher. But the traditional remote control hub cannot efficiently manage an entertainment system, because it does not have the access that a content switcher has to the appliances. Furthermore, the content switcher is one more appliance that the remote control hub needs to manage, and this adds complications and difficulties. The present invention dramatically improves on the efficiency and ability of both devices, the remote control hub and the content switcher, by intelligently merging both functions into a single processor.

主权项

1. A chassis system, comprising:
a) a chassis, with a plurality of communication ports, said ports receiving content from content source appliances; and b) a remote control unit, which transmits control codes intended to control appliances; and c) a processor, located in the chassis, said processor performing three functions:
i) the function of a traditional content switcher, said function being the selection, at any given time, of which content source is currently the active content source for a given content destination, said active content source being the one and only content source whose content is currently forwarded to said content destination; andii) the function of a traditional remote control hub, said function being to receive control codes from one or more remote control units, and forward each said control code to whichever appliance or other entity is the intended recipient of said control code; andiii) the integration of said content switcher function with said remote control hub function, such that selecting a remote-controlled content source appliance as the controlled appliance and selecting that same appliance as the active content source are consolidated into a single action; said integration occurring with no need for user-configured activity scripts.