APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORING SIGNALS AND FOR DISTRIBUTING THEM BY DOWN-CONVERTING TO VACANT CHANNELS

摘要

A server apparatus (20) is capable of distributing recorded content in a household and/or business dwelling using the existing coaxial cable infrastructure. According to an exemplary embodiment, the server apparatus (20) includes a front-end processor (21) operative to receive signals from a broadcast source and process the received signals to generate digital data. A memory (27) is operative to record the digital data. A controller (31) is operative to enable retrieval of the digital data from the memory (27). An encoder (28) is operative to encode the retrieved digital data with error correction data to generate encoded digital signals. A digital-to-analog converter (29) is operative to convert the encoded digital signals to analog signals. A modulator (30) is operative to modulate the analog signals to generate processed analog signals, which are provided to a client device (50) via a coaxial cable connecting the server apparatus (20) and the client device (50).