Feature-dependent operating method between two connected equipments and an apparatus for controlling the operating method

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for accomplishing a requested operation selectively based upon features of other equipment between equippments connected through a digital interface such as the IEEE 1394. The feature-dependent operating apparatus consists of a connector sending and receiving data through the digital interface; a memory storing feature information of a connected equipment received through the connector; a pickup detecting video and / or audio data from a data storage medium; a controller controlling the pickup to detect data from the data storage medium based on the stored feature information, converting the format of the detected data into a format specified in the stored feature information, and generating an advisory message informing a mismatch between the format of data to offer and the format specified in the feature information; and a data sender transmitting data detected by the pickup or the generated message to the connected equipment through the digital interface. This feature-dependent operating apparatus is able to adjust functions and processing capacity of a equipment to the maximal or universal capacity of the connected equipment automatically, or to inform a viewer of the cause of possible malfunction if the features of the connected equipment are not same, when data by a requested operation are to be transmitted to the connected equipment, thereby improving the convenience of a viewer.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is related to application Ser. No. 11 / 432,790, filed on May 12, 2006, and continuation application Ser. No. 12 / 690,105, filed on Jan. 19, 2010, and continuation application Ser. No. 12 / 690,107, filed on Jan. 19, 2010.<?insert-end id="INS-S-00001" ?>BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a method for accomplishing a requested operation selectively based upon features of other equipment connected through a digital communication line.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]FIG. 1 shows an example of several electric home appliances connected to each other through a digital interface line such as the IEEE 1394. The electric home appliances connected to each other are a digital versatile disk (DVD) player 100 for reproducing high-quality digital video and / or audio data from an optical disk, a digital video cassette recorder (VCR) 300 for recording / reproducin...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, the digital TV 200 connected to the DVD player 100 through a digital interface such as the IEEE 1394 standard may not equip a processing capacity corresponding to the data processing capacity and the operation features of the DVD player 100, and may not support the characteristics of contents of the DVD in which aforementioned additional information and data for new functions are recorded.

Moreover, a low-price digital TV may not have information on its processing capacity and operational features, or may not support the negotiating function for mutual exchange of the feature information.

Accordingly, the video and audio data normally reproduced from a DVD by the DVD player may be presented abnormally in the digital TV.

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