Methods, systems, and products for alternate audio sources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9264586-B2
Application number	US-201514697660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2015
Priority date	Feb 28, 2007
Publication date	Feb 16, 2016
Grant date	Feb 16, 2016

Abstract

Audio and video signals are synchronized for pleasing presentation of content. As content is streamed to a device, an audio portion may lag or lead a video portion. Spoken words, for example, are out of synch with the lip movements. Video content is thus synchronized to audio content to ensure streaming content is pleasing.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by an electronic device, a video signal having video time stamps;
receiving, by the electronic device, an audio signal comprising audio time stamps;
obtaining, by the electronic device, an amount of asynchronism from the audio signal, the amount of asynchronism permitted between the video signal and the audio signal;
determining, by the electronic device, a difference between the audio time stamps and the video time stamps; and
delaying, by the electronic device, at least one of the video signal and the audio signal until the difference satisfies the amount of asynchronism.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising querying for the audio signal related to the video signal.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the audio signal leads the video signal;
determining the difference between one of the audio time stamps and a corresponding one of the video time stamps; and
delaying the audio signal until the difference satisfies the amount of asynchronism.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the video signal leads the audio signal;
determining the difference between one of the audio time stamps and a corresponding one of the video time stamps; and
delaying the video signal until the difference satisfies the amount of asynchronism.

5. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing code that when executed causes the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
receiving a video signal comprising video time stamps;
separately receiving an audio signal comprising audio time stamps;
obtaining, from the video signal, a first amount of asynchronism permitted between the video signal and the audio signal;
obtaining, from the audio signal, a second amount of asynchronism permitted between the video signal and the audio signal;
selecting a smaller value of the first amount of asynchronism obtained from the video signal and the second amount of asynchronism obtained from the audio signal;
determining a difference between the audio time stamps and the video time stamps; and
delaying at least one of the video signal and the audio signal until the difference satisfies the smaller value selected from the first amount of asynchronism and the second amount of asynchronism.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise querying for the audio signal.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise determining the audio signal leads the video signal.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise determining the audio signal lags the video signal.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the first amount of asynchronism encoded within the video signal.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the second amount of asynchronism encoded within the audio signal.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the first amount of asynchronism from the video signal.

12. The system of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the second amount of asynchronism from the audio signal.

13. A memory device storing instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
receiving a video signal having video time stamps;
separately receiving an audio signal comprising audio time stamps;
receiving an amount of asynchronism from the video signal;
determining a difference between the audio time stamps and the video time stamps; and
delaying at least one of the video signal and the audio signal until the difference satisfies the amount of asynchronism.

14. The memory device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise querying for the audio signal.

15. The memory device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise determining the audio signal leads the video signal.

16. The memory device of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise determining the audio signal lags the video signal.

17. The memory device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise matching a video content identifier obtained from the video signal to an audio content identifier obtained from the audio signal.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Meek Dennis
• Koch Robert A

Classifications

• H04N5/04 Primary

  Synchronising (for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56) · CPC title

• H04L65/756

  adapting media to device capabilities · CPC title

• H04N21/43072 Primary

  of multiple content streams on the same device · CPC title

• H04N5/44

  Receiver circuitry {for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards} (H04N5/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N5/265

  Mixing · CPC title