Methods for transmitting digital multimedia and data over the same wires
A method of transmitting a data stream over a communication channel, the method comprising: providing symbol sets having different numbers of symbols; modulating data in the data stream that warrant different degrees of protection against noise onto symbols from symbol sets having different numbers of symbols, wherein which symbol set given data in the stream is modulated onto is independent of symbol sets onto which other data in the data stream is modulated onto; and transmitting the symbols.
1 . A method for bidirectional communication over the same wires, comprising: transmitting a first transmission comprising lossless high definition digital video multiplexed with first data over a set of wires; receiving a second transmission comprising second data over at least a subset of the set of wires; and deriving the digital video timing based on the following parameters that are comprised in the first transmission: video clock related data, the order in which the video pixel data is received, and the order in which the video synchronization data is received.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, before the step of transmitting the first transmission, a first symbol associated with a first level of protection against noise and a second symbol associated with a second level of protection against noise; and successively transmitting, in the first transmission, the first symbol using a first modulation providing the first level of protection against noise and the second symbol using a second modulation providing the second level of protection against noise.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the different modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the different modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of the same symbol set.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the symbol set is PAM-16.
6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the different modulations use subsets of the same symbol set.
7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein there is no need to negotiate in order to change the modulation of the symbols within the first transmission.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method for bidirectional communication does not include adding data related to the location of a video pixel in relation to the video frame.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of regenerating the original video clock from the video clock related data.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the lossless high definition digital video is an uncompressed high definition digital video.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the uncompressed high definition digital video is selected from the group of: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first multiplexed transmission further comprises audio data.
13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of synchronizing the audio and video data based on the order in which the pixel data and the audio data are received.
14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and second data comprise multimedia control signal data.
15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and second data comprise one or more of the following: DVI control signal data, HDMI control signal data, DisplayPort control signal data, I2C, CEC, HPD, 5V indication, or a combination thereof.
16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first and second data comprise Ethernet data.
17 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the first transmission over a first frequency band, and receiving the second transmission over a second frequency band, wherein the first and the second frequency bands at least partially overlap.
18 . A method comprising: multiplexing lossless high definition digital video and first data; arranging the multiplexed result into packets, wherein the packets' headers do not include data related to the video format; transmitting the packets over wires; receiving the packets while relying on the order in which the packets are received, whereby there is no need to rearrange the received packets; receiving second data over at least a subset of the wires used for transmitting the packets, wherein the frequency bands utilized for transmitting and receiving at least partially overlap.
19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising modulating the symbols of the multiplexed lossless high definition digital video with a first modulation providing a first level of protection against noise; and modulating the symbols of the multiplexed first data with a second modulation providing a second level of protection against noise.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the first and the second modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.
21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the first and the second modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of the same symbol set.
22 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the step of receiving the packets further comprises mapping the data inside the packets to appropriate modulations according to the required level of protection against noise per data type.
23 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the different modulations use subsets of the same symbol set.
24 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the lossless high definition digital video is an uncompressed high definition digital video.
25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the uncompressed high definition digital video is selected from the group of: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
26 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the first and second data comprise one or more of the following: DVI control signal data, HDMI control signal data, DisplayPort control signal data, I2C, CEC, HPD, 5V indication, or a combination thereof.
27 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the first and second data comprise Ethernet data.
28 . A method comprising: multiplexing a first data stream and at least one lossless high definition digital video, without adding substantial video timing data to the digital video; transmitting the multiplexed result over a set of wires utilizing a first frequency band; and receiving a second data stream, wherein the second data stream is received over at least a subset of the wires utilized for the multiplexed transmission, and the received data stream utilizes a second frequency band that at least partially overlaps with the first frequency band.
29 . The method of claim 28 , further comprising modulating some of the symbols of the multiplexed result with a first modulation providing a first level of protection against noise, and some of the symbols of the multiplexed result with a second modulation providing a second level of protection against noise.
30 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the first and the second modulations are pulse amplitude modulations.
31 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the modulation is determined according to the symbol's data type.
32 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the first and the second modulations use at least partially overlapping subsets of the same symbol set.
33 . The method of claim 32 , wherein the symbol set is PAM-16.
34 . The method of claim 28 , further comprising the step of receiving the multiplexed result and mapping the symbols comprised in the multiplexed result to the appropriate demodulators.
35 . The method of claim 28 , wherein the substantial video timing data comprises one or more of the following: picture line number, video frame number, or sequence number of the video frame.
36 . The method of claim 35 , wherein the lossless high definition digital video is an uncompressed high definition digital video.
37 . The method of claim 36 , wherein the uncompressed high definition digital video is selected from the group of: DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
38 . The method of claim 36 , wherein the first and second data streams comprise one or more of the following: DVI control signal data, HDMI control signal data, DisplayPort control signal data, I2C, CEC, HPD, 5V indication, or a combination thereof.
39 . The method of claim 36 , wherein the first and second data streams comprise Ethernet data.
40 . The method of claim 35 , wherein the method does not include a step of discarding a digital video data portion, even upon having an indication that the digital video data portion contains an erroneous data bit.