JP2000224506A - Program display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program display device of excellent handleability by allowing a user to easily confirm a program-reserved time band. SOLUTION: A program information processing part 5 fetches program information required for constituting a program table from additional information on a program. A program table generation part 7 generates the program table setting one of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis to be a time and the other to be a channel and provided with a reserved time band display section showing whether a program is reserved or not to a time band by the user by using program information. A microcomputer part 9 controls the displaying mode of a reserved time band display section by information on program reservation by the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program display device which decodes additional information relating to a channel or a program being broadcast which is transmitted in a manner superimposed on broadcast contents and displays an electronic program guide. The present invention relates to a program display device capable of easily grasping the time zone of a completed program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in digital multi-channel broadcasting which provides a broadcasting service using a communication satellite, additional information on channels and programs is multiplexed and transmitted in addition to video information and audio information. Therefore, most digital broadcast receivers have a function of performing on-screen display such as a channel list or a program list, which is generally called an electronic program guide, using this additional information. Then, the user can select a specific channel or program by using the electronic program guide displayed on this screen, thereby making channel selection or program reservation.

[0005] A program table according to the electronic program guide is formed in a matrix form, for example, with a horizontal axis representing a channel and a vertical axis representing a time, and displaying program information such as a program name in a section determined by the time and the channel.

[0004]

In the conventional program display device, since the program table does not indicate which time zone the user has reserved the program, when the user reserves a new program, A complicated operation of displaying a list of programs instead of a program table to confirm a reserved time zone is required, and there is a problem that usability is poor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a user-friendly program display device that allows a user to easily confirm a time slot in which a program has been reserved. I do.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a program display apparatus for displaying a program table on a display unit (8) using additional information on a program in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. A program information processing unit (5) for extracting program information necessary for constructing a program table from the additional information;
Using the program information extracted by the program information processing unit, one of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis is time and the other is a channel, and a program reservation is made in a time zone in which a user has made a program reservation. Program table (20) provided with a reserved time zone display column (23) indicating whether there is no time zone
And a control unit (9) for controlling a display mode of the reserved time zone display column in the program table based on information on program reservation by a user. Is provided.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a program display device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the program display device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a program table by the program display device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an additional function of the program display device of the present invention. It is a figure showing a certain reservation program list.

First, the configuration and operation of the program display device of the present invention will be described. In FIG. 1, a signal wave of digital multi-channel broadcasting received by an antenna 1 is input to a tuner unit 2. The tuner unit 2 demodulates a signal that has been modulated in a transmission process to generate a baseband bit stream signal. The bit stream signal output from the tuner 2 is input to the demultiplexer 3. The demultiplexing unit 3 separates a specific video information stream or a specific program information stream from a bit stream signal in which a plurality of programs (video information) and program information (additional information) are multiplexed. In the case of a pay program, since the program is generally scrambled, the demultiplexing unit 3 also performs a descrambling process.

[0009] The video information stream output from the demultiplexing unit 3 is input to a video signal processing unit 4, and the program information stream output from the demultiplexing unit 3 is input to a program information processing unit 5. The video signal processing unit 4 processes the input video information stream to generate a video signal according to a display format. The program information processing section 5 processes the input program information stream. That is, program name, start time, end time and other additional information are extracted from the program information stream.

The video signal output from the video signal processing section 4 is input to an on-screen synthesis section 6. Various types of program information output from the program information processing unit 5 are input to the program table generation unit 7. The program guide generator 7 generates a program guide, which will be described in detail later, based on the various types of input program information and under the control of the microcomputer 9, and inputs the program guide image information to the on-screen synthesizer 6. I do. The on-screen combining section 6 combines the video signal input from the video signal processing section 4 with the program guide image information input from the program guide generating section 7 and displays the video to be displayed on the display section 8 such as a cathode ray tube. The signal is supplied to the display unit 8 as a signal. Note that only the program guide image information may be displayed on the display unit 8.

Further, the microcomputer section 9 has a ROM and an R
A memory unit 10 made of AM is connected. This RO
M stores characters such as various characters, numbers, and marks to be displayed in the program guide generated by the program guide generator 7. The RAM stores program information. The microcomputer unit 9 reads out the program information and the characters stored from the memory unit 10 and supplies them to the program table generating unit 7. Further, the microcomputer unit 9 controls the tuner unit 2, the demultiplexing unit 3, and the program information processing unit 5.

A user's instruction signal from a remote control transmitter or the like (not shown) is input to the microcomputer 9. Under the control of the microcomputer unit 9, the tuner unit 2 generates a specific bit stream signal. Further, under the control of the microcomputer unit 9, the demultiplexing unit 3 separates a specific video information stream or a specific program information stream from the input bit stream signal. Furthermore, the microcomputer unit 9
When a program reservation signal is input from a remote control transmitter or the like, the program reservation information is stored in the memory unit 10. The microcomputer unit 9 controls each unit of the circuit according to the broadcast time of the program. As described above, the microcomputer unit 9 operates as a control unit that controls each unit of the circuit.

Here, a program table by the program display device of the present invention configured as described above will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, a program table 20 according to the present invention is, for example, formed in a matrix with a horizontal axis 21 as a channel and a vertical axis 22 as a time. Display information. Here, the number of channels on the horizontal axis is 4 channels, and the time range on the vertical axis is 6 hours, but it is not limited to this. Horizontal axis 21
May be time, and the vertical axis 22 may be a channel. Note that the example of FIG. 2 shows a state in which the program table on September 15 is displayed.

Further, in the program table 20 according to the present invention, the reserved time zone display column 2 is adjacent to the vertical axis 22 representing the time.
3 are provided. The reserved time zone display column 23 is preferably provided adjacent to the time axis (vertical axis 22 in FIG. 2). When the user has reserved the program, the microcomputer unit 9 converts the broadcast time of the program into units of 15 minutes, for example, and displays the converted time in the reserved time zone display column 23 as a reserved time zone. In the example of FIG. 2, 10:15 AM in the reserved time zone display column 23.
~ 11: 00AM, 11:30 AM~12:15PM
, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM are shaded to indicate that there are already reserved programs in these time zones. The display method in the reservation time zone display column 23 is as follows.
Color coding may be used instead of hatching. Any display mode may be used as long as the display modes are different and it is possible to recognize whether or not a reserved program exists. Of course, it does not need to be in units of 15 minutes.

[0024] A cursor 24 is a cursor. The user can select a program or make a reservation by moving the cursor 24 with a cursor key provided on a remote control transmitter (not shown) for moving the cursor 24 up, down, left and right. In the example of FIG. 2, the reserved time zone display column 2
According to 3, it is possible to easily confirm that 12:15 PM to 2:00 PM is a time zone in which no program reservation is made. Therefore, the user can immediately recognize from the cursor 24 that the program “Kids Station 3” of the currently selected 100 channel (hereinafter, the channel is abbreviated as “ch”) can be reserved.

FIG. 3 shows a reserved program list 30 which is an additional function of the program display device of the present invention. When it is desired to check the reserved programs, a reserved program list 30 as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. The example of FIG. 3 shows a case where a total of five programs are reserved on September 15 and 16. Conventionally, unless the reserved program list 30 is displayed, it is impossible to determine whether the time period is a time period in which a program is reserved or a time period in which a program is not reserved. According to this, it is possible to determine whether the time slot is a time slot in which a program is reserved or a time slot in which no program is reserved simply by displaying the program table 20 shown in FIG. 2, which is extremely convenient.

The program table 20 shown in FIG. 2 can be easily realized by the microcomputer section 9 receiving information on program reservation by the user and controlling the program table generating section 7.
The microcomputer unit 9 controls the program table generation unit 7 based on information on program reservation by the user (reservation of the program and its cancellation), and controls the display mode in the reserved time zone display column 23. The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0018]

As described in detail above, the program display apparatus of the present invention has a program information processing section for extracting program information necessary for constructing a program table from additional information, and a program information processing section for extracting program information by this program information processing section. Using the selected program information, one of the vertical and horizontal axes is time and the other is a channel,
A program table generation unit that generates a program table provided with a reserved time zone display column indicating whether the time zone is a time zone in which a user has made a program reservation or a time zone in which no program reservation has been made; A control unit for controlling the display mode of the reserved time zone display column in the program guide according to the information, so that the user can easily confirm the program reserved time zone, and This eliminates the need for a complicated operation of displaying and confirming the program list separately from the program guide, and thus provides a user-friendly program display device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a program table according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a reserved program list as an additional function of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 antenna 2 tuner section 3 demultiplexing section 4 video signal processing section 5 program information processing section 6 on-screen synthesis section 7 program table generation section 8 display section 9 microcomputer section 10 memory section 20 program table 21 horizontal axis 22 vertical axis 23 reserved time Band display field 24 Cursor 30 Reserved program list

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A program display device for displaying a program guide on a display unit using additional information relating to a program, comprising: a program information processing unit for extracting program information necessary for forming a program guide from the additional information; Using the program information extracted by the program information processing unit, one of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis is time and the other is a channel, and a program reservation is made in a time zone in which a user has made a program reservation. A program table generating unit for generating a program table provided with a reserved time zone display field indicating whether there is no time zone, and a display mode of the reserved time zone display field in the program table is controlled by information on program reservation by a user. A program display device comprising: