JP2001008184A - Mail display method for digital broadcasting in set top box - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain a mail display method of digital broadcasting in a set top box for viewing a mail without interrupting a program which is being viewed at present at the time of receiving the mail. SOLUTION: This system is provided with a mail memory 7 which stores mail information separated from a received digital signal (Transport Stream) in a set top box and a mail superimposing means 8 which successively reads the mail information stored in the mail memory 7, and superimposes it on a video signal which is being viewed at present. Thus, the mail information can be scroll-displayed so as to be superimposed on one part of a screen which is being viewed at present, for example, the lower one line of the screen. Also, a display method is preliminarily set by a mail display setting part 11 so that the mail information can be displayed at one part of the screen which is being viewed at present, and also the mail information can be opened after the end of a program and viewed later by displaying only the fact of the reception of the mail in a conventional manner.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for displaying digital broadcast mail on a set-top box.
In particular, it relates to a method of displaying mail delivered to all members.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In digital broadcasting, mail addressed to individuals and mail addressed to all are transmitted together with a broadcast program by time division multiplexing. Conventionally, a set-top box that receives the digital broadcast receives the digital broadcast signal, demodulates the received digital broadcast signal, corrects the error, and converts the transport stream signal as shown in the block diagram of FIG. Receiving means 1 for outputting, and packet separating means 2 for separating packets from the transport stream signal from the receiving means 1 and outputting data of a target program in packet units
Decoding means 3 for decoding the data from the packet separating means 2 to output audio data, video data and character data, and converting the video data including the audio data and character data from the decoding means into analog signals D / A conversion means 4 for outputting the mail information, mail separation means 5 for separating the mail information from the transport stream signal from the reception means 1, and when the mail separation means 5 separates the mail information, it lights up to turn on the mail. L to inform you that you have received
A mail display section 6 made of ED or the like;
A mail memory 7 for storing mail information from the e-mail, a video switch 8 'for switching mail information from the mail memory 7 and video data from the decoding means 3, setting of the target program, reception of mail, etc. Operation unit 9 for inputting
And a control unit 10 for controlling each of the means. In the above-described conventional set-top box, when an e-mail addressed to an individual or an e-mail addressed to all is received, the e-mail display unit 6 is turned on to notify that the e-mail has been received. When the mail is opened, the video switcher 8 'switches from the video data to the mail information as shown in FIG. 4, outputs the mail information, and displays the mail information on the display device. But with this method,
In order for viewers to see these personal and all-mail messages, they must interrupt the current program and open it, so even if the message is urgent, the program ends. There was a problem that it was not opened until it was opened.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and provides a digital broadcast in a set-top box that can receive a mail without interrupting a program currently being viewed when the mail is received. The purpose is to provide an email display method.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a set-top box for receiving a digital broadcast and outputting an audio signal and a video signal to a display device. )
A mail memory that stores mail information separated from the mail information, and a mail superimposing unit that sequentially reads out the mail information stored in the mail memory and superimposes the mail information on the video signal being viewed. This is a method for displaying digital broadcast mail on a set-top box that is superimposed on part of the display.

A method of displaying a digital broadcast mail on a set-top box in which the mail information is scrolled and displayed on one end of a screen being viewed in units of characters.

[0006] The present invention is a method of displaying digital broadcast mail in a set-top box in which the mail information is scrolled and displayed at one end of a screen being viewed in rows or columns.

The set-top box is provided with a mail display setting means, and when the mail information is received, the mail information is displayed so as to be superimposed on the screen being viewed, only the mail information is displayed by switching, or A digital broadcast mail display method is provided for a set-top box in which whether to display mail information can be selected.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As described above, in the method for displaying digital broadcast mail in a set-top box according to the present invention, a mail in which mail information separated from a received digital signal (Transport Stream) is stored in the set-top box. Memory and a mail superimposing means for sequentially reading the mail information stored in the mail memory and superimposing the mail information on the video signal being viewed, so that a part of the screen on which the mail information is being viewed, for example, the lower part of the screen Scroll display can be performed superimposed on one line. Also, if the display method is set in advance, it can be displayed on a part of the screen being viewed as described above, or it can be displayed only that the mail has been received as usual, opened after the program ends, and collected You can also see.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a method of displaying digital broadcast mail on a set-top box according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing one embodiment of a set-top box according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a receiving unit, a tuner unit 1a for receiving a digital broadcast signal, a demodulation unit 1b for demodulating a digital broadcast signal received by the tuner unit 1a, and error correction of a signal from the demodulation unit 1b. It comprises an error correction unit 1c that outputs a transport stream signal. Reference numeral 2 denotes a packet separating unit for extracting a packet of a target program from the transport stream signal from the receiving unit 1. Reference numeral 3 denotes a decoding unit, which is an audio decoding unit 3a for decoding the audio data of the program data from the packet separating unit, and a video decoding unit 3b for decoding the video data.
And a character decoding unit 3c for decoding character data;
Character superimposing unit 3d for superimposing the same character data on the same video data
It consists of: Reference numeral 4 denotes a D / A converter, which is an audio D / A converter 4a for converting the audio data from the audio decoder 3a into an analog signal, video data from the video decoder 3b, and character data from the character decoder 3c. And a video D / A converter 4b that converts the analog signal into an analog signal. Reference numeral 5 denotes mail separating means for separating mail information from the transport stream signal from the receiving means 1. Reference numeral 6 denotes a mail display unit composed of an LED or the like. When the mail separating means 5 separates the mail information, it lights up to notify that the mail has been received. A mail memory 7 stores the mail information from the mail separating means 5. Reference numeral 8 denotes a mail superimposing unit that superimposes the mail information from the mail separating unit 5 on the video data from the video decoding unit 3b. Reference numeral 9 denotes an operation unit for inputting setting of a target program, reception of mail, and the like. 1
Reference numeral 1 denotes a mail display setting unit, which selects whether to display the mail information superimposed on the screen being viewed when the mail information is received, to display only the mail information by switching, or not to display the mail information. I can do it. Reference numeral 10 denotes a control unit which controls each of the above units.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a screen showing an embodiment of a method of displaying digital broadcast mail on the set-top box. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. Radio waves received by an antenna (not shown) are input to the receiving means 1. The radio wave input to the receiving means 1 is converted to an intermediate frequency by a tuner 1a, and a signal converted to the same intermediate frequency is selected by a demodulator 1b, demodulated and a bit stream is output, and error correction is performed. The error is corrected by the section 1c to extract the transport stream signal. The extracted transport stream signal is input to the packet separating means 2,
In the packet separating means 2, only the packets of the program determined by the operation of the operation section 9 are taken out and inputted to the decoding means 3. The decoding means 3 outputs audio data of the program,
The video data and the character data are decoded, and the audio data and the video data on which the character data are superimposed are output. The audio data from the audio decoder 3a is input to the audio D / A converter 4a, converted into an audio signal, and output to a display device (not shown). The video data from the character superimposing unit 3d is input to the mail superimposing means 8. On the other hand, the mail information sent at the same time is separated by the mail separating means 5 from the transport stream signal output from the receiving means 1. The separated mail information is temporarily stored in the mail memory 7. When the mail display setting unit 11 is set to scroll the mail information received by the operation of the operation unit 9, the mail information is sequentially read from the mail memory 7 and input to the mail superimposing unit 8. Are superimposed on the video data output from the character superimposing unit 3d of the decoding means 3. By changing the timing at which the mail information is read from the mail memory 7, the characters can be scrolled and displayed one character or one line at a time on the upper or lower part of the screen as shown in FIGS. (C),
As shown in (D), the display is scrolled one character or one line at a time on the left or right part of the screen. This display method may be fixed, or may be set by the mail display setting unit 11, for example. If the mail display setting unit 11 is set not to scroll the mail information received by the operation of the operation unit 9, the mail memory 7
It is controlled so that the mail information is not read out, and only the video data is output from the character superimposing unit 3d of the decoding means 3. Then, the data from the decoding means 3 is converted into a video signal by the D / A converter 4 and is input to a display device (not shown) and displayed.

[0011]

As described above, according to the method of displaying digital broadcast mail in a set-top box according to the present invention, a mail in which mail information separated from a received digital signal (Transport Stream) is stored in the set-top box. Memory and a mail superimposing means for sequentially reading the mail information stored in the mail memory and superimposing the mail information on the video signal being viewed, so that a part of the screen on which the mail information is being viewed, for example, the lower part of the screen Scroll display can be performed superimposed on one line. Also, if the display method is set in advance, it can be displayed on a part of the screen being viewed as described above, or it can be displayed only that the mail has been received as usual, opened after the program ends, and collected You can also see.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part block diagram showing one embodiment of a set-top box according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a screen showing one embodiment of a digital broadcast mail display method in a set-top box according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a main block diagram showing a conventional set-top box.

FIG. 4 is a screen explanatory diagram showing an example of a digital broadcast mail display method in a conventional set-top box.

[Description of Code] 1 receiving means 1a tuner section 1b demodulating section 1c error correcting section 2 packet separating means 3 decoding means 3a audio decoding section 3b video decoding section 3c character information decoding section 3d video / character superimposing section 4 D / A conversion section 4a audio D / A conversion unit 4b video D / A conversion unit 5 mail separation unit 6 mail display unit 7 mail memory 8 mail superimposition unit 9 operation unit 10 control unit 11 mail display setting unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 5/44 H04L 11/20 101B 5/445

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method of displaying digital broadcast mail in a set-top box that receives a digital broadcast and outputs an audio signal and a video signal to a display device, wherein the mail information is separated from the received digital signal (Transport Stream). And a mail superimposing means for sequentially reading the mail information stored in the mail memory and superimposing the mail information on the video signal being viewed, and superimposing the mail information on a part of the screen being viewed. A method for displaying digital broadcast e-mails in a set-top box, wherein the e-mails are displayed on a display. 2. The method for displaying digital broadcast mail in a set-top box according to claim 1, wherein said mail information is scrolled and displayed on one end of a screen being viewed in character units. 3. The method of displaying digital mail in a set-top box according to claim 1, wherein said mail information is scrolled and displayed at one end of a screen being viewed in units of rows or columns. 4. A mail display setting means is provided in the set top box, and when mail information is received, whether the mail information is superimposed and displayed on a screen being viewed or switched and only the mail information is displayed, 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein whether to display the mail information can be selected.