JP2001078105A - Program guide data management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a program data management device that can store even data on the same month of the same day in different years without confusion by setting year information to a storage directory or a file name after an EPG device receives and stores the file that is a program guide data file and transmitted with a file name in 8 characters or below consisting of area information or broadcasting station information and month day information. SOLUTION: The program guide data management device 101 is provided with an input section 102, a buffer 103, an area code extract section 104, a month day information extract section 105, an year information read section 106, a rename section 107, a file management section 108, and a storage medium 109.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program broadcasting schedule of television broadcasting by terrestrial broadcasting (hereinafter referred to as a program table).
Is downloaded from the Internet or data broadcasting, etc., and EPG (El
The present invention relates to a program guide data management device that realizes an electric program guide (electric program guide) device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a program guide has been obtained from a radio / TV section of a newspaper or a television information magazine, but recently, the program guide has been converted into electronic data and published on the Internet. For example, Internet TV G
"Internet TV Guide" provided by uide,
Fujitsu and Yahoo Japan Co. "Yahoo! TV program table" and the like.

In terrestrial television broadcasting, broadcasting of program guide data has been started using data broadcasting utilizing VBI (vertical blanking interval) of radio waves. For example, "ADAMS-EPG" by TV Asahi, "G Guide" by Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation and others.

[0004] First, a user who intends to use a program guide via the Internet uses a personal computer with a built-in modem as an EPG device, accesses a homepage providing the program guide via a public telephone line, and operates on the personal computer. Display and use the program guide on your browser.

[0005] Since the Internet is capable of two-way communication, a user requests desired broadcast station / broadcast date data on a homepage, and a desired program guide can be obtained from a server computer where the homepage exists. E to get program guide data file from
The PG device can be realized only by providing a memory for storing at least one program guide data file to be displayed. However, a cache memory is often used so that retransmission is not required when displaying the same file.

[0006] Therefore, the following "Internet TV"
This case will be described using a “guide” as an example.
The program schedule is divided into nine time zones, and 47
Is prepared as an HTML format file. In one file, program information of a plurality of broadcast stations that can be received in the area is described.

FIG. 8 shows the storage state of the program guide data file in the file storage unit of the server computer, which will be described below with reference to the drawing. A home directory 1000 stores a program guide data file. 10
01 to 1047 are regional directories, which correspond to each prefecture. For example, reference numeral 1001 denotes a directory for Hokkaido, which stores program guide data files including broadcast stations that can be received in Hokkaido. 1001
1 is a program table data file describing program information from 5:00 to 7:00 on January 25 for Hokkaido, and 10012 is a program table data describing program information from 7:00 to 9:00 on January 25 for Hokkaido. File, 10013 is January 2 for Hokkaido
This is a program guide data file that describes program information from 9:00 to 11:00 on the 5th.

Similarly, 1002 is a directory for Aomori prefecture, and 10021 to 10023 are program guide data files for Aomori prefecture. Reference numeral 1003 denotes a directory for Iwate Prefecture, and reference numerals 10031 to 10033 denote program table data files for Iwate Prefecture. Reference numeral 1004 denotes a directory for Miyagi prefecture, and reference numerals 10041 to 10043 denote program table data files for Miyagi prefecture. Reference numeral 1047 denotes a directory for Okinawa Prefecture, and reference numerals 10471 to 10473 denote program table data files for Okinawa Prefecture. Therefore, there are 423 program guide data files nationwide per day (47 (prefecture) × 9 (time zone)).

The file name of the program guide data file is EP
It is set to 8 characters or less so as not to be restricted by the function of the operation system of the G device, and is a 6-character number consisting of 2 characters representing the month, 4 characters representing the day, and 2 characters representing the time in the program table. And the extension is "htm" of three characters representing the HTML format. For example, program table 10
Since 011 is a program table from 5:00 to 7:00 on January 25, 1999, the file name is set to “012505.htm”.

However, since the year information and the area information are omitted from the file name, the program table data file having the different area in the same month and the same time at the same time cannot be distinguished only by the file name. Similarly, program guide data files of the same month, same day and same time in different years cannot be distinguished only by the file name.

Therefore, as shown in the figure, when storing the program guide on the hard disk of the server computer, directories corresponding to 47 regions are provided and stored separately for each region to avoid confusion between regions.

[0012] However, although the year is not distinguished, as a practical matter, it is unlikely that a program one year ahead is determined by a television broadcasting station and a program table is rarely published, so that a file up to one month ahead can be obtained. There is only confusion, so there is no confusion. Therefore, the program guide data file is updated one year later by a new file having the same file name.

On the EPG device side, when a program table data file is required using the Internet, the corresponding program table data files may be downloaded and displayed one by one. Since it is inefficient to download each time the display is performed many times, it is possible to store the program guide data file on the EPG device side.

In this case, as described above, it is not possible to discriminate a file having the same time and same day in the same month and different area or year by using only the file name. Therefore, the file storage section of the EPG device is provided with a local directory similarly to the server computer. Each file is stored separately.
Alternatively, if the file system of the EPG device can handle a file name having more than eight characters, it is possible to include regional information in the file name.

For example, from 9:00 on January 25 for Hokkaido to 11
If the program table data file describes the program information up to the time, the EPG device changes the file name to “h” when the file is received.
ok012505. If it is renamed like "htm", it can be realized without using a regional directory.

Although the above is an example in which a directory for each region is created and a program guide data file is stored, a method in which a directory is created for each date and a program guide data file is stored is also possible. . Therefore, a description will be given below of an example of “Yahoo! TV program table” employing this method.

According to this method, the program table is divided into 12 time zones per day, and the program table in nine regions nationwide (Tokyo, Hokkaido, Sendai, Niigata, Shizuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka) is in HTML format. Is provided as a file. That is, program information of a plurality of broadcast stations that can be received in the area is described in one file.

FIG. 9 shows the storage state of the program guide data file in the server computer, which will be described below with reference to the figure. A home directory 1100 stores a program guide data file. Reference numerals 1001 to 1047 denote date directories. Here, the date directory 1101 is a directory for January 25, 1999, and this directory stores program guide data files nationwide for that day.

Reference numeral 110101 denotes a program guide data file describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Tokyo, and 110102 describes program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Osaka. Program guide data file, 110
103 is a program table data file describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Hokkaido, and 110104 is a program table data describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Nagoya. File, 110105 is a program guide data file describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Fukuoka, 110106 is a program describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25, for Sendai Table data file, 110107 is for Niigata from 6:00 on January 25 to 8
Program table data file describing program information up to the time, 1
Reference numeral 10108 denotes a program guide data file for describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Shizuoka.
Is a program guide data file describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25 for Hiroshima.

Similarly, a date directory 1102 is a directory for January 26, 1999. Similarly, 110201 is a program guide data file describing program information from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 26 for Tokyo, 11
Reference numeral 0202 denotes a program guide data file describing program information for Osaka from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 26, and so on.

Therefore, there are 9 (regional) × 12 (time zone) = 108 program guide data files nationwide per day. The file name of the program guide data file is set to eight characters or less so as not to be restricted by the function of the operation system of the EPG device. One character of the alphabet "h" and two characters indicating the time zone of the program guide are used. , A five-character string consisting of one letter of the alphabet “a” and one letter representing the area, with an extension of HT
It is four characters "html" representing the ML format. For example, since the program table 110101 is a program table from 6:00 to 8:00 on January 25, 1999, the file name is "h06a
1. html ".

However, since the file name does not include year information, month information, and day information, a program table data file in the same time zone in the same region cannot be distinguished only by the file name.
Therefore, as shown in the figure, when storing the program guide on the hard disk of the server computer, a directory corresponding to the date is provided, and the date is stored separately so as to avoid confusion. In this way, by setting information that is not included in the file name among the regional information, year information, month information, day information, and the like as a directory, the program guide data file can be managed.

[0023]

However, the above-mentioned conventional method has the following problems. That is, in the conventional method described above, if a file transmission means or an operation system that cannot transmit directory information indicating a region is used, files in different regions at the same time and same day in the same month cannot be distinguished. there were. Further, in the conventional method described later, if a file transmission means or an operation system that cannot transmit directory information indicating the date is used, it is not possible to distinguish files in the same area at the same time on different dates. Was a problem.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a program table data which includes local information or broadcast station information and date information at the time of transmission in a file name of eight characters or less. After the EPG device receives and stores this file as a file, by adding year information to the storage directory or file name, it is possible to store data of the same month and same day in different years without being confused. To provide a program guide data management device that performs

[0025]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program guide data management apparatus for storing a program guide data file which is a program guide converted into electronic data of a television broadcast. Electronic Program for browsing program broadcasts and making recording reservations
A program guide data management device for realizing a Guide (EPG) device, wherein the program guide data management device inputs at least the program guide data file;
A buffer for storing the program guide data file obtained from the input unit; a region code extracting unit for obtaining a local code from the program guide data file stored in the buffer; and a program table stored in the buffer A date information extracting unit that obtains date information from a data file; a year information reading unit that obtains year information from the program guide data file stored in the buffer; and the area obtained by the area code extracting unit A character string including at least one of a code, the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit, and the year information obtained from the year information reading unit, A rename section for changing a file name of the program guide data file stored in the buffer to the character string; and a case storing the program guide data file. And parts, in the rename portion,
A directory in the storage unit for each piece of information not included in the character string, and a file management unit that stores the program guide data file whose file name has been changed in a corresponding directory. I do.

In the program guide data management apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, a program broadcast is browsed or a recording reservation is made using a program guide data file which is a program guide converted into electronic data of a television broadcast. Electric Prog
A program guide data management device for realizing a ram guide (EPG) device, wherein the program guide data management device includes at least an input unit for inputting the program guide data file, and the program obtained from the input unit. A buffer for storing a table data file, a clock for outputting current date and time information, an area code extracting unit for obtaining an area code from the program table data file stored in the buffer, A date information extracting unit that obtains date information from the program table data file; the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit; and the current date information obtained from the clock. A year information estimating unit for estimating the year information corresponding to the contents of the program guide data file stored in the buffer; At least one of the area code obtained from the code extracting unit, the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit, and the year information obtained from the year information estimating unit; A character string including the following, a file name of the program guide data file stored in the buffer, a rename unit that changes to the character string, a storage unit that stores the program table data file, and the rename unit For each piece of information not included in the character string, a directory is provided in the storage unit, and a file management unit that stores the program guide data file whose file name has been changed in a directory in a corresponding region, It is characterized by.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the program guide data management apparatus according to the first or second aspect, wherein the program guide data file includes one file.
Program information of one broadcast station is described, and the area code corresponds to one broadcast station.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the embodiment shown here is merely an example, and is not necessarily limited to this embodiment.

(Embodiment 1) First, a program guide data management apparatus 101 according to the present invention will be described as a first embodiment with reference to the drawings. First, before describing the program guide data management device 101, the format of the program guide data file will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the format of a program guide data file.
File.

The data consists of four characters for year information and two for month information from the beginning.
It is described with characters, day information 2 characters, area code 4 characters, number of broadcasting stations 2 characters, and program information (undefined length) for each broadcasting station. Here, the region code is 0001-
A four-digit number of 9999 is set in advance.

The file name is a four-digit numeric area code, two-digit month information 01 to 12 and 01 to 03.
It is a character string of a total of eight digits consisting of day information of two digits of zero. For example, January 2 when the area code is 0001
The file name of the program guide data file on the 5th is "0001
0125. epg ”where“. "" Is a character that separates the file name from the extension, "epg" is an extension indicating that the file is a program guide data file, and the year information of the program guide is not described in the file name, only the data area of the file. Will be described.

If the rules for assigning file names are set in this way, the area code indicated by this file and the date can be identified using only eight characters of the file name. However, the year information cannot be distinguished from the file name. However, as described above, it is unlikely that a TV broadcast station will determine a program one year ahead and publish the program table. At the time of distribution, that is, at the time of file transmission, there is no problem since a file having the same file name as the program guide data one year later does not exist at the same time.

Next, the program guide data management apparatus 101 using the above-described program guide data file in the present embodiment.
Will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the program guide data management device 101. 101 is a program guide data management device. An input unit 102 inputs a program guide data file from here. Reference numeral 103 denotes a buffer for temporarily storing a program guide data file obtained from the input unit 102. An area code extracting unit 104 extracts a part corresponding to the area code, that is, the first to fourth characters from the character string of the file name of the program guide data file.

Reference numeral 105 denotes a date information extracting unit which extracts a portion corresponding to the date information, that is, the fifth to eighth characters from the character string of the file name of the program guide data file. Reference numeral 106 denotes a year information reading unit for reading a character string representing year information from the data area of the program guide data file. A rename unit 107 changes the file name of the program guide data file obtained from the buffer to a file name of a total of eight characters consisting of four characters of year information and four characters of date information.
The file is output to the file management unit 108. Reference numeral 108 denotes a file management unit which creates a directory corresponding to the area code obtained from the area code 104 in the storage unit 109 and stores the program guide data file obtained from the rename unit in the directory.
Numeral 109 denotes a storage medium which finally stores a program guide.

Next, the program guide data file stored in the storage unit 109 will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 shows a storage state of the program guide data file in the storage unit 109. A home directory 3000 stores a program guide data file. A directory is provided below the home directory with at least one of the area code information, the year information, and the month / day information. Here, the directory is constituted by the area code information.

Reference numerals 3001 to 3099 denote a region directory, which divides the whole country into 99, and corresponds to each part.
Reference numeral 3001 denotes a directory for the area 0001;
11 is a program guide data file describing the program information on January 25 in the area 0001, and 30012 is a program table data file in the area 0001.
A program guide data file describing the program information of March 26,
Reference numeral 30013 denotes a program guide data file in which program information on January 27 in the area 0001 is described.

Similarly, reference numeral 3002 denotes a directory for area 0002, and 30021 to 30023 denote areas 000.
2 is a program guide data file. 3003 is area 00
03 is a directory, and 30031 to 30033 are program guide data files of the area 0003. 3004
Is a directory for the area 0004,
0043 is a program guide data file of the area 0004. Reference numeral 3099 denotes a directory for the area 0099, and reference numerals 30991 to 30993 denote program table data files of the area 0099.

Next, the operation of the program guide data file management device configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, the program guide data file is a program guide data file of a television station having a broadcast station code 0001 of January 25, 1999, and its file name is “000101”.
25. epg ", and a character string" 1999 "representing year information is stored in the data area of the file.

First, in step 401, the input section 102 is connected to the Internet, VBI data broadcasting, or the like to acquire this program guide data file and temporarily store it in the buffer 103. Next, in step 402, the area code extracting unit 104 extracts the area code "0001" from the file name of the program guide data file in the buffer 103. In step 403, the date information extracting unit 105 extracts date information “0125” (representing January 25) from the file name of the program guide data file in the buffer 103.

In step 404, year information extracting unit 1
Reference numeral 06 reads the year information “1999” from the data area of the program guide data file in the buffer 103. Here, since the area directories 4001 to 4099 are provided below the home directory 4000 of the storage unit 109, it is not necessary to reflect the area code in the file name. Conversely, year information and month information in which no directory exists are reflected in the file name. There must be. Therefore, in step 405, the rename unit 107 obtains the program guide data file from the buffer and renames the file from "0000" to "9999".
The year information is represented by two digits, the month information of the program table is represented by two digits of "01" to "12", and the day information is represented by two digits of "01" to "30". Change to a string of numbers.
That is, it is changed to "19990125.epg".

In step 406, the file management unit 10
8 checks whether a directory corresponding to the obtained area code already exists in the file system of the storage unit 109, and if not, creates a new one in step 407. Subsequently, at step 408, the file management unit 10
Reference numeral 8 stores the program guide data file obtained from the rename section in the directory.

With the above operation, even when the file system in which the file name of the program guide data file is limited to a maximum of eight characters is used, the transmission time until input to the input unit 102 and the storage unit 109 A program guide data file management system can be realized in which file name confusion does not occur in any case of storing the program table data.

Here, the directory structure of the storage unit 109 is such that a program directory data file is stored by providing a regional directory below the home directory, and year information, month information and day information are added to the file name of the program table data file. Although the description has been given of the case where the management is performed as described, it is of course possible to manage the year information as a directory. In this case, a year directory may be provided below the home directory to store the program guide data file, and the area code, month information, and day information may be described in the file name of the program guide data file. For example, 1999
The data of the area code 0001 on January 25 is “ho
me ￥ 1999 ￥ 000101125. htm ".

In this case, in FIG. 1, the output of the year information reading unit 106 is input to the file management unit 108, and the output of the area code extracting unit 104 and the date information extracting unit 10
5 can be input to the rename section 107. There are still other combinations of the area code, year information, month information, day information parameters, and directories in the storage unit 104, but the present invention does not exclude these combinations from the claims.

When only information corresponding to one broadcast station and one day is stored in the program guide data file, the area code can be viewed as the broadcast station code. In this way, the EPG device allows the user to compose and display a program guide with a desired combination of broadcasting stations.

(Embodiment 2) The program guide data management apparatus 101 described above can be realized only when the year information is described in the file name or data area of the program guide data file. However, if the year information is not described in the program guide data file at all, it is necessary to supplement the year information using some method. So below
A program guide data management device 501 that estimates and supplements year information using the reception time of a program guide data file will be described as a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the program guide data management device 501 according to the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 501 denotes a program guide data management device. 102 is an input unit, 103 is a buffer, 104 is a broadcast station code extracting unit, 105 is a date information extracting unit, 107 is a rename unit, 108 is a file management unit, and 109 is a storage unit, each of which is shown in FIG. Are identical. Reference numeral 502 denotes a clock for outputting the current date and time information. For example, if the clock is 7:30 pm on January 20, 1999, "1"
The character string “99901120930” is output.
Numeral 03 denotes an year information estimating unit which estimates the year information of the program table data file from the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit 105 and the current date information obtained from the clock 502. The year information is output as a four-digit character string.

Next, the operation of the year information estimating unit 503 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of year information estimating section 503. First, in step 601, the current date information CurrD obtained from the clock 502 is set to January 1st.
It is checked whether the date is after the date and before November 30. If so, in step 602, the current year information CurrY is output as the year information of the program guide data file, and the process ends. As a result, the year information of the program guide data file becomes the same as the current year information CurrY, that is, the case where the program guide of this year's program is obtained. Next, in step 603, it is checked whether or not the current year information CurrY is after December 1 in step 601.

Date and time information File of program table data file
If D is after current year information CurrY, step 60
The process proceeds to step 2, which is the case where the program guide of the current year's program is obtained at the end of the year. Otherwise, it is determined that the program guide of the next year's program has been obtained, and in step 604, the current year information CurrY + 1 is output as the year information of the program guide data file, and the process ends.

Even if year information is not included in the program guide data file by the above operation, the current year, that is, the year information is estimated using the date when the program guide is obtained, and is supplemented. Is possible.

Here, the processing is performed on the assumption that the program table can be obtained up to one month ahead. However, if the program table can be obtained up to two months ahead, in step 601 the current month / day information is obtained. The range may be adjusted so as to check whether CurrD is after January 1 and before October 30.

Next, the operation of the program guide data management device 501 configured as shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, the program guide data file is January 2, 1999
A program table data file of a television station having a broadcast station code “0001” on the 5th is named “00010”.
125. epg ”and the current date is January 1998
It is February 30.

First, in step 701, the input section 102 is connected to the Internet or VBI data broadcasting, etc. to acquire this program guide data file and temporarily store it in the buffer 103. Next, in step 702, the area code extracting unit 104 extracts the area code "0001" from the file name of the program guide data file in the buffer 103. In step 703, the date information extracting unit 105 extracts date information "0125" (representing January 25) from the file name of the program guide data file in the buffer.
Then, in step 704, the year information estimating unit 503 obtains current date information from the clock 502.

Further, the date and time information of the program table data file obtained from the date and time information extracting unit 105 and the clock 50
From the current date information obtained from step 2, step 7
At 05, the year information of the program guide data file is estimated and output to the rename section. By the operation described above, it is determined here that the program table for January of the following year has been obtained, so that “1999” of current year information + 1 is output as year information.

Then, in step 706, the rename section 1
07, a program guide data file is obtained from the buffer 103, and its file name is set to 4 of “0000” to “9999”.
The year information is represented by two digits, the month information of the program table is represented by two digits of "01" to "12", and the day information is represented by two digits of "01" to "30". Change to a string of numbers.
That is, the file name is changed to “19990125.epg”.

In step 707, the file management unit 10
8 checks whether a directory corresponding to the obtained area code already exists on the file system of the storage unit 109, and if not, creates a new one in step 708. Subsequently, in step 709, the file management unit 108 stores the program guide data file obtained from the rename unit in the directory.

With the above operation, even if the file system in which the file name of the program guide data file is limited to a maximum of eight characters is used and the program guide data file does not contain year information, the input unit It is possible to realize a program guide data file management system in which file names are not confused at the time of transmission until input to the storage unit 102 and at the time of storage in the storage unit 109.

[0058]

As described above, according to the program guide data management apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, at the time of transmission, the file name of the program guide data file is named according to the area code and the date information and received. After that, a directory is provided for each region code in the storage unit and stored, and the program table data file name is named based on year information and month / day information, so that the length of the character string of the file name is limited or the directory structure is changed. The program guide data file can be transmitted even on a transmission path on which the program cannot be used.

According to the program guide data management device of the second aspect of the present invention, the year information of the program guide data file is estimated and supplemented from the date / time information at the time of reception. Even if it is not described in the program guide data file, it is possible to manage a program guide data file group spanning a plurality of years without confusion.

Further, according to the program guide data management device of the third aspect of the present invention, the program guide data file has
Since the program information corresponding to one day of the broadcasting station is stored, the area code can be viewed as the broadcasting station code, and the EPG device can construct and display a program table with a combination of arbitrary broadcasting stations desired by the user. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a program guide data management device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a format of a program guide data file.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a storage state of a program guide data file in a storage unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the program guide data file management device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a program guide data management device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a year information estimating unit in FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of the program guide data file management device shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a storage state of a program guide data file in a conventional server computer.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a storage state of a program guide data file in a conventional server computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 program table data management device, 102 input unit, 103 buffer 104 broadcast station code extraction unit, 105 date information extraction unit 106 year information read unit, 107 rename unit 108 file management unit, 109 storage unit 501 program table data management device, 502 clock 503 year information estimating unit 3000 home directory 3001 to 3099 regional directory 30011 to 130013 program table data file 30021 to 30023 program table data file 30031 to 30033 program table data file 30041 to 30043 program table data file 30991 to 30993 program table data file 1000 Home directory 1001-1047 Regional directory 10011-10013 Program guide data file 10021-1002 Program guide data file from 10,031 to 10,033 program guide data file 10,041 to 10,043 program guide data file from 10,471 to 10,473 program table data file 1100 home directory 1001-1047 date directory 110101-110109 program guide data file 110201,110202 program guide data file

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Jiro Kishoda 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Koji Takeda 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma, Osaka Pref. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5C025 BA27 CA09 CB08 CB09 CB10

Claims (3)

[Claims] An Electronic Pro for browsing program recording and making a recording reservation using a program table data file which is a program table converted into electronic data of a television broadcast.
A program guide data management device that realizes a program guide (EPG) device, wherein the program guide data management device includes at least an input unit for inputting the program guide data file, and the program obtained from the input unit. A buffer for storing a table data file; a region code extracting unit for obtaining a region code from the program table data file stored in the buffer; and a date and time information from the program table data file stored in the buffer. A date information extracting unit; a year information reading unit that obtains year information from the program guide data file stored in the buffer; an area code obtained from the area code extracting unit; The date information obtained from the above, the year information obtained from the year information reading unit,
A character string including at least one piece of information, and a rename section for changing the file name of the program guide data file stored in the buffer to the character string; and storing the program guide data file. And a file management unit that, in the rename unit, provides a directory in the storage unit for each piece of information not included in the character string, and stores the program guide data file whose file name has been changed in a corresponding directory. A program guide data management device, comprising: 2. An Electric Pro for browsing a program broadcast and making a recording reservation using a program guide data file which is a program guide converted into electronic data of a television broadcast.
A program guide data management device that realizes a program guide (EPG) device, wherein the program guide data management device includes at least an input unit for inputting the program guide data file, and the program obtained from the input unit. A buffer for storing a table data file, a clock for outputting current date and time information, a region code extracting unit for obtaining a region code from the program table data file stored in the buffer, From the program guide data file, a date information extracting unit that obtains date information, and the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit;
A year information estimating unit for estimating the year information corresponding to the contents of the program guide data file stored in the buffer from the current date and time information obtained from the clock; and The information includes at least one of the area code obtained from the unit, the date information obtained from the date information extracting unit, and the year information obtained from the year information estimating unit. A character string is set, and a file name of the program guide data file stored in the buffer is changed to the character string.A rename unit that stores the program guide data file. A directory is provided in the storage unit for each piece of information not included in the column, and the program guide data file whose file name has been changed is stored in a directory in a corresponding region. It is provided with a Airu management unit, and wherein the program table data management device. 3. The program guide data management device according to claim 1, wherein the program guide data file describes program information of one broadcast station, and the area code corresponds to one broadcast station. A program guide data management device, characterized in that: