JP2001203951A - Digital broadcast adaptive television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automate the setting of picture quality and sound quality when received and to make it easy to select a received program when there are multiple reservations in the same time zone as to a digital broadcast adaptive television receiver by grasping the view states of respective user and performing necessary view restrictions. SOLUTION: This receiver is provided with a user information input part which inputs information on the respective users and a user menu generation part 15 which generates user menus by the users. A user menu recognition part 17 recognizes the menus by the users read out of a user menu storage part 16 and limits the contents of the menus by the users or alters part of the contents according to user menu control information (m) from the user information input part 14 according to need. Consequently, the restriction of the view, the automatic setting of picture quality and sound quality, and the selection of a received programs can easily be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcast compatible television receiver, and more particularly, to a digital broadcast compatible television receiver for creating a menu for each user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional digital broadcast compatible television receiver will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional digital broadcast compatible television receiver. In FIG. 4, a digital broadcast compatible television receiver demodulates a digital signal such as video, audio, and accompanying information, and outputs a video signal by decoding a video stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit 100. Video decoding unit 101, digital signal demodulation unit 1
An audio decoder 102 that decodes an audio stream output from the audio stream 00 and outputs an audio signal; a digital signal demodulator 100
Program information decoding unit 103 that decodes a program information stream output from a PC and outputs program information, a user information input unit 104 that inputs information from an external input device such as a remote controller, and program information and user information from the program information decoding unit 103 A user menu creation unit 10 for creating a user menu based on the user menu creation information from the input unit 104
5. Reception information storage section 106 for storing reception information from digital signal demodulation section 100, user menu creation section 10
5 output from the user menu and the video decoding unit 101
And a video menu synthesizing unit 107 for synthesizing the video signal output from the CRT and outputting the synthesized video signal to a subsequent CRT or the like.

The operation of the conventional digital broadcast compatible television receiver configured as described above will be described below. First, a digital signal a such as video / audio / extra information input from the antenna input terminal A is demodulated by the digital signal demodulation unit 100 and separated into video / audio / program information streams b, c and d. The video stream b is decoded by the video decoding unit 101 and output to the subsequent stage as a video signal e. The audio stream c is decoded by the audio decoding unit 102 and output to the subsequent stage as an audio signal f. The program information stream d is decoded by the program information decoding unit 103,
It is output at a later stage as program information g.

[0004] Information h, such as a program to be watched or a genre of interest, is input to a user information input unit 104 from an external input device such as a remote controller, and user menu creation information i is input.
Is output to the subsequent stage. Further, the digital signal demodulation unit 10
From 0, the current and past reception information r is stored in the reception information storage unit 1.
06 and output to the subsequent stage as reception information s.
The user menu creation unit 105 creates a user menu j having several items such as a past reception history and an interesting program genre from the sent program information g, reception information s, and user menu creation information i. Output to The video menu combining unit 107 combines the sent video signal e and the user menu j to generate a CR
Output to an image display device such as T.

As described above, in the conventional digital broadcasting compatible television receiver, the user can easily select a program by creating a user menu having several items, synthesizing the menu with a video signal and displaying it. I have to.

[0006]

In a conventional digital television receiver, the emphasis is placed on the user's easy selection of a program. Can be easily selected, but it is not possible to grasp the menu and the viewing state selected by a user other than the user, and to grasp the state of the entire receiver. In addition, since the emphasis of the user menu is placed on easy program selection, image quality settings when video is received are not coordinated, and it is necessary to make these settings every time a video is received. Further, when a plurality of program reservations exist at the same time in a plurality of user menus, the reception contents of the receiver cannot be easily selected, and it may be difficult to determine the reception contents.

[0007] It is an object of the invention of claims 1 to 4 of the present application to make it possible, when a plurality of user menus are created, to partially change the menu created by another user or restrict viewing. And

Another object of the present invention is to enable a specific user to change / delete a menu or viewing status created by a user other than his / her own. .

In addition, according to the invention of claim 3 of the present application, in addition to this, each user menu is linked with the image quality or sound quality setting of the whole receiver, and each time each user receives, the image quality or sound quality corresponding to each user is set. An object of the present invention is to enable sound quality setting to be automatically set.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4 of the present application, even when a plurality of program reservations exist at the same time, the reception contents can be easily determined by setting priorities in a password or the like in advance. The purpose is to be able to.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital signal demodulation section for demodulating digital signals such as video, audio, and supplementary information, and a video stream output from the digital signal demodulation section. A video decoding unit that outputs a video signal, an audio decoding unit that decodes an audio stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit and outputs an audio signal, and a program information stream that is output from the digital signal demodulation unit. A program information decoding unit for outputting program information, a user information input unit for inputting user information including each password provided from an external input device, and outputting user menu creation information and user menu control information; User information for each user based on the program information from the user information creation section and the user menu creation information from the user information input section. A user menu creation unit for creating a menu, a user menu storage unit for storing a user-specific menu created by the user menu creation unit, and a user-specific menu read from the user menu storage unit. A user menu recognition unit having a function of limiting or partially changing the content of the user-based menu based on the user menu control information from the information input unit, and a video control information from the user menu recognition unit. A video setting unit for setting the image quality of the video signal from the video decoding unit based on the sound quality of the audio signal from the audio decoding unit based on the audio control information from the user menu recognizing unit. A voice setting section to be output to the speaker, and a user-specific menu output from the user menu recognition section. It is characterized in that and a video menu synthesizing unit for outputting a video signal output from the image setter to synthesizing and display device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the digital television receiver according to the first aspect, the user information input unit selects one or a plurality of super users from the input users. Things,
The user menu recognition unit has at least one function of browsing, changing, and deleting personal information including input information, viewing time, and viewing fee of each user with respect to a super user.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the digital television receiver according to the first aspect, the user information input section sets at least one of a desired image quality or sound quality for each user. When the user receives a television broadcast or the like, the image setting unit sets and outputs a user's favorite image quality based on information input by each user, and the sound quality setting unit includes The sound quality is automatically set and output.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the digital television receiver according to the first aspect, the user information input section determines a priority order based on the input user information. The recognizing unit is to receive the program selected by the user with higher priority first when there are a plurality of programs having the same broadcast time and the like that cannot be received at the same time among the input user menus. It is characterized by the following.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (Embodiment 1) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. In FIG. 1, a digital broadcast compatible television receiver includes a digital signal demodulation unit 1 for demodulating digital signals such as video, audio, and accompanying information.
0, a video decoding unit 11 that decodes a video stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit 10 and outputs a video signal, an audio decoding unit 12 that decodes an audio stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit 10 and outputs an audio signal, A program information decoding unit 13 that decodes a program information stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit 10 and outputs program information, and inputs information such as a password of each user based on information input from an external input device such as a remote controller. A user information input unit 14 for outputting user menu creation information and user menu control information; a user for each user based on program information from the program information decoding unit 13 and user menu creation information from the user information input unit 14 The menu is created by the user menu creating unit 15 that creates the menu. User menu storage unit 16 for storing the user-specific menu, the user menu storage unit 16
Recognize the read-out menu for each user and, if necessary, limit the contents of the menu for each user or change a part of the contents based on the user menu control information from the user information input unit 14. The user menu recognizing unit 17, the video setting unit 18 for setting the image quality of the video signal from the video decoding unit 11 based on the video control information from the user menu recognizing unit 17, and the audio control information from the user menu recognizing unit 17 are also used. At the same time, the sound quality of the audio signal from the audio decoding unit is set, and the audio setting unit 19, the user-specific menu output from the user menu recognizing unit, and the video signal output from the video setting unit 18 are combined in the subsequent speaker, and And a video menu synthesizing section 20 for outputting to an image display device such as a CRT.

The operation of the digital television receiver shown in FIG. 1 configured as described above will be described below. A digital signal a such as video / audio / auxiliary information input from the antenna input terminal A is demodulated by the digital signal demodulation unit 10 and separated into video / audio / program information streams b, c and d. The video stream b is decoded by the video decoding unit 11 and output to the subsequent video setting unit 18 as a video signal e. The audio stream c is the audio decoding unit 1
2 and is decoded as an audio signal f by the audio setting unit 1 in the subsequent stage.
9 is output. The program information stream d is decoded by the program information decoding unit 13 and output to the subsequent user menu creation unit 15 as program information g. Information h about the user, such as a password provided for each user, is input to the user information input unit 14 from an external input device such as a remote controller, and output to the subsequent user menu creation unit 15 as user menu creation information i for each user. You.
The user menu creation unit 15 creates a user menu for each user based on the program information from the program information decoding unit 13 and the user menu creation information from the user information input unit 14. User menu creation unit 15
The user menu j created for each user is stored once in the user menu storage unit 16 and output to the user menu recognition unit 17 as needed. The menu k from the user menu recognizing unit 17 is combined with the set video signal 1 sent from the video setting unit 18 in the video menu synthesizing unit 20, and is output to a subsequent CRT or the like.

This will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example of a password setting screen and a menu assigned to each password. In the user information input unit 14 and the user menu creation unit 15, a password is assigned to each user, and a menu for each user corresponding to the password is created. Set one or more of the passwords assigned to the user for the superuser. In the menus M2 to M4 other than the super user (for example, children), there are items such as a favorite genre and a viewing situation, which are not much different from the conventional menu. In the menu of the super user (for example, father), the conventional menu M
In addition to 1, there is a menu MS specific to a super user. In the menu MS specific to the super user, the menu and the viewing status of each user can be checked, and the genre of the received program, the program fee, and the like can be restricted as necessary. Here, an example in which a menu unique to a super user is used is shown.

First, "Confirm viewing status" in the menu is selected and executed. Select the user (child) to be confirmed from the user list window, select the item (viewing fee) to be confirmed from "confirmation contents", and execute. After execution, the confirmation of the selected user is displayed. Here, if the viewing time of the child is longer than expected, the viewing restriction is imposed on the child. Return to the super user menu and select "Restricted viewing" to execute. If you want to hide all the items, select all items. If you want to restrict some items, select and execute the item you want to restrict from the partial restriction window. For example, when restricting the viewing time, a time is selected from the window and the viewing time of the child is restricted on the time restriction screen. In addition to this, it may be possible to change or delete a viewing reservation selected by a normal user.

The parental control performed in this manner is output from the user information input unit 14 to the user menu recognition unit 17 as user menu control information m, and when received by a child, is combined with the child menu to produce a video menu. It is output to the synthesis unit 20. The user menu control information m is also output to the digital signal demodulation unit 10. The digital signal demodulation unit 10 stops receiving the digital signal when it exceeds the limit range. With these series of operations, viewing status confirmation and restriction are performed by the super user.

(Embodiment 2) The first aspect of the present invention will be described below.
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. A description of what has been described in the first embodiment will be omitted here. The operation of the digital broadcast compatible television receiver of FIG. 1 will be described below. A digital signal a such as video, audio, and incidental information input from the antenna input terminal A is demodulated by the digital signal demodulation unit 10, and the video, audio, and program information streams b, c,
d. The video stream b is decoded by the video decoding unit 11 and output to the subsequent video setting unit 18 as a video signal e. The audio stream c is decoded by the audio decoding unit 12 and output to the subsequent audio setting unit 19 as an audio signal f. The program information stream d is decoded by the program information decoding unit 13 and is output to the subsequent user menu creating unit 15 as program information g.

A password provided for each user and information h relating to the user are input to a user information input unit 14 from an external input device such as a remote controller, and these information are used as user menu creation information i for each user at a later stage. It is output to the user menu creation unit 15. The user menu j for each user created by the user menu creation unit 15 is temporarily stored in the user menu storage unit 16 and, if necessary, the user menu recognition unit 17
Is output to The menu k from the user menu recognizing unit 17 is transmitted to the video setting unit 1
8 is combined with the set video signal 1 sent from 8 and output to a subsequent CRT or the like.

The user menu recognizing section 17 recognizes image quality and sound quality parameters set in the user menu j, and outputs video control information n and audio control information o based on the information. The video setting unit 18 sets the image quality (for example, brightness and contour correction) according to the video control information n for the video signal e to be sent, and outputs it as the video signal l to the video menu synthesis unit after the setting. It is displayed on a CRT or the like at the subsequent stage. The sound setting unit 19 sets sound quality (for example, an equalizer) according to the sound control information o with respect to the sent sound signal f, outputs the set sound signal p, and reproduces the sound signal with a speaker or the like at the subsequent stage. I do.

By performing such an operation, the image quality and the sound quality set by each user in each user menu can be always reproduced for the user, and it is not necessary to make these settings every time receiving. .

(Embodiment 3) The first aspect of the present invention will be described below.
A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The description of the components described in the first embodiment is omitted here. The operation of the digital broadcast compatible television receiver of FIG. 1 will be described below. The digital signal “a” such as video, audio, and auxiliary information input from the antenna input terminal “A” is converted into a digital signal demodulated by the digital signal demodulation unit 1.
0, demodulated in the video / audio / program information stream b,
It is separated into c and d. The video stream b is a video decoding unit 1
1 and is decoded as a video signal e by the video setting unit 1 in the subsequent stage.
8 is output. The audio stream c is decoded by the audio decoding unit 12 and output to the subsequent audio setting unit 19 as an audio signal f. The program information stream d is the program information decoding unit 1
3 and is output as program information g to the subsequent user menu creation unit 15.

Also, a password provided for each user and information h relating to the user are input to the user information input unit 14 from an external input device such as a remote controller, and the user menu creation unit i at the subsequent stage is provided as user menu creation information i for each user. 15 is output. The user menu j for each user created by the user menu creation unit 15 is temporarily stored in the user menu storage unit 16 and output to the user menu recognition unit 17 as needed.
The menu k from the user menu recognizing unit 17 is combined with the set video signal 1 sent from the video setting unit 18 in the video menu synthesizing unit 20 and output to a subsequent CRT or the like.

This will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. FIG.
(A) shows a screen for setting the priority of each password in the user menu. On the password setting screen, select and execute “priority of password”. On the priority setting screen, each priority is determined and input in the list of each user. FIG. 3B shows an input example in a case where there are five users (grandma, father, mother, boy, girl) as an example. In this example, the super user is the father, and the order of priority is boy, girl, grandma, mother, and father in descending order. In this situation, if the reception time is the same or partially the same in the menu set by each user and multiple programs cannot be received at the same time, the user with the higher priority is set based on the priority set earlier Receive programs preferentially. This makes it possible to easily select a received program in the same time zone.

[0027]

As described above, according to the television receivers for digital broadcasting according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, a super user is selected from each user, and the selected super user is selected by another user. It is possible to check the viewing status and restrict the viewing if necessary.

According to the television receiver for digital broadcasting according to the invention of claim 3 of the present application, each user sets the picture and sound quality of video and audio by using a menu, so that the user can adjust the picture and sound when receiving the program. Can automatically set the image and sound quality.

According to the television receiver for digital broadcasting according to the invention of claim 4 of the present application, by setting the priority order for each user, even if program reservation or the like is duplicated among the users, Received programs can be easily selected according to the priority.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital broadcast compatible television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a password setting screen and a password assignment menu according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a priority setting screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional digital broadcast compatible television receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 digital signal demodulation unit 11 video decoding unit 12 audio decoding unit 13 program information decoding unit 14 user information input unit 15 user menu creation unit 16 user menu storage unit 17 user menu recognition unit 18 video setting unit 19 audio setting unit 20 video menu synthesis Unit 100 Digital signal demodulation unit 101 Video decoding unit 102 Audio decoding unit 103 Program information decoding unit 104 User information input unit 105 User menu creation unit 106 Received information storage unit 107 Video menu synthesis unit a Digital signal such as video, audio, and accompanying information b Video stream c Audio stream d Program information stream e Video signal f Audio signal g Program information h User information i User menu creation information j User menu k menu l Video signal after setting m User menu control Distribution n video control information o audio control information p set after the voice signal r received information s received information

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Kitahara 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Osaka Pref. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Term (reference) 5C025 BA18 BA25 BA27 BA28 BA30 CA02 CA09 CA19 CB10 DA05 5C063 AA20 AC01 AC05 AC10 CA12

Claims (4)

[Claims] A digital signal demodulation unit for demodulating a digital signal such as video, audio, and accompanying information; a video decoding unit for decoding a video stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit and outputting a video signal; An audio decoding unit that decodes an audio stream output from the signal demodulation unit and outputs an audio signal; a program information decoding unit that decodes a program information stream output from the digital signal demodulation unit and outputs program information; A user information input unit for inputting user information including the respective passwords given from the apparatus and outputting user menu creation information and user menu control information; program information from the program information decoding unit; Create user menu for each user based on user menu creation information A user menu storage unit for storing a user-specific menu created by the user menu creation unit; and a user menu control from the user information input unit, recognizing a user-specific menu read from the user menu storage unit. A user menu recognizing unit having a function of restricting the content of the user-based menu or changing a part of the content based on information; and from the video decoding unit based on video control information from the user menu recognizing unit. A video setting unit that sets the image quality of the video signal, and a sound setting unit that sets the sound quality of the sound signal from the sound decoding unit based on sound control information from the user menu recognition unit and outputs the sound quality to the subsequent speaker. A user-specific menu output from the user menu recognition unit and an image output from the image setting unit A digital broadcast compatible television receiver, comprising: a video menu combining unit that combines a signal and outputs the combined signal to a display device. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the user information input unit selects one or a plurality of super users from the input users, and the user menu recognition unit inputs each user to the super user. 2. The digital broadcast compatible television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the television receiver has at least one function of browsing, changing, and erasing personal information including information, viewing time, and viewing fee. 3. The user information input section is for setting at least one of a desired image quality and sound quality for each user, and the video setting section is provided for each user when receiving a television broadcast or the like. Wherein the sound quality setting section automatically sets and outputs the user-preferred sound quality based on the information inputted by the user. 2. The digital broadcast compatible television receiver according to 1. 4. The user information input unit determines a priority order based on the input user information, and the user menu recognition unit determines that each of the input user menus has the same broadcast time. 2. The digital broadcast-compatible television receiver according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of programs that cannot be received simultaneously, a program selected by a user with a higher priority is preferentially received.