JP2001275053A - Video display device and video-recording controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need for a user to select a desired channel each time and to enable the user to view a constituted program whenever the user likes by video-recording it. SOLUTION: The device of this invention is equipped with a My-Channel- Program order determination part 105 which rearranges the pieces of program information including scored taste keywords of the user according to the broadcasting time and a My-Channel setting part 106 which checks whether the broadcasting time of the rearranged programs overlaps and selects a program having high evaluation points given by a program retrieval result evaluation part 103 when the program broadcasting time overlaps.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to terrestrial broadcasting, BS,
A program table suitable for the user's preference is configured using information on an electronic program table (hereinafter, referred to as an EPG) acquired via broadcast radio waves such as CS or the Internet, and display control of channels is performed based on the configured program table. And a video display device and a recording control device using a program guide for controlling recording of a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The digitization of broadcasting has made it possible to create an environment in which much new information can reach homes. Along with this, multi-channel programs have progressed, and EP
The need for G information is increasing. EPG information broadcasted by general terrestrial broadcasting is transmitted from a broadcasting station as in text multiplex broadcasting.
It is inserted into a vertical flyback period (hereinafter, referred to as VBI) of a television broadcast and provided to an unspecified user as a text file. The receiver receives the EPG information, stores the information of the program in the storage device, and displays the information as the EPG information on the display device when all the information for a certain period is received.

As an apparatus for receiving EPG information related to the present invention, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-135621 (hereinafter referred to as Conventional Technique 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
No. 4 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 2) and
No. 345446 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 3).

In the prior art 1, a user receives a broadcast program table transmitted from a broadcasting station by a program table receiving unit or selects a user from a program table supplied from a storage medium, and the keyword disassembling unit selects the viewed program information. Is decomposed into keywords, and the keyword storage means counts and accumulates the appearance frequency of the keywords, and when performing channel selection or recording reservation, the priority order determination means appears from among the programs selected by the program candidate extraction means. It is configured to be presented from the program information including the frequently-used keyword.

[0005] Further, in the prior art 2, the keyword management upgrade or maintenance at the receiving terminal is identified by the identification code assigning means by referring to the correspondence table between the keyword and its unique identification symbol by the correspondence table storage means, and the keyword acquired from the program information. , And is converted by the transmitting means as program information including the assigned identification symbol. Then, the receiving means sequentially adds and stores the program information at the time of reception by the program information adding / storing means. The program recommendation means refers to the frequency table indicating the frequency of occurrence of the identification symbol in the frequency table storage means, searches the received program information for an identification symbol having a frequency of occurrence equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and recommends the user. Present.

The prior art 3 acquires program information on a broadcast program, acquires viewing history information on a user's past program viewing, and obtains a program viewed by the user from the program information and the viewing history information. Is learned, and using the result of the learning, a program which is likely to be viewed is searched from programs scheduled to be broadcast in the future. Next, a program that has a broadcast time zone that overlaps is searched for the searched programs, a program that is likely to be viewed and is a non-duplicate recording candidate is determined, and the recording candidate is automatically reserved for recording. It is.

[0007]

However, in the prior arts 1, 2, and 3, the program information including the scored user preference keywords disclosed in the present invention is arranged according to the broadcast time. At least no means. For this reason, if the content included in the EPG information is abundant or the number of transmitting stations is increased, and the number of EPG information is increased, it becomes very difficult to find a program to be watched that suits the user's preference. The problem remains.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and comprises a program table suitable for a user's preference using broadcast waves such as terrestrial waves, BS, CS, etc., and EPG information obtained via the Internet. It is another object of the present invention to provide a video display device and a recording control device that perform display control of a channel and recording control of a program based on a configured program table.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video display apparatus comprising: means for acquiring EPG information via broadcast waves such as terrestrial waves, BS, CS, etc., and the Internet. Means for inputting preference data relating to user's program viewing as a keyword to score the keyword; means for extracting program information including the user's preference keyword from the acquired EPG information; Program information evaluation means for evaluating the program information including the extracted user preference keywords based on the result of the scoring means, and means for arranging the program information including the evaluated user preference keywords according to broadcast time; It is checked whether the broadcast times of the arranged programs overlap, and when the program broadcast times overlap, the program information is checked. And a program selecting means for selecting a high evaluation point by the evaluation unit program.

[0010] According to such a configuration, since a virtual program channel suitable for the user's taste is provided, it is not necessary for the user to search for a program that meets his or her own preference. Further, even when programs desired by the user overlap in the same time zone, it is possible to select a program that is more preferable.

A recording control apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention provides a means for acquiring EPG information by broadcast waves such as terrestrial waves, BS, CS, etc., and the Internet, and using user preference data relating to program viewing as keywords. Means for inputting, means for scoring the input keyword, means for extracting program information including the user's preference keyword from the obtained EPG information, and results of means for scoring the keyword Program information evaluation means for evaluating program information including the extracted user preference keywords based on the; program information including the evaluated user preference keywords arranged according to broadcast time;
A program selecting means for checking whether or not the broadcast times of the arranged programs overlap, and selecting a program having a high evaluation score by the program information evaluating means when the program broadcast times overlap, Total broadcast time evaluation means for evaluating the total broadcast time of the selected program within the broadcast day, and recording performance for recording the program selected by the program selection means set by the evaluation result of the total broadcast time evaluation means And a recording means for recording the program selected by the program selecting means according to the recording performance determined by the recording performance determining means.

[0012] According to such a configuration, the user can watch the program that matches his taste without overlooking it.

Further, the recording control apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is provided with means for sequentially switching the overlapping program information in accordance with the evaluation point when the broadcasting time of the program overlaps. As a result, the user can selectively select a program that suits his / her taste and watch a program that suits his / her taste.

Further, the recording control apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the recording of the program includes means for recording a program having a designated evaluation point or higher according to the evaluation point.
As a result, the user can selectively select a program that suits his / her taste and record the program that suits his / her taste.

In addition, a recording control device according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is a recording control apparatus for evaluating a recording capacity of a recording medium when recording a program, and recording a program whose recording capacity is selected by the program selecting means. Means for recording a program starting from the program having the highest evaluation score according to the evaluation score when the predetermined capacity is not reached. According to this, the user can preferentially record a program that suits his / her taste.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video display apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a CP for controlling signal processing, information processing, operation of each unit described later, and the like of the present invention.
U. Although the block showing the CPU 100 and the block of each unit described below are connected by an arrow, it indicates that control is performed in the direction of the arrow. Therefore, when the arrows are in both directions, it indicates that each of these means controls the CPU 100 and is controlled in response to an instruction from the CPU 100.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes an EPG information receiving / storage unit for receiving and storing EPG information broadcasted by broadcast radio waves, and 102 searches for the received and stored EPG information based on search input information of a user. A program information search section 103 is a program search result evaluation section for evaluating the program searched by the program information search section 102, and 104 is a broadcast date and a broadcast channel of the program from the program information evaluated by the program search result evaluation section 103. , A program control information extraction unit 105 for extracting program control information such as start time, end time, etc., according to the evaluation points of the program evaluated by the program search result evaluation unit 103. My that arranges a set (hereinafter referred to as My channel program) in order of broadcast time
The channel program order determining unit 106 is a My channel setting unit that configures a virtual broadcast station program table by the programs arranged by the My channel program order determining unit 105.
Reference numeral 7 denotes a preference information input evaluation unit for inputting a keyword relating to information of a program that the user wants to view.

Reference numeral 108 denotes a preference information storage unit for storing the user's preference information input by the preference information input evaluation unit 107. When the broadcast time of the determined program comes, when the broadcast time of the determined program comes, 109 A My channel display control unit for setting a tuner to a broadcast station to be broadcast; 110, a program display unit for displaying a schedule of a program registered as a My channel program; 111, an EP including a My channel
An EPG display unit that displays the EPG information stored in the G information reception storage unit 101.

Next, the operation of the video display apparatus using the program guide according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 in the case of receiving EPG information superimposed on analog terrestrial VBI and broadcast. The operation of the embodiment will be described.

The EPG information is broadcast from a data transmission device of a broadcasting station by a known means for superimposing data on a VBI represented by a text multiplex broadcasting receiver, and is received by a receiver (not shown). The EPG information receiving / storage unit 101 acquires EPG information from data superimposed on the VBI of the received radio wave and stores necessary information in a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk.

The EPG information receiving and storing section 101 stores the start time, end time, performer name, broadcast channel, broadcast station name, and the like of a TV program or a radio program broadcast by one or more broadcast stations capable of broadcasting in the reception area. EPG including EPG text information, EPG image information accompanying the program, EPG audio information, etc.
Information is accumulated.

On the other hand, to the preference information input evaluation section 107, a keyword for a user to search for a program matching his / her own preference from the program information stored in the EPG information receiving and storing section 101 is input after being scored. You.

The preference information storage unit 108 stores the preference information input by the user from the preference information input evaluation unit 107.
The program information search unit 102 searches and extracts the program information stored in the EPG information reception storage unit 101 using the user's preference information stored in the preference information storage unit 108.

The program search result evaluation section 103 gives an evaluation point to the search result of the program information search section 102. Specifically, the preference information storage unit 108 stores a keyword indicating the preference input by the user and an evaluation point list indicating how much the keyword is evaluated.

Here, the evaluation score assignment criterion in the program search result evaluation unit 103 may be the total score itself, which is the sum total of all the individual keyword scores assigned by the preference information input evaluation unit 107, as the evaluation score. Also, even when the total score of keywords is low, the evaluation score may be increased when the number of keywords reaches a predetermined number. In addition, it may be set so that the evaluation score is further increased when one keyword exceeds a predetermined score. That is, the evaluation points given by the program search result evaluation unit 103 may be directly linked to the scores of the preference information input evaluation unit 107, or may not be directly linked, and may be sequentially set according to the user's intention. Good.

The selection and registration of a keyword is performed by the user selecting and registering the name of a performer, a program name, a program category, an arbitrary word, and the like. Also,
The user can select and register from the program character strings described in the acquired EPG information.

All words registered as keywords are scored, for example, one by one as basic points, and keywords that the user does not particularly want to miss are given high scores, for example, 5 or 10 points. All keywords are scored. By performing scoring such that a large score difference occurs between keywords, a large difference appears in the evaluation score of each program, so that the user can select a desired program without hesitation.

The program control information extracting unit 104 evaluates the program information by the program search result evaluation unit 103 and assigns an evaluation point to the program information. The program broadcast date, broadcast channel, start time,
The program control information such as the end time is extracted.

The My channel program order determination unit 105 sorts programs that match the user's preference in the order of their broadcast time based on the evaluation and evaluation scoring of each program in the program search result evaluation unit 103.

In general, a user searches for a broadcast program while sequentially selecting channels to determine whether or not a favorite program is being broadcast. According to the present invention, programs are arranged in broadcast time order. As a result, it is not necessary to search for a broadcast program to watch each time, and the convenience of channel operation is improved.

At this time, if a plurality of programs are broadcast in the same time zone, the priority order for displaying the EPG information is determined based on the evaluation points of each program in the program search result evaluation section 103. For example, from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock, program A with an evaluation point of 50
Is broadcast, and from 9:30 to 10:30, if program B with an evaluation point of 80 is broadcast, program A is selected from 9:00 to 9:30 on the My channel, and from 9:30 on Until 10:30, program B is selected. Program C (evaluation score 70), program D
(Evaluation point 60) and program E (Evaluation point 50), the program C with a high evaluation point is automatically selected, and the unselected programs D and E are treated as counter-programs of the My channel. . The program treated as the counterprogram is not displayed in the drawing of this embodiment, and the program can be easily switched in accordance with the evaluation points by using the counterprogram button mounted on the remote controller, for example.

The My channel setting section 106 determines which time zone and which channel program should be assigned as the My channel program based on the evaluation points of each program in the program search result evaluation section 103. That is, it has a function as program selection means.

At this time, if there are a plurality of programs with high evaluation points in the overlapping time of the broadcast time zone, the programs are displayed on the program display section 110 in the descending order of the evaluation points so that the user can confirm them. In other words, the entire information of the program with the highest evaluation score is displayed so as to be seen first, and only a part of the information of the program with the evaluation score lower than that need to be displayed to the extent that it can be visually recognized that it will be broadcast in the time zone. . The user operates the My channel display control unit 109 by operating the remote controller or the mouse.
Can change these programs.

The program information of the My channel configured as described above is stored in the EPG display unit 1 in the same manner as a program of a normal broadcasting station.
11, the user can confirm the program information of the My channel at an arbitrary time.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, EPG information superimposed on analog terrestrial VBI has been described as an example, but EPG information obtained using the Internet or obtained from a medium such as a CD-ROM. The same effect can be obtained by using the EPG information.

The display of the program information using the evaluation points is M
The present invention is not limited to the display of programs on the y channel, but can be applied to a case where program information is displayed like a radio / TV column on a normal newspaper. In such a method, since only the program desired by the user can be displayed with the program information of the ordinary broadcasting station, programs having high value to the user are preferentially displayed, for example, by increasing the font size to be displayed. Then, it can be displayed in an easily viewable manner.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a recording control apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

In the figure, parts performing the same or equivalent functions as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the second embodiment, in addition to those shown in the first embodiment, a My channel recording control unit 201 for recording a program registered as a My channel, a My channel for storing recorded program information of the My channel program Recording and storage unit 202,
Total broadcast time evaluation means 203 for evaluating the total broadcast time of the program registered on the My channel of the broadcast day stored in the My channel information storage unit; and the broadcast date evaluated by the total broadcast time evaluation means 203 Based on the total broadcast time of the programs registered on the My channel of
A recording performance determining unit 204 and a recording recording unit 205 for determining a recording performance for recording a program registered in the My channel are provided.

Next, the operation of the video display device and the recording control device using the program guide according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2 by using the EPG information superimposed on the analog terrestrial VBI and broadcast. The operation of the embodiment in the case of reception will be described.

The EPG information is broadcast from a data transmission device of a broadcasting station by a known communication means for superimposing data on a VBI represented by a text multiplex broadcast receiver, and is received by the receiver.
The EPG information reception / storage section 101 receives the VBI of the received radio wave.
The EPG information is obtained from the data superimposed on the data, and necessary information is stored in a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk.

The EPG information includes EPG text information such as the start time and end time, names of casts, broadcast channels, names of broadcast stations, etc. of TV programs and radio programs broadcast by the broadcast station, and EPG images attached to the programs. EPG information including information, voice information, and the like is stored in the EPG information reception storage unit 101.

On the other hand, the preference information input evaluation section 107 allows the user to store a program matching his / her own preference in the EPG information reception / storage section 1.
A keyword for searching from the program information stored in 01 is scored and input.

The preference information storage unit 108 stores information input by the user from the preference information input evaluation unit 107. The program information search unit 102 searches for program information stored in the EPG information reception storage unit 101 using the user's preference information stored in the preference information storage unit 108. The program search result evaluation unit 103 assigns an evaluation point to the search result of the program information search unit 102. Specifically, the preference information accumulation unit 108 accumulates a keyword indicating the preference input by the user and an evaluation score list indicating how much the keyword is evaluated.

The program control information extraction unit 104 extracts program control information such as the broadcast date, broadcast channel, start time, and end time of the program from the program information evaluated by the program search result evaluation unit 103.

The My channel program order determination unit 105 arranges programs matching the user's preference in the order of their broadcast time based on the evaluation points of each program in the program search result evaluation unit 103. At this time, if a plurality of programs are broadcast in the same time zone, the display and the priority of recording are determined based on the evaluation points of each program in the program search result evaluation unit 103.

For example, if program A having an evaluation point of 50 is broadcast from 9:00 to 10:00 and program B having an evaluation point of 80 is broadcast from 9:30 to 10:30, the My channel starts at 9:00. Program A is selected until 9:30, and program B is selected from 9:30 to 10:30. Also, program C (evaluation point 70) having the same start time of the program,
When the program D (evaluation point 60) and the program E (evaluation point 50) are present, the program C having a high evaluation point is automatically selected, and the unselected programs D and E are set as counter programs of the My channel. Will be handled. The program treated as the counterprogram is not shown in the drawings of this embodiment, and the program can be easily switched by, for example, a counterprogram button mounted on the remote controller.

The program information of the My channel configured as described above is stored in the EPG display unit 1 in the same manner as a program of a normal broadcasting station.
11, the user can confirm the program at any time.

In this embodiment, the program selected as the My channel program is controlled by the control information extracted by the program control information extracting unit 104 to control the My channel recording control unit 2.
01 under the control of the recording My channel recording storage section 202
Will be recorded.

As a recording format, recording is performed using a known image format such as AVI, PEG1, or MPEG2 selected by the user. V as an example
MPEG that can ensure image quality equivalent to 3x mode of HS video
When the recording rate of 2 Mbps is selected, recording can be performed for 20 hours a day with a recording capacity of about 18 gigabytes.

The My channel recording control unit 201 controls recording of a program selected as a My channel program. That is, when the start time of the program selected as the My channel program comes, the recording and recording unit 205 is instructed to operate, and the recorded program is recorded in the My channel recording accumulation unit 202. When the program selected as the My channel program reaches the end time, the operation of the recording and recording means 205 is stopped and the My channel recording and accumulating unit 20 is stopped.
Stop recording to 2. My channel recording and storage unit 2
Reference numeral 02 denotes a known recording medium such as a hard disk or VHS.

At the time of the above recording, the total broadcast time evaluation means 203 calculates the total time of the program selected as the program of the My channel, and the total recording time of the selected program exceeds a predetermined capacity of the recording medium. In this case, the recording performance determination unit 204 is requested to determine the recording quality. The recording performance determining means 204 determines an appropriate recording quality, that is, a recording recording rate, based on the total recording time of the selected program and the capacity of the recording medium. Here, when the predetermined recording rate is determined, the program is recorded.

The image quality of recording can be set according to the evaluation points. In other words, it may be set so that the higher the evaluation point, or the higher the evaluation point, the higher the recording quality.

The recording of the program is performed by the program search result evaluation unit 10.
My channel recording control unit 201 using the evaluation points in
With this control, it is possible to easily realize the recording of a program having a rating equal to or higher than a specified evaluation point without a user's instruction. Evaluating the recording capacity of the recording medium at the time of recording the program, and when the recording capacity is less than the capacity for recording the program selected by the program selecting means, the recording capacity from the one with the higher specified rating point according to the evaluation point It is also easy to record a program.

Further, when the recordable capacity of the recording medium is insufficient with respect to the total broadcast time of the program selected as the My channel obtained by the total broadcast time evaluation means 203, the evaluation score is high according to the evaluation score. It is also easy to realize a function of selectively recording a program.

In the second embodiment of the present invention,
The EPG information superimposed on the analog terrestrial VBI has been described as an example.
Similar effects can be obtained by using information or EPG information obtained from a medium such as a CD-ROM.

[0057]

As described above, according to the video display device of the present invention, it is possible to configure a virtual program channel (My channel) that suits the user's taste, and the user can make his or her own You can watch a broadcast program without searching for a program that suits your taste.

Further, the present invention is provided with recording means for recording the selected program according to the recording performance determined by the recording performance determining means, so that the user can view the favorite program without overlooking it. Is done.

Further, according to the recording control apparatus of the present invention, when the broadcast time of a program is overlapped, there is provided a means for sequentially switching and selecting the overlapped program information according to the evaluation points. It is possible to selectively select a program that matches the taste and watch a favorite program.

Further, according to the recording control apparatus of the present invention, since the recording of the program is provided with the means for recording the program having the specified evaluation point or more according to the evaluation point, it is possible to view the program without mistake. Is done.

In addition, according to the recording control apparatus of the present invention, since means for recording a program from the one with the highest evaluation score according to the evaluation score is provided, the program that matches the user's preference is preferentially recorded. It becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video display device and a recording control device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 CPU 101 EPG information reception / storage section 102 program information search section 103 program search result evaluation section 104 program control information extraction section 105 My channel program order determination section 106 My channel setting section 107 preference information input evaluation section 108 preference information storage section 109 My Channel display control unit 110 Program display unit 111 EPG display unit 201 My channel recording control unit 202 My channel recording and accumulating unit 203 Total broadcast time evaluation unit 204 Recording performance determination unit 205 Recording recording unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 5/765 H04N 5/91 L 5/92 5/92 H 7/025 7/08 A 7/03 7/035 ( 72) Inventor Jiro Kishoda 1006 Kadoma, Kazuma, Osaka Pref., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 1006, Kadoma, Kamon, Fumonma-shi Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.F-term (reference)

Claims (5)

[Claims] A means for acquiring an electronic program guide; a means for inputting user preference data as a keyword to score the keyword; and a user preference keyword from information of the acquired electronic program guide. Means for extracting program information including: a program information evaluation means for evaluating program information including the extracted user preference keywords based on a result of the means for scoring the keyword; and Means for arranging the program information including the preference keywords according to the broadcast time, and checking whether or not the broadcast times of the arranged programs overlap, and when the program broadcast time overlaps, the program information evaluation means has a high evaluation score. A video display device comprising: a program selection unit for selecting a program. 2. A means for obtaining an electronic program guide, a means for inputting user preference data on program viewing as a keyword, a means for scoring the input keyword, and information on the obtained electronic program guide Means for extracting program information including the user's preference keyword from among:
A program information evaluation means for evaluating the program information including the extracted user preference keyword based on a result of the keyword scoring means, and a program information including the evaluated user preference keyword according to broadcast time. Arranging means; program selecting means for checking whether or not the broadcast times of the arranged programs overlap, and selecting a program with a high evaluation score by the program information evaluating means when the program broadcast times overlap, A total broadcast time evaluation means for evaluating the total broadcast time of the program selected by the selection means within the broadcast day; and a recording performance for recording the program selected by the program selection means, the total broadcast time evaluation means. A recording performance determining unit that is set according to the evaluation result; and the program selected by the program selecting unit is determined by the recording performance determining unit. Recording control apparatus characterized by comprising a recording means for recording the image performance. 3. The recording control device according to claim 2, further comprising: means for sequentially switching the overlapped program information in accordance with the evaluation points when broadcast times of the programs overlap. 4. The recording control apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for recording a program having a predetermined evaluation point or higher according to said evaluation point. 5. A means for evaluating a recording capacity of a recording medium at the time of recording a program, and when the recording capacity is less than a predetermined capacity for recording the program selected by the program selecting means, the means for evaluating the recording capacity according to the evaluation point. 3. The recording control device according to claim 2, further comprising means for recording a program starting from a program having a high evaluation score.