JP2008060702A - Software download channel search method and digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a necessary time for download service in the U.S. system. <P>SOLUTION: A download channel is specified in S5'. Processing is started in S11, and a VCT is acquired in S12. The program number of service_type=0×5 in the VCT is searched in S13. In S14, a PAT for acquiring a PMT is acquired, and a PID for acquiring the PMT of the program number is acquired when acquiring the PAT. Thus the PMT of the program number can be acquired in S16. In S17, the PMT is confirmed and it is confirmed that a stream_type is 0xB. Then the download channel can be specified. The download channel is stored in a non-volatile memory or the like in S18, and processing is terminated in S19. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a search technique for a channel for software download.

  For example, in order to correct a software bug in a digital broadcast receiving device, the correction data can be automatically corrected by transmitting correction data from the server side to the digital broadcast receiving device and downloading the data to the digital broadcast receiving device. Has been done. In Japan, the download method uses information distribution on all channels. Therefore, channel search is not necessary.

JP 2002-344838 A

  Unlike the operation system in Japan, the present invention does not deliver information related to the download service on all channels, and the time required for the download service using an operation in which only one channel in each region can be used as a download service. It aims at shortening.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing the difference between the domestic and Japanese download methods. As shown in FIG. 7, in the download S101 in Japan, first, a download detection schedule is acquired in S102 (SDTT), and a download reservation is made in S103. During this period, the system operation S111 includes a normal operation S112 when the power is turned on, a termination process S113 when the power is turned off, and a power off standby S114. Next, a download reservation activation / download / termination process S115 is performed, and the process ends in the power-off standby S116. Corresponding to the download process S115, download reservation activation S104 and download data acquisition (S105) are performed.

  On the other hand, the download service that is the subject of the present invention employs an operation method that does not know from which channel information related to the service can be taken. Therefore, in the target operation method (S201 to S208), the download service channel information cannot be acquired during viewing of the television, and conventionally, a channel search has been required (S202, S203). At this time, it is necessary to search for a download channel from all channels, and there is a problem that the time required for the entire download service becomes long. That is, in the software download service of the target operation method of the present invention, information is distributed only on one channel for each region. For this reason, the receiver side does not know which channel the data is flowing in, and there is a problem that the required time becomes long by performing an all-channel search.

  An object of the present invention is to perform a download without performing an all-channel search, and to shorten the time required for the entire download.

  The present invention is characterized in that a process for storing a download channel is additionally performed when searching for all channels for setting a user viewing channel. By using the information obtained at that time, the download data acquisition time can be shortened.

  More specifically, the all channel search for setting the user viewing channel is a process almost performed by a receiver purchaser provided in a menu or the like at the time of initial installation, and a process of presetting a download service channel in advance during this process Add. Thereby, the time required for the entire download service can be shortened.

  That is, according to an aspect of the present invention, a software download unit that automatically corrects bugs by transmitting software correction data in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus and downloading the data to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus including a step of searching for a download channel in conjunction with an all-channel search process for setting a viewing channel and storing the searched download channel in a memory prior to the software download process There is provided a digital broadcast receiving device characterized by having a control unit for performing the steps. The step of searching for the download channel includes the step of acquiring PMT information including information on the PMTID of the program number corresponding to all the subchannels broadcasted in the received physical channel and including the presence or absence of the download service. It is preferable.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software download method for automatically correcting a bug by transmitting software correction data in a digital broadcast receiving apparatus to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus and downloading the data to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus. Prior to software download processing, having a step of searching for a download channel in conjunction with an all-channel search process for setting a viewing channel, and a step of storing the searched download channel in a memory. A featured software download method is provided. The step of searching for the download channel includes the step of acquiring PMT information including information on the PMTID of the program number corresponding to all the subchannels broadcasted in the received physical channel and including the presence or absence of the download service. It is preferable. Further, the PMT information can be acquired in accordance with acquisition of PAT information and VCT information. Furthermore, it is possible to have a step of acquiring the PMT information based on the VCT information. These steps are preferably performed during initial installation.

  Furthermore, after performing the above method, the software can be downloaded by the step of obtaining the software through a download channel stored in the memory. The present invention may be a program for causing a computer to execute the above steps.

  According to the above invention, even if it is a mechanism that does not know from which channel information related to the service can be taken, the total time required for the software download service can be shortened.

  According to the present invention, the total time required for the software download service can be shortened even if the system does not know from which channel the information related to the service can be taken.

  Hereinafter, a software download channel search method and a digital broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a digital broadcast receiver A according to the present embodiment includes an antenna 1, a digital broadcast receiver 3, a communication interface unit 5, a download data storage unit 7, a decoder unit 11, and a remote control light receiver. A unit 15, a control unit 17, and a memory (RAM, ROM) 31 are included. Furthermore, the audio signal processing unit 25 and the speaker 21 for processing the audio signal, the video signal processing unit 27, and the display 23 are provided. The control unit 17 includes a TS conversion / analysis processing unit 17a that performs TS conversion processing and TS analysis processing, and a channel search processing unit 17b that performs CH search processing by executing a program in a memory (ROM). is doing. The TS signal can be acquired by receiving and demodulating the broadcast wave received from the antenna 1 by the digital broadcast receiver 3. Note that TS is an abbreviation for MPEG-2 Transport Stream, and is hereinafter referred to as TS.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a TS signal. Here, how the software download data can be acquired from the TS signal will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the TS includes PSI / PSIP, audio signal (audio data) 112, and video signal (image data) 113. The PSI is always included in the TS and does not have a virtual channel number or a broadcasting station name, but has a PAT 110 and PMTs 111a and 111b as program data configuration information. The PAT 110 stores information related to PMTIDs of program numbers respectively corresponding to all subchannels broadcasted in the received physical channel.

  For example, information is stored such that the PMT ID of a program that is one of the subchannels is 0x0010, and the PMT ID of a program that is another subchannel is 0x0011.

  Here, when receiving the sub-channel of the program, the data stored in the PMT 111a whose ID number is 0x0010 is read according to the information of the PAT 110. The PMT 111a stores information such that the video data ID of the program is 0x0001 and the audio data ID is 0x000a. According to the information of the PMT 111a, the decoder unit 11 sequentially reads out the video data 113 assigned with the ID number 0x0001, and the audio signal processing unit 25 outputs the audio data 112 assigned the ID number 0x000a. The video signal and the audio signal of the sub-channel of the program are sequentially read and decoded. Thus, the PAT 110 is always included in the MPEG-2 data in order to extract the video signal and the audio signal from the broadcast signal.

  The control unit 17 can obtain PMT IDs corresponding to all subchannels broadcasted in the physical channel to be received by analyzing the information stored in the PAT 110 of the MPEG-2 data. . The control unit 17 assigns a virtual subchannel number for convenience according to the order of the PMT ID corresponding to each subchannel.

  The PMT can include IDs for DSI (Download Server Initiate) 115, DII (Download Info Indication) 116, and DDB (Download Data Block) 117. By collecting and analyzing the IDs, the DSI 115, DII 116, and DDB 117 are collected. Software data can be downloaded. The DDB 117 is the download data itself in the present embodiment, and is a software image converted into packet data. The DSI 115 and DII 116 can be regarded as signals necessary for acquiring the DDB 117, and the acquisition procedure will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The VCT 114 can be acquired from an ID uniquely determined by the standard. Information for each channel is embedded in this, and it can be associated with channel information described in PMT by a field called Program Number.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a user interface presented to the user when performing a channel search in the channel search processing unit 17b. In the display example 21 shown in FIG. 3, an Air / Cable 23, a CH search 25, and a CH memory 27 can be selected. In this case, the CH search 25 is selected. When this is selected, it is possible to select use (Yes, No) of each tuner of analog broadcasting 32, digital broadcasting (terrestrial) 33, and digital broadcasting (cable broadcasting) 35, and click Search Start 37 or the like. Thus, the selected channel search is started. Here, for example, a case where the menu is provided as shown in FIG. 3 is generally used, and the technical feature of the present embodiment is that a download channel is preset at the time of channel search for viewing channel setting. That is. In addition, when searching all channels for setting user viewing channels, not only video / audio services but also preset channels for download services are performed. By starting the acquisition of information using this preset channel as a download channel, unnecessary channel search processing can be omitted, and the download data acquisition processing can be speeded up.

  A specific example of search processing including download channel setting processing in the channel search processing unit 17b according to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 shows a comparison between a channel search process including a general download channel setting process (left side of the figure) and a channel search process including the download channel setting process according to the present embodiment (right side of the figure). FIG. The same step number is attached to a portion indicating the same processing. In the general download channel setting process shown on the left side of the figure, first, in step S1, a search channel table that is a table for performing search channels is set, and in step S2, a channel to be selected is determined. Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the channel set in S2 is a digital channel. If it is a digital channel (Y), the process proceeds to step S4. If it is not a digital channel, there is no possibility that a download service is included (N), the process proceeds to step S7, and the processing of the channel set in step S2 is terminated. In step S4, frequency setting and demodulation processing are set to acquire TS, and then in step S5, PAT and VCT are acquired from TS. In step S6, a viewing channel is registered (stored) based on channel information obtained from this frequency from the PAT and VCT acquired in the viewing channel database.

  Next, when processing of one physical channel is completed in step S7, it is determined in step S8 whether there is a next channel while referring to the search channel table. If there is a next channel (Y), the process returns to step S2 to determine the next search channel. If all channels have been searched, the process proceeds to S9, and the entire channel search process is completed. When the channel search process ends in step S9, the viewing channel setting channel search process is performed.

  On the other hand, in the method according to the present embodiment, PMT is acquired in addition to PAT and VCT as shown in step S5 'instead of step S5. As described above, the PMT stores information related to the PMT ID of the program number corresponding to all the subchannels broadcast in the physical channel to be received. This includes information regarding the presence or absence of a download service. Further, a step for determining whether or not there is a download service (step S7-1) is provided between step S6 and step S7 in the left diagram. If there is a download service (Y), the process proceeds to step S7-2. If not, the process proceeds to step S7-3 to move to the search for the next channel. In step S7-2, a download channel is registered. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of the PAT, VCT, and PMT acquisition processing in step 5 ′. As shown in FIG. 5, step 5 'specifies the download channel by including the following steps. First, processing is started in step S11, and VCT is acquired in step S12. Next, in step S13, a program number of service_type = 0 × 5 in the VCT acquired in step S12 is searched.

  Next, in step S14, a PAT is acquired to acquire a PMT. Here, when acquiring the PAT, the PID for acquiring the PMT of the Program number is acquired.

  Thereby, in Step S16, the PMT of the Program number can be acquired. In step S17, the PMT is confirmed, and it is confirmed that the stream_type field is 0xB. With this, the download channel can be specified. In step S18, the download channel is stored in, for example, a nonvolatile memory, and the process ends in step S19. The stream_type is information included in the PMT. For example, if a code such as 0xB is added, it indicates that this is download data.

  Download channel identification processing can be performed by the processing described above, and the identified download channel can be stored in the apparatus.

  Note that in operation cases where VCT is not used, such as North American cable broadcasting, steps S12 and S13, which are broken lines, can be omitted, and processing can be started from S14.

  Next, a method for acquiring download data will be described with reference to FIG. First, when the process starts in step S21, in step S22, the registered download channel table acquired in the process of FIG. 5 is used, and in step S23, it is determined whether there is a next channel. If there is a next channel (Y), the process proceeds to step S24 to set the channel. If there is no next channel (N), the process proceeds to step S27 and the process is terminated. When the process proceeds to step S24, the channel setting process, which is the process until the PMT acquisition described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, is performed.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the relationship between DSI, DII, and DDB. With reference to FIG. 8 as well, a method of acquiring each information, which is an internal process in step S25, will be described. In step S25-1, the DSI ID is acquired from the PMT, and the DSI is acquired from the TS. DSI (DownloadServerInitiate) is download signaling information for each manufacturer, and can be regarded as signaling information to associate DII information. If DSI for the company is found, the process proceeds to step 25-2 to acquire DII.

  DII (DownloadInfoIndication) is download data itself in the present embodiment, is signaling information for specifying a DDB that is a software image converted into packet data, and describes time information on when the DDB is transmitted. Has been. As a DII operation method, it is conceivable to use a plurality of DIIs for each model for each manufacturer. Therefore, in step S25-2, DII for the own model is acquired, and preparation for acquiring DDB is performed there. Then, when it is time to acquire the DDB, the process proceeds to step S25-3.

  In step S25-3, DDB is collected. The number of DDBs to be collected is described in the DII acquired in step S25-2. When all the DDBs have been acquired, the process proceeds to step S26. The download data to be acquired is divided into a plurality of modules, and the modules are further composed of a plurality of DDBs.

  In step S26, it is determined whether or not DSI, DII, and DDB to be collected have been acquired. If not acquired (N), the process returns to the next channel setting process step S23 to check other registered download channels.

  If download data DSI, DII, and DDB are not found even though all registered download channels have been searched, there is a process for resetting the table for all channels to be searched for all viewing channels. Good (step S28). This can be considered as a corresponding process when the download channel set at the time of viewing channel search performed at the time of purchase is moved due to a channel change on the broadcast side, for example.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, at the time of all channel search for user viewing channel setting, not only video / audio services but also preset channels for download services are performed. By starting the acquisition of information using the preset channel as a download channel, there is an advantage that a wasteful channel search process can be omitted and the download data acquisition process can be speeded up.

  The present invention can be used in an apparatus that performs channel search.

It is a functional block diagram which shows one structural example of the digital broadcast receiver by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows one structural example of the MPEG-2 data memorize | stored in memory as TS signal. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the user interface at the time of performing a channel search. It is the figure which contrasted and showed the search process (left side of a figure) including a general download channel setting process, and the search process (right side of a figure) including the download channel setting process by this Embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of PAT, VCT, and PMT acquisition processing in step 5 ′ in FIG. 4. It is a figure for demonstrating the acquisition method of download data. It is a figure which shows typically the difference in the download system in Japan and the United States. It is a figure which shows the relationship of DSI, DII, and DDB which comprise download data.

Explanation of symbols

A ... digital broadcast receiver, 1 ... antenna, 3 ... digital broadcast receiver, 5 ... communication interface unit, 7 ... download data storage unit, 11 ... decoder unit, 15 ... remote control light receiving unit, 17 ... control unit, 17a ... TS Conversion / analysis processing unit, 17b ... channel search processing unit, 21 ... speaker, 23 ... display, 25 ... audio signal processing unit, 27 ... video signal processing unit, 31 ... memory (RAM, ROM).

Claims (9)

A digital broadcast receiving apparatus including a software download unit that automatically corrects bugs by transmitting data for software correction in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus and downloading the data by the digital broadcast receiving apparatus,
Prior to the software download process,
A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: a control unit that performs a step of searching for a download channel in conjunction with an all-channel search process for setting a viewing channel, and a step of storing the searched download channel in a memory. .   The step of searching for the download channel includes the step of acquiring PMT information including information on the PMTID of the program number corresponding to all the subchannels broadcasted in the received physical channel and including the presence or absence of the download service. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1. A software download method for automatically correcting bugs by transmitting data for software correction in a digital broadcast receiving device to the digital broadcast receiving device and downloading the data by the digital broadcast receiving device,
Prior to the software download process,
Searching the download channel in conjunction with the all channel search process for setting the viewing channel;
Storing the retrieved download channel in a memory.   The step of searching for the download channel includes the step of acquiring PMT information including information on the PMTID of the program number corresponding to all the subchannels broadcasted in the received physical channel and including the presence or absence of the download service. The software download method according to claim 3.   5. The software download method according to claim 4, wherein the PMT information is acquired in accordance with acquisition of PAT information and VCT information.   6. The software download method according to claim 5, further comprising a step of acquiring the PMT information based on the VCT information.   7. A software download method, wherein the step according to claim 1 is performed at the time of initial installation.   A software download method comprising the step of obtaining software through a download channel stored in the memory after performing the method according to any one of claims 3 to 7.   The program for making a computer perform the step of any one of Claims 3-8.

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