JPH06153197A - Catv terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve a program desired to be observed in a short period of time by selecting a program broadcast through a recetivable channel at present at every genre and scanning the channel at every genre. CONSTITUTION:When number of channels is, e.g. 40 and a forward key among video scan keys K1 is depressed, a CPU 42 makes a request of a genre of a channel succeeding to the channel received at present to a CATV broadcast station. When the reply indicates other than 'movie', a genre of a succeeding channel is requested and the operation is continued till '1' is obtained from the reply. While the scan key K1 is depressed, channels in which only the movie is broadcast are being scanned in this way. When the reverse key is depressed, the channels are scanned reversely. The similar operation is executed when any of scan keys K2-K6 of other genres is depressed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a CATV terminal device in a bidirectional CATV system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The CATV system has a demand access method (1989 IEICE research report OCS-
51, there is a bidirectional communication CATV system such as "FM access high-definition optical CATV system by demand access system", pp. 7-12. In such a two-way communication CATV system, the number of receivable channels is as large as several tens of channels. Therefore, in order to confirm what kind of program is being broadcast on the currently receivable channels, reception is performed at regular intervals. Iwyuuru scan function to switch channels is required. However,
When there are too many channels, it takes a very long time to scan all the receivable channels, and it becomes difficult to select a program to watch.

In order to solve this drawback, there is a method of storing only a specific channel among all channels in the memory for scanning and scanning only the specific channel. However, in this method, it takes time to program a plurality of channels in advance and a dedicated memory is required, which causes a cost increase.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks and is a program that can be watched in a very short time without requiring a program for scanning and without requiring a dedicated memory. It is intended to provide a CATV terminal device capable of scanning.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a program selection means for selecting only a program of a specific genre from a plurality of programs currently broadcast on receivable channels, and a program selected by this means. C, which is provided with a scanning means for sequentially scanning the channels broadcasting
It is an ATV terminal device.

[0006]

The CATV terminal device of the present invention selects programs currently being broadcast on receivable channels by genre,
Channel scanning can be performed for each genre.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a two-way communication C based on the demand access method.
It is a schematic block diagram of an ATV system, in which 1 is a C
An ATV broadcasting station, a transmission block 11 for transmitting a television signal, and a head end 12 for modulating television signals of a plurality of channels (40 channels) from this transmission block with different carriers and then multiplexing and transmitting as a broadcast signal. An interactive service management block 13 that manages the interactive service and a transmission device 14 that transmits and receives control data related to the interactive service.

Reference numeral 2 designates the transmission device 14 and a CATV described later.
A hub that is arranged as a relay device between the terminal device and a predetermined BS specific channel by selecting any four channels from 40 channels of broadcast signals based on channel selection data from subscribers. Bidirectional for receiving channel selection data from four CATV terminal devices to control the channel selection circuit and transmitting control data related to bidirectional service to each CATV terminal device. The broadcast signal from the service processing unit 22 and the channel selection circuit is combined with the downlink control data to be transmitted to the CATV terminal device, and the uplink control data from the CATV terminal device is demultiplexed to the bidirectional service processing unit 22. And a synthesizer / demultiplexer circuit 23 for supplying. The channel selection circuit 21, the interactive service processing unit 22, and the combining / demultiplexing circuit 23 are arranged in parallel in a plurality of groups, and each group manages four CATV terminal devices.

Numerals 3, 3, ... Are terminating devices for supplying the broadcasting signals of the four specific channels from the hub 2 to the four CATV terminal devices, and for synthesizing and distributing the control data.

CATV terminal devices 4, 5, 6, and 7 are installed in the homes of the subscribers and receive any one channel out of 40 channels by transmitting the channel selection data from the subscribers to the hub 2. And each CATV
The broadcast signal of the channel selected by the subscriber is frequency-converted into one of the specific channels and transmitted to the terminal device.

The CATV broadcasting station 1, the hub 2, the terminating device 3 and the CATV terminal devices 4 to 7 are connected by optical cables.

Next, a specific configuration of the CATV terminal device 4 will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 41 denotes a combining / demultiplexing circuit for demultiplexing the multiplexed signal from the terminating device 3 into downlink control data and a broadcast signal (BS-1) and synthesizing uplink control data.
42 is a CPU for bidirectionally communicating control data with the bidirectional service management block 13 or the bidirectional service processing unit 22, 43 is a mixer for converting the BS-1 channel broadcast signal to a predetermined intermediate frequency, 44 Is a local control circuit that includes a variable local oscillator, and controls so that the output of the mixer 44 is converted into a predetermined intermediate frequency by tuning data from the CPU 42. 45 is a BPF that allows the predetermined intermediate frequency to pass. A demodulation circuit that demodulates this BPF output to obtain a television signal.

Incidentally, the mixer 43 and the local control circuit 4
4, the BPF 45 and the demodulation circuit 46 have exactly the same configuration as the conventional BS tuner.

Next, the channel selection operation in the CATV terminal device 4 will be described. 4 connected to one terminating device
Each CATV terminal device is assigned one different channel among BS channels, and the CATV terminal device 4 is assigned BS-1 as described above. A subscriber having the CATV terminal device 4 remote-controls any one of 40 channels (not shown).
When selected by, the channel selection command is supplied to the CPU 42. The CPU 42 transmits the channel selection data to the bidirectional service processing unit 22 as upstream control data. The interactive service processing unit is the channel selection circuit 2
1 to control the frequency of the selected channel into the BS-1 channel. Therefore, the CATV terminal device 4 is
Only the BS-1 channel signal is received. The BS-1 channel signal demultiplexed by the combining / demultiplexing circuit 41 is supplied to the mixer 43. On the other hand, the CPU 42
Supplies the tuning data corresponding to BS-1 to the local control circuit 44, and controls so that the output of the mixer 43 becomes a predetermined intermediate frequency. The output of the mixer 43 is band-limited by the BPF 45, and then the demodulation circuit 46 demodulates the television signal of the channel selected by the subscriber.

One of the services in the above-described two-way communication CATV system is a service that responds to the genre of the program currently being broadcast on each channel in response to a request from the CATV terminal device. This service will be specifically described. For example, when it is desired to know the genre of the program currently being broadcast on channel 10, the CATV terminal device 4 sends a request of "genre-10" to C
Transmit to ATV broadcasting station 1. When the CATV broadcasting station 1 receives this request, the movie is 1, the sport is 2, the news is 3, depending on the genre of the program of the channel.
Music responds with numbers such as 4 for variety, 5 for others, and so on. The CATV terminal device 4 can identify this response and can know it without selecting the genre of the program being broadcast on channel 10.

Next, the scan function of the CATV terminal device according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the remote controller of the CATV terminal device 4 has six scan keys K1 to K6 according to genres.
, And each scan key K consists of two keys whose scanning order is forward and backward. Now, all the channels are 40, and when the forward key of the movie scan key K1 is pressed, the CPU 42 requests the CATV broadcasting station 1 for the genre of the channel next to the currently received channel. If the response is "1", it is a movie, so that channel is selected and received for a certain period of time. If the response is other than a movie, the genre of the next channel is requested, and this operation is continued while "1" is obtained in the response. In this way, while the scan key K1 is being pressed, only the channels broadcasting the movie are scanned. When the reverse key is pressed, the scan is performed in reverse. The same operation is performed when the scan keys of other genres are operated.

In this way, the operator can immediately scan and view only the programs of the desired genre from the programs currently being broadcast.

[0019]

As described above, since the CATV terminal device of the present invention can scan by program genre, it does not require a program for scanning, and does not require a dedicated memory, so that it can be performed in a very short time. You can search for the program you want to watch at.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a two-way communication CATV according to an embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram of a system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a CATV terminal device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a scan operation in this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a key arrangement of a remote controller in this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CATV broadcasting station 2 hub 3 termination device 4 to 7 CATV terminal device 42 CPU K1 to K6 scan key

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a two-way communication CATV system having a service for responding to the type of program currently being broadcast on each channel in response to a request from a CATV terminal device, a plurality of programs currently being broadcast on receivable channels are displayed. A CATV terminal device comprising a program selection means for selecting only a program of a specific genre from the inside, and a scanning means for sequentially scanning the channels showing the programs selected by this means at regular intervals.