JPH06217271A - Method and device for data transmission - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To speedily select the channel of a desired program to be watched at by multiplexing additional information showing the category of the program in a video signal transmitter and guiding programs by categories by a receiving device on the basis of the information. CONSTITUTION:For a video source, a category code multiplexing part 13 codes information regarding a channel sent by a CATV head end 1 and information regarding the category of a program broadcast over the channel and multiplexes them, frame by frame, on a specific line, etc., in a vertical blanking period. The TV signal generated by multiplexing the additional information is modulated by a TV modulating machine 15 to specific frequencies previously set for the respective channels and transmitted to respective subscribers through cable lines. A receiving device 5 of a subscriber's terminal selects and receives a desired channel that an audience desires from the signal sent through the cable line by a control input device and displays its image on a display device 7.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission method and apparatus for transmitting data by a television signal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a cable television (hereinafter simply referred to as CATV) system in which a broadcasting station and each home are connected by a cable has been developed in Japan.
Initially, this CATV system was promoted for the purpose of retransmission to areas where terrestrial broadcasting did not reach, and it was a system in an extremely limited area with a small number of subscribers. However, because of the strong demand from viewers for multi-channel services and the merit of the CATV system that enables multi-channels in the same frequency band as compared with terrestrial broadcasting, not only terrestrial re-transmission but also
Urban CATV systems equipped with large-scale facilities for performing multi-channel services including various data services such as independent broadcasting of CATV stations and home shopping are rapidly developing. A CATV system that provides such multi-channel services has already spread and developed all over the United States, and among them, there is a CATV system having more than 100 channels.

In a CATV system in which such a multi-channel service is provided, in order for a viewer to quickly select a desired program, something for knowing what kind of program is currently being broadcast is provided. Auxiliary information is needed. One means for obtaining this information is a television (hereinafter also simply referred to as TV) guide for newspapers, magazines, etc., but this is an information medium different from TV and TV.
It is troublesome to prepare and access these different media each time I try to view them. Therefore, a method is used in which a TV receiver divides channels into some genres to make it easier for a viewer to select a program of a desired genre (JP-A-3-1782).
78 [television receiver]) has been proposed.

[0004]

However, this is the one in which the genre of the broadcast content is simply set in advance for each channel on the receiver side and the category information is stored so that the tune can be selected for each genre. Is.
Therefore, there is a problem that the channels of broadcasting stations broadcasting various genres cannot be divided into genres, so that certain categories cannot be set. Furthermore, since the categories are set for each broadcasting station, the categories are subdivided,
There is a problem that layering becomes difficult.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and even in a broadcasting system such as a CATV system in which the number of channels has advanced, the channel number and its broadcasting contents can be quickly confirmed, and the program desired by the viewer can be watched. It is an object of the present invention to provide a television signal transmitting device capable of quickly selecting a channel.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, the first invention of the present application, when transmitting data via a television signal, sets category information corresponding to the contents of the transmitted data to the television. The point is to multiplex the signal.

The second invention of the present application is a data transmitting apparatus which has a plurality of channels, and which transmits a program by a television signal through a transmission line using a suitable channel from the plurality of channels, Multiplexing means for multiplexing additional information including channel information on a channel of a program to be transmitted and category information on a category corresponding to the content of the program, and a television on which the additional information is multiplexed by this multiplexing means. The gist is to have a sending means for sending a signal to a transmission path.

The third invention of the present application is, in a data receiving apparatus used for receiving a program by a television signal, of a program multiplexed from a television signal received via a transmission line to the television signal. Separation means for separating additional information including channel information on a channel and category information on a category according to the content of the program;
Storage means for storing the additional information separated by the separation means, selection means for outputting the category information corresponding to the selected category, and the storage means based on the category information selected by the selection means It is a gist to have a search means for searching the stored additional information and a display means for displaying the search result of the search means by at least one of character information and image information.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the first invention of the present application, when transmitting data via a television signal, includes category information corresponding to the contents of the transmitted data, specifically, , Category information indicating which genre of program is being broadcast on which channel is multiplexed on the television signal. This allows the viewer to know at a glance which channel is broadcasting the program of the genre that the viewer wants to select, so that the program that the viewer wants to watch can be selected more smoothly.

The data transmitting apparatus according to the second invention of the present application, when transmitting a program from any of the plurality of channels by appropriately using arbitrary channels, corresponds to the channel information relating to the channel of the program to be transmitted and the content of the program. The additional information including the category information related to the category is multiplexed on an arbitrary channel, for example, all channels or a specific channel, and the television signal on which the additional information is multiplexed is transmitted to the transmission path.

In the data receiving apparatus of the third invention of the present application, first, channel information relating to a channel of a program multiplexed from the television signal received through the transmission line to the television signal and a category according to the content of the program are set. The additional information including the related category information is separated. The separated additional information is temporarily stored in the storage means. On the other hand, when a category is selected by the selection means, category information corresponding to this category is output. The additional information stored in the storage means is searched based on the category information, and the search result is displayed on the display means by at least one of character information and image information.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, showing the history of signals from the CATV headend 1 to the subscriber terminal 3.

The CATV headend 1 comprises a video source supply section 11, a category code multiplexing section 13 connected to the video source supply section 11, and a TV modulator 15 connected to the category code multiplexing section 13. Also, via this TV modulator 15, the CATV headend 1
Is connected to a plurality of subscriber terminals 3A, 3B, ..., 3N. Each of the subscriber terminals 3 includes a receiving device 5 and a display device 7 connected to the receiving device 5.

Next, each operation will be described along the flow of signals. First, in the CATV headend 1, various video sources such as terrestrial broadcasting, satellite broadcasting and VTR are supplied from the video source supply unit 11. The category code multiplexer 13 for this video source encodes the information on the channel transmitted by the CATV headend 1 and the information on the category of the program being broadcast on this channel, for example, as shown in FIG. Each line is multiplexed on the line 21H in the vertical blanking period as shown. Note that in the following, channel information will be referred to as channel information,
The information related to the category will be described as category information, and the channel information and the category information will be combined and simply described as additional information.

For example, assuming that the number of channels currently being broadcast is 100, all channels can be represented by a 7-bit digital code. For example, the channel number may be directly converted into a binary number, or may be encoded using a table showing the channel number and the corresponding 7-bit code (FIG. 17a).
Also, assuming that there are 128 types of program categories, these are also represented by 7-bit digital codes, and are coded based on the 7-bit coding table corresponding to each category (FIG. 17b).

Parity (2 bits) is added to such additional information.
When the line 21 as shown in FIG. 2 is added and transmission is performed, channel information and category information for one channel can be transmitted per line, and the total data rate in this case is 1600 bps. Even if these are transmitted at a transmission rate of 480 bps, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, it takes only a few seconds to transmit all the data, and each time the content of the program changes, the information of the program category is updated and added. Information can be transmitted on the receiver side with almost no waiting time.

The TV signal in which the additional information is multiplexed by the category code multiplexing unit 13 is modulated by the TV modulator 15 to a predetermined frequency preset for each channel and sent to each subscriber. It is transmitted through a cable line.

In the receiver 5 of the subscriber terminal 3 under each subscriber, the channel desired by the viewer is selected and received by the control input device described later from the signal transmitted through the cable line, and the display is displayed. The image is displayed on the device 7. This receiving device 5 has a function of separating and extracting the category information from the additional information multiplexed by the category code multiplexing unit 13 of the CATV headend 1 and a function of guiding the program to the viewer based on this category information. Is equipped with. The internal structure of the receiving device 5 is shown in FIG.

Next, a schematic internal configuration of the receiving device 5 will be described with reference to FIG. The receiving device 5 includes a channel selection device 51 to which a TV signal is input, a video processing circuit 53 and a control unit 57 connected to the channel selection device 51, a category code separation device 55 connected to the video processing circuit 53, and a selection. The circuit 63, a control unit 57 connected to the category code separating device 55, a control input device 59 connected to the control unit 57, a character display device 61, and a selection circuit 63. In addition, the control unit 57
Is mainly composed of a CPU 57c and a memory 57m, and each control signal output from the CPU 57c is output to the above-described channel selection device 51, character display device 61 and selection circuit 63, in addition to the memory 57m.

The TV signal sent from the CATV headend 1 is input to the channel selection device 51. This tuning device 5
In No. 1, when the viewer inputs a selection input for selecting a desired channel using a control input device 59 such as a remote controller as shown in FIG.
The CPU 57c outputs a control signal to the channel selection device 51 so as to receive the channel, and channel selection control is performed.

I of the channel selected by the tuning device 51
The F signal is amplified by the video processing circuit 53, and further processed such as video detection, and then the video is displayed on the display device 7 via the selection circuit 63.

On the other hand, the output of the video processing circuit 53 is input to the category code separating device 55. Here, the line 21 in which the category code is multiplexed is detected, and the clamping process and the slicing process are performed to extract the digitally coded channel number and category information. The digital code thus separated by the category code separating device 55 is written in the memory 57m at any time and recorded as a channel number and category information to which the channel belongs. Since the channel number and the category information are updated and transmitted at any time, the category information stored in the memory is also updated at any time and rewritten with new data.

Next, the program guide using the category information in the above-mentioned embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. Here, the viewer inputs the control input device 5
A case where the program guide based on the category information is used by using the remote control device as shown in FIG. 4 as 9 will be described.

First, when the viewer presses the program guide key 592 of the control input device 59 in step S1,
In step S3, the program guide mode is entered, and the CPU 57
The character display device 61 and the selection circuit 63 are controlled by c, and the menu shown in FIG. 5, for example, is displayed on the display device 7.

This menu display is for selecting the category classification desired by the viewer. In this case, "Sports",
The genres of "news", "music", and "variety", the "next screen" for displaying the next screen, and the "display all" for displaying all are provided as selection branches.

Next, in step S5, the viewer selects the category of the program desired to be watched in these selection branches by pressing the up key 5.
93 or the down key 594 to move the cursor to select, and the enter key 595 to determine. In FIG. 5, “2”
The cursor is displayed on the news item.

As a result, the CPU 57c causes the step S5.
From step S7, 13, 17, 19, 21 to step S23, the memory 57m is accessed to search for the channel number belonging to the category selected by the viewer, and in step S25 the corresponding channel number is written. By controlling the display device 61 and the selection circuit 63, for example, the screen display shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the display device 7. This makes it possible to see at a glance which channel the program that belongs to the category that the viewer wants to watch, in this case, the news, is being broadcast. After that, by entering the channel number with the number keys 596, A channel is selected and an image is displayed on the display device 7.

Further, in step S7, when the viewer selects the item of "display all" as the category classification desired by the viewer on the menu screen shown in FIG. 5, the process proceeds to step S9, and the CPU 57c accesses the memory 57m. By searching the category information of all channels, the character display device 61,
The selector 63 is controlled to display a list of categories and channels broadcasting programs belonging to the categories as shown in FIG. 7 (step S11).

Next, a second embodiment using the category information of the present invention will be shown. This second embodiment is the same as step S19 in the first embodiment described above, and therefore step S21 and the subsequent steps will be described with reference to FIG.

In step S21, the program guide key 592 is pressed by the input device of FIG. 4 to select the genre to be viewed with the screens of FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, etc., and the skip channel selection key 591 is pressed. Shows the state. Step S21
When the skip tuning key 591 is pressed in step S31
The CPU 57c stores the channel of the currently selected genre in the memory 57m.
Access and search. Here, the CPU 57c controls the tuning device 51 so as to select the corresponding channel, and displays the image of the selected channel on the display device 7. If there are multiple channels that correspond to the selected category, the up key 593 and the down key 5
It is possible to sequentially switch channels to be selected at 94 (steps S35, S45).

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be shown. Figure 10
A block diagram of the third embodiment is shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, blocks having substantially the same functions as the blocks shown in FIG. 3 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.
In addition, since the third embodiment is similar to step S13 in the above-described first embodiment, step S1
7 and subsequent will be described with reference to FIG.

Similar to the first embodiment, in step S1, the viewer presses the program guide key 592 to enter the program guide mode, and in step S5 the category of the program to be viewed is selected from the category menu as shown in FIG. After that, if the search key 598 shown in FIG. 4 is pressed in step S17, the CPU 5
7c proceeds to step S51, searches the memory 57m, and acquires the channel number of the designated category (step S53).

Here, the genre of sports is selected in the program guide of step S5, and the number of channels corresponding to this selection is, for example, "7", "12", "23".
And "24" for 4 channels. It should be noted that this number of channels changes according to the contents of the program, which changes momentarily with the passage of time. Therefore, the number of divisions of one screen corresponds to the number of channels and the size of the screen of the display device 7, and is performed up to about 25 divisions at which the contents of the screen can be visually recognized from one program on one screen.

Next, the four channels are sequentially tuned for a fixed time, and the video signals processed by the video processing circuit 53 are sequentially written into the image memory 57 under the control of the memory control circuit 65. Then, in step S55, the control unit of the memory control circuit 65 confirms the number of screen divisions. For example, since the number of channels is four in this case, one screen is divided into four (step S75). Further, the read / write of the image memory 67 is controlled so that the video of four channels is displayed, and the video of each channel is displayed on the display device 7 on the screen divided into four as shown in FIG. Yes (step S7
7). At this time, the channel number of the display program is displayed on the upper right of each of the divided screens.

When the number of channels corresponding to the selected category is four or more, the up key 593 and the down key 594 are used to select the display of the next screen. Further, the number of screen divisions is not limited to four, and may be nine, sixteen, six, or twelve. Further, the number of screen divisions is changed according to the number of channels corresponding to the selected category. It is also possible to control the memory control circuit 65 from the CPU 57c so as to display a 16-screen display when the number is 10 or more.

Next, a fourth embodiment, which is a combination of the above-described second and third embodiments, will be described. Select a category in the program guide mode as in the second embodiment,
First, press the small screen key 597, then skip the tuning key 5
When 91 is pressed, the image of the channel selected by skip for each selected category is written in the image memory 67 shown in FIG. 10 at any time. Next, the signal is converted into a signal for a small screen by the control of the memory control circuit 65, and the image is displayed on the small screen on the program guide screen as shown in FIG. However, each program may be sequentially displayed at predetermined time intervals). As a matter of course, it is possible to change the screen of the program guide mode to a small screen and display the video on the parent screen by controlling the switching of the selection circuit 63a.

As a screen display method, when a current broadcast with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 is received by a receiver with an aspect ratio of 16: 9, three small screens with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 are displayed on the side. An area where you can
If a program guide screen is displayed at any time as shown in FIG. 14 using this area, the first to third embodiments can be realized without switching the screens, resulting in a more user-friendly system.

The additional information to be multiplexed up to the CATV headend 1 has been shown only as the channel number and the category information in the above-mentioned first to fourth embodiments, but not only these information but also that channel's information. It goes without saying that a more detailed program guide can be provided as shown in FIG. 15 by adding the program contents (title, performers, etc.). Also in the method of transmitting data using the line 21 shown as an example, if information such as a title is individually assigned to each channel as shown in FIG. 16, the total data amount is about 1800 bits including a parity bit. There are 30 characters (60 bits) and 6 performers (10 characters, 60 bits), and it is possible to transmit in about 4 seconds.

An example of multiplexing additional information is VBI (V
optical Blanking Interval;
Although only an example of multiplexing on the line 21 of the vertical blanking period is shown, it goes without saying that there is no need to be caught by this and there is no problem with other data transmission methods.

In the above embodiment, the case where the invention is applied to CATV has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the additional information may be multiplexed at the broadcasting station on the video source supply side. The transmission path may be an appropriate method such as a method of transmitting through a metal cable or an optical fiber cable as a transmission path, or a case of wirelessly using radio waves.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the additional information indicating the program category is multiplexed in the video signal transmitting apparatus, and the receiving apparatus guides the program according to the category based on the information, so that the channel is provided. Even in a large number of CATVs, it becomes possible to quickly select a desired program.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing an example of multiplexing category codes according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a control input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a program guide according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a program guide according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a program guide according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiver according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a third embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen according to another display example of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of another embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of additional information according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a correspondence diagram showing an example of a coding table according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CATV headend, 3 ... subscriber terminal, 5 ... reception device, 7 ... display device, 11 ... video source supply unit, 13 ... category code multiplexing unit, 15 ... TV modulator,
51 ... Channel selection device, 53 ... Video processing circuit, 55 ... Category code separation device, 57 ... Control unit, 59 ... Control input device, 61 ... Character display device, 63 ... Selection circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data transmission method, wherein, when transmitting data via a television signal, category information corresponding to the content of the transmitted data is multiplexed on the television signal. 2. A data transmission device having a plurality of channels, wherein a program is transmitted via a transmission path by a television signal using a proper channel from the plurality of channels, the channel of the program being transmitted. Multiplexing means for multiplexing additional information including channel information and category information related to a category corresponding to the content of the program on an arbitrary channel, and a television signal in which the additional information is multiplexed by this multiplexing means is transmitted to a transmission line. A data transmission device comprising: a transmission unit. 3. In a data receiving device used for receiving a program by a television signal, channel information relating to a channel of a program multiplexed from the television signal received via a transmission line to the television signal and the channel information. Separation means for separating additional information including category information related to categories according to program contents, storage means for storing the additional information separated by this separation means, and category information corresponding to the selected category are output. Selecting means, searching means for searching the additional information stored in the storing means based on the category information selected by the selecting means, and a search result of the searching means by at least one of character information and image information. A data receiving device comprising: a display unit for displaying.