JPH07123376A - Teletext broadcasting receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To grasp the display contents of a TV screen even if sound is muted. CONSTITUTION:In a teletext signal extraction circuit 11, a teletext signal is extracted from the video signal from an input terminal 21. A character display mode is preliminarily set to a control circuit 19 by the operation of an operation part 14. When a user operates an operation part 14 to command sound mute, a control circuit 18 outputs a sound mute control signal based on this, a sound mute circuit 17 operates and sound is muted. A sound mute detection circuit 20 detects that a sound mute operation is performed from this sound mute control signal and transmits the detection signal to the control circuit 19, Thus, the control circuit 19 operates a decoder circuit 12 according to the display mode set to the circuit 19 and makes the teletext signal from the teletext signal extracting circuit 11 be decoded. The signal obtained as a result becomes a character display signal in a display circuit 13, is synthesized with a video signal in a video signal processing circuit 7 and is displayed on a television screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention particularly relates to a character multiplex broadcasting receiver incorporated in a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various character multiplex broadcasting systems for transmitting character information using a television signal (hereinafter referred to as a TV signal) without interfering with a normal TV signal have been conventionally proposed. As a typical one of them, there is a character multiplex broadcasting system called a closed caption system which is broadcast in the United States. This is a system for displaying characters representing audio contents on a television screen (hereinafter, TV screen). There is a broadcasting system to display above. In order to use this closed caption system, a dedicated decoding for decoding the caption signal multiplexed with the TV signal is required.
I need da.

In the United States, since July 1, 1993, it has been obliged to incorporate a closed caption decoder in all television receivers of 13-inch or more (hereinafter referred to as TV receivers). (Federal Communications Commission (FC
C) Television decoder circuit method PL101-431).
In such a decoder or television receiver,
The on / off operation of closed caption and TV
Characters can be displayed as desired by selecting a caption channel for displaying subtitles on the screen.

[0004]

By the way, the user is
When a conversation is started with another person or there is a telephone call while watching the V screen, the sound from the TV receiver may be an obstacle. In such a case, this sound can be muted by operating the remote controller or the like.

However, if the sound of the TV receiver is muted in this manner, the contents of the screen will not be understood when talking or making a phone call while watching the TV screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problem and to provide a character multiplex broadcast receiving apparatus which can understand the contents of the screen even if the sound is muted.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a first means for extracting a character information signal multiplexed from a video signal, and a second means for decoding the character information signal. Means, a third means for combining the character information obtained by the decoding of the second means with the video signal as a signal synchronized with the video signal, and displaying it on a TV screen;
Fourth means for controlling on / off of the sound signal of the V signal to mute the sound, fifth means for detecting a sound muffling operation by the fourth means, and sound of the sound by the fifth means It has a sixth means for performing the decoding operation of the second means and the display operation of the third means together with the detection of the silencing operation.

[0008]

When the sound is muted, the fifth means detects it and the sixth means automatically displays the character information on the TV screen. The character information can have the same content as the sound of the program displayed on the TV screen, so that the content of this program can be grasped even if no sound is produced.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of a character multiplex broadcasting receiver according to the present invention. 1 is an antenna, 2 is a tuner, 3 is a PIF / SIF circuit, 4 is an audio signal processing circuit, and 5 is an audio signal processing circuit. Audio output circuit, 6 speaker, 7 video signal processing circuit, 8 video output circuit, 9 cathode ray tube, 10 control unit, 11 multiplex character signal extracting circuit, 12
Is a decoder circuit, 13 is a display circuit, and 14 is an operation unit.

In FIG. 1, the T received by the antenna 1
The V broadcast signal is supplied to the tuner 2. This tuner 2
Is controlled by the control unit 10, and the user operates the operation unit 14 to select a TV broadcast signal of a desired channel designated and convert it into an intermediate frequency signal. This intermediate frequency signal is supplied to the PIF / SIF circuit 3, amplified, and then detected as a video signal and an audio signal. PIF / S
The audio signal output from the IF circuit 3 is supplied to the audio processing circuit 4, and the video signal is supplied to the video signal processing circuit 7 and the character multiplex signal extracting circuit 11.

The audio signal processing circuit 4 is controlled by the control unit 10, and by operating the operation unit 14 such as a key switch or a remote controller, volume control for amplifying or attenuating the audio signal and on / off control of mute are performed. You can The audio signal output from the audio signal processing circuit 4 is amplified by the audio output circuit 5 and then drives the speaker 6.

The coded character multiplex signal is multiplexed on the video signal, and the character multiplex signal extracting circuit 11 is provided with PIF /
This character multiplex signal is extracted from the video signal supplied from the SIF circuit 3. This character multiplex signal is decoded by the decoder circuit 12 which is turned on by the control unit 10, and the decoding result is supplied to the display circuit 13. Here, when the decoder circuit 12 is turned on by the control unit 10, the decoder circuit 12 decodes a character multiplex signal according to a mode, which will be described later, designated by the user operating the operation unit 14. In addition, the display circuit 1
3 is controlled by the control unit 10 and generates a signal (hereinafter, referred to as a display information signal) representing character information according to the operation content of the operation unit 14 and the decoding result of the decoder circuit 12 at a designated timing.

The video signal processing circuit 7 is controlled by the control unit 10 according to the operation of the operation unit 14. When the user performs a predetermined operation on the operation unit 14, the PIF / SIF circuit 3
And the display information signal supplied from the display circuit 13 is processed by the video signal processing circuit 7,
It is supplied to the cathode ray tube 9 via the video output circuit 8. As a result, the TV image, the operation content of the operation unit 14 and the characters of the character multiplex signal are displayed on the screen of the cathode ray tube 9.
Then, at this time, by the control of the control unit 10 by a predetermined operation of the operation unit 14, the audio signal processing circuit 4 can be made to perform a muffling operation without outputting an audio signal.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the main part of FIG. 1, wherein 15 is an input terminal, 16 is a voice control circuit, 17 is a voice muffling circuit, 18 and 19 are control circuits, and 20.
Is a sound deadening detection circuit, and 21 is an input terminal, and the portions corresponding to those in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the audio signal processing circuit 4 comprises an audio control circuit 16 and an audio mute circuit 17. Under the control of the control unit 10, the voice control circuit 16 controls the volume by changing the amplitude of the voice signal supplied from the PIF / SIF circuit 3 (FIG. 1) via the input terminal 15. . In addition, the voice muffling circuit 17
Under the control of the control unit 10, is for turning on / off the audio signal from the audio control circuit 16 to mute the sound or cancel it. The audio signal output from the audio muffling circuit 17 is supplied to the speaker 6 via the audio output circuit 5.

The control unit 10 has control circuits 18 and 19 and a sound deadening detection circuit 20. The control circuit 18 is supplied with a volume instruction signal and an on / off instruction signal for voice muffling from the operation section 14 operated by the user, and outputs a volume control signal corresponding to the volume instruction signal to the voice control circuit 16.
On / off according to the on / off instruction signal for this sound muting
The off control signals are supplied to the sound muffling circuit 17, respectively. As a result, the voice control circuit 16 changes the amplitude of the voice signal so that the volume is instructed by the operation unit 14, and the voice muffling circuit 17 silences the voice according to the instruction of the operation unit 14.

When the control circuit 18 supplies an on / off control signal for sound muting to the sound muting circuit 17, the sound deadening detection circuit 20 turns off the sound signal in the sound muting circuit 17 based on this on / off control signal. , ON, and supplies the detection signal to the control circuit 19.

By the way, the closed caption system in US character multiplex broadcasting is broadly divided into a caption mode for displaying dialogue in a part of the screen like a subtitle of a movie and a character for filling the screen. There is a text mode for displaying such as. The text mode is 1
It is an optional feature due to the FCC regulation of April 12, 991.

The caption information is coded and multiplexed in the 21st horizontal scanning period within the vertical blanking period of the video signal. The multiplexed caption information consists of a character code and a control code to which various commands are assigned. Further, two types of codes are assigned to the same function of the data code assignment, respectively, so that two types of display modes are possible. This allows two channels in both caption mode and text mode. Information on channels 1 and 2 in the caption mode and the text mode is multiplexed in the 21st horizontal scanning period within the vertical blanking period of each field.

In the control circuit 19, the first and second usage modes of the closed caption system can be selectively set by operating the operation unit 14.

The first mode of use is similar to the conventional mode of use, in which the decoder circuit 12 is set on / off, the caption / text mode is set, and the channels 1 and 2 are set. For example, when the first use mode is set by operating the operation unit 14 and the decoder circuit 12 is turned on, the caption mode and channel 1 are set in the control circuit 19, the decoder circuit 12 is turned on immediately and the character multiplex signal extraction circuit 11 outputs The character multiplex signal of the caption mode channel 1 is decoded and supplied to the display circuit 13.
As a result, the TV image and a subtitle of characters such as dialogue are displayed on the screen of the cathode ray tube 9 (FIG. 1).

This embodiment is characterized in that the second usage mode can be set to the first usage mode. In the second mode of use, the decoder circuit 12 is set on / off and the channels 1 and 2 in the caption mode are set based on the setting of the sound muting. Therefore, by operating the operation unit 14, the control circuit 19 is muted, the decoder circuit 12 is turned on, and the caption mode is turned on.
After setting the channel 1, it is assumed that the operation unit 14 is operated to mute the voice. As a result, when the control circuit 19 takes in the detection signal indicating that the sound signal is turned off from the mute detection circuit 20, the control circuit 19 detects whether the decoder circuit 12 is on or off, and the decoder circuit 12 is turned off. If so, the decoder circuit 12 is turned on to decode the character information of the caption mode channel 1. As a result, the caption mode operation is performed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

Now, it is assumed that the channel 1 is set in the control circuit 19 in the caption mode by operating the operation unit 14. Input terminal 2 from PIF / SIF circuit 3 in FIG.
The video signal supplied via 1 is supplied to the character multiplex signal extraction circuit 11, and the character multiplex signal multiplexed as described above is extracted to this. This character multiplex signal is supplied to the decoder circuit 12.

In this state, when a voice mute instruction signal is supplied from the operation unit 14 to the control circuit 18 by the user's operation (step 300), the control circuit 18 controls the voice mute circuit 17 to turn on / off the sound. Supply a signal.
As a result, sound muting is started. At the same time, the sound deadening detection circuit 20 detects from the on / off control signal that the sound deadening is performed, and outputs the detection signal to the control circuit 1.
9 (step 301).

Therefore, the control circuit 19 uses the decoder circuit 12
Detect if the is on or off (Step 3
02), when it is turned on, the decoder circuit 12 has already been
Is operating in a predetermined mode (caption mode or text mode) set by the user. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is assumed that this mode is required as long as this mode continues, and the display in this mode is performed as it is. If the sound muffling is not performed at this time, the sound muffling operation is started (step 305). Conventionally, the closed caption method was developed for people with hearing disabilities. By setting the caption mode of the first usage mode described above, even people with hearing disabilities can easily enjoy the contents of TV programs. You can know When the sound mute operation is performed as described above in the usage state of the first usage mode, it is not preferable to cancel the usage state. Therefore, as described above, this state is continued. However, the voice mute operation is performed because it is inconvenient if there is voice, for example, at midnight. Therefore, only the voice mute function is performed.

When it is determined in step 302 that the decoder circuit 12 is off, the control circuit 19 detects the above-mentioned set mode (step 303), operates the decoder circuit 12, and outputs the character multiplex signal. Of the caption information from the sampling circuit 11, the information on the caption mode channel 1 is decoded and converted into a character code (step 304). This character data is supplied to the display circuit 13, and under the control of the control circuit 19,
A character display signal whose timing coincides with the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals of the TV signal is generated and supplied to the video signal processing circuit 7. In the video signal processing circuit 7, under the control of the control circuit 19, the video signal from the PIF / SIF circuit 3 (FIG. 1) and this character display signal are switched at high speed, whereby the cathode ray tube 9 (FIG. 1) is switched. ) The TV image and the subtitle of the dialogue of the image are displayed on a part of the screen (the above,
Step 305).

In step 302 above, the decoder circuit 12
Is turned on, if it is desired to change the mode to the newly set mode of the caption channel 1, the operation of the previous mode is once canceled (that is, the decoder circuit 12
(Turn off), and make a new operation to mute the voice (step 30
You can do 0).

Further, in order to perform only the sound muting, it is sufficient to set the sound muting and the decoder circuit 12 off in the second mode of use.

When the user operates the operation unit 14 to cancel the voice mute in the above-described state, the control circuit 18 turns on the voice signal and outputs the on / off control signal to the voice mute circuit 1.
To the speaker 7, which causes the speaker 6 to make a voice again. At the same time, the voice muffling circuit 20 detects that the voice muffling operation is completed, and outputs the detection signal to the control circuit 1.
Send to 9. The control circuit 19 stops the operations of the decoder circuit 12 and the display circuit 13. Therefore, only the TV image is displayed on the screen of the cathode ray tube 6.

In this way, at the same time as muting the voice, it is possible to display a subtitle of a character such as dialogue on a part of the screen, and it is possible to know the dialogue of the drama even if the voice is not produced. Therefore, the contents of the TV program can be grasped. Therefore, it is possible to make a telephone call or have a conversation without being disturbed by the sound from the TV receiver, and to easily know the content of the TV program appearing on the screen.

Further, once the mode and channel are set in the control circuit 19, the user can display the dialogue on the screen of the cathode ray tube 6 simply by operating the operation unit 14 for voice mute command. It is not necessary to set the mode each time the voice mute command is issued, and the operation becomes very simple.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the control unit 10 includes two control circuits 1
Although 8 and 19 are provided and the respective functions are made different, these control circuits 18 and 19 may be configured by one micro computer, and further, such a mute detection circuit is provided in the micro computer. It is possible to have 20 functions.

Further, in the above embodiment, the caption is turned on / off by turning on / off the decoder circuit 12, but it is also possible to turn on / off the subtitle display on the display circuit 13. Is.

Furthermore, although the above embodiment has been described by taking the character multiplex broadcasting in the US as an example, it goes without saying that it can be applied to all other character multiplex broadcasting.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the subtitles of the teletext corresponding to the contents of the sound can be automatically displayed on the TV screen together with the sound muting, the user can understand the display contents only from the TV screen, and for the user. It is possible to provide a teletext receiver for a TV receiver with excellent usability.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the embodiment shown in FIGS.
It is a chart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 audio signal processing circuit 6 speaker 7 video signal processing circuit 9 cathode ray tube 10 control unit 11 character multiplex signal extraction circuit 12 decoder circuit 13 display circuit 14 operation unit 16 audio control circuit 17 audio muting circuit 18, 19 control circuit 20 audio muting detection circuit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 5/445 Z // H04N 5/44 M

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A character multiplex broadcasting receiving apparatus for receiving a character information signal which is transmitted by being multiplexed with a video signal of a television signal, comprising: first means for extracting the character information signal from the video signal; Second means for decoding the character information signal from the means, and the character information obtained by the decoding by the second means to be a signal synchronized with the video signal, and synthesized with the video signal to produce a television screen And a fourth means for controlling the sound signal of the television signal to turn on / off the sound to mute the sound, and a fifth means for detecting the sound muffling operation by the fourth means. Means and a sixth means for performing the decoding operation of the second means and the display operation of the third means together with the detection of the sound silencing operation by the fifth means. With the start of sound mute operation, A character multiplex broadcast receiving apparatus, wherein the character information is automatically displayed on the television screen.