JPH10228687A - Automatic reservation recorder and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically reserve and record programs which are seen always by a user and also to automatically reserve and record programs of the same kind (genre) too by reserving and recording them while selecting recording programs related to the kind information from among schedule information and while collating the kind information of programs which are seen and listened or recorded by the user with the schedule information of the broadcasting program to be supplied. SOLUTION: A database 6 stores history information and genre information of programs which are tuningly selected by a TV tuner 7 for seeing and listenings or recordings and a program saver 8 stores the schedule information of the broadcasting programs which are extracted from data transmitted on a network by a data analyzer 7. The data-base 6 makes a VTR 5 recorded the same programs as the history information and a controller 9 makes the VTR 5 record programs of the related genre being in the schedule information. Thus, this device surely makes the user see and listen the programs which are seen by him habitually and gives the user seeing and listening changes of new programs which are thought to coincide with his taste.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic reservation recording apparatus and method for automatically recording a television broadcast program, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a video tape recorder (hereinafter, referred to as a VTR) having a built-in timer and a tuner makes a scheduled recording of a desired television broadcast program based on a date and time set by a recording reservation. Can be.

[0003]

By the way, in order to make a recording reservation with the above-mentioned conventional VTR, the user has to make a reservation setting every time, and forgets to make a recording reservation operation of a drama as seen every week. In such a case, I had to give up scheduled recording. In addition, for a program to be reserved for recording, the user himself has to search for a channel and time from a program table described in a newspaper, a magazine, or the like.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances. In addition to automatic recording of a program which is always watched, automatic reservation of a program of the same type (genre) is automatically performed. It is intended to provide a recording device and a method.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic reservation recording apparatus and method for automatically recommending and recording a program likely to be preferred by a user, in view of the above-mentioned circumstances.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, an automatic reservation recording apparatus according to the present invention uses program type information for a broadcast program stored in a storage means and schedule information from a schedule information output means. The control means selects the program related to the program type information from the schedule information and makes the recording means make a reservation recording.

Further, the automatic reservation recording method according to the present invention comprises:
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, by comparing the type information of the viewed or recorded program with the schedule information of the supplied broadcast program, a program related to the program type information is selected from the schedule information, This program is reserved and recorded.

Further, the automatic reservation recording device according to the present invention comprises:
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a recording control signal transmitting unit remotely controls at least one recording unit to reserve a broadcast program based on pattern information collected and stored by a plurality of storage units in a pattern information storage unit. Record.

Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the automatic reservation recording method according to the present invention remote-controls at least one recording unit based on a plurality of viewing or recording pattern information for a broadcast program. The broadcast program is reserved and recorded.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the automatic reservation recording apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below.

This embodiment can be applied to a system using a video tape recorder for recording a desired program from a television (TV) broadcast signal composed of a video signal and an audio signal, for example, on a video tape. Hereinafter, this embodiment is divided into a first example and a second example, and the first example will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 and the second example will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. I do.

First, a first embodiment is an automatic recording reservation apparatus 1 as shown in FIG.
An antenna 2 for receiving a broadcast wave, and a T for selecting a broadcast signal of one broadcast station from a TV broadcast wave received by the antenna 2
A V tuner 3; a display 4 for displaying a video signal of a broadcasting station selected by the TV tuner 3 and generating an audio signal; and a VTR 5 for recording a video signal and an audio signal of the broadcasting station selected by the TV tuner 3. And history information of a program selected by the TV tuner 3 for viewing or recording;
For example, a database 6 that stores information on a broadcast station and the time at which the broadcast station was viewed and genre information indicating the type of the program, and decodes data transmitted over a communication network such as the Internet, for example. A data decoder 7 for extracting broadcast program schedule information;
The schedule information of the broadcast program extracted by the data decoder 7, that is, the program guide server 8 for storing information on the program guide, is compared with the genre information of the database 6 and the schedule information from the program guide server 8. And a controller 9 for selecting a program related to the genre information from the schedule information and recording the program on the VTR 5.

Here, the data decoder 7 and the program guide server 8 constitute a program guide data output section 11 for outputting program guide data which is schedule information of a broadcast program. In this embodiment, the schedule information is extracted from the data transmitted on the communication network, stored, and output. However, the schedule information is extracted from a magnetic disk or an optical disk on which the schedule information is recorded in advance. May be output.

In addition, a channel is selected by the TV tuner 3 or a VTR is selected.
The time information when the recording is performed at 5 is obtained from the clock 10. When the recording is performed by the VTR 5, the time information of a clock built in the VTR may be used.

The database 6 stores, as the history information,
Data relating to the channel and time selected by the user for viewing or recording is stored. For this reason, for example, by automatically applying the viewing pattern of the past week to the next week and automatically making a recording reservation, a program broadcast regularly every week is viewed in the previous week. The same program can be reliably recorded.

Further, in the automatic recording reservation apparatus 1, since the database 6 also stores the above-mentioned genre information such as sports, news, dramas and movies indicating the types of programs, the program table server 8 A program of a related genre in the above schedule information can be searched for and recorded on the VTR 5. Here, the program of the related genre means that, in the case of the above sports, a user who tends to prefer ball games such as baseball, football and volleyball will also prefer ball games such as rugby and basketball. Is a program that can give Alternatively, only programs of exactly the same genre may be reserved and recorded. In any case, the structure of the genre information data stored in the database 6 can be, for example, a tree structure that matches the taste.

The operation of the automatic recording reservation device 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. This automatic recording reservation device 1
Checks the viewing time zone of the last week on the database 6 in step S1 of FIG. 2, and makes the VTR 5 set a recording reservation for the program watched last week in step S2. This is a recording reservation setting such as news at 18:00 or a drama between 20:00 and 21:00 in FIG.

Next, the automatic recording reservation apparatus 1 checks the genre of the program watched last week from the data on the database 6 in step S3,
In step S4, a program of the same genre is selected from the program guide data.

Then, in step S5, the automatic recording reservation apparatus 1 determines whether or not the program of the same genre selected from the program guide in step S4 was viewed last week. Here, if it has been watched last week, the process proceeds to step S6 to make the VTR 5 make a recording reservation. On the other hand, if it has not been watched last week, the process proceeds to step S7, and a new recording reservation setting is performed through the controller 9.

For example, in FIG. 3, the same genre as a classical music program watched from 19:00 to 20:00 last week, that is, a classical music program whose time zone is from 22:00 to 23:00, is selected from the program table. You will be automatically booked.

As described above, the automatic recording reservation apparatus 1 stores a past viewing pattern and automatically reserves a recording based on the viewing pattern to reliably provide a user with a habitually watching program. At the same time, the user is made to view the program, the user's viewing tendency is analyzed, and a program that is likely to match the preference is automatically selected by using the genre information, thereby giving the user a new program viewing opportunity.

Here, the recording means is VTR5
However, recording means using a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or the like may be used.

Next, a second embodiment is an automatic recording reservation system 20 as shown in FIG. 4, in which a broadcasting station 21 for transmitting a television (TV) broadcast signal composed of a video signal and an audio signal, Recording reservation device 30 provided at home,
It consists of 40 and 50. Here, the number of recording reservation devices is three as an example, but may be more.

The broadcasting station 21 includes a transmission antenna 22 for transmitting TV broadcast radio waves, and a TV comprising video and audio signals.
A transmitting unit 23 for transmitting a broadcast signal;
A large-capacity server 24 that collects and stores user viewing or recording pattern information from databases 35, 45, and 55 of 0, 40, and 50, and a recording reservation device 30 based on the pattern information obtained from the large-capacity server 24. , 40
And a recording information transmitter 25 for transmitting a recording control signal to controllers 34, 44 and 54 in the VTRs 33, 43 and 53 and remotely controlling the VTRs 33, 43 and 53.

Also, the recording reservation devices 30, 40 and 50
Receives the TV broadcast radio waves from the broadcast station 21, and selects a broadcast signal of one broadcast station from the TV broadcast radio waves received by the receive antennas 31, 41 and 51. TV tuners 32, 42 and 52, and a VTR 3 for recording video and audio signals of a broadcasting station selected by the TV tuners 32, 42 and 52.
3, 43 and 53 and TV tuners 32, 42 and 52
Displays the video signal of the selected broadcasting station and emits an audio signal, and displays the display 36, 46, and 56, and stores the viewing or recording pattern information of the program selected by the user for viewing or recording on the TV tuner 3. Databases 35, 45, and 55, and VTRs 33, 43, and 53
And controllers 34, 44, and 54 for controlling

The automatic recording reservation system 20 includes a large-capacity server 24 of a broadcasting station 21 and a recording reservation device 3 for each user.
Databases 35, 45 and 55 in 0, 40 and 50
Viewing or recording pattern data collected from the storage device. For this reason, the recording information transmitter 25 can grasp the viewing pattern and preference of each user. Then, based on a similar viewing pattern and a viewing pattern of another user having a preference tendency, a program likely to be preferred by the user is recommended and automatically reserved and recorded.

The viewing or recording pattern data referred to here includes data relating to the time and type (genre) of the program being viewed or recorded by each user.

The operation of the automatic recording reservation system 20 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the large-capacity server 24 of the broadcast station 21 collects the viewing or recording pattern data of each home from the databases 35, 45 and 55 via, for example, a network in step S11. Next, a user at the broadcast station 21, for example, the recording reservation device 3
The user's viewing or recording pattern data having 0 is extracted.

Then, it is determined in step S13 whether the genre occupies N% or more of the viewed program or the entire time. Here, if a certain genre occupies N% or more of the viewed program or the whole, the process proceeds to step S14,
It is determined whether there is another user who shows the program of the same genre or more than N% or more of the viewed program or the total time. Here, the programs of the same genre are N% of the viewed programs or the total time.
If there is another user indicating the above, the process proceeds to step S15.

In step S15, it is determined whether another user is viewing the same program in the genre. Here, if another user is watching, the process proceeds to step S16, and the recording reservation information of the program being viewed by the other user is transmitted from the recording information transmitter 25 to the controller 34.
To be transmitted.

If it is determined in step S15 that another user has not viewed the same program, the process proceeds to step S17, where the recording information transmitter 25 transmits recording reservation information of the program which has not been viewed to another user.

As described above, the automatic recording reservation system 2
According to 0, even if the user's favorite genre is the category of A and B, A, B
If it is found that a person who likes the category C also tends to watch the category C, he / she recommends the program of the category C to the user and records the reservation of the program.

In the above embodiment, the automatic recording reservation apparatus and system for reservation recording of a television broadcast have been described. However, the present invention is applied to an apparatus and system for automatic reservation recording of only an audio signal such as a radio broadcast. May be applied.

[0034]

According to the automatic reservation recording apparatus and method according to the present invention, it is possible to analyze the viewing tendency of the user, recommend a program likely to match the taste, and automatically record the recommended program.
It is possible to give a viewing opportunity of a new program that has not been noticed before.

Further, according to the automatic reservation recording apparatus and method of the present invention, a program which is likely to match the user's preference is recommended from the data of another user having a similar preference tendency, and the program is automatically reserved and recorded. Can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic recording reservation apparatus according to a first embodiment of an automatic reservation recording apparatus and method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the automatic recording reservation device.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the automatic recording reservation device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an automatic recording reservation system according to a second example of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the automatic recording reservation system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 automatic recording reservation device, 6 database, 7 data decoder, 8 program guide server, 9 controller, 11
Program guide data output unit, 20 automatic recording reservation system, 2
4 large capacity server, 25 recording information transmitter

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A recording means for recording a broadcast program on a recording medium, a storage means for storing viewing / recording history information and program type information for the broadcast program, and a schedule for outputting schedule information of a supplied broadcast program. Information output means, comparing the program type information in the storage means with the schedule information from the schedule information output means, and selecting a program related to the program type information from the schedule information; An automatic reservation recording apparatus, comprising: a control unit for causing a reservation recording to be performed by the automatic reservation recording apparatus. 2. The control means selects a program of the same type as the program type information from the schedule information,
2. The automatic reservation recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit records the reservation. 3. The automatic reservation according to claim 1, wherein the schedule information output means extracts the schedule information transmitted through a communication network, and stores the extracted schedule information before outputting. Recording device. 4. The automatic reservation recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said schedule information includes information on the type and time of a program. 5. A program associated with the program type information is selected from the schedule information by comparing the type information of the viewed or recorded program with schedule information of a supplied broadcast program, and this program is selected. An automatic reservation recording method characterized by recording a reservation. 6. The automatic reservation recording method according to claim 5, wherein a program of the same type as said program type information is selected from said schedule information and reserved and recorded. 7. The automatic reservation recording method according to claim 5, wherein the schedule information is extracted from data transmitted through a communication network, and is output after being stored. 8. The program according to claim 5, wherein the schedule information includes information on a program type and time.
Automatic reservation recording method described. 9. A plurality of recording means for recording a broadcast program on a recording medium, a plurality of control means for controlling the plurality of recording means, and a plurality of storage means for storing viewing or recording pattern information for the broadcast program. A pattern information storage unit that collects and stores the pattern information from the plurality of storage units; and sends a recording control signal to at least one control unit based on the pattern information from the pattern information storage unit; An automatic reservation recording apparatus, comprising: a recording control signal transmitting means for remotely recording a broadcast program by remotely controlling a recording means. 10. The recording control signal transmitting means includes: a storage means associated with one viewing or recording pattern information obtained from one storage means of the plurality of storage means via the pattern information storage means. 10. The automatic reservation recording device according to claim 9, wherein a program of a type that can be inferred from viewing or recording pattern information from a user is reserved and recorded in said one recording means. 11. An automatic reservation recording method, characterized in that at least one recording unit is remotely operated to reserve and record the broadcast program based on a plurality of viewing or recording pattern information for the broadcast program. 12. A program of a type that can be inferred from other viewing or recording pattern information related to one of the plurality of viewing or recording pattern information among the plurality of viewing or recording pattern information is reserved and recorded in the one recording unit. 12. The automatic reservation recording method according to claim 11, wherein: