KR100195637B1 - Method for limitting program copy in digital direct broadcasting satellite receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for a receiver to store (or copy) a digital DB (DBS) receiving system broadcast program to a digital storage medium. To solve this problem, the satellite broadcast program is stored in a stream packet unit by channel decoding and descrambler. In the program-specific copy authority granting method of DBS which converts the converted data into the data and detects the fee information from the packetized data, and transmits and receives the fee information to the subscriber station management system. Receiving the charge data for the copy right 201, accumulating the charges for the copy rights of the pay-TV program in step 201, the accumulated charge and the preset maximum cumulative charge (TH) is compared Step 203, if the accumulated charge is less than the maximum accumulated charge TH, to record and store the received stream packetized data. If the charge accumulated by the step 204, step 203 is greater than the maximum cumulative charge, the step of stopping the copy of the paid broadcast program provided to the subscriber from the subscriber station management system (205), the subscriber is paid By setting the copy authority for the broadcast program in advance, there is an effect that it is possible to record and watch the paid program.

Description

How to Restrict Program Copying on a Digital Receiver (DBS)

1 is a schematic block diagram of a digital DBS receiver suitable for applying the program copy limiting method according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of limiting a copy of a program in a digital device (DBS) receiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 (a) to 3 (g) are diagrams for explaining packet data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

100: tuner 102: channel decoder

104: Descrambler 106: MPEG2 System Demux

108: video decoder 110: audio decoder

112: modem 114: smart card

116 memory 118: instruction permitting unit

120: microprocessor 122: multi-plexer

124: recording medium

The present invention relates to a method for a receiver to store (or copy) a digital DB (DBS) receiving system broadcast program, in particular to a digital storage medium, and more particularly to a method of charging a copy right for each broadcast program to be copied. .

In general, paid broadcasting is mainly used for commercial broadcasting by CATV in the United States, BS, CS, etc. in Japan, and satellite communication broadcasting by BS and CS in recent years has become common. Scramble (Scramble) to broadcast to the impossible to watch.

In order to receive the scrambled broadcast, the subscriber pays the fee to the program provider for a specific period, and the program provider gives the subscriber the right to watch the broadcast of the corresponding channel at any time.

This viewing authorization is accomplished by the program provider providing a kit value to descramble the program of the corresponding channel of the smart card in the subscriber's integrated receive decoder (IRD).

On the other hand, in the satellite room, there is a service called PPV (Pay Per View) other than the monthly fee as described above, and the user can selectively view only a specific program among the upcoming programs and pay a fee thereof.

In order to view the PPV program, a purchase signal for purchasing the program is transmitted to the program provider through an integrated reception decoder (IRD), and the program provider grants the program viewing right to the integrated reception decoder (IRD) according to the needs of the subscriber. The billing information is recorded on the smart card in the integrated reception decoder (IRD).

In purchasing such a PPV program, it is essential that the password is a value that a subscriber must input when applying for a PPV to prevent a third party from purchasing an expensive PPV program arbitrarily.

On the contrary, in the case of free broadcasting rather than paid broadcasting, viewers who want a program can watch regardless of the fee.

Meanwhile, each broadcast program includes copy information indicating whether to provide a copy for the broadcast program free of charge or for a fee. When copying a paid broadcast, the broadcast program may be copied in the same manner as in viewing of a paid broadcast. You will be charged a fee.

Therefore, in the case of copying pay-periods unduly, it can be a huge burden on households due to excessive billing. Considering this point, if the copy of pay-per-view can be appropriately limited based on the billing amount, pay-air broadcasting You will be able to effectively prevent copying files. However, such a technique that can appropriately limit the copy of paying broadcasting based on the billed amount is not known at present.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention has been devised in view of the above, and limits the copying of a program in a DBS receiver capable of adaptively limiting the copying of a paying broadcast program based on the cumulative billing amount charged according to the copy of a paying broadcast program. The purpose is to provide a method.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, in the method for limiting the copy of the pay broadcast program charged according to the copy information when recording and recording digital satellite broadcast programs, the limit of the charges generated in accordance with the copy of the pay broadcast program Setting and storing; When there is a copy request for a certain broadcast program from a user, copy retrieves copy information from packet data of a selected broadcast program, and searches whether the selected broadcast program is a free broadcast or a paid broadcast based on the found copy information. step; As a result of the search, when the selected broadcast program is free broadcast, recording video and audio data of the selected broadcast program on the recording medium; As a result of the search, when the selected broadcast program is a paid broadcast, calculating an expected cumulative charge by summing up the cumulative charges up to now and the charges of the selected broadcast program, and comparing the estimated cumulative charge with the predetermined charge limit. ; Recording the video and audio data of the selected broadcast program if the estimated cumulative charging is less than or equal to the preset charging limit; And stopping the copy operation for the selected broadcast program when the estimated accumulated charge exceeds the predetermined billing limit.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a digital DBS receiver suitable for applying the program copy limiting method according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the DBS receiver includes a tuner 100, a channel decoder 102, a descrambler 104, an MPEG2 system demux 106, a video and audio decoder 108, 110, a modem 112, a smart card. 114, a memory 116, an instruction applier 118, a microprocessor 120, a multiplexer 122, and a recording medium 124.

The tuner 100 tunes a broadcast channel selected from a satellite broadcast signal received through the satellite antenna 10 based on a channel tuning signal provided from the microprocessor 120, wherein the tuned broadcast signal is a channel decoder ( 102).

The channel decoder 102 may select a predetermined broadcast channel band (eg, FIG. 3 from among channels of each broadcaster (TMD) of the time division multiplexed (TMD) provided from the tuner 100). Only channel (b)) is decoded and provided to the MPEG2 system demux 106.

The MPEG2 system demux 106 uses decoded stream stream data (TP) provided from the channel decoder 102 using standardized and standardized MPEG2 to perform video (VPES: video elementary stream) and audio (APES) audio elementary stream. And divide them into packet units (eg, FIGS. 3 (c) to 3d) and provide the multiplexer 122, the video decoder, and the audio decoder 108 and 110, respectively.

The descrambler 104 is configured to provide a control signal for descrambling the scrambling broadcast channel provided from the channel decoder 102 to the MPEG2 system demux 106, wherein the information key value for descrambling is the modem 112. The microprocessor 120 controls the descrambling operation of the satellite broadcast signal based on the recorded information key value.

The video decoder 108 reconstructs the encoded video data provided from the MPEG2 system demux 106 to the original signal before encoding, and the reconstructed digital video data is delivered to the monitor side, not shown, for display. In addition, the audio decoder 110 restores the encoded audio data provided from the MPEG2 system demux 106 to the original signal before encoding, and the digital audio data reconstructed here is transmitted to the speaker side (not shown).

On the other hand, the modem 112 is connected to the receiving device (PSTN) of the subscriber station management system, and performs an interface with the receiving device (PSTN) of the subscriber station management system according to the control signal of the microprocessor 120, the modem 112 The information received through the microprocessor 120 and the smart card 114 is configured to be provided.

The smart card 114 is configured to store information key values received through the modem 112 and various kinds of information (eg, charging information, etc.) received through the modem 112 based on control commands of the microprocessor 120. In addition, the smart card 114 stores information on the copy charge limit set by the user. The stored copy charge limit information is stored in the microprocessor 120 to determine the copy limit of the program when the copy mode is executed according to the user's request. Is provided.

The memory 116 is configured to include various program logic for executing the present apparatus, so that the necessary program logic is provided to the microprocessor 120 as necessary.

The command applier 118 generates a broadcast channel tuning command, a copy mode (A / V, A, V) selection command, a maximum cumulative charging (TH), etc. according to a user's operation, and is provided to the microprocessor 120 to be described later. It is composed.

The microprocessor 120 performs overall operation control of the DBS receiver. In particular, in order to restrict a program copy according to the present invention, in response to a selection command of the command authorizing unit 118, the stream packetized digital data of a broadcast channel is used. Retrieve copy information within and control the accumulation of charges from the tuned broadcast program therefrom.

The multiplexer 122 selects the switching of the stream packetized digital data transferred from the MPEG2 system demux 106 to the recording medium 124 based on the copy mode switching signal of the microprocessor 120.

The recording medium 124 refers to a recording medium capable of storing and restoring packet-based digital video and audio data provided from the multiplexer 122. The recording medium 124 is connected to an external output terminal of the apparatus. The digital broadcast signal data recorded here is used in other applications.

The subscriber station management system 126 (PSTN) is operated with program logic for providing a broadcast program to a subscriber and requesting billing accordingly.

Next, a process of limiting the copy of the paid program according to the present invention using the DBS receiver having the above configuration will be described.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of limiting copying of a program in a digital device (DBS) receiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, when a user sets a copy charge limit of a pay broadcast in order to limit the copy of a pay broadcast without restriction, the microprocessor 120 may set preset copy charge limit information received through the command granting unit 118. Write to smart card 114 (step 202).

Next, with the copy charge limit set as described above, the microprocessor 120 checks whether any user requests a copy for a specific broadcast program (step 204). In the case of pay broadcast, the copy information (Fig. 3E) included in the packet data of the corresponding program is searched (step 206), and then it is searched whether the copy-selected program is a pay broadcast or a free broadcast (step 208).

As a result of the search in step 208, if it is determined that the program of the selected broadcast channel is a free broadcast, the microprocessor 120 switches the current mode to the copy mode, and as a result, the video and audio data of the selected broadcast program is copied. By being provided to the recording medium 124 via the multiplexer 122, a copy selected broadcast program is recorded (copyed) on the recording medium 124 (step 214).

That is, when the selected broadcast program is a free broadcast without charging for the copy, the broadcast program is recorded on the recording medium 124 by directly performing the copy mode by the DBS receiver.

On the other hand, if the search result in step 208 determines that the program of the selected broadcast channel is free broadcast, the microprocessor 120, as shown in FIG. 3f as an example, is included in the packet data of the program. Based on the charge information, the charge of the selected copy program is read out, the accumulated charge up to the present stored in the smart card 114 is withdrawn, and the estimated accumulated charge is calculated by adding up the charge of the program and the current accumulated charge ( Step 210). At this time, the smart card 114, as an example shown in Figure 3g, billing [0], billing [1], billing [2], --- billing [6], billing [7], billing [ Charges that occur in the form of a sum] are accumulated.

Next, the microprocessor 120 checks whether the estimated cumulative charge exceeds the preset billing limit by comparing the calculated cumulative charge with the calculated billing limit preset by the user and stored in the smart card 114 ( Step 212).

As a result of the check in the step 212, if it is determined that the expected cumulative charging does not exceed the predetermined billing limit, the process proceeds to step 214, the microprocessor 120 performs a copy mode, so that the copy of the selected broadcast program Video and audio data are recorded (copyed) on the recording medium 124.

On the other hand, if it is determined in the step 212 that the estimated cumulative charge exceeds the predetermined charge limit, the microprocessor 120 stops performing the copy mode and at the same time corresponding to the non-copy message, eg For example, a message such as a billing limit exceeded and a program can no longer be copied is generated and provided for a predetermined time on the monitor. Therefore, the copy-selected broadcast program is not recorded on the recording medium 124, and the user who selects the copy will recognize that the program copy is no longer possible through the copy-non-copy message.

That is, in the present invention, the program is allowed to be copied only when the accumulated cumulative charge and the accumulated budget of the selected program do not exceed the preset billing limit, and the estimated cumulative charge exceeds the preset billing limit. In this case, by automatically limiting the copy of the pay broadcast, the cumulative billing amount due to the pay broadcast copy is reliably suppressed from being excessively increased.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be modified without departing from the technical gist of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, the user presets the billing limit and allows the copy of the paying broadcast program only within the preset billing limit, thereby effectively blocking the copy of the unrestricted paying broadcast, thereby accumulating billing due to the paying broadcast copy. Excessive increase in liquid can be reliably suppressed.

Claims (2)

Claims [1] A method for limiting a copy of a pay broadcast program charged according to copy information when recording and recording digital satellite broadcast programs, the method comprising: setting and storing a limit amount of billing generated according to a copy of a pay broadcast program; When there is a copy request for a certain broadcast program from a user, copy retrieves copy information from packet data of a selected broadcast program, and searches whether the selected broadcast program is a free broadcast or a paid broadcast based on the found copy information. step; As a result of the search, when the selected broadcast program is free broadcast, recording video and audio data of the selected broadcast program on the recording medium; As a result of the search, when the selected broadcast program is a paid broadcast, calculating an expected cumulative charge by summing up the cumulative charges up to now and the charges of the selected broadcast program, and comparing the estimated cumulative charge with the predetermined charge limit. ; Recording the video and audio data of the selected broadcast program on the recording medium when the calculated estimated charge amount is less than or equal to the predetermined charge limit; And stopping the copy operation for the selected broadcast program when the estimated accumulated charge exceeds the predetermined billing limit. The method may further include displaying a non-copy message on a monitor for a predetermined time when the calculated cumulative estimated charge exceeds the preset billing limit. How to limit copy.