KR100487203B1 - Display method of video display device - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to a method of displaying an image on a screen in an image display apparatus including a blank region other than an active image region.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Provided is a display method for improving visual efficiency and preventing screen waste when displaying a screen including a blank area other than the active image area.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

When the image source to be displayed on the screen is a letterbox format image or when a 16: 9 image source is displayed on a 4: 3 screen, the remaining region except the active image region on the screen is used as an additional information region for displaying additional information. Assign.

la. Important uses of the invention

It is used to efficiently use the screen in the video display device.

Description

Display Method of Video Display Device

The present invention relates to an image display apparatus, and more particularly, to a method of displaying an image on a screen in an image display apparatus displaying a screen including a blank region other than an active image region.

The display format of most television devices that have been used so far is 4: 3 aspect ratio not only for the screen for the projection television device, but also for the display means implemented by a typical cathode ray tube. Has The aspect ratio of most video sources is also 4: 3.

However, not all video sources are made in 4: 3 aspect ratio. For example, movies are converted from film format to videotape format for playback or transmission as television signals. When converting these movie sources to video format, it has customarily changed the aspect ratio to 4: 3, the aspect ratio suitable for most television devices. An example of such a movie source is wide screen sources having a 16: 9 aspect ratio display format. When converting such movie sources into a videotape format, for example, a video signal converted from a 16: 9 aspect ratio movie source to a 4: 3 aspect ratio is lost as much as left and right portions cut out from the film image.

If the wide screen image is reduced in scale until the horizontal width matches the left and right borders of the 4: 3 aspect ratio screen, the vertical size of the image is smaller. As a result of this, the film source image appears completely on the 4: 3 aspect ratio screen, but at this time, the upper and lower portions of the 4: 3 aspect ratio screen are not filled with the image. In order to avoid spurious signals that may occur in areas where no image appears, a dark bar is transmitted to the upper and lower portions of the image converted to the 4: 3 aspect ratio. The particular display format thus processed is commonly referred to as letter box format. Accordingly, a letterbox image may be considered as an image having an active screen portion smaller than that of a normal video signal. For example, a display state when displaying a letterbox format image on a 4: 3 aspect ratio screen is shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, it can be seen that the active image 102 is displayed at the center and has upper and lower black bands 104 and 106 on the screen 100.

As described above, when displaying a letterbox-format image, the blank area on the screen is treated as black, but this is not visually good and results in wasting the screen. This resulted in the same result when a 16: 9 image source is displayed on a 4: 3 screen in a video display device having a 4: 3 screen, because a blank area other than the active image area appears on the screen.

As described above, when displaying a letterbox format image or displaying a screen including a blank area other than the active image area, such as when displaying a 16: 9 image source on a 4: 3 screen, it is not visually satisfactory. It was a waste of the screen.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a display method for improving visual efficiency and preventing screen waste when displaying a screen including a blank area other than the active image area.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adds a region other than the active image region on the screen when the image source to be displayed on the screen is a letterbox format image or when displaying a 16: 9 image source on a 4: 3 screen. And an additional information area for displaying the information.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the annexed drawings, specific details, such as many specific processing flows or screen examples, are shown to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In addition, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

2 is a block diagram of a high definition television (HDTV) receiver as an example of an image display apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 2, a tuner 202 tunes a radio frequency (RF) channel according to the control of a microprocessor 224 in a broadcast reception signal through the antenna 200. Accordingly, the tuner 202 outputs a channel tuned intermediate frequency (IF) signal, and is converted into a baseband signal by the IF module 204 and output to a channel decoder 206. The channel decoder 206 performs channel decoding on the baseband signal input from the IF module 204 to reproduce the data bit stream. The data bit stream reproduced in this manner is separated into audio data, video data, and additional data by the TS (Transport Stream) decoder 208, respectively.

The audio data is applied to the audio decoder 210, decoded according to the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) standard or the Dolby AC-3 standard, processed by the audio processing and output unit 212, and then the speaker 214 is processed. Is output through voice. The video data is applied to the video decoder 216 to be decoded according to the MPEG standard, and applied to the OSG mixer 218 to be combined with the OSG data under the control of the microprocessor 224 to process the video and output unit 220. After processing in the water through the water pipe 222 is output on the screen. The OSG data is data for the microprocessor 224 to display various types of information including a menu on a screen in graphic or text. The additional data is also applied to the microprocessor 224.

The keypad 230 and the IR receiver 234 are connected to the microprocessor 224, which is a control unit of the HDTV receiver, through a user interface 228. The microprocessor 224 performs an operation according to a command input from the mouse 232 through the keypad 230 or the IR receiver 234 according to a program stored in the memory unit 226. The mouse 232 is a wireless mouse that wirelessly transmits a signal according to a movement or a key input by a user, and a wireless mouse typically uses an IR signal. The IR signal transmitted from the mouse 232 is received by the IR receiver 234 and applied to the microprocessor 224 through the user interface 228.

In addition, the memory unit 226 may include a read only memory (ROM) for storing a program of the microprocessor 224 and a random access memory (RAM) for temporarily storing data according to program execution of the microprocessor 224. Memory) and EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable ROM) for storing various reference data.

The above-described tuner 202, IF module 204, channel decoder 206, TS decoder 208, audio decoder 210, audio processing and output unit 212, video decoder 216, OSG mixer 218. ), Video processing and output 220, and memory 226 are connected via a bus 236 connected to the microprocessor 224.

The TV receiver including the above-described HDTV typically uses various menus using on screen functions such as OSD (On Screen Display) and OSG (On Screen Graphic) so that users can easily understand and use various functions. It is displayed on the screen for visual confirmation. Thus, the position of the menu displayed on the screen was fixed. In other words, each menu has its own location, and the user cannot change it arbitrarily. Accordingly, when the menu is displayed on the screen, there have been frequent occurrences that interfere with viewing by overlapping the caption position or the main part of the image currently displayed on the screen.

Therefore, when displaying letterbox-format video or displaying 16: 9 video source on a 4: 3 screen, using a blank area on the screen as an additional information area not only improves visual efficiency but also displays on-screen video. It may be possible to prevent viewing interruption due to duplication of additional information.

3 shows a processing flowchart according to an embodiment of the present invention for this purpose, and shows an application example when displaying a letterbox format image. When the embodiment of the present invention is applied to FIG. 2 described above, an operation according to the flowchart of FIG. 3 is performed by the microprocessor 224. Therefore, the functions according to the flowchart of FIG. 3 are programmed into the ROM of the memory unit 226 to be performed by the microprocessor 224. Referring now to FIG. 3, first, the microprocessor 224 checks whether the image source to be displayed on the screen is a letterbox format in operation 300. At this time, checking information on the format of the image to be displayed is the same as in the conventional case. If it is a letterbox format image, the microprocessor 224 shifts the active image on the screen to a predetermined position of the upper and lower portions of the screen as shown in FIG. 4A or 4B in step 302, and the active image in step 304. The remaining area except the area, that is, the area 404 shown in FIG. 4A or 4B is allocated as the additional information area for displaying the additional information. In this case, shifting the active image may be performed such that the screen position is as shown in FIG. 4A or 4B when the OSG mixer 218 mixes the video signal of the screen to be displayed with the video signal of the OSG screen.

4A illustrates an example in which the active image region 402 is shifted upward on the screen 400. In this case, as shown in FIG. 404 is located at the bottom of the screen 400. In contrast, FIG. 4B illustrates an example in which the active image region 402 is shifted downward on the screen 400. In this case, as shown in FIG. Area 404 is located at the top of screen 400.

Thereafter, if the microprocessor 224 checks whether there is additional information to be displayed on the current screen in step 306, the microprocessor 224 displays the additional information in the additional information area 404 as shown in FIG. 5A or 5B in step 308. And, the step (300) described above is performed again. FIG. 5A illustrates an example of using the additional information area 404 to display a menu 406, and FIG. 5B illustrates an example of using the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) information 408. . EPGs are typically used to enable program selection in digital multichannel TV broadcasts such as HDTV. That is, the broadcasting station transmits EPG information for each RF channel, and the TV receiver receives and stores the EPG information and displays it on the screen when the user requests. An example of such an EPG is the United States Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) standard, and includes information such as a title, a broadcast time, and a broadcast start time for programs to be broadcast. The EPG information is included in the additional information decoded by the TS decoder 208 and provided to the microprocessor 224.

Therefore, when displaying a letterbox format image, visual efficiency may be improved by using a blank area on the screen as an additional information area. In addition, it is possible to prevent viewing disturbance caused by overlapping the image on the screen with additional information.

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, although the embodiment of the present invention shows an example of applying the present invention to an HDTV receiver, it can be equally applied to all image display apparatuses that display a screen including a blank area in addition to the active video area. In addition, in the case of displaying a letterbox format image as a case of displaying a screen including a blank area other than the active image area, the same applies to displaying a 16: 9 image source on a 4: 3 screen. do. In this case, however, instead of checking whether the image source to be displayed on the screen is letterbox format in step 300 of FIG. In addition, although the menu and EPG information are displayed in the additional information area, other additional information such as caption data may be displayed or used for picture in picture (PIP). Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be defined by the equivalent of claims and claims.

As described above, the present invention has an advantage of improving visual efficiency by using a blank area on the screen as an additional information area when displaying a screen including a blank area other than the active image area. In addition, it is possible to prevent viewing disturbance caused by overlapping the image on the screen with additional information.

1 is an exemplary diagram when a conventional letterbox format image is displayed on a 4: 3 aspect ratio screen.

2 is a block diagram of an HDTV receiver to which the present invention is applied;

3 is a process flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention,

4A and 4B illustrate an example of shifting an active image up and down when displaying a letterbox format image on a 4: 3 aspect ratio screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5A and 5B are exemplary diagrams of additional information display according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (11)

In the display method of the video display device, Checking whether the video source to be displayed on the screen is in letterbox format; Shifting the active image area to a preset position on the screen in the case of the letterbox format image; And assigning it to an additional information area for displaying additional information in the remaining areas except the active image area. The display method of claim 1, wherein the additional information area corresponds to one of upper and lower black bands of the letterbox-format image. The display method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising displaying in the additional information area when there is additional information to be displayed on the screen. The display method according to claim 3, wherein the additional information displayed in the additional information area includes at least one of menu, caption data, and EPG information. In the display method of the video display device having a 4: 3 screen, Checking whether an image source to be displayed on the 4: 3 screen is a 16: 9 image; Shifting the active image area to a preset position on the screen in the case of the 16: 9 image; And assigning it to an additional information area for displaying additional information in the remaining areas except the active image area. The display method of claim 5, wherein the additional information area is one of blank areas corresponding to upper and lower sides of the 16: 9 image. The display method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising displaying in the additional information area when there is additional information to be displayed on the screen. The display method according to claim 3, wherein the additional information displayed in the additional information area includes at least one of menu, caption data, and EPG information. In the display method of the video display device, Checking whether the video source to be displayed on the screen is in letterbox format; Shifting the active image on the screen to a preset position among upper and lower portions of the letter box format image; And allocating the remaining area excluding the active image area as an additional information area for displaying additional information. The display method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising displaying in the additional information area when there is additional information to be displayed on the screen. The display method according to claim 10, wherein the additional information displayed in the additional information area includes at least one of menu, caption data, and EPG information.

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