KR100606687B1 - Apparatus For Storing Plural Chanel Program Synchronously - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-channel program simultaneous storage device capable of storing a plurality of broadcast programs at the same time.

The multi-channel program storage device of the present invention includes a tuner for receiving broadcast programs of multiple channels, a receiving buffer for temporarily storing broadcast programs received by the tuner, a hard disk on which a broadcast program stored in the buffer is recorded, An output buffer for temporarily storing the broadcast program recorded on the hard disk, and a control unit for controlling the input and output between the buffer and the hard disk.

With this arrangement, the multi-channel program simultaneous storage device according to the present invention can receive a plurality of different broadcast programs simultaneously broadcasted by a plurality of tuners, and simultaneously store these received broadcast programs on a hard disk.

Description

Multi-Channel Program Simultaneous Storage {Apparatus For Storing Plural Chanel Program Synchronously}             

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a conventional TV and VCR.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a multi-channel program simultaneous storage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating a process of reproducing a previously recorded broadcast program in addition to recording different broadcast programs simultaneously aired in the present invention. FIG.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

2: VCR 4,14,32a, 32b: tuner

6: recording / playback unit 8: tape

12: TV 16,40: video processing unit

18, 42: audio processing unit 20, 44: display unit

22,46: speaker 24: broadcasting station

34a, 34b, 34c: buffer 36: recording / playback control

38: hard disk

The present invention relates to a device for storing broadcast programs, and more particularly, to a multi-channel program simultaneous storage device capable of storing a plurality of broadcast programs at the same time.

In general, each home is provided with a television (hereinafter referred to as "TV") capable of receiving a broadcast signal and viewing the received broadcast program in real time, and a VCR capable of recording a broadcast signal. The user can record a broadcast program that he cannot watch using the VCR, and then watch it at a desired time.

Referring to FIG. 1, a VCR 2 having a tuner 4 and a recording / playback section 6, and a TV 12 having a tuner 14, a video processing section 16, and an audio processing section 18. Is shown. The broadcast programs of each broadcaster broadcasted simultaneously from the broadcast stations 24 are received by the tuners 4 and 14 of the VCR 2 and the TV 14 respectively. The broadcast program received by the tuner 4 of the VCR 4 is supplied to the recording / reproducing section 6 and then recorded on the tape 80. At the same time, the broadcast program received by the tuners 4 and 14 of the TV 12 is separated into a video signal and an audio signal, and then supplied to the video processing unit 16 and the audio processing unit 18, respectively, to display unit 20. ) And the speaker 22 are output.

On the other hand, since the VCR 2 records or plays back broadcast programs on the magnetic tape 8 as a storage medium, the switching speed between recording and playback is inevitably slow. As a result, the VCR 2 cannot be used to record and play the currently received broadcast program. In addition, due to the characteristics of the magnetic tape 8, since one broadcast program should be recorded in a certain section of the magnetic tape 8, it is not possible to simultaneously record a plurality of broadcast programs simultaneously transmitted from different broadcasting stations 24, While recording a plurality of broadcast programs received at the same time, it is impossible to play a broadcast program recorded in the past. As a result, a user can watch a desired real-time broadcast program and then simultaneously record another broadcast program received using the VCR 2 and then play and view it at a different time. You will not be able to watch the programs in the order you want. That is, as shown in Table 1, which shows an example of a broadcast station broadcasting order, and Table 2, which shows an example of the recording / playback order, a broadcast program sequence that a user can watch is performed in real time on the broadcast programs K1, K2, and K3 that are sequentially received. After watching, the broadcast programs M2 and S1 recorded in advance using the VCR 2 can be watched. On the other hand, programs received at the same time cannot be viewed in different time zones unless they are pre-recorded using the VCR 2.

As shown in Table 2, if the viewer pre-recorded S1 and M2 at 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock, respectively, by using the VCR 2, the user received K1 at the same time as S1 at 1 and K2 at the same time as M2 at 2 After sequentially watching K3 received in real time at 3 o'clock, the user may watch M2 and S1 pre-recorded at 4 o'clock and 5 o'clock, respectively. On the other hand, the user cannot sequentially view K1 and M1 received simultaneously at 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock, nor can they watch K2 not recorded in advance at 3 o'clock. At 4 o'clock, you can watch the pre-recorded M2, but you can't watch the unrecorded K3 at 5 o'clock.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a multi-channel program storage device capable of simultaneously recording and playing the same broadcast program.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-channel program simultaneous storage device capable of simultaneously recording a plurality of broadcast programs received at the same time.

In order to achieve the above objects, the multi-channel program simultaneous storage device of the present invention comprises a tuner for receiving broadcast programs of multiple channels, a receiving buffer for temporarily storing broadcast programs received by the tuner, and a broadcast program stored in the buffer. A hard disk to be recorded, an output buffer for temporarily storing broadcast programs recorded on the hard disk, and a control unit for controlling input / output between the buffer and the hard disk.

Other objects and features of the present invention in addition to the above objects will become apparent from the description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

2, broadcasts from the first and second tuners 32a and 32b and the first and second tuners 32a and 32b respectively receiving different broadcast programs received from the broadcast stations 24, respectively. From the first and second buffers 34a and 34b for temporarily storing signals, the hard disk 38 storing broadcast signals from the first and second buffers 34a and 34b, and from the hard disk 38. And a recording / playback control section 36 for controlling the input / output between the buffers 34a, 34b, 34c and the hard disk 38. A multi-channel program simultaneous storage is shown according to the invention. The first and second tuners 32a and 32b respectively receive different broadcast receiving streams simultaneously received from different broadcasting stations 24. The first and second buffers 34a and 34b are connected between the tuners 32a and 32b and the recording / playback control unit 36 to store broadcast reception streams output from the tuners 32a and 32b. The recording / playback control unit 36 outputs the broadcast reception streams stored in the first and second buffers 34a and 34b to the hard disk 38. As such, the broadcast reception streams stored in the hard disk 38 are supplied to the third buffer 34c under the control of the recording / playback control section 36, and are divided into video signals and audio signals, respectively, and the video processor 40 and the audio, respectively. It is supplied to the processing part 42. The video processor 40 outputs the video signal included in the broadcast receiving stream to the display unit 44, and the audio processor 42 outputs the audio signal included in the broadcast receiving stream to the speaker 46.

In this way, by receiving a broadcast program transmitted from different broadcast stations 24 by the plurality of tuners 32a and 32b, and storing the received broadcast programs in the hard disk 38, Recording becomes possible. In addition, since the recording and playback switching speed of the hard disk 38 is high, playback can be performed simultaneously with recording.

The multi-channel program storage device of the present invention as shown in FIG. 2 may be included in a driving circuit of a TV or a VCR, and may be manufactured as an independent terminal in the form of a set-top box.

Accordingly, as shown in Tables 1 and 3, the user watches in real time the broadcast program K1 that is broadcasted at 1:00, and simultaneously records the broadcast program S1 that is broadcasted on the hard disk 38, and then 2 The broadcast program S1 already recorded in the city can be viewed. Subsequently, the viewer receives broadcast programs K2 and M2 broadcasted at 2:00 on the first and second tuners 32a and 32b, respectively, and simultaneously records these broadcast programs K2 and M2, and records these broadcast programs K2 and M2 in three. We can watch sequentially at 4:00 and 4:00.

In addition, the viewer can play by watching the broadcast program K3 already recorded at 3 o'clock at 5 o'clock.

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram showing in detail a process in which recording of broadcast programs K2 and M2 simultaneously broadcasted at 2 o'clock and reproduction of broadcast program S1 recorded at 1 o'clock occur simultaneously.

Referring to FIG. 3, the first tuner 32a receives the broadcast reception stream K2 and the second tuner 32b receives the broadcast reception stream M2 and stores the corresponding streams in the first and second buffers 34a and 34b, respectively. do. Each stream stored in the first and second buffers 34a and 34b is recorded and recorded on the hard disk 38, respectively. At the same time, the broadcast program S1 already stored in the hard disk 38 is reproduced and stored in the third buffer 34c and displayed on the display unit 44. In order to simultaneously record a plurality of channel streams on the hard disk 38 and to read already stored channel streams, the recording / reproducing time of the hard disk 38 must be shortly divided. That is, since the maximum recording speed of the hard disk 38 is three times or more of about 20 Mbps, which is the maximum broadcast reception stream rate, the hard disk 38 enables multiple recording / playback while one broadcast receiving program is received. In Fig. 3, the interval between the non-display periods t1 to t3 is actually about 10 ms, so the user cannot visually sense this non-display period. The first and second buffers 34a and 34b have the same storage capacity and operate dually under the control of the recording / playback control unit 36. Similarly, the third buffer 34c is divided into a video signal storage buffer and an audio signal storage buffer having the same storage capacity.

Between t1 and t2, the first buffer 34a stores the broadcast reception stream K2-1, and the second buffer 34b stores the broadcast reception stream M2-1. The recording / playback control section 36 stores the broadcast reception stream K2-2 in the first buffer 34a instead of outputting the broadcast reception stream K2-1 stored in the first buffer 34a between t2 and t3. The recording / playback control section 36 also stores the broadcast reception stream M2-2 in the second buffer 34b instead of outputting the broadcast reception stream M2-1 stored in the second buffer 34b between t2 and t3. . As a result, broadcast reception streams K2-1 and M2-1 are sequentially recorded on the hard disk 38 between t2 and t3. During this period, the already recorded broadcast reception stream S1-1 is stored in the third buffer 34c under the control of the recording / playback control section 36. Instead of outputting the broadcast reception stream K2-2 stored in the first buffer 34a between t3 and t4, the broadcast reception stream K2-3 is newly stored. In addition, instead of outputting the stored broadcast reception stream M2-2, the second buffer 34b newly stores the broadcast reception stream K2-3. At the same time, S1-1 stored in the third buffer 34c is supplied to the display unit 44 and displayed on the screen. By this operation, the difference between the reception time of the broadcast reception stream and the time for recording the received broadcast reception stream on the hard disk 38 is corrected to record the broadcast reception stream on the hard disk 38. Similarly, the difference between the playback time of the hard disk 38 and the time displayed on the display unit 44 at the original time length is corrected to display the broadcast reception stream.

As described above, the multi-channel program storage device according to the present invention can receive a plurality of different broadcast programs simultaneously aired by a plurality of tuners, and simultaneously store these received broadcast programs on a hard disk. In addition, the multi-channel program storage device according to the present invention can record and play the same or different broadcast programs simultaneously due to the fast recording / playback switching speed of the hard disk.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (4)

A plurality of tuners each receiving a plurality of channels of broadcast programs, A plurality of reception buffers each temporarily storing broadcast programs received by each of the plurality of tuners; A hard disk on which broadcast programs stored in the plurality of receiving buffers are recorded; One output buffer for temporarily storing the broadcast program recorded on the hard disk; And a control unit for controlling input / output between the plurality of receiving buffers and output buffers and the hard disk. The method of claim 1, And the controller records the broadcast reception stream stored in the buffer in the hard disk at 1/3 time of the storage time of the broadcast reception stream stored in the reception buffer. The method of claim 2, And the control unit supplies a broadcast receiving stream stored in the hard disk to the output buffer in accordance with the display period of the broadcast program. The method of claim 1, And the control unit controls to store a broadcast program other than the broadcast program received by the tuner as the output buffer.

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