KR100830466B1 - The method for downloading SW in digital television and apparatus for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a software download method and apparatus for digital television for solving problems caused by downloading a system-related software for digital television. According to the present invention, there is provided a tuner unit for receiving a broadcast signal, a filtering unit for detecting system related software of a digital television among the received broadcast signals, a determination unit for checking a version of the detected software, If the software is not stored in advance, a specific memory is stored in the large-size memory storing the detected software, and the software stored in the large-size memory, and the specific software is read into the driving software storage unit, and the digital software is stored according to the specific software read. The present invention provides a software download apparatus for digital television, comprising a control unit for driving a system. Therefore, according to the present invention, the system-related software of digital television can be more efficiently transmitted, and various software can be used.

Digital TV, Software, OTA

Description

The method for downloading SW in digital television and apparatus for controlling the same}

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a software download apparatus for digital television according to the present invention.

2A illustrates an example of a display screen for selecting system related software of a digital television according to the present invention.

2B illustrates another example of a display screen for selecting system related software of a digital television according to the present invention.

3A is a diagram showing an example of a software download method for digital television according to the present invention (flow chart).

3B is a diagram showing another example of the software download method of digital television according to the present invention (flow chart).

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: Digital TV 101: Tuner part

102: filtering unit 103: control unit

104: download manager 105: flash memory

106: SW execution unit 107: Hard disk drive

108: user input unit 109: display unit

The present invention relates to digital television, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for downloading software of digital television.

Recently, the broadcasting system is rapidly changing from the existing analog broadcasting to the digital broadcasting center.

The digital broadcast refers to a television broadcast that compresses and sends out a television signal in a digital form in which information signals are encoded and recorded.

In conventional analog television broadcasting, only one image can be carried in one radio wave, and audio has to be transmitted in another radio wave. On the other hand, digital broadcasting can compress information without degrading quality in addition to the feature that can carry a plurality of video or audio in one radio wave, so 4 to 8 channels can be set in the frequency band of the conventional analog broadcasting 1 channel. have.

In addition, in the case of digital broadcasting, it is easy to control information using a computer, and interactiveity is also possible to export information ordered from the viewer side.

As the broadcasting environment moves rapidly to digital broadcasting, the demand for digital television that replaces existing analog television is also rapidly increasing.

The digital television is complicated and has various functions as time goes by, and it is recognized that the replacement and update of the software related to these functions and system operation is a very important problem.

Software related to digital television system may be transmitted through the Internet or may be transmitted from a broadcasting station or the like, and may be transmitted as a broadcast signal through, for example, an OTA (Over The Air) method.

For reference, the OTA scheme refers to a technique for transmitting and receiving application related information (eg, a packet) on a wireless network.

However, the conventional software download method and apparatus for digital television have the following problems.

First, there is a problem in that the system-related software of the digital television is stored directly in the flash memory. Due to the high cost and capacity limitation of the flash memory, various software such as different versions cannot be stored in the digital television.

Secondly, the digital television system operates only with newly transmitted software irrespective of the user's intention, and thus there is a problem in that the user cannot select another version of the software.

In particular, because of the newly transmitted software, even if the digital television system is slow or unstable software in which another error occurs, there is a problem that the previous version of the software cannot be returned.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a software download method and apparatus for digital television that can store more digital television system-related software without using an expensive flash memory. will be.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a software download method and apparatus for digital television that can select various digital television system related software classified according to the number of upgrades or the characteristics of each user according to a user's preference.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a software download method and apparatus for digital television that prevents duplicate downloads of the same software and improves memory efficiency.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a control method of a digital television, comprising: receiving a system related software of the digital television through a tuner, checking a version of the received software, and checking the checked version. If the software of the present invention is not present in the mass memory, storing the received software in the mass memory, reading the specific software from the software stored in the mass memory into the driving software storage unit, and According to the software, there is provided a software download method for digital television, comprising the step of driving the system of digital television.

The software download method of the digital television may further comprise displaying a list of system related software of the digital television stored in the mass memory.

The software download method of the digital television may further comprise selecting a particular software to be driven, with reference to the displayed list.

The version of the software is classified according to the number of times the software has been upgraded by the developer (for example, 'version 10' when the version has been upgraded 10 times by the developer) or by the user's characteristics (for example, "Adult version of SW", "old version of SW", "child version of SW", "other version of SW", etc.).

The mass memory may be a hard disk drive.

The driving software storage unit may be a flash memory.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a tuner unit for receiving a broadcast signal, a filtering unit for detecting system related software of a digital television among the received broadcast signals, and a determination unit for checking a version of the detected software. And, if the checked version of the software is not stored in advance, a specific software is read from the mass memory storing the detected software and the software stored in the mass memory into a driving software storage unit, and the read-specific According to the software, there is provided a software download apparatus for digital television, comprising a control unit for driving the system of digital television.

The software download apparatus of the digital television may further include a display unit for displaying a list of system related software of the digital television stored in the mass memory, and a user input unit for selecting specific software to be driven. .

The system related software of the digital television may include software received in an over the air (OTA) manner.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the system-related software of digital television can be more efficiently transmitted, and various software can be used.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described.

1 is a diagram (block diagram) showing the configuration of a software download apparatus for digital television according to the present invention.

2A is a diagram showing an example of a display screen for selecting system related software of a digital television according to the present invention.

2B is a diagram showing another example of a display screen for selecting system related software of a digital television according to the present invention.

1 to 2B, an embodiment in which a digital television according to the present invention downloads and processes system-related software is described below.

The digital television 100 according to the present invention includes a tuner unit 101, a filtering unit 102, a control unit 103, a download manager 104, a flash memory 105, a SW execution unit 106, and a hard disk. The drive 107, the user input unit 108, and the display unit 109 may be formed.

However, the digital television 100 may also include other video devices capable of receiving and processing digital broadcast signals. For example, mobile phones, PDAs, electronic notebooks and the like that can receive digital broadcast signals.

The tuner unit 101 receives a broadcast signal, which includes software related to a system of digital television.

The system-related software of the digital television refers to a program that directly or indirectly drives the system of the digital television 100 or is related to a UI function, and may be, for example, a firmware or an application. have.

The filtering unit 102 detects system-related software of digital television among the broadcast signals received through the tuner unit 101.

The controller 103 generally controls various components of the digital television 100 such as the download manager 104.

For example, the controller 103 may be configured as a micom, a CPU, or the like.

In particular, the controller 103 may also be responsible for the function of the DSM-CC processing unit. The DSM-CC is an abbreviation of Digital Storage Media-Command and Control.

For reference, the DSM-CC is a protocol that defines control functions and functions for handling MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 bit streams, and general applications, MHEG applications, and script applications are used for streams and data. Make it accessible.

A user may search for video related information or select and view a video by using a VOD application composed of an MHEG-V application. For example, commands such as POS and the like are also prescribed.

MHEG-V receives MHEG-V object or MPEG stream from server and expresses it to user using DSM-CC.

The DSM-CC processing unit of the digital broadcasting receiver 100 receives the digital broadcast receiver 100 because the software data is configured and sent using the DSM-CC protocol even when downloading the software through OTA (Over The Air) method. Is a software file format.

On the other hand, the download manager 104 serves to store specific software in the HDD 107, the flash memory 105 and the like.

However, the HDD 107 is just an example of a large memory, and is merely described by way of example, and another large memory may be used in place of the HDD 107.

In addition, the flash memory 105 is also an example of the driving software storage unit, which is merely described by way of example, and another driving software storage unit may be used in place of the flash memory 105.

However, in consideration of the convenience of description, a description will be mainly given of the HDD which is a representative example of the large-capacity memory and the flash memory which is a representative example of the driving software storage unit.

Furthermore, the scope of the present invention is a matter to be determined by referring to the description of the claims and the full description of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited only by the term or terminology of the HDD or flash memory.

The user input unit 108 receives a specific command signal from a user and transmits the specific command signal to the download manager 104. For example, the user input unit 108 may be a remote control button or a local key button attached to the digital television. have.

Now, with reference to the present invention, in more detail as follows.

When the system related software of the digital television is transmitted through the tuner unit 101 or the like, the download manager 104 checks the version of the software pre-stored in the hard disk drive 107 and the transmitted software. Compare versions.

If the same version exists, the transferred software is not stored, whereas if the same version does not exist, the download manager 104 stores the transferred software in the hard disk drive 107.

Conventionally, the software to be transmitted is directly stored in the flash memory 105 and processed. However, in the present invention, unnecessary version download can be prevented by checking the version.

In addition, since the transferred software is stored in the hard disk drive 107, there is an advantage in that more software can be stored.

The hard disk drive 107 may use, for example, an HDD of a PVR.

The HDD 107 has a merit that the price is about 1/7 cheaper than the flash memory and the storage capacity is large. In the present invention, the capacity of the flash memory is reduced rather than before, and an existing HDD or the like is used. It can be advantageous in terms of price.

Meanwhile, a menu screen as shown in FIG. 2A may be displayed by the user or automatically, and the download manager 104 detects information about software stored in the hard disk drive 107 and the The display unit 109 outputs a list of system related software of the digital television.

For each upgraded version, a software list is output, which allows the user to select his or her favorite version of the software.

Furthermore, although only the version number is displayed in FIG. 2A, the features of the upgraded software may be displayed together.

For example, a version of software may indicate whether a feature has been added or changed compared to the previous version.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2B, the software version may be displayed according to the characteristics of the user.

In recent years, the function of digital television is more complicated, and the appropriate UI may vary according to the age of the user. As shown in FIG. 2B, the "adult version of SW", the "old version of SW", and the "child version" "SW", "other version of SW" and the like can also be designed to be displayed.

2A to 2B, when the user selects specific software, the download manager 104 calls up the specific software from the hard disk drive 107 to display the flash memory ( 105).

The SW execution unit 106 reboots the digital television 100 using specific software stored in the flash memory 105 and controls the system to operate according to the specific software.

3A is a diagram (flow chart) showing an example of a software download method for digital television according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3A, a process of storing system related software of a digital television transmitted from a broadcasting station or the like will be described in chronological order.

The digital television receives a broadcast signal such as a general A / V signal (S301).

From the received broadcast signal, it is determined whether software data exists (S302). However, the software data may be transmitted through, for example, an over the air (OTA) method.

As a result of the determination (S302), if the software data exists, the software data is generated in a file format (S303). Of course, the step S303 may be in charge of the DSM-CC processing unit.

It is determined whether software of the same version as the generated software file exists in the HDD of the digital television (S304).

As a result of the determination (S304), when the same version of the software does not exist, the generated software file is stored in the HDD (S305).

Previously transferred software is moved directly to flash memory to solve the problems of the prior art, which could not store many kinds of software, and to avoid downloading redundant software, There is an effect that can improve the utilization of the space and the efficiency of the downloading process (downloading process).

3B is a diagram (flow chart) showing another example of the software download method for digital television according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3B, a method of controlling the system of the digital television according to a specific software among the software pre-stored in the HDD will be described in chronological order.

However, step S351 of FIG. 3B may be designed to be continued after step S305 of FIG. 3A.

A list of system related software of the digital television pre-stored in the HDD is displayed on the screen (S351).

For example, a screen such as FIG. 2A or 2B may be displayed.

From the list of displayed software, specific software is selected (S352).

However, the selection process may be automatic or may be determined according to a user's selection.

The selected specific software is transferred to the flash memory for writing (S353).

After the power of the digital television is turned off, it is rebooted again (S354).

According to the specific software described in the flash memory, the system of the digital television is driven (S355).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and as can be seen in the appended claims, modifications can be made by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

And, the above-mentioned numerical value is a preferred embodiment or merely an example, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the numerical values, and as can be seen in the appended claims, Modifications are possible by those skilled in the art and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

The effects of the software download method and apparatus for digital television according to the present invention described above are as follows.

According to the present invention, it is possible to store more digital television system related software without using an expensive flash memory.

In addition, according to the present invention, various digital television system-related software classified according to the number of upgrades or user-specific characteristics can be selected according to a user's preference.

For example, if a user prefers an older version of the software than the downloaded software, even if the digital television is driven according to the downloaded software, the digital television can be driven again according to the previous version of the software.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, by checking the software version before downloading, it is possible to prevent duplicate download of the same software and to improve memory efficiency.

Claims (10)

In the control method of a digital television, Receiving, via a tuner, system related software of the digital television; Checking the version of the received software; If the checked version of software does not exist in the mass memory, storing the received software in the mass memory; Displaying a list of system-related software of the digital television stored in the mass memory, receiving and inputting specific software to be driven by the user from the displayed list, and reading the selected specific software into a driving software storage unit; And And operating the system of the digital television in accordance with the specific software read out. delete delete The method of claim 1, The software version is Classified by the number of times the software has been upgraded, or A software download method for digital television, characterized in that it is classified according to user characteristics. The method of claim 1, The large memory, A software download method for a digital television, characterized in that it is a hard disk drive. The method of claim 1, The driving software storage unit, A software download method for digital television, characterized in that it is a flash memory. A tuner unit for receiving a broadcast signal; A filtering unit for detecting system related software of a digital television from the received broadcast signal; A determination unit to check a version of the detected software; A mass memory for storing the detected software when the checked version of software is not stored in advance; A display unit for displaying a list of system-related software for digital television stored in the mass memory; A user input unit configured to receive input of specific software to be operated by the user; And And a control unit which reads out the selected specific software from the software stored in the mass memory into a driving software storage unit and drives the system of the digital television according to the read specific software. delete The method of claim 7, wherein The digital television system related software, A software download device for digital television, comprising software received in an OTA (Over The Air) manner. The method of claim 7, wherein The mass memory includes a hard disk drive, and And the drive software storage unit comprises a flash memory.

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