KR20060023611A - Apparatus and method for receiving terrestrial and cable transmission which enables real-time update of broadcasting service information - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receivers capable of efficiently collecting updated broadcast service information in real time.

The composite broadcast receiving device of the present invention is a composite broadcast receiving device capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, and includes a terrestrial broadcast receiving unit for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And a central controller configured to check whether the terrestrial broadcast is currently being viewed and to control the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information when the terrestrial broadcast is being viewed.

Cable broadcasting, broadcasting service information, PSIP, set-top box, digital broadcasting, open cable, terrestrial broadcasting

Description

Terrestrial and cable composite broadcasting receiver and method for real-time collection of broadcasting service information {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECEIVING TERRESTRIAL AND CABLE TRANSMISSION WHICH ENABLES REAL-TIME UPDATE OF BROADCASTING SERVICE INFORMATION}

1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receiver according to the present invention.

2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a terrestrial wave and cable composite broadcast reception method according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100, 200, 300, 400, 500: broadcast receiving device

1: terrestrial broadcast tuner 2: cable broadcast tuner

3: Tuner for cable communication 4: Transmitter for cable communication

10: terrestrial broadcast receiver 11: terrestrial broadcast demodulator

12: cable broadcasting demodulator 13: cable communication demodulator

14: modulator for cable communication 20: cable broadcast receiver

21: A / V Decoder 22: Copy Protection Interface

23: cable card 31: multimedia processing unit

32: central control unit 41: output signal

42: communication unit

The present invention relates to a composite broadcast receiving apparatus and method capable of receiving broadcasts through both terrestrial and cable, and more particularly, to a broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving both terrestrial and cable broadcasts. It is to provide a complex broadcast receiving apparatus and method.

The domestic digital cable broadcasting standard is the same standard as the digital cable broadcasting in the United States, and is called a standard name of 'open cable'. A set-top box supporting the open cable standard should be provided with a communication means through a cable network as well as a receiving means for watching a broadcast. The cable communication means specified in the open cable standard can use out-of-band (OOB) method using out-of-band channel or DSG (DOCSIS Set-top box Gateway) method using modem of DOCSIS (Data over Cable System Interface Specification) standard. You can also configure both to be embedded at the same time for compatibility.

In addition to content information for actual broadcasting, digital broadcasting includes broadcast service information. The broadcast service information may be divided into channel information and guide information. Here, the channel information includes channel number, frequency information, broadcast station name, and the like, and the guide information includes information for guiding a broadcast program of each channel by time zone.

In digital terrestrial broadcasting, broadcasting service information is defined in the ATSC A / 65 standard and is commonly referred to as Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP). In the case of digital cable broadcasting, if a cable card is present, it follows the SI (Service Information) standard specified by ANSI / SCTE, and if there is no cable card, it follows the PSIP standard, which is a digital terrestrial standard.

Taking PSIP information as an example of such broadcast service information, in general, the PSIP information has one PSIP information per channel, and provides only the information of its own broadcasting station for each broadcasting station. In addition, the guide information of the broadcast service information is continuously updated for each time zone.

In general, when providing guide information to a user, all channels are scanned to collect PSIP information for each channel, and then an integrated PSIP database is created to provide the user with broadcast information of all channels through the UI (User Interface). to provide.

Since the PSIP information is regularly updated, in order to provide the updated guide information to the user, the all channel scan described above should be performed periodically, or once the channel scan is performed, the PSIP information will be collected again to change the channel's information. A method of updating guide information has been used. The regular full channel scan method, which is a general method, is very inconvenient because the user waits for a long time because the channel scan takes a lot of time. In addition, there is a problem in that the method of updating the PSIP information of the channel every time the channel is switched to slow the channel switching to inconvenience the user.

The present invention is to solve the above-described prior art, to provide an apparatus and method for terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receivers capable of efficiently collecting updated broadcast service information in real time.

In addition, the present invention focuses on the fact that a user does not simultaneously watch terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, and collects broadcasting service information in real time by using a terrestrial broadcasting processing path when watching cable broadcasting, and cable broadcasting when watching terrestrial broadcasting. It is an object of the present invention to provide a terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receiving apparatus and method capable of collecting broadcast service information in real time using a processing path.

In addition, the present invention provides a composite broadcast receiving device capable of collecting broadcast service information in real time by periodically operating a part of the function of the device even during the period of power off (off) to periodically update the broadcast service information; It is to provide a method.

In order to achieve the above object, a composite broadcast receiver according to a first aspect of the present invention is a composite broadcast receiver capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, and includes: a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And a central controller configured to check whether the terrestrial broadcast is currently being watched and to control the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information when the terrestrial broadcast is being viewed. do.

A composite broadcast reception device according to a second aspect of the present invention is a composite broadcast reception device capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, and includes: a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And a central controller configured to check whether the cable broadcast is currently being viewed and to control the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect terrestrial broadcast service information when the cable broadcast is being viewed. do.

A composite broadcast receiver according to a third aspect of the present invention is a composite broadcast receiver capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, comprising: a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And a central controller configured to control the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect terrestrial broadcast service information when the device is not in use.

A composite broadcast receiver according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is a composite broadcast receiver capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, and includes a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And a central controller configured to control the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information when the device is not in use.

A hybrid broadcast reception method according to a fifth aspect of the present invention includes a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal, the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or a cable broadcast signal. A composite broadcast reception method using a composite broadcast receiver capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasts and cable broadcasts, including an A / V decoder which decodes a signal and extracts broadcast service information and a central control unit for controlling the operation thereof. Checking whether you are watching; If it is determined in the step that you are currently watching the terrestrial broadcast, characterized in that it comprises the step of controlling the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information.

A hybrid broadcast reception method according to a sixth aspect of the present invention includes a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal, the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or a cable broadcast signal. A composite broadcast reception method using a composite broadcast reception device capable of receiving terrestrial broadcast and cable broadcast, including an A / V decoder for decoding a digital signal and extracting broadcast service information and a central control unit for controlling the operation thereof. Checking whether you are watching; If it is determined that the cable broadcast is currently being watched, the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder may be configured to collect terrestrial broadcast service information.

A hybrid broadcast reception method according to a seventh aspect of the present invention includes a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal, the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or a cable broadcast signal. A composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including an A / V decoder which decodes a signal and extracts broadcasting service information and a central control unit controlling the operation thereof. Checking whether the; If it is determined in the step that the device is not currently used, the step of controlling the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect the cable broadcast service information.

A hybrid broadcast reception method according to an eighth aspect of the present invention includes a terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal, the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or a cable broadcast signal. A composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including an A / V decoder which decodes a signal and extracts broadcasting service information and a central control unit controlling the operation thereof. Checking whether the; If it is determined that the device is not currently used in the step, it characterized in that it comprises the step of collecting the terrestrial broadcast service information by controlling the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder.

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

1 is a view illustrating an example of applying the present invention to an open cable set-top box having an OOB modem as an embodiment of the terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receiver according to the present invention. The terrestrial wave received through the antenna 51 is processed by a terrestrial broadcast demodulator 11 such as an 8 VSB (Vestigial Side Band) demodulator via a terrestrial broadcast tuner 1, an A / V decoder 21 and a multimedia processing unit 31. The signal conversion and the like are processed, and are reproduced / outputted as an output signal 41 such as an image and a sound.

In the cable broadcasting viewing, the data transmitted through the cable 52 is processed by the cable broadcasting demodulator 12 such as a 64/256 QAM demodulator via the cable broadcasting tuner 2 to perform A / V. It is input to the decoder 21.

For cable communication, for example, a downlink data signal is tuned in a cable communication tuner 3 such as an OOB QPSK tuner for downlink data processing of an OOB modem, and the tuned signal is a QPSK demodulator for OOB modem signal processing. It is input to the cable card 23 via the cable communication demodulator 13. The cable card 23 receives the necessary data from the headend via this data channel. The uplink data signal sent by the cable card 23 is processed by the cable communication modulator 14 such as an OOB modulator and transmitted to the headend through the cable communication transmitter 4 such as an OOB transmitter.

Open cable set-top box 100 as illustrated is provided with an interface that conforms to the standards, such as PCMCIA. The PCMCIA interface is an interface designed mainly for the use of PCMCIA modules in notebooks, but it is common for open cable set-top boxes to adopt such interfaces, and especially for open cable set-top boxes, the function of a copy protection (CP) module. In many cases, the interface 22 is provided to have a. Most content is encrypted via this copy protection interface 22 and delivered to the set top box.

The PCMCIA module used in the set-top box is mainly used for CA (Conditional Access, reception restriction) and subscriber management of broadcast content, which is called a cable card (23). The cable card 23 generally requires a communication means in order to perform its primary purpose such as CA and subscriber management. The communication means may be unidirectional or bidirectional, depending on the cable network of the cable operator. The cable communication modem for communication with the headend (broadcasting center of a cable broadcaster) defined in the open cable standard includes an OOB modem as shown in FIG. 1 and a DSG modem in addition.

In the case of the OOB modem shown in FIG. 1, the OOB media access control (MAC) part is located inside the cable card 23, and the RF related parts 3, 13, 4, and 14, such as a modulator, are embedded in the set-top box 100. It is usually done.

In addition, in the case of the DSG-type modem, it is common to leave all functions of the modem inside the set-top box 100 without having a function for configuring the modem inside the cable card 23. Therefore, the set-top box must have at least one of the built-in modem functions and allow the cable card to recognize which modem is configured at initialization.

As shown in Fig. 1, the cable communication tuner 3 is one of the essential blocks of the modem, and the set-top box needs the tuner for the modem function regardless of how the modem is configured. For terrestrial and cable complex set-top boxes, it is common to have at least three tuners built in for terrestrial reception, cable broadcast reception, and cable communications. In some cases, a terrestrial open-cable composite set-top box is used that supports both OOB and DSG communications. These set-top boxes include two cable communication tuners and OOB and DOCSIS composite transmitters to support OOB and DOCSIS modems. Is usually built in.

Hereinafter, an operation of updating broadcast service information in the terrestrial and cable composite broadcast receiver of the illustrated embodiment will be described in detail.

When the user views the terrestrial broadcast, the RF signal received through the antenna 51 is tuned by the terrestrial broadcast tuner 1 of the terrestrial broadcast receiver 10, and then, via the terrestrial broadcast demodulator 11, the A / V decoder 21 In general, the present invention extracts broadcast service information such as a PSIP table, but in the present invention, when the terrestrial broadcast is watched, an unused cable broadcast receiver 20 is operated to extract the broadcast service information of the cable broadcast and to automatically extract the broadcast service information. Update with.

That is, when the user views the terrestrial broadcast, the cable broadcast signal is tuned through the cable broadcast tuner 2 which is not used, the cable broadcast demodulator 12 is demodulated, and then the cable broadcast is performed by the A / V decoder 21. Extract service information and update it automatically. Accordingly, the user receiving the terrestrial broadcast can receive updated cable broadcasting service information without waiting for a long time or feeling uncomfortable such as changing the channel speed.

On the contrary, when a user watches a cable broadcast, the cable broadcast signal is received and processed through the cable broadcast receiver 20, so that the terrestrial broadcast receiver 10 does not operate. While watching, the terrestrial broadcast receiver 10 is operated to automatically update terrestrial broadcast service information.

That is, when a user watches a cable broadcast, the cable broadcast signal is tuned through the unused terrestrial broadcast tuner 1, demodulated by the terrestrial broadcast demodulator 11, and then the terrestrial broadcast is broadcast by the A / V decoder 21. Extract service information and update it automatically. Accordingly, a user receiving a cable broadcast can receive updated terrestrial broadcast service information without having to wait for a long time or feel uncomfortable such as a decrease in channel switching speed.

The operation of each unit as described above is controlled by the central control unit 32, and the updated broadcast service information is stored in a memory (not shown) provided in the apparatus, or stored in a memory embedded in the central control unit 32, and provided to the user.

In addition, even when the power is turned off, the central control unit 23 may periodically turn on the blocks necessary for the operation and control the operation of each unit to automatically update the broadcast service information. For example, when the power is turned off, the central control unit 23 may activate the terrestrial broadcast receiver 10 and the A / V decoder 21 to receive terrestrial broadcast service information and automatically update it. Alternatively, the central control unit 23 may activate the cable broadcast receiving unit 20 and the A / V decoder 21 and receive the cable broadcast service information, and then automatically update it.

2 shows a flow of a preferred embodiment of a composite broadcast reception method of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, after confirming whether the composite broadcast receiver is powered off (S20), when the power is turned off, each cable channel and terrestrial channel are turned on by turning on an internal block related to the reception and processing of broadcast service information at an appropriate interval. Collect the broadcast service information of (S24, S26).

When the power is turned on, after confirming that the user is watching the cable broadcast (S30), if the user is watching the cable broadcast, the terrestrial broadcast tuner and the terrestrial broadcast demodulator of the terrestrial broadcast receiver 10 which are not used in the apparatus are activated to start the terrestrial broadcast. The channel is scanned and terrestrial broadcast service information is collected (S40). On the contrary, when watching a terrestrial broadcast, the cable broadcast tuner 2 and the cable broadcast demodulator 12 of the cable broadcast receiver 20 which are not used in the apparatus are activated to scan the cable channel and collect the cable broadcast service information (S45). )do.

The broadcast service information updated using the periods when the power is turned off and the blocks not used for broadcasting can be used for future cable broadcasting or terrestrial broadcasting, and accordingly, broadcasting when switching channels as in the prior art. It is possible to provide near real-time guide information without any inconvenience caused by updating service information.

The apparatus and method for receiving a composite broadcast according to the present invention can be modified and applied in various forms within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above preferred embodiment. In addition, the embodiments and drawings are merely for the purpose of describing the contents of the invention in detail, and are not intended to limit the scope of the technical idea of the invention, the present invention described above is common knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs As those skilled in the art can have various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, it is not limited to the embodiments and the accompanying drawings. And should be judged to include equality.

By using the terrestrial and cable composite broadcast reception apparatus and method according to the present invention, more efficient real-time collection of broadcast service information by allowing broadcast service information to be collected by using blocks in a device not used when receiving terrestrial or cable broadcasts. And updates can be made.

In addition, by using the present invention, it is not necessary to perform a separate broadcast service information collection and update during channel conversion, so that a quick channel change is possible.

In addition, by using the present invention, it is possible to periodically collect the broadcast service information by utilizing the power off period of the device, and to change the channel change time that the user had to undergo in order to update the broadcast service information at the time of watching the broadcast. Discomfort such as delay or long wait can be eliminated.

Claims (11)

In the composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And And a central control unit configured to check whether the terrestrial broadcast is currently being watched and to control the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information when the terrestrial broadcast is being viewed. Broadcast receiving device. In the composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And And a central control unit configured to check terrestrial broadcasting and to collect terrestrial broadcasting service information by controlling the terrestrial broadcasting receiver and the A / V decoder. Composite broadcast receiver. In the composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And And a central control unit for controlling the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect terrestrial broadcast service information when the apparatus is not in use. In the composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a terrestrial broadcast signal; A cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating a cable broadcast signal; An A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signal and / or the cable broadcast signal and extracting broadcast service information; And And a central control unit for controlling the cable broadcast receiving unit and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information when the device is not in use. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The cable broadcast is a composite broadcast receiver, characterized in that according to the open cable standard. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The cable broadcast receiver, And a cable broadcast tuner and a cable broadcast demodulator. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The terrestrial broadcast receiver, A composite broadcast receiver comprising a terrestrial broadcast tuner and a terrestrial broadcast demodulator. A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating terrestrial broadcast signals, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating cable broadcast signals, an A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signals and / or cable broadcast signals and extracting broadcast service information In the composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including a central control unit for controlling their operations, Checking whether or not a terrestrial broadcaster is currently watching; And if it is determined in the step that the user is currently watching terrestrial broadcasting, controlling the cable broadcasting receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcasting service information. A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating terrestrial broadcast signals, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating cable broadcast signals, an A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signals and / or cable broadcast signals and extracting broadcast service information; In the composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including a central control unit for controlling these operations, Checking whether the user is currently watching a cable broadcast; And if it is determined in the step that the user is currently watching a cable broadcast, controlling the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect terrestrial broadcast service information. A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating terrestrial broadcast signals, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating cable broadcast signals, an A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signals and / or cable broadcast signals and extracting broadcast service information; In the composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including a central control unit for controlling these operations, Checking whether the device is in use; And if it is determined that the device is not currently used in the step, controlling the cable broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect cable broadcast service information. A terrestrial broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating terrestrial broadcast signals, a cable broadcast receiver for tuning and demodulating cable broadcast signals, an A / V decoder for decoding the demodulated terrestrial broadcast signals and / or cable broadcast signals and extracting broadcast service information; In the composite broadcast receiving method using a composite broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving terrestrial broadcasting and cable broadcasting, including a central control unit for controlling these operations, Checking whether the device is in use; And if it is determined that the device is not currently being used in the step, controlling the terrestrial broadcast receiver and the A / V decoder to collect terrestrial broadcast service information.

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