CN1845595B

CN1845595B - Method for transmitting, extracting and searching program information and search engine, set-top box

Info

Publication number: CN1845595B
Application number: CN200610081601A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张幼京; 张辉; 俞青
Original assignee: Vimicro Corp
Current assignee: Vimicro Corp
Priority date: 2006-04-30
Filing date: 2006-04-30
Publication date: 2010-05-26
Anticipated expiration: 2026-04-30
Also published as: CN1845595A

Abstract

The disclosed search engine to transmit, extract and search menu information comprises: a MPU interface to receive search command from MPU and user keyword information, a keyword translator to decode user input information, a memory address and request generator to send read request to system memory, a memory interface to send the request to system memory and buffer the read result in its memory, a string comparator to match the decoded keyword and read information from memory, an interruption generator to generate an interrupt and notify MPU the search success. This invention saves time.

Description

Transmission, the method for extracting and searching for programme information and search engine, set-top box

Technical field

The present invention relates to digital TV field, relate in particular to a kind of transmission in digital television system, extract television program search information, and realize the method for television program search and search engine, set-top box.

Background technology

At present, the growth of television programming provider or TV station's quantity is very rapid, and people only use a satellite receiver, just can watch hundreds of television channels at home.Review the past, early stage in internet development, because there is not search engine, people get lost in the internet information of magnanimity through regular meeting, until the appearance of Yahoo (Yahoo) search engine, just make people have the ability to find the information of wanting.Run into similar problem now in television system: along with the appearance of Digital Television, in the near future, television channel quantity can rapidly increase with exponential form.Therefore TV user needs a kind of effective and efficient manner to find out to want the channel seen, rather than picture is being browsed time waste on all channels when going over channel searching.

Solution to the problems described above is to provide electronic program guides (EPG to the user at present, ElectronicProgram Guide) information, EPG information generally comprise the classified information (as film, news, physical culture etc.) of channel designation, programm name, program description, broadcast time and program etc.The user is when searching program, only need to use set-top box remote controller television screen to be switched to the interface of EPG, just can see programm name, broadcast time and the program brief introduction of a period of time with each digital TV channel in interior (in a week), except searching in chronological order the program, EPG can also allow people search according to program classification to want the program seen, as search film, promptly can obtain in a period of time will movie relevant information, comprise movie name, corresponding channel designation, movie contents introduction etc.

EPG information is at the conceptive many tables (table) that are divided into, described table is divided into plurality of sections (section) again, pack according to Moving Picture Experts Group-2, by mpeg 2 transport stream (TS, TransportStream) send user terminal to, TS is multiplexing, simultaneously also is used for transmitting the signals such as sound, video of TV.Different tables is distinguished with different bag marks (PID) in TS stream, and user terminal is presented on the video screen after can handling through digital TV set-top box after receiving the EPG information that described TS sends, and checks listing or selects program for the user.After the user selected certain program, set-top box can filter out the audio frequency and video TS bag of this program, plays on video screen after treatment.

Present two main number television standards that exist: U.S. ATSC standard and European DVB standard.The simple description done in realization in two main number television standards with regard to EPG below.

Use performance system information protocol (PSIP) to transmit described EPG information in the ATSC standard, table relevant with TV programme itself in PSIP information mainly comprises: virtual channel table (VCT), Event Information Table (EIT).Main contents in VCT table and the EIT table such as attached illustrated in figures 1 and 2, mainly comprise in the VCT table channel (dominant frequency Taoist monastic name major num. and frequency division Taoist monastic name minor num.), channel breviary name (short name), program number (progr.num.), expanded text position, this table the ID value contents such as (channel TSID) that flows of corresponding TS.Mainly comprise the title of event number (eventid), local time started (local start time), duration (length is in second) and incident title information such as (title) among the described EIT.Incident (event) is the exemplary program in the virtual channel that defines among the described VCT, is 53 incident as the event id in the NBZ-S channel: be the Car Racing program that begins and continue 9000 seconds (150 minutes) from 15:30, be an incident; Comprise incident expanded text (ETM) among the described EIT, this content is optionally, is used to provide the detailed description about described virtual channel and incident.

More than mainly select from PSIP agreement---the Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable (Revision B) of ATSC Standard about the content of ATSC standard.

And in the DVB standard, described EPG information is made up of program specific information (PSI) and two parts of business information (SI).

Described PSI comprises four tables: Program Association Table (PAT), Program Map Table (PMT), Conditional Access table (CAT), network information table (NIT).Utilize PSI from a TS who carries a plurality of programs, correctly to find specific program, idiographic flow is as follows: when receiver will receive some appointed programs, it at first obtains the pid value of the PMT of this program from PAT, from TS, find out the corresponding PMT of pid value therewith then, from this PMT, obtain the pid value of the elementary stream of this program of formation, leach elementary streams such as corresponding video, audio frequency and data according to this pid value, the decoding back is restored and is primary signal, and deletion simultaneously contains the transmission bag of all the other PID.The physical transfer net information such as channel tuning parameter, frequency, symbol rate that include program in NIT, these information make receiver correctly to decode TS according to user's selection with seldom time-delay or have time-delay ground and change channel, tuner parameters.Described the cipher mode of program in CAT, the EMM identification PID that it has comprised program has only the decoder of mandate to receive key by CAT, decodes corresponding data flow.

PSI only provides the information of single TS, the reception function is decoded to the different program streams among the single TS, but it can not provide the relevant business of a plurality of TS and the type of program, and any program is specifically arranged, information such as when begin, therefore the DVB system expands PSI, the multiple form of other different information categories is provided, has formed SI.

Comprise nine tables among the described SI, wherein relevant with program table is mainly following three:

BAT:BAT table provides the information of related relevant program bouquet, comprises the program business list that program bouquet title and program bouquet are comprised.Utilize BAT can carry out browsing and selecting of related-program or a certain class program easily.

SDT:SDT table be used for the type of service (as PAL, NTSC, SECAM, FM broadcasting, teletext, quasi-video request program etc.) of descriptive system title, service supplier, whether the information of aspects such as events corresponding description list is arranged; SDT Service Description Table can be described current transport stream, also can describe other transport stream, is distinguished by the Table ID that shows.

EIT:EIT table comprises the relevant data of incident or program, as the title of incident, time started, time span, running status etc.

Yet, in digital television system, description to programm name and content only comprises some text messages usually, and be not suitable for searching for purposes, and then, the set-top box and the search engine of television program search function are not provided at present yet, cause the user can't find own needed programme information at short notice.

Summary of the invention

Technical problem to be solved by this invention just is to provide the method for a kind of transmission, extraction and search programme information and search engine, set-top box, makes the search of digital television program more easy, people can more easily be found want the program of seeing.

In order to address the above problem, the present invention proposes a kind of in digital television system the method for TV transmission program searching information, comprise the steps:

(1) according to the feature of different TV programme, set up an antistop list that meets the digital television system consensus standard, the information of record comprises the information of can be unique determining each TV programme in this table, and corresponding to the keyword of each TV programme; Specifically comprise:

(1-1) from TV Guide information, extract the information of can be unique determining each TV programme;

(1-2) according to the feature of each TV programme, determine to describe the keyword of different TV programme;

(1-3) related with setting up between described different TV programme and its corresponding keyword, and generation meets the antistop list of digital television system consensus standard;

(2) according to the digital television system consensus standard, this antistop list remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of user terminal, send to the TV set-top box of user terminal.

The present invention can further include:

(3) the transmission demultiplexing module in the described TV set-top box grasps transport stream and peels off transport stream header, according to the digital television system consensus standard, identifies described antistop list, and deposits in the memory.

Wherein, described step (2) comprising:

With the part of described antistop list as TV Guide information, according to the digital television system consensus standard described antistop list is divided into plurality of sections, remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of TV set-top box of user terminal, sends to the TV set-top box of user terminal.

For solving the problems of the technologies described above, the present invention and then a kind of method of extracting television program search information in digital television system is provided comprises the steps:

(1) TV set-top box of user terminal extracts the information of can be unique determining each TV programme from the TV Guide information that receives;

(2) described set-top box is according to pre-set specifications, from TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword;

(3) described set-top box with described related corresponding to setting up between the keyword of each TV programme, generates an antistop list with the described information that can uniquely determine each TV programme, deposits in the memory.

Wherein, described step (2) comprising:

Described set-top box is according to the programm name of each TV programme that provides in the TV Guide information, or extracts the keyword of describing this TV show features in performer's name.

For solving the problems of the technologies described above, the present invention also provides-kind in digital television system, realize the method for TV program retrieving, comprising:

(A) from the TV Guide information that receives, extract the information of can be unique determining each TV programme; From TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword; The described information that can uniquely determine each TV programme with described related corresponding to setting up between the keyword of each TV programme, is generated an antistop list, in TV set-top box, store;

(B) described set-top box is inquired about the keyword that is complementary with it in the described antistop list, and is found the information of the pairing TV programme of this keyword according to the TV program retrieving keyword by user's input that receives;

(C) the described set-top box TV program information that is complementary with search key user input that will find is presented on the screen.

Wherein, described step (A) can comprise:

(A1) from the TV Guide information that receives, extract the information of can be unique determining each TV programme; From TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword; The described information that can uniquely determine each TV programme with described related corresponding to setting up between the keyword of each TV programme, is generated an antistop list;

(A2) according to the digital television system consensus standard, this antistop list remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of user terminal, send to the TV set-top box of user terminal;

(A3) the transmission demultiplexing module in the set-top box grasps transport stream and peels off transport stream header, according to the digital television protocol standard, identifies described antistop list, and deposits in the memory.

Wherein, described step (A2) can comprise:

With the part of described antistop list as TV Guide information, according to the digital television system consensus standard described antistop list is divided into plurality of sections, remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of subscriber computer top box, sends to the subscriber computer top box.

Wherein, described step (A) can also comprise:

(A1) TV set-top box of user terminal extracts the information of can be unique determining each TV programme from the TV Guide information that receives;

(A2) described set-top box is according to pre-set specifications, from TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword;

(A3) described set-top box with described related corresponding to setting up between the keyword of each TV programme, generates an antistop list with the described information that can uniquely determine each TV programme, deposits in the memory.

Wherein, described step (A2) can comprise:

For solving the problems of the technologies described above, the present invention also provides a kind of program searching engine based on electronic program guide information, is applied to comprise in the set-top box of digital television system:

Microprocessor Interface stores register-file, is used to receive the search command that microprocessor sends and the key word information of user's input;

The keyword translater is used for the key word information of user's input is deciphered;

The relevant TV program information that provides according to the described register-file address information at Installed System Memory is provided for memory address and request generator, sends a read request to Installed System Memory;

Memory interface comprises a memory, be used for described read request is sent to Installed System Memory, and with the relevant TV program information buffer memory read to described memory; Described relevant TV program information comprises antistop list, and described antistop list comprises can unique information of determining each TV programme, and as the description of keyword the information of each TV show features;

The character string comparator is used for described keyword through decoding is mated with the information character read from Installed System Memory, if success, the signal that sends then that the match is successful;

Interrupt generator, be used for producing an interruption, notify microprocessor to search for successfully according to described the match is successful signal;

Wherein, when described character string comparator when the match is successful, memory interface is sent to described memory address and request generator with the current information that the match is successful in the memory, and upgrades described register-file by it.

Wherein, described keyword translater further comprises a read-only memory interface, is used for inquiring about the Huffman character code table that is stored in read-only memory, is used for Word message is deciphered; Memory in the described memory interface is a pushup storage.

For solving the problems of the technologies described above, the present invention also provides a kind of set-top box that realizes television program search, comprising:

The transmission demodulation multiplexer is used to grasp transport stream and peels off transport stream header, according to the digital television protocol standard, discerns relevant TV program information;

Installed System Memory is used to store the relevant TV program information of being extracted by described transmission demodulation multiplexer;

Microprocessor is used for the keyword according to user's input, sends a search command;

Search engine comprises:

Wherein, described set-top box further comprises: read-only memory is used to store huffman coding table;

The present invention utilizes original EPG information to set up an information form that is exclusively used in television program search, extract this program searching information by transmission, and utilize this form to carry out program searching, finally realized search by program searching engine, set-top box again, thereby made TV user save the time that is used for searching TV program greatly program.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the schematic diagram of a VCT table in the ATSC standard P Session Initiation Protocol;

Fig. 2 is the schematic diagram of an EIT table in the ATSC standard P Session Initiation Protocol;

Fig. 3 is the method flow diagram according to embodiments of the invention TV transmission program searching information in digital television system;

Fig. 4 is the method flow diagram that extracts television program search information according to embodiments of the invention in digital television system;

Fig. 5 is the method flow diagram that carries out program searching according to embodiments of the invention in digital television system;

Fig. 6 be according to the embodiment of the invention described in digital television system the functional module structure schematic diagram of program searching engine;

Fig. 7 is according to the described set-top box structural representation of realizing television program search in digital television system of the embodiment of the invention.

Embodiment

In order people can more easily to be found want the program of seeing, just must provide search information, and television program search information also must be sent to user side together along with transport stream, therefore, the present invention at first provide a kind of in digital television system the method for TV transmission program searching information, as shown in Figure 3, present embodiment comprises the steps:

Step 301: according to the feature of different TV programme, set up an antistop list that meets the digital television system consensus standard, the information of record comprises the information of can be unique determining each TV programme in this table, and corresponding to the keyword of each TV programme;

Step 302: according to the digital television system consensus standard, this antistop list remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of user terminal, send to the TV set-top box of user terminal;

Step 303: the transmission demultiplexing module in the set-top box grasps transport stream and peels off transport stream header, according to the digital television system consensus standard, identifies described antistop list, and deposits in the memory.

Wherein, antistop list is the key of carrying program searching information, can set up an antistop list as follows:

Steps A: extracting in EPG information can unique information of determining described incident (event);

Step B: according to the keyword (keyword) of EPG information formulation corresponding to described event, described keyword is used to describe the feature of corresponding event;

Step C: according in the digital television standard incident antistop list (EKT) that is used to express event and keyword relation being set up in the respective specified grammer of EPG information table.

Further, in the ATSC standard, each section (section) is according to constructing the grammer of section regulation in the ATSC standard P Session Initiation Protocol among the described EKT, and described keyword root is constructed according to the definition to many character strings in the PSIP agreement.

Further, in the DVB standard, can utilize SI table to transmit EPG information, described SI table is used to describe TV program information, defines according to the section syntactic definition of SI table in the DVB standard and many character strings and constructs described EKT table.

Further, a described incident can corresponding a plurality of keyword.

Further, the coding of described keyword can adopt the multilingual coding.

In order to understand the present invention better, at this structure of described EKT of embodiment is described earlier, in this regulation the structure of EKT is described according to the PSIP agreement in the ATSC standard, described EKT is the same with other table among the PSIP, also be to be divided into some section, spread by TS according to Mpeg-2 standard packing and be passed to user terminal conceptive.Following table 1 promptly is the syntactic structure of the section in the described EKT table:

Grammer bit number form

event_keyword_table_section (){

table_id 8 0xDB

section_syntax_indicator 1 ‘1’

private_indicator 1 ‘1’

reserved 2 ‘11’

section_length 12 uimsbf

source_id 16 uimsbf

reserved 2 ″11″

version_number 5 uimsbf

current_next_indicator 1 ‘1’

section_number 8 uimsbf

last_section_number 8 uimsbf

protocol_version 8 uimsbf

num_events_in_section 8 uimsbf

for(j＝0；j＜

num_events_in_section；j++){

reserved 2 ″11″

event_id 14 uimsbf

keyword_length 20 uimsbf

keyword() var

reserved 4 ″1111″

}

CRC_32 32 rpchof

}

Table 1

The grammer specific explanations of EKT table recited above is as follows:

(1) table_id: the uimsbf formatted data that is a 8bit, be used to identify this section and belong to described EKT table, select in the span of the table_id that its numerical value can not be used in the PSIP agreement, as being set to any one numeral in 0xCE～0xD2,0xD5～0xDF, 0xE0～0xE5, the 0xE6～0xEF scope; And for the DVB standard, can be set to the arbitrary value of untapped being in " reserved " state, 0x04～0x3F, 0x43～0x45,0x4B～0x4D or 0x79～0x7D.Be set to 0xDB in the PSIP agreement in this routine ATSC standard.

(2) section_syntax_indicator: take 1bit, value is set to ' 1 '.

(3) private_indicator: take 1bit, value is set to ' 1 '.

(4) section_length: be the uimsbf data of a 12bit, be used for identifying this section following closely and up to the byte number of section tail, comprising check digit CRC_32, this numeral should not surpass 4093.

(5) source_id: be the uimsbf data of a 16bit, in the VCT table under the PSIP agreement, each virtual channel has a corresponding with it source_id respectively, is used to identify a specific virtual channel.At this, the EKT table utilizes described source_id and hereinafter described event_id to get final product unique event of determining.

(6) version_number: be the uimsbf data of a 5bit, be used to identify the version number of this section, whenever the section content changes, then this section version number adds 1.

(7) current_next_indicator: take 1bit, value is set to ' 1 '.

(8) section_number: be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used to identify the segment number of this section.

(9) last_section_number: be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used to identify the segment number of the final stage of described EKT table.

(10) protocol_version: the uimsbf data that are a 8bit, be used to identify the protocol version of described EKT, if promptly the structure in the future described EKT table changes to some extent, then can mark the version number of its variation, be set to " 0 " in present this value.

(11) num_events_in_section: be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used for identifying the quantity of the event that this section describe.This value is generally 0 above integer, if this value is " 0 ", then shows the event that does not have description in this section, and promptly this keyword does not have corresponding event at present.

(12) event_id: the uimsbf data that are a 14bit, be used to identify the identifier of present described event, described event_id and foregoing source_id combine, and represent certain program of certain channel, promptly can uniquely determine an incident.Described event_id is used as the identifier of event in original EIT table, also be the part of the ETM identifier (ETM_id) in original incident expanded text table (ETT) simultaneously, promptly by a pair of specific source_id and event_id, can find the contents such as event name, channel name, event content description of the specific event of its correspondence.

(13) keyword_length: length keywords is the uimsbf data of a 20bit, is used to identify the shared byte number of keyword () field.

(14) keyword: keyword is a variable, introduces in detail in the back.

(15) CRC_32: check digit is the rpchof formatted data of a 32bit, is according to the annex A of ISO-13818-1 " MPEG-2Systems " standard definition, is used to guarantee to make register null value of output behind each section of handling the EKT table of decoder.

(16) Reserved: keep the position, possible modification after being used for.

Below explain in detail the syntactic structure of the keyword that draws according to the relevant regulations in the PSIP agreement, shown in following table 2:

Syntax No.of Bits Format

keyword(){

number_of_keyword 8 uimsbf

for(i＝0；i＜number_of_keyword；i++){

ISO_639_language_code 24 uimsbf

number_of_segment 8 uimsbf

for(j＝0；j＜number_of_segment；j++)

{

compression_type 8 uimsbf

mode 8 uimsbf

number_of_byte 8uimsbf

for(k＝0；k＜number_of_byte；k++)

compressed_keyword_byte[k] 8 bslbf

}

Table 2

(1) number_of_keyword: keyword quantity is the uimsbf data of a 8bit, is used to identify the number of all keywords of above-mentioned event_id correspondence, represents i keyword with i in the circulation below.

(2) ISO_639_language_code: be the uimsbf data of a 24bit, be used to identify the language form of i keyword.In this example, use ISO 639 standards, described ISO 639 is the standard of two or three letter representation category of language of a kind of usefulness, represents with trigram in this example, and then Chinese is " chi " or " zho ", and English is " eng ".If i key words content is Chinese, then can select " chi " for use.

(3) number_of_segment: the joint number amount is the uimsbf data of a 8bit, is used for identifying the joint number of follow-up data.Described joint number i.e. the hop count amount that the keyword character string is divided into, and represents j the segment of i keyword in the circulation below with j.

(4) compression_type: compression type, be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used to identify the compression type of j joint, shown in the compression type table 3 specific as follows, compression type 0x01 and 0x02 should only limit the use of in the mode value when the 0x00, represent its coded system adopt among the ATSC A/65B table C.4, C.5, C.6, the standard encoding and decoding table of C.7 definition carries out encoding and decoding to data.

Compression_type	Compression_Method
Compression_type	Compression_Method	0x00	There is not compression
0x01	Huffman coding, use among the ATSCA/65B table C.4 with the table standard encoding and decoding table of definition C.5	0x00	There is not compression
0x01		0x02	Huffman coding, use among the ATSC A/65B table C.6 with the table standard encoding and decoding table of definition C.7
0x03～0xAF	Keep	0x02
0x03～0xAF	Keep	0xB0～0xFF	Be used for other system

Table 3

(5) mode: be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used to the content of every joint and the relation between its coding are described that its essence is a kind of compression method, its particular content is shown in following table 4.If the decoder in the TV set-top box of user terminal is not supported certain mode, the character string that then comprises this kind mode can be left in the basket.If use the mode value of 0x01～0x06,0x09～0x0E, 0x10,0x20～0x27,0x30～0x33 scope, then compression_type should be 0x00, does not promptly have compression.During value in the mode value is above-mentioned 0x01～0x06,0x09～0x0E, 0x10,0x20～0x27,0x30～0x33 scope, the bytes that represents this segment represents low eight in one 16 the Unicode coding, and the mode value itself is its high eight-bit.

Table 4

For example, a Unicode encoded radio is the sequence of " 0x0E50; 0x0E51; 0x0E52 ", may represent with one " joint ": its mode value is " 0x0E ", and the character string byte in its joint is " 0x50,0x51; 0x52 ", therefore utilizes mode that a simple coding delivery form can be provided for 16 Unicode encoded radio.

Standard Compression Scheme for Unicode (SCSU) coded system is selected in mode value " 0x3E " expression for use.

Mode value " 0x3F " expression is used the UTF-16 compiling method and is represented character.About the specific definition of UTF-16, see also the Unicode standard.If use mode value " 0x3F ", the UTF-16 code value that 16 Unicode value is formed should be encoded into the value of uimsbf form.

The character string that is not included among the mode " 0x00 " preferably adopts the mode value to be " 0x3E " (recommendation) or " 0x3F " (optional), and the byte number that uses which kind of mode to obtain is few, then uses this kind mode.

(6) number_of_byte: be the uimsbf data of a 8bit, be used to identify the byte number of this keyword.K the byte that represents j segment in the circulation below with k.

(7) compressed_keyword_byte[k]: the k byte of representing the j joint, this space should occupy the integer-bit of a byte, if necessary can polishing to meet the requirements, these data should be write according to the requirement of described mode and compression type.

Provide the example of a concrete EKT table below according to the grammer in above-mentioned EKT table stage casing, as shown in table 5:

Table 5

In this routine section, the content in first row can be described as gauge outfit, and the content in the described gauge outfit comprises (its value repeats no more in this example for the parameter of fixed value in above-mentioned grammer):

(1) identify the table_id that this section belongs to the EKT table: can value be 0xDB,

(2) identify the source_id that this section program is originated, suppose that its value is 5,

(3) identify the version_number of this section version number, be assumed to be 3,

(4) identify the section_number of this section segment number, suppose that its value is 6,

(5) identify the segment number last_section_number that this EKT shows final stage, suppose that its value is 60,

(6) identify the protocol_version of this table protocol version, in the also unmodified mistake of this hypothesis, so the protocol_version value is 0, later every change once, its value adds 1, and

(7) identify the number n um_events_in_section of the described event of this section, in this example, suppose to have described in this section 8 event, so its value is 8.

Source_id in the foregoing is a part of content in the VCT table, combines with event_id among the following keyword and promptly can uniquely determine an incident, and this is one of step when setting up the EKT table.

Content description after the gauge outfit relation of event and keyword.Suppose that 8 event_id values in this section are from 25 to 32, wherein the event of event_id value 25 correspondences is films " Roman Holiday " of playing the 16:20～17:50 period at certain channel, and then can select its keyword when setting up the EKT table is Roman Holiday, Ao Daili. He Ben, Pascal Greggory. and Parker, Audrey.Hepburn, Gregory.Peck, Roman Holiday, Rome etc.In addition described keyword can, can also be director's name, film studio or the like the keyword relevant with this film for movie name, the keyword that extracts from movie name, featured performer title, and the corresponding keyword of other languages.The back gives two examples, it is the available keyword of event_id value 26 pairing " Animal World " and event_id value 32 pairing " travel of film " program, wherein " travel of film " program has been introduced the film performer--the life of Audrey.Hepburn and her masterpiece, so its keyword Ke Yi is Ao Daili. and He Ben, Roman Holiday, lovely lady, Audrey.Hepbum, Gregory.Peck etc.

About keyword specifically is how to carry out content encoded can will not describe in detail at this referring to the regulation of the PSIP agreement in the ATSC standard to multiple string structure coding.

After having determined the keyword of certain incident, as long as the regulation of section and multiple string is tabulated according to above-mentioned PSIP agreement.

Except that aforesaid way, program searching information also can extract by EPG information at receiving terminal, with reference to figure 4, for extract the method flow diagram of television program search information in digital television system according to embodiments of the invention, comprises the steps:

Step 401: the TV set-top box of user terminal extracts the information of can be unique determining each TV programme from the TV Guide information that receives;

Step 402: described set-top box is according to pre-set specifications, from TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword;

Wherein, described set-top box is according to the programm name of each TV programme that provides in the TV Guide information, or extracts the keyword of describing this TV show features in performer's name.

Step 403: described set-top box with described related corresponding to setting up between the keyword of each TV programme, generates an antistop list with the described information that can uniquely determine each TV programme, deposits in the memory.

With reference to figure 5,, comprising for carry out the method flow diagram of program searching according to embodiments of the invention:

Step 501: set up the EKT table.

What set up the EKT table can be the provider of EPG information, provider finds out associative key according to the relevant information of incident, list in the table, described EKT table is the same with other table in the EPG information, also is divided into section and transmits in TS flows, be transferred to the TV set-top box of user terminal after, can be stored in the memory in the set-top box, after, if the content of EPG information changes, then can refresh the described EPG information that stores.

What set up the EKT table also can be the TV set-top box of user terminal, and after receiving EPG information, set-top box can be analyzed it, sets up the EKT table according to certain standard, uses for user search.

Step 502: the user imports search key one.

The user can import search key when searching TV programme, keyword can be programm name, performer's name etc., and explanation is arranged in the example in the above, does not repeat them here.

Step 503: the keyword in more described keyword one and the described EKT table, in the EKT table, find out the plurality of keywords two identical or close, and further obtain the event number of described keyword two correspondences with described keyword one.

In the example explanation is arranged in the above, do not repeat them here.

Step 504: find out described event number indication some event relevant information and show.

After finding event number, can from the EIT table, find about information such as event name, reproduction times, and can further find the detailed character introduction of incident from the ETM table, also can look for its channel information-source_id in the gauge outfit from EKT in addition, therefore can further from the VCT table, find information, comprise channel name etc. about channel.Find on video screen, to show after the described information and check, with the program of selecting to watch certain program or pre-recording to like for the user.

When the user search program, can be by the remote controller input search key of set-top box, as " Roman Holiday ", then this keyword is stored, and is designated as keyword one.Set-top box can be found out the EKT table in the EPG information under the described preservation then, perhaps from the EPG information that the TS flow transmission is come, leach the EKT table, and search whole EKT and show, find out the keyword two that all are complementary with " Roman Holiday ", in this example, can find out event_id in this section at least is two programs of 25 and 32.If the user imports " He Ben ", then also can in EPG information, find at least two results, promptly the event_id in this section is two programs of 25 and 32.

Keyword for user's input, generally can make it comparatively standard through preliminary treatment, as the unified capital and small letter (branch that capital and small letter is arranged as letter in English, perhaps the numeral in the Chinese has the branch of capital and small letter, then can unify capital and small letter earlier, search for again), remove wherein symbol (as the space, make it become independent word one by one), remove wherein insignificant content (as in the Chinese " ", " a " in the English, words such as " the "), perhaps only utilize the root of word to retrieve and (search for as from " graceful " of user's input, extracting " grace ", then also can obtain " grace ", the content of word correspondences such as " gracefully ", also can carry out logical combination and make it to be more conducive to search a plurality of keywords.

The corresponding event_id and the source_id in the above-mentioned gauge outfit that find according to above-mentioned keyword can find corresponding event title and description in the EIT table, also can in the VCT table, find corresponding channel title, channel to describe, be presented on the video screen and check for the user, the user can select wherein certain program to watch, perhaps the pre-recording program.

The definition of above-described EKT table method for building up, list structure and keyword all provides according to relevant regulations in the ATSC standard, for the DVB standard, can correspondingly make change according to its regulation, to obtain being applicable to the EKT table and the key definition of DVB standard to the SI table.

Yet, only provide television program search information can not well realize the television program search function, in order to reach better search effect, also need a kind of set-top box and program searching engine.Below just in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the structure of this set-top box and program searching engine is described for example.

With reference to figure 6, be the described set-top box structural representation of in digital television system, realizing television program search of the embodiment of the invention.Specifically comprise: transmission demodulation multiplexer 610, Installed System Memory 620, microprocessor 630, program searching engine 640, read-only memory 650.

Wherein, transmission demodulation multiplexer 610, be used to grasp transport stream and peel off transport stream header, according to the digital television protocol standard, discern relevant TV program information, and this relevant TV program information can be already provided various information forms in the existing electronic program guide information, also can be the above-mentioned antistop list EKT that records TV show features that provides of the present invention, in the present embodiment to have comprised that comprehensively existing information form and EKT form provided by the invention describe with example; Installed System Memory 620 is used to store the relevant TV program information of being extracted by described transmission demodulation multiplexer; Microprocessor 630 is used for the keyword according to user's input, sends a search command; Program searching engine 640 is used for the search of TV programme; Read-only memory 650 is used to store huffman coding table.

Grasp transport stream and peel off the TS head by transmission demodulation multiplexer 610, then use pid filter with identification PSIP (performance system information protocol) form for the ATSC standard, for the DVB standard then is SI (system information) form, and those forms are loaded into Installed System Memory 620, upgrade its programme information related register then; User's key assignments in the keyword, the user wants to search in all channels, by Long-distance Control or keyword of keyboard input, microprocessor 630 can send a search command, by writing program searching engine 640 register-files keyword is delivered to program searching engine 640 then; At last, PSIP in the search system internal memory 620 or SI form find the EKT table, according to the keyword retrieval incident.For the ATSC system, program searching engine 640 can be inquired about the Huffman character code table that is stored in the read-only memory 650 by the read-only memory interface, Word message is deciphered, it mates at keyword with from the information that internal memory searches again, if coincide, will the update event information register, the notice microprocessor is searched for successfully.

Program searching engine 640 can be the hardware module among the Digital Television ASIC, it has and microprocessor, the interface that Memory Controller Hub is connected with the transmission demodulation multiplexer, perhaps it may be a software program with function, to carry out and the hardware module identical functions.Below just the structure of program searching engine is further described.

With reference to figure 7, for the embodiment of the invention described in digital television system the structural representation of program searching engine functional module.Specifically comprise: Microprocessor Interface 710, keyword translater 720, memory address and request generator 730, memory interface 740 (comprising pushup storage 750), character string comparator 760 interrupts generator 770.

Wherein, Microprocessor Interface 710 stores register-file, is used to receive the search command that microprocessor sends and the key word information of user's input; Keyword translater 720 is used for the key word information of user's input is deciphered; Memory address and request generator 730, the relevant TV program information that provides according to the described register-file address information at Installed System Memory is provided, send a read request to Installed System Memory, and relevant TV program information has comprised the antistop list that records TV show features; Memory interface 740 comprises a pushup storage 750, be used for described read request is sent to Installed System Memory, and with the relevant TV program information buffer memory read to described memory 750; Character string comparator 760 is used for described keyword through decoding is mated with the information character read from Installed System Memory, the signal that sends then after the success that the match is successful; Interrupt generator 770, be used for producing an interruption, notify microprocessor to search for successfully according to described the match is successful signal.

In addition, in keyword translater 720, also comprise a read-only memory interface (not marking in the diagram), be used for inquiring about the Huffman character code table that is stored in read-only memory, Word message is deciphered.

Microprocessor Interface 710 receives the key word information that search command that microprocessor sends and user import by register bus, read-only memory interface inquiry in the keyword translater 720 is stored in the Huffman character code table in the read-only memory, and the key word information of user's input is deciphered; The address information of PMT/VCT/EIT form in Installed System Memory that memory address and request generator 730 provide according to described register, send a read request to Installed System Memory, at this moment, memory interface 740 is sent to Installed System Memory with described read request, and with the relevant TV program information buffer memory read to pushup storage 750; Character string comparator 760 mates the above keyword through decoding with the information character of reading from Installed System Memory, the signal that sends then after the success that the match is successful at this moment, interrupts generator 770 according to described the match is successful signal, produce an interruption, the notice microprocessor is searched for successfully; And when described character string comparator 760 when the match is successful, memory interface 750 is sent to described memory address and request generator 740 with the current information that the match is successful in the memory, and upgrades related register by it.

Claims

1. the method for a TV transmission program searching information in digital television system is characterized in that, comprising:

(1-2) from TV Guide information, extract each TV show features has been described information as keyword;

(1-3) related with setting up between described different TV programme and its corresponding keyword, and generation meets the antistop list of digital television system consensus standard; (2) according to the digital television system consensus standard, this antistop list remittance need be transferred in the transport stream of user terminal, send to the TV set-top box of user terminal.

2. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, further comprises:

3. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described step (2) comprising:

4. a method of extracting television program search information in digital television system is characterized in that, comprising:

5. method as claimed in claim 4 is characterized in that, described step (2) comprising:

6. a method that realizes TV program retrieving in digital television system is characterized in that, comprising:

(C) information of the described set-top box described TV programme that will find is presented on the screen.

7. as method as described in the claim 6, it is characterized in that described step (A) comprising:

8. method as claimed in claim 7 is characterized in that, described step (A2) comprising:

9. as method as described in the claim 6, it is characterized in that described step (A) comprising:

10. method as claimed in claim 9 is characterized in that, described step (A2) comprising:

11. the program searching engine based on electronic program guide information is applied to it is characterized in that in the set-top box of digital television system, comprising:

Memory interface comprises a memory, be used for described read request is sent to Installed System Memory, and with the relevant TV program information buffer memory read to described memory; Described relevant TV program information comprises antistop list, and described antistop list comprises can unique information of determining each TV programme, and as the description of keyword the information of each TV show features; The character string comparator is used for described keyword through decoding is mated with the information character read from Installed System Memory, if success, the signal that sends then that the match is successful;

12. program searching engine as claimed in claim 11 is characterized in that, described keyword translater further comprises a read-only memory interface, is used for inquiring about the Huffman character code table that is stored in read-only memory, is used for Word message is deciphered.

13. program searching engine as claimed in claim 11 is characterized in that, the memory in the described memory interface is a pushup storage.

14. a set-top box that realizes television program search is characterized in that, comprising:

Search engine comprises:

15. set-top box as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that, further comprises:

Read-only memory is used to store huffman coding table;

Wherein, described keyword translater further comprises a read-only memory interface, is used for inquiring about the Huffman character code table that is stored in read-only memory, is used for Word message is deciphered.

16. set-top box as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that, the memory in the described memory interface is a pushup storage.