JP2000013753A - Device and method for transmitting and receiving digital signal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize automatic production of navigation information for accessing an event in a program at the time of reproduction by performing multiplex transmission of the correspondence of events in the program and time information as additional information, converting the multiplexed time information into address information of a storage medium and storing the correspondence to the events as navigation information. SOLUTION: When an event detecting part 126 detects an event, it transmits event occurrence information and event content information. An event time information generating part 129 produces the correspondence of the event occurrence information and the event content information and an event time information inputting part 130 inputs it as event time information to a program multiplexing part 125. When a format converting part 132 detects the event time information, it produces the correspondence of an address on a storage medium 134 in which a data block having the time information is written and the event content information. A program storing part 133 stores the information as navigation information in the medium 134.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a digital signal transmitting apparatus for digitally compressing, multiplexing and transmitting one or more programs, and a digital signal receiving apparatus for receiving a digital signal and extracting and storing a desired program. The present invention relates to a transmission / reception device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatuses for digitally compressing, multiplexing, transmitting, or reproducing or storing at least one program including video, audio, and other data on a receiving side have been actively developed. . FIG. 5 shows a conventional form of a digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus for program transmission and storage. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 501 denotes a conventional transmitting apparatus, 502 denotes a conventional receiving apparatus, 111 denotes a video input signal of program 1, 112 denotes an audio input signal of program 1,
Reference numeral 113 denotes another data input signal of the program 1, 114 denotes a video signal digital compression encoding unit of the program 1, and 115 denotes a program 1
, An audio signal digital compression encoding unit 116, a video time information adding unit 116 for program 1, an audio time information adding unit 117 for program 1, a video input signal 118 for program N, an audio input signal 119 for program N, 120 Is the other data input signal of the program N, 121 is the video signal digital compression encoding unit of the program N,
Reference numeral 122 denotes an audio signal digital compression encoding unit for the program N;
Reference numeral 3 denotes a video time information adding unit for the program N; 124, an audio time information adding unit for the program N; 525, a program multiplexing unit in the conventional form;
Denotes a conventional format conversion unit, 533 denotes a conventional program storage unit, and 134 denotes a storage medium. FIG. 5 shows a case where N programs are multiplexed.
This will be described below with reference to FIG.

[0003] A transmitting apparatus 501 digitally compresses video and audio signals of one or more programs, multiplexes them together with other information, creates a transmission format, and finally transmits the transmission format as one stream. For example, for the program 1, the video signal is digitally compressed and encoded by the video digital compression encoding unit 114 of the program 1, and the audio signal is digitally encoded by the audio digital compression encoding unit 115 of the program 1. The video signal is added by the video time information adding section 116 of the program 1 and the audio signal is added by the audio information adding section 117 of the program 1 to add time information for reproduction on the receiving side. Here, the time information will be described.

Video and audio signals are digitally compressed and encoded in data block units. As an example, in the case of a video, one frame is one data block. Then, the display time at which the data block is displayed on the receiving device, or the display time and the decoding time at which the data block is decoded are added to the data block as time information. The receiving device decodes and displays the video and audio data according to the time information. With this mechanism, normal reproduction on the receiving device is realized. In the ISO / IEC13818 standard widely used as a video and audio compression encoding transmission standard, time information is transmitted using this method.

[0005] The video, audio signal and other data signals of each program subjected to the above processing are input to a program multiplexing unit 525. The program multiplexing unit 525 multiplexes each program to create a transmission format, and transmits the transmission format as one stream. As an example, in the ISO / IEC 13818 standard, a transport stream (hereinafter, TS) is used as a transmission format. In the TS, video, audio, and other data of each program are multiplexed and transmitted as fixed-length packets. The packet includes an identifier (Packet) for identifying the packet at the receiving device.
et ID: hereinafter PID).

[0006] The receiving device 502 receives a stream in which a plurality of programs are multiplexed. First, in the program extracting section 531, program data is obtained by extracting a packet having the PID of a desired program. When storing the extracted program, first, the format converter 532 converts the program data from the transmission format to the storage format. As an example, the ISO / IEC13818 standard uses a program stream as a storage format. The converted program data is stored in the storage medium 13 in the program storage unit 533.
4 is stored. The reproduction of the stored program is performed by the storage medium 134.
, And decodes and displays the data based on the time information added to each video and audio data block.

In the present embodiment, the correspondence (program information) between the program name and the PID of each program can be transmitted from the transmitting device 501 as one of the additional information. A study is underway to use this additional information as navigation information to realize access to a desired program during reproduction. The following describes how to access a desired program.

At the start of program storage, a program storage unit 53
Numeral 3 holds information on the storage start address on the storage medium 134. Here, the address refers to a physical address indicating the position of data on the storage medium or a logical address that can be converted to a physical address. The format conversion unit 532 extracts a program name from the program information,
To be transmitted. The program storage unit 533 uses the correspondence between the program name and the storage start address information as navigation information as storage medium 1
34.

When reproducing a program stored in the storage medium 134, an access function based on the navigation information is used. That is, a list of program information is displayed on the screen before or during reproduction. When the user selects a program using a remote controller or the like and requests access, data reading is started from the address specified by the navigation information, and access to the desired program is realized by decoding and reproducing.

FIG. 6 shows an example of program access using navigation information. In FIG. 6, 601 is a monitor screen, 602 is a reproducing apparatus for reproducing a program stored in a storage medium, 603 is a storage medium storing programs, 610 is a remote control, 611 is an up cursor button, 612 is a down cursor button, 613 Is a decision button.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, a storage medium 603 is set in a reproducing apparatus 602. When the program stored in the storage medium 603 is reproduced by the reproducing device 602, first, the navigation information is referred to, and the program name is displayed on the monitor screen. In this case, the storage medium includes program 1, program 2, and program 3
Programs are stored. The remote control 610 is used to select a program. A desired program is selected by using the up cursor button 611 and the down cursor button 612. In FIG. 6, the program 2 is in a selected state, and the program 1 is selected by pressing the up cursor button 611, and the program 3 is selected by pressing the down cursor button 612. After selecting a desired program, access is requested by pressing a decision button 613. The playback device 602 reads the start address of the program for which access has been requested from the navigation information, and starts decoding and playback to realize access to the desired program.

[0012]

However, in the above arrangement, the navigation information for accessing the program can be automatically recorded on the receiving side, but the event in the program, that is, the first part of the song in the song program, The first part of the inning in baseball broadcasting, the bat of a specific batter,
To record on the storage medium navigation information for accessing the scoring scene in a soccer broadcast, the beginning of each news in a news program, or the beginning of each story in an omnibus drama program, the program is played back on the receiving side after storage However, it is necessary to perform the creation by the receiving device, such as searching for the event and adding the navigation information, and there is a problem that there is no means for automatically accumulating the navigation information.

[0013]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a transmitting apparatus for multiplexing the correspondence between an event in a program and time information as additional information; A receiver that converts information into address information of a storage medium and stores the correspondence with the event as navigation information, thereby realizing automatic generation of navigation information for accessing an event in a program during reproduction. is there.

[0014]

(Embodiment 1) Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 shows a digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a transmitting apparatus according to the present embodiment, 102 denotes a receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment,
11 is a video input signal of program 1, 112 is an audio input signal of program 1, 113 is another data input signal of program 1, 1
Reference numeral 14 denotes a video signal digital compression encoding unit for the program 1;
Is an audio signal digital compression encoding unit of program 1, 116 is a video time information adding unit of program 1, 117 is an audio time information adding unit of program 1, 118 is a video input signal of program N, and 119 is an audio input of program N Signal, 120 other data input signals of the program N, 121 a video signal digital compression encoding section of the program N, 122 an audio signal digital compression encoding section of the program N, 123 a video time information adding section of the program N, 124 is an audio time information adding section for the program N, 125 is a program multiplexing section in the present embodiment, 126 is an event detecting section, 127 is an event content input section, 128 is an event occurrence information input section,
129 is an event time information generation unit, 130 is an event time information input unit, 131 is a program extraction unit in the present embodiment, 132 is a format conversion unit in the present embodiment, 133 is a program storage unit in the present embodiment, 134
Is a storage medium. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that event information is added to program 1.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of event detection in the transmitting device. In the present embodiment, the occurrence of an event in program 1 is detected by event detecting section 126. When the event detection unit 126 detects an event, in step 202, the event occurrence information and the content of the event, that is, the first part of the song in the song program, the first part of the inning in the baseball broadcast, the at-bat of a specific batter, the score in the soccer relay Event content information consisting of characters, numerals, or binary data for indicating the beginning of each scene in a news program, the beginning of each story in an omnibus drama program, or the like is transmitted. The event content information is input from the event content input unit 127 and the event occurrence information is input to the event time information generation unit 129 from the event occurrence information input unit 128. In step 203, the event time information generation unit 129 converts the event occurrence information into event occurrence time information in the program, and inputs the correspondence with the event content information as event time information from the event time information input unit 130 to the program multiplexing unit 125. I do. The program multiplexing unit 125 multiplexes the event time information as additional information before transmitting the data block including the corresponding event (step 204).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the processing in the receiving apparatus.
Shown in The format converter 132 converts the data in the transmission format into the storage format. When the format conversion unit 132 detects the event time information (step 301), the data is monitored to detect a data block having time information that matches the event occurrence time information (step 302). When the corresponding data block arrives (step 303), first, the program storage unit 133 is inquired of the address on the storage medium 134 where the data block is written (step 304). Here, the address refers to a physical address indicating the position of data on the storage medium, but the same applies to a logical address that can be converted to a physical address. Program storage unit 1 that received the inquiry
33 returns the address to the format conversion unit 132 (step 305). In the format conversion unit 132,
The correspondence between the address on the storage medium 134 where the data block is to be written and the event content information is created and transmitted to the program storage unit 133 (step 306). Program storage unit 1
At 33, this information is stored in the storage medium 134 as navigation information.

When reproducing a program stored in a storage medium, a function for accessing an event in the program using the navigation information can be used. That is, a list of events in the program is displayed on the screen before or during reproduction. When the user selects an event and requests access, data reading is started from the address specified by the navigation information, and the event can be accessed by decoding and reproducing.

FIG. 4 shows an example of event access according to the present embodiment. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes a monitor screen;
02 is a reproducing apparatus for reproducing a program stored in a storage medium, 4
03 is a storage medium storing programs, 410 is a remote controller, 411 is an up cursor button, 412 is a down cursor button, and 413 is a decision button.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the storage medium 403 is set in the reproducing device 402. When the program stored in the storage medium 403 is reproduced by the reproducing device 402, first, the navigation information is referred to, and the program name and the event names in the program are displayed on the monitor screen. In this case, the storage medium stores the program 1 including the event 1, the event 2, and the event 3. Remote control 41 to select an event
0 is used. A desired event is selected by using the upper cursor button 411 and the lower cursor button 412. In FIG. 4, event 2 is in a selected state, and event 1 is selected by pressing the up cursor button 411, and event 3 is selected by pressing the down cursor button 412. After selecting the desired event, the decision button 41
Request access by pressing 3. Playback device 40
Reference numeral 2 realizes access to a desired program by reading the start address of the program requested to be accessed from the navigation information, and starting decoding and reproduction.

The screen form shown in FIG. 4 is an example, and the screen for realizing the present embodiment is not limited to this form.

In this embodiment, a method for realizing an event in a video has been described. However, an event in a sound, that is, a head of a song in a song program can be realized in the same manner. In this embodiment, a program including both video and audio has been described. However, a program including only video or only audio can be similarly realized. Further, in the present embodiment, a case where a plurality of programs are multiplexed is shown, but the same applies to a case where there is only one program.

In the present embodiment, the storage medium for storing the program and the storage medium for storing the navigation information are the same.

In the present embodiment, event occurrence information at the time of event occurrence is transmitted to the event time information generation unit.
I input the generated event time information to the program multiplexing section,
The same can be realized by synchronizing the event detection unit and the video time signal addition unit to share time information, generating an event occurrence time by the event detection unit, and inputting the event occurrence time to the event time information generation unit. Further, the same can be realized by inputting information that can be associated with the event occurrence time, such as the elapsed time from the beginning of the program, to the event time information generation unit instead of the event occurrence information, and generating the event time information.

In the present embodiment, the transmitting apparatus transmits the event time information before the corresponding data block and processes the event data at the receiving apparatus. However, the transmitting apparatus transmits the event time information at an arbitrary timing and temporarily stores the event time information detected at the receiving apparatus. After the program ends, the data in the storage medium is read, a data block having the same time information as the stored time information is searched, and the correspondence between the address of the corresponding data block on the storage medium and the event content is determined by the navigation information. By repeating the operation of accumulating in the storage medium as many times as the number of events, the same navigation information writing can be realized. Further, the same can be realized by transmitting the event time information collectively after the end of the program. The format conversion unit holds the correspondence between the time information and the address information, creates the navigation information as it is after the arrival of the event time information, and temporarily writes the navigation information, thereby temporarily storing the event time information, and writing the navigation information without searching after the end of the program. Can be realized. By adopting a form in which event time information is transmitted after an event has occurred, it becomes possible to create and transmit event time information after an event has occurred in the transmitting device, which is effective for live broadcast programs and the like.

In the present embodiment, the event time information is multiplexed on the stream and transmitted. However, the same can be realized by another method, for example, by transmitting the event time information to the receiving device via a telephone line or the Internet.

In this embodiment, the occurrence of an event is detected by the event detection unit, and the event occurrence information and the event content information are transmitted to the event time information generation unit. When sending a broadcasted program, event time information indicating the correspondence between the event occurrence time and the event content should be accumulated at the time of accumulation,
The event time information can be transmitted to the receiving device by reading out the event time information at the time of transmitting the program, transmitting the event time information to the program multiplexing unit, and processing the same, thereby realizing the same.

In the present embodiment, there is a data block having time information that matches the event time information. However, it is not always necessary to make the data blocks match. In this case, in the receiving apparatus, navigation is performed for a data block having time information that has a corresponding relationship, such as a data block having time information closest to the event time information or a data block having time information earlier than the event time information by a predetermined time or more. It can be similarly realized by using information.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the transmitting device transmits event time information indicating the correspondence between the content of the event in the program and the occurrence time, and the receiving device transmits the event time information to the event and the data on the storage medium. By converting the information into navigation information indicating the correspondence with the address and storing the information, automatic generation of an access function to an event in the program at the time of program reproduction can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of event detection in the transmitting device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process in a receiving device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an event access mode according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus according to a conventional embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a form of program access using navigation information.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Transmitting device according to the first embodiment of the present invention 102 Receiving device according to the first embodiment of the present invention 126 Event detecting unit 129 Event time information generating unit 131 Program extracting unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention 132 Format conversion unit 133 according to the first embodiment of the present invention 133 Program storage unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention 134 Storage medium 501 Transmission device in a conventional form 502 Receiving device 531 in a conventional form Program extraction unit 532 Format conversion unit in conventional mode 533 Program storage unit in conventional mode

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/24 F term (Reference) 5C025 BA27 BA28 DA01 DA04 5C059 KK36 RB01 RC04 5C063 AB03 AB07 DA13 DA20 EB01 EB35 EB45 EB50 5K028 EE03 EE08 KK32 NN00 SS01 SS05 SS11 SS15 SS24

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus comprising a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus, wherein the transmitting apparatus separates a digital compression-encoded video signal and / or an audio signal in units of data blocks, respectively. A time information indicating the time when the data block is displayed or reproduced is prepared for each data block, and a time information adding unit for adding the time information to the data block; and the video to which the time information is added. A program multiplexing unit that multiplexes and transmits one or more programs including a signal or the audio signal or both,
An event time information creating unit for creating event time information comprising correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in a program, wherein the receiving device converts the program data in the received data into a storage format And a program storage unit for storing data converted into a storage format by the format conversion unit in a storage medium, wherein the format conversion unit stores the event occurrence time in the event time information on the storage medium. Digital data, which is converted into position information and transmitted to the program storage unit as navigation information indicating a correspondence between the event content and the storage position information, wherein the program storage unit stores the navigation information in a storage medium. Signal transmitting and receiving device. 2. A video signal and / or an audio signal which has been digitally compressed and encoded are separated in data block units, and time information indicating a time when the data block is displayed or reproduced by a receiving apparatus is written for each data block. A time information adding unit that adds the time information to the data block; and a program multiplexing unit that multiplexes and transmits one or more programs including the video signal and / or the audio signal to which the time information is added or both. And an event time information creating section for creating event time information comprising correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in a program. 3. A receiving apparatus comprising: a format conversion unit for converting program data in received data into a storage format; and a program storage unit for storing data converted into a storage format by the format conversion unit in a storage medium. The format conversion unit converts the event occurrence time in the program into storage location information on the storage medium, and transmits the event content to the program storage unit as navigation information indicating the correspondence between the event content and the storage location information; The receiving device according to claim 1, wherein the program storage unit stores the navigation information in a storage medium. 4. A digital signal transmitting / receiving apparatus comprising a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus, wherein the transmitting apparatus separates a digital compression-encoded video signal and / or an audio signal in units of data blocks, respectively. A time information indicating the time when the data block is displayed or reproduced is prepared for each data block, and a time information adding unit for adding the time information to the data block; and the video to which the time information is added. A program multiplexing unit that multiplexes and transmits one or more programs and additional information including a signal or the audio signal or both, and an event time that creates event time information including correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in the program The receiving device converts the program data in the received data into a storage format. A format conversion unit, and a program storage unit that stores the data converted into a storage format by the format conversion unit in a storage medium, wherein the additional information includes the event time information, The event occurrence time in the information is converted into storage location information on the storage medium, and transmitted to the program storage unit as navigation information indicating a correspondence between the event content and the storage location information, A digital signal transmitting and receiving device, wherein the navigation information is stored in a storage medium. 5. A digital compression-encoded video signal or audio signal or both of them are separated in data block units, and time information indicating a time when the data block is displayed or reproduced by a receiving device is written for each data block. A time information adding unit that adds time information to the data block; and a program that multiplexes and transmits one or more programs including the video signal and / or the audio signal to which the time information is added or both, and additional information. A multiplexing unit; and an event time information creating unit that creates event time information including correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in the program, wherein the additional information includes the event time information. Transmission device. 6. A digital compression-encoded video signal and / or audio signal is divided in data block units.
A time information adding step of preparing time information describing a time when the data block is displayed or reproduced for each data block, and adding the time information to the data block; and the video signal to which the time information is added. Or a program multiplexing step of multiplexing and transmitting one or more programs including the audio signal or both, and an event time information creating step of creating event time information including correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in the program. A transmission method, comprising: 7. A format conversion step for converting program data in received data into a storage format, and a program storage step for storing data converted into a storage format in the format conversion step in a storage medium, wherein the format conversion is performed. In the step, the event occurrence time in the event time information is converted into storage position information on the storage medium, and is used as navigation information indicating a correspondence between the event content and the storage position information, and the navigation information is stored in the program storage step. A digital signal receiving method, wherein the digital signal is stored in a medium. 8. A digital compression-encoded video signal and / or audio signal is divided in data block units,
A time information adding step of preparing time information describing a time when the data block is displayed or reproduced for each data block, and adding the time information to the data block; and the video signal to which the time information is added. Or a program multiplexing step of multiplexing and transmitting one or more programs and additional information including the audio signal or both, and event time information for creating event time information comprising correspondence between an event occurrence time and an event content in the program A transmitting step, wherein the additional information includes the event time information.