JP2000101467A - Digital broadcast reception terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly decode a channel even if it is switched by a viewer and to quickly display the channel selected. SOLUTION: A channel designation section 12 decides a succeeding channel candidate automatically according to a preset procedure, designates a display channel to any of a plurality of tuners 111-113 and designates a succeeding channel candidate to the other tuners. The information designation by the channel designation section 12 is stored in a tuner state database DB 15. Data received by each of the tuners 111-113 are given to a channel selection/program information storage section 13, and the channel designated by the channel designation section 12 is displayed on a display section 14, and the received data of the succeeding channel candidate are stored therein.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving terminal device for receiving digital broadcast by a differential encoding method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital broadcasting has been put into practical use.
A differential encoding scheme such as G4 has been proposed and adopted. This differential encoding method will be described using a moving image as an example. The moving image data can be regarded as a group of continuous still images, and the background does not change much between adjacent still images, and a person or the like often moves slightly. By taking advantage of this feature, the basic initial image is sent first, and then only the difference from the initial image is sent.
A technique for compressing a moving image is a differential encoding method.

A problem with this method is that when initial image data (referred to as an I frame) cannot be received, decoding cannot be performed using only difference information from the next time. Usually "appropriate time"
This point is compensated to some extent by updating and transmitting the I-frame every time, but it is not perfect, and the maximum, "appropriate time", cannot be decoded normally.

[0004] For this reason, in the digital broadcast receiving terminal device using the differential encoding method, the display cannot be performed unless the I-frame is input every time the channel is switched.

[0005]

As described above, in a receiving terminal device for receiving a digital broadcast by the differential encoding method, it is necessary to wait until an I-frame is input every time a channel is switched, so that the display is performed. Can not.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a digital broadcast receiving terminal device which can immediately decode even if a viewer switches channels and can quickly display the digital broadcast.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a digital broadcast receiving terminal according to the present invention is configured as follows. (1) In a digital broadcast receiving terminal device for selectively receiving digital broadcasts of a plurality of channels by a differential encoding method, a plurality of tuners for receiving digital broadcast data of a channel specified independently of each other, and a preset tuner. Automatically determine the next channel candidate according to the procedure described above, designate a display channel to one of the plurality of tuners, designate a next channel candidate to each of the other tuners, and designate the next channel candidate by the channel designation unit. Channel state holding means for holding the selected information, and a channel selection and program information storage for displaying the channel specified by the channel specifying unit from the reception data received by the plurality of tuners, and holding the reception data of the next channel candidate Section and this channel selection / program information storage section And a display unit for displaying data to be force.

(2) In the configuration of (1), when the channel to be displayed is updated by the channel designating unit, the display unit stores the data from the tuner receiving the display channel and the channel selection / program storage unit. The display is performed using the stored reception data.

(3) In the configuration of (1), the channel designating section includes means for designating the previous channel selection and the next channel selection for the currently displayed channel number, and specifies the previous channel selection and the next channel selection. , The next channel before the currently displayed channel number is set as the next channel candidate.

(4) In the configuration of (1), the channel designating unit sets a channel registered by the user in advance as a next channel candidate. (5) In the configuration of (4), the channel designation unit has a mechanism in which the apparatus registers a user profile and viewing history, and automatically generates a “user favorite channel list” from the registered contents. If so, the channel list is used in place of the registered channel list.

(6) In the configuration of (1), when the channel is selected by a numeric key, the channel designating unit sets all or some of the channels starting with the numeric key as the next channel candidates. It is a feature.

(7) In the configuration of (1), when a program guide using a menu and a channel selection service are provided in a broadcast channel, the channel designating unit determines whether or not each submenu is selected by a user. , Wherein the channels included in the sub menu and below are set as the next channel candidates.

(8) In the configuration of (1), when a database for a selected channel is further provided, the channel designating unit determines the next channel candidate by referring to the database.

That is, in the present invention, the next channel candidate which is considered to be designated next by the user is predicted by a predetermined method, and these next channel candidates are separately received and recorded, and the recorded channel information is used. In this case, the display can be immediately decoded and displayed when the viewer switches channels.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to the present invention.
The digital broadcast signal by the differential coding scheme received at 0 is transmitted by three tuners (1 and 2, respectively, in the following description).
(Identified by 2 and 3). These tuners 111 to 113 are independent of each other,
The digital broadcast signal of the channel designated by the channel designation section 12 is selectively received and demodulated to extract program information. The program information extracted by the tuners 111 to 113 is appropriately stored in the channel selection / program information storage unit 13.

This channel selection / program information storage unit 13
Selects the corresponding program information from the program information fetched from the tuners 111 to 113 based on the channel designation information from the channel designation unit 12, sends the selected program information to the display unit 14, and displays it. At this time, the tuner status database (hereinafter referred to as DB) 15 includes a channel setting unit 12.
Thus, which channel each of the tuners 111 to 113 receives and which tuner is receiving the displayed program is written.

When a channel number is input from a remote controller (not shown) or a next channel selection button is selected, the channel specifying unit 12 refers to the tuner status DB 15 to set the next channel in each of the tuners 111 to 113. I do.

In the above configuration, a method of the present invention for specifying the next channel will be described below. First,
With reference to FIG. 2, a method of determining the next channel candidate when the next channel selection button is selected will be described.

When the next tuning button is pressed on the remote controller,
The channel number to be displayed is a value obtained by incrementing the currently displayed channel number by one. That is, if channel number 3 is being displayed, channel number 4 is set. The determination of the next channel candidate at the time of selecting the next channel selection button is performed by the following processing, for example.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the tuner status DB 15 stores "channels" being received for each tuner,
A “display flag” (displaying at 1) indicating whether the current channel is being displayed and a “change flag” (1 if changed) indicating whether the channel of the corresponding tuner was changed at the last channel change are stored. In the case of FIG. 2A, tuners 1, 2, and 3 are receiving channels 12, 18, and 11, respectively, and channel 11 of tuner 3 is being displayed.
This indicates that the channel for receiving only the tuner 2 has been changed at the last channel change.

Here, when the next tuning button is selected,
As shown in FIG. 2B, the currently displayed channel 11
, The next channel is 12. As the next channel candidate, since the number of tuners is three, 12
Are increased by one, and two channel numbers 13 and 14 are obtained. As a result, the tuner state DB 15 is shown in FIG.
It is updated as shown in (c).

FIG. 3 shows a procedure for updating the tuner state DB 15 by the channel setting unit 12. First, when the next tuning button selection is input (step S11), a tuner whose "display flag" is 1 is searched, "channel" is stored in X, and "display flag" is set to 0. In particular,
The “channel number” 11 of the tuner 3 is substituted for X, and at the same time, the “display flag” is set to 0 (step S1).
2).

Next, X + 1, X + 2, X + 3 are calculated,
The remainder of the maximum number of channels 100 is substituted into X, Y, and Z, respectively (assuming 100 channels from 0 to 99). Therefore, X = 12, Y = 13, and Z = 14. Here, taking the remainder of 100 is an overflow countermeasure (step S13).

Next, the channel numbers of the tuners 1, 2, and 3 are set to C1, C2, and C3, respectively. Here, C1 = 12, C2 = 18, and C3 = 11 (step S14).

Next, it is set to the set 1 of the currently received channel numbers. Similarly, a set of channel numbers to be received is set to set 2. Set 1 = $ 12,
18, 11} and set 2 = {12, 13, 14} (step S15).

Further, a set of channel numbers that are still being received and should be received from now on, that is, set 1 AND set 2 is substituted into set 3. Also, a set of channel numbers for which reception is to be interrupted, that is, set 1 to set 3 is substituted for set 4. A set of channel numbers for starting reception, that is, set 2 to set 3 is substituted for set 5. Specifically, set 3 = {12, 18, 11} AND {12, 13, 14} = {12} set 4 = {12, 18, 11} − {12} = {18, 11} set 5 = {12,13,14} − {12} = {13,14} (step S16).

Subsequently, the "change flag" of the tuner for receiving the same channel is set to "0". For this, a tuner corresponding to each element of the set 3 is searched from the tuner state DB 15 and its “change flag” is set to 0. In this case, the tuner receiving the channel 12 is the tuner 1, and the "change flag" is set to 0 (step S17).

Since the number of channels for which reception is interrupted and the number of channels for starting reception are the same, for each element of the set 4 and the set 5, a tuner having the elements of the set 5 and the elements of the set 4 as "channels" Set to “channel” and set “1” to “change flag”. In particular,
The tuners 18 and 13 are extracted from the set 4 = {18, 11} and the set 5 = {13, 14}, and the tuner receiving the channel 18 is searched from the tuner state DB 15 to obtain the tuner 2. Therefore, 13
Is set, and 1 is set in the “change flag”. Similarly, 14 is set to the "channel" of the tuner 3 and 1 is set to the "change flag" (step S18).

Next, 1 is set to the "display flag" of the tuner to which the channel X to be displayed is set. That is, 1 is set to the "display flag" of the tuner 3 of the channel 12 (step S19).

Finally, the change of the tuner state is notified to the tuners 111 to 113 and the channel selection / program information storage unit 13 (step S20). continue,
Next, a method of determining the next channel candidate when the previous channel selection button is selected will be described.

First, when the previous tuning button is pressed, the channel number to be displayed is a value obtained by subtracting 1 from the currently displayed channel number. That is, if channel number 3 is being displayed, channel number 2 is set.

FIG. 2 will be described as an example in the same manner as when the next channel selection button is selected. When the previous tuning button is selected, the previous channel of the currently displayed channel 11 becomes 10. Since the number of tuners is three as the next channel candidate, 1
Channel numbers 9 and 8 are obtained by reducing 0 by one. Therefore, in the processing procedure of FIG. 3, X, Y, Z
Where X = X-1, Y = X-2, Z = X
-3 may be set. Other processes are the same as when the next channel selection button is selected.

Next, a method of determining a next channel candidate when the previous / next channel selection button is selected in the surf mode will be described. Here, the surf mode, which is a function of the existing TV system, selects only the channel specified by the user in advance using the next channel selection and previous channel selection buttons. Specifically, when the user designates surf channels 1, 8, and 24, the user selects 1, 8, 2 by selecting the next tuning button.
4 and 1 are received and displayed. In addition, registration of surf channel,
Description of well-known portions such as deletion is omitted. It is assumed that the operation button is added to the remote controller.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the contents of the channel surfing DB. The “surf mode flag” is a flag indicating whether or not the channel is in the surf mode (at the time of surf mode 1), the “registered channel list” is the registered channel number, and the current channel position is the above of the channel to be surfed. Indicates the position from the head in the list (1 for head).

FIG. 5 shows a surf mode switching procedure. First, when a surf button is selected (step S2).
1) It is determined whether or not the current surf mode is 1 (step S22). If it is 1, the surf mode is set to 0 (step S23). If it is 0, the surf mode is set to 1 (step S24). In this way, once the surf button is selected, the surf mode is designated, and by selecting it again, the surf mode is released.

FIG. 6 shows an example of processing at the time of selecting the next channel selection button. If the number of surf registered channels is two or less, the next channel candidate cannot be obtained from the surf registered channel list. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the channel to be displayed is simply set to +1 or the channel to be displayed is set to +2.

First, when the next channel selection button is selected (step S31), it is determined whether or not the surf mode is 1 (step S32). If not, the process proceeds to the normal next channel selection process (step S33). If it is 1, the current channel position is registered in N (step S34), and the registered channel list is set in L (step S35). Subsequently, N-1 data are deleted from the beginning of L and added to the end of L (step S36).

Here, it is determined whether or not the number of elements of L is 0 (step S37). If 0, the tuning process is terminated (step S38). If not, whether the number of elements of L is 1 or 2 is determined. Are sequentially determined (steps S39 and S40).

If the number of elements of L is 1 in step S39,
The head element of L is substituted for X, X + 1 is substituted for Y, and X + 2 is substituted for Z (step S41). Then, N + 1 (1 when N + 1 exceeds the number of registered channels) is set to the current channel position (step S42), and the process proceeds to the middle of the normal next channel selection button process (step S4).
3).

If the number of elements of L is 2 in step S40, the first element of L is substituted for X, the second element of L is substituted for Y, X + 1 is substituted for Z, and the routine goes to step S41. (Step S44). If the number of elements of L is not 2 in step S40, the head element of L is substituted for X, and 2 of L is substituted for Y.
The third element is substituted for Z and the third element is substituted for Z, and the routine goes to Step S41 (Step S45).

That is, in the example of FIG. 4, since the current channel position is 2, 4, 20, 45, and 1 are candidates and the number of tuners is 3, so that when the temporary next channel selection button is selected, X = 4 , Y = 20, Z = 45. When the next channel selection button is selected again, X = 20, Y = 45, and Z = 1.

Here, when the surf mode is entered, only the mode is changed, but when the surf mode is entered, the next channel candidate is obtained in substantially the same manner as in the above example, and the tuner state is changed. It is also possible.

Further, if the user has a mechanism for registering a user's profile and viewing history and automatically generating a “user's favorite channel list” from the registered contents, the mechanism is used to utilize the mechanism. The channel list can be substituted for the “registered channel list” here.

Next, a method of determining a next channel candidate in channel selection using the numeric keys will be described. When channel selection is performed using the numeric keys, channels starting with the numeric keys (all or some of the beginnings) can be used as next channel candidates. For example, if the user is "2"
, 2, 20, 21... Are candidates.

Next, a method for determining the next channel candidate in channel selection by the program guide system will be described.
For example, it is possible to provide a program guide using a menu and a channel selection service using IT vision. The program is divided into categories such as music, news, weather forecast, and local area, and the user is made to select the program in a menu format as follows, for example. Screen 1 Screen 2 Screen 3 Music program ... Classic A Hibiki Special (3ch) News Jazz XXX Concert (20ch) Weather forecast lock In this case, when each user selects each submenu,
Channels included in the sub menu and below can be set as next channel candidates. For example, when the classic is selected on the screen 2, 3 and 20 are set as the next channel candidates.

The same can be achieved by using the EPG. The program currently displayed on the EPG is set as the next channel candidate. Next, a specific example of the channel selection / program information storage unit 13 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, an example in which all the received data is stored will be described.

FIG. 7 shows a channel selection / program information storage unit 1.
3 is a block diagram of FIG. Each tuner 111-
Outputs from 113 are input to corresponding program information storage units 1311 to 1313, respectively. In each of the program information storage units 1311 to 1313, the channel designation unit 12
Tuner status DB1 upon receiving a channel change notification from
Please refer to FIG. According to each tuner status stored in the tuner status DB 15, whether the data received from the corresponding tuner is stored or whether the decoding units 1321 to 1
It is determined whether to output data to H.323. Decryption unit 13
21 to 1323 perform decoding if there is data input.
The decrypted data is selectively sent to the display unit 14 by the switching unit 133 and displayed.

FIG. 8 shows the program information storages 1311 to 13-13.
13 shows an example of data stored. “Channel number” is the number of the channel currently being received, “Reception time list” is a list of times when received data of a predetermined size is received, “Received data block size” is the size of the predetermined received data, and “Received data” is This is the actual state of the actually received data. In the case of this example, the receiving channel number is 12, the receiving data block size is 1000 bytes, and the receiving time of each receiving data block is 12:04, 12:01.
0 minutes and 12:18.

The program information storage units 1311 to 1313 are described below.
The details of the processing will be described. In FIG. 9, a channel change notification is received from the channel designation unit 12 (step S5).
1), refer to the tuner state DB 15 (step S5)
2). Next, it is determined whether or not the "change flag" is 1 (step S53). If it is 1, it is determined whether or not the "display flag" is 1 (step S54). Then, if it is not 1, the process shifts to a new channel non-display process (step S56).
If it is not 1 in step S53, it is determined whether or not the "display flag" is 1 (step S57). If it is 1, the process proceeds to the existing channel display processing (step S5).
8) If it is not 1, the process shifts to the existing channel non-display process (step S59). As described above, it is determined whether the channel to be received is changed and is a new channel or a display channel based on the “change flag” and the “display flag”.

FIG. 10 shows the processing in the case of displaying a new channel. If the new channel display process is specified (step S61), the stored program information cannot be used, so that all the program information storage data is cleared (step S62), and the channel number is set in the "channel number". (Step S63), the input from the tuner is simply output to the decoding unit as it is (Step S6).
4).

FIG. 11 shows the processing contents when a new channel is not displayed. When a new channel and a non-display process are specified (step S71), the stored program information is cleared (step S72), and the channel number is set in the "channel number" (step S7).
3) A new value is created for the received data block size by setting a predetermined value (step S74).

Next, a case where the present apparatus is provided with a database for a selected channel (hereinafter, referred to as a selection DB) will be described. FIG. 12 shows an example. Here, it is assumed that the reproduction flag is set to 1 and the reproduction time is set to 1 hour.

FIG. 13 shows the contents of the existing channel and display processing when the selection DB is set. When the existing channel and the display process are specified (step S81), it is determined whether the reproduction flag of the selection DB is 1 (step S82). If not, the process shifts to a new channel display process (step S83). Ts
= Current time-reproduction time of the selection DB is calculated (step S84), and a reception time list is obtained from the program information storage data (step S85).

Here, it is determined whether or not the reception time list is empty (step S86).
To display a new channel, and if it is not empty, search the reception time list, check the value of the reception time immediately before Ts and the number from the beginning of the list, and set the number to N (step S87). Further, it is determined whether there is a corresponding reception time (step S88).
The process proceeds to step 83, where a display process of the new channel is executed, and if so, the received data is read from the position of the received data block size × N of the received data and output to the decoding unit (step S89).

Next, N + 1 is substituted for N (step S9).
0), the current time is added to the program information list (step S91), data of a predetermined size is read from the tuner (step S92), and the current time is added to the program information list (step S93). Then, the read data is added to the received data (Step S94), and Step S94 is performed.
The processing from step 90 is repeatedly executed.

As described above, the stored program information and the input data from the tuner are combined and input to the decoding unit. In the example of FIG. 12, “reproduction flag” in the selection DB
Is 1 and the “reproduction time” is 1:00, so the data is displayed from the data 1:00 hours before the current time.

FIG. 14 shows the contents of processing when an existing channel is not displayed. First, when an existing channel and non-display are specified (step S100), data of a predetermined size is read from the tuner (step S100).
101), the read data is added to the received data (step S102), and the current time is added to the program information list (step S103). Thereafter, the processing is repeatedly executed from step S101. As described above, in the case of an existing channel and non-display, it is only necessary to add the input data from the tuner to the program data.

In the above description, storage of I frames is omitted. However, when decoding is performed in parallel on all channels, each I frame is, of course, stored.

As can be seen from the above description, the digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to the present embodiment predicts the next channel candidates that are considered to be designated next by the user, and separately receives and records these next channel candidates. Since the display is performed using the recorded channel information, even if the viewer switches the channel, the channel can be immediately decoded and the display can be performed quickly.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a digital broadcast receiving terminal device which can immediately decode even if a viewer switches channels and can quickly display the digital broadcast.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view for explaining a next channel candidate determination method when a next channel selection button is selected in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating a procedure for updating the tuner state DB by the channel setting unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a channel surfing DB in the embodiment.
The figure which shows an example of the content of.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary flowchart showing a surf mode switching procedure according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating an example of processing when a next channel selection button is selected in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary block diagram showing a specific configuration of a channel selection / program information storage unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary view showing an example of data stored in a program information storage unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary flowchart showing processing in the case where the program information storage unit of the embodiment receives a channel change notification from a channel designation unit.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary flowchart showing the processing contents when a new channel display processing is designated in the program information storage unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary flowchart showing the processing contents when a new channel and non-display processing are specified in the program information storage unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of storage information in the case where the apparatus has a database for a selected channel in the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processing contents when an existing channel and display processing are designated when the selection DB is set in the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing processing contents when an existing channel and non-display processing are designated when the selection DB is set in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Antenna 111-113 ... Tuner 12 ... Channel specification part 13 ... Channel selection and program information storage part 1311-1313 ... Program information storage part 1321-1323 ... Decoding part 133 ... Switching part 14 ... Display part 15 ... Tuner state DB

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shigeru Tashiro 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside the Toshiba head office (72) Inventor Satoshi Miyagawa 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Toshiba headquarters Office F-term (reference) 5C025 AA23 BA27 CB05 CB09 DA01 DA05 5C059 KK17 MA01 RB05 SS02 UA05 UA38 5K061 AA09 BB06 BB17 CC45 DD12 JJ07

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A digital broadcast receiving terminal device for selectively receiving digital broadcasts of a plurality of channels by a differential encoding method, comprising: a plurality of tuners for receiving digital broadcast data of independently designated channels; A channel specifying unit for automatically determining a next channel candidate according to a set procedure, specifying a display channel to one of the plurality of tuners, and specifying a next channel candidate to each of the other tuners; Channel state holding means for holding the information specified by the, the channel specified by the channel specifying unit from the received data received by the plurality of tuners,
A digital broadcast receiving terminal device comprising: a channel selection / program information storage unit for holding reception data of a next channel candidate; and a display unit for displaying data output from the channel selection / program information storage unit. 2. The display unit uses, when a channel to be displayed is updated by the channel designating unit, data from a tuner that receives a display channel and reception data stored in a channel selection / program storage unit. 2. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the digital broadcast receiving terminal device performs display. 3. The channel designation section includes means for designating the previous channel selection and the next channel selection for the currently displayed channel number, and the channel currently displayed according to the specification of the previous channel selection and the next channel selection. 2. The digital broadcast receiving terminal according to claim 1, wherein a next channel before the number is set as a next channel candidate. 4. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the channel designating unit designates a channel registered by the user in advance as a next channel candidate. 5. The channel designation unit according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus has a mechanism for registering a user's profile and viewing history and automatically generating a “user's favorite channel list” from the registered contents. 5. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 4, wherein said channel list is used in place of a registered channel list. 6. The channel designating unit, wherein when a channel is selected by a numeric key, all or some of the channels starting with the numeric key are set as next channel candidates. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 1. 7. When a program guide and a channel selection service using a menu are provided in a broadcast channel, the channel designation unit is included in the sub-menu and below when the user selects each sub-menu. 2. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the channel is a next channel candidate. 8. The digital broadcast receiving terminal device according to claim 1, wherein when a database for a selected channel is provided, the channel designating unit determines a next channel candidate by referring to the database.