JP2000115645A - Television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a television receiver provided with a program retrieving function for easily narrowing a desired program. SOLUTION: This television receiver provided with a digital tuner 5, for receiving digital broadcasting, is provided with an input means 21 for making a user input the category and keyword of a digital broadcasting program desired to be viewed, a retrieval means for retrieving the program based on the inputted genre and keyword and a display means 24 for displaying the list of the programs retrieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television receiver having a digital tuner for receiving digital broadcasting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a television receiver capable of receiving digital satellite broadcasting, guide information (program data) on a program is transmitted in addition to the original program contents. The program data includes a channel and a broadcast time for each program. Further, information indicating the genre (category) and program contents are added to each program.

Some of such television receivers have a function of automatically retrieving a program belonging to a genre by using the above-described program data when a user designates a genre.

However, in digital satellite broadcasting, 100
Because there are many programs that go beyond the channel,
It is difficult to narrow down a desired program by searching only by genre.

In general, in order to perform a program search, it is necessary to tune a digital tuner to a specific channel to acquire program data, so that a user can view a digital broadcast program during the program search process. Disappears. The program search process takes a relatively long time,
In the meantime, it is very inconvenient if a digital broadcast program cannot be viewed.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver having a program search function which makes it easy to narrow down a desired program.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver capable of performing a program search without interrupting viewing of a digital broadcast program.

[0008]

A first television receiver according to the present invention is a television receiver provided with a digital tuner for receiving digital broadcasting.
Input means for allowing a user to input a genre and a keyword of a digital broadcast program to be viewed, search means for searching for a program based on the input genre and keyword, and display means for displaying a list of searched programs It is characterized by having.

Preferably, the search means searches for the program only when the digital tuner is in a standby state.

A second television receiver according to the present invention has a digital tuner for receiving a digital broadcast, and in a television receiver provided with a program search function of a digital broadcast program, the digital tuner is in a standby state. It is characterized in that a program search is performed only at a certain time.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[1] Description of Configuration of Television Receiver

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a television receiver.

The terrestrial broadcast wave is sent to a video / audio processing circuit 3 via a terrestrial antenna 1 and a terrestrial tuner 2. The first audio / video signal (AV signal) obtained from the video / audio processing circuit 3 is sent to the selector 8.

A CS broadcast wave using a communication satellite (CS) is sent to a video / audio processing circuit 7 via a CS antenna 4, a CS digital tuner 5, and a digital signal processing circuit 6. The second audio / video signal (AV signal) obtained from the video / audio processing circuit 7 is sent to the selector 8. The additional information obtained from the digital signal processing circuit 6 is
Sent to CPU 20.

The CPU 20 has a memory 25 for storing necessary data. CPU 20 receives information from IC card 21 that stores contract information and the like for CS broadcast programs. Further, a remote control signal from the remote control transmitter 22 is transmitted to the CPU 20 by the remote control signal processing unit 2.
3 is input.

The CPU 20 sends information for tuning to each of the tuners 2 and 5 and the digital signal processing circuit 6 and sends a switching signal to the selector 8 according to the reception mode. The reception modes include a terrestrial broadcast program reception mode and a CS broadcast program reception mode.

Further, the CPU 20 sends to the OSD display circuit 24 an OSD signal for causing the CRT 20 to display on-screen a program guide screen (program selection screen) for CS broadcasting, various setting screens for CS broadcasting, and the like. OSD
The display circuit 24 sends the on-screen image information to the multiplexer 9.

The selector 8 selects one of the first and second AV signals based on the switching signal sent from the CPU 20, and selects the video signal and the audio signal contained in the selected AV signal. Is output.

The video signal output from the selector 8 is sent to a multiplexer 9. The multiplexer 9 is based on the video signal output from the selector 8 and the on-screen image information sent from the OSD display circuit 24,
A video signal is generated such that an on-screen image is displayed on-screen on the video of the selected program. The video signal output from the multiplexer 9 is sent to the CRT 11 via the video output circuit 10.

The audio signal output from the selector 8 is sent to a speaker 13 via an audio output circuit 12.

[2] Description of program search processing

A description will now be given of a program search process performed on a CS digital broadcast program.

Here, an example of a case where the present invention is applied to SKY perfecTV will be described. With SKY perfecTV, only 6 hours of program data can be acquired on channels other than the Promo channel, which is a specific program.
Weekly program data (data indicating title, genre, and program contents) can be acquired. For this reason, SKY perfec
In the TV, when performing a program search process, it is necessary to tune the CS digital tuner 5 to a promo channel.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a program search screen displayed when performing a program search by genre and keyword.

This program search screen is displayed on the remote control transmitter 22
The menu screen is displayed by operating the upper menu key, and is displayed by selecting a selection item for performing a search on the menu screen.

On this program search screen, users U1 to U4 are set so that different program search settings can be made for each of the four users.
Search result display buttons 31 to 34 and search setting buttons 41 to 44 for each U4 are provided. Further, a return button 45 for returning to the menu screen is provided.

For example, when the search setting button 41 for the user U1 is pressed, a search setting screen for the user U1 is displayed, and a search result display button 3 for the user U1 is displayed.
When 1 is pressed, a search result screen for the user U1 is displayed.

Here, it is assumed that the search setting button 41 for the user U1 has been pressed. In this case, a search setting screen as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. In this search setting screen, for each of the two genres, a keyword and a broadcast time zone for narrowing down programs can be designated.

That is, on the search setting screen, the box 51 for inputting the first genre, the first genre and A
Box 52 for inputting first keyword to be searched for ND, first genre and first keyword and A
Boxes 53 and 54 for inputting a start time and an end time of a first broadcast time zone to be searched for ND, a box 61 for inputting a second genre, and a second genre for AND search with the second genre. Box 62 for inputting a keyword, boxes 63 and 64 for inputting the second genre and the start time and end time of the second broadcast time zone to be AND-searched with the second keyword, and O
A K button 71 is provided.

In the search setting screen, the user (U
1) Make search settings. The screen after the search setting is shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 4, "Golf" is used as the first genre,
"Masaki Ozaki" is set as the first keyword, "PM6: 00" to "PM11: 00" is set as the first broadcast time zone, "fishing" is set as the second genre, and "PM6" is set as the second broadcast time zone. 1:00 ”to“ PM 11:00 ”are set. The second keyword has not been set.

After such search settings are made, OK
When the button 71 is pressed, the search setting is completed, and the screen returns to the program search screen (see FIG. 2).

When the search setting is completed, when the CS digital tuner 5 is in the standby state, that is, when the terrestrial broadcast program reception mode is set or the power is turned off, the program matching the search setting contents is deleted. A program search process for searching is performed.

In the above example, the genre is "golf" and
Include "Masashi Ozaki" in the program title or program content,
A program whose broadcast time zone is "PM 6:00" to "PM 11:00" and a program whose genre is "fishing" and whose broadcast time zone is "
Programs with PM 6:00 ”to“ PM 11:00 ”are searched, and when a program matching the search setting content is searched, it is registered in the memory 25.

When the search result display button 31 is pressed from the program search screen (see FIG. 2) after the end of the program search processing, a search result screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. On this search result screen, information (broadcast time zone, broadcast channel, and title name) on the program searched in the program search process and registered in the memory 25 is displayed. On the search result screen, when a desired program is selected by a cursor and an enter button (not shown) provided on the remote control transmitter 22, if the selected program is currently being broadcast, the program is selected and displayed. Is done.

FIG. 6 shows an OK button 7 after a search setting is made on the search setting screen (see FIGS. 3 and 4).
9 shows a program search processing procedure performed after 1 is pressed.

First, after clearing the search result stored in the memory 25 for the user who has set the search setting contents for performing the search processing, it is determined whether or not the CS digital tuner 5 is in a standby state. (Step 1). CS
If the digital tuner 5 is not in the standby state, it waits until the CS digital tuner 5 enters the standby state.

When the CS digital tuner 5 is in the standby state or when the CS digital tuner 5 is in the standby state, the current tuning state of the CS digital tuner 5 is stored (step 2). Then, tune the CS digital tuner 5 to the promo channel,
The acquisition of program data is started (step 3). The acquired program data is stored in the memory 25.

Next, based on the program data (NIT, SDT, EIT) stored in the RAM 25, a search is made for a program that matches the search setting contents (step 4). If a program matching the search setting is found, it is determined whether or not the program has already been registered in the memory 25 as a search result for the user (step 5). If the found program is already registered in the memory 25, the process proceeds to step S7. The found program is memory 2
If the program is not registered in the memory 5, the program is registered in the memory 25 as a search result for the user (step 6), and the process proceeds to step 7.

In step 7, it is determined whether or not the search has been completed for all programs on all channels. If the search has not been completed for all programs on all channels, the process returns to step 4 to perform the search. .

If the search for all programs on all channels has been completed, the tuning state of the CS digital tuner 5 is returned to the original tuning state stored in step 2 (step 8). Then, the program search process ends. The reason why the tuning state of the CS digital tuner 5 is returned to the original tuning state in step 8 is that when the CS digital broadcast is viewed thereafter, the program of the previously viewed channel is displayed first. That's why.

If a request to view a CS digital broadcast program is input while the program search processing is being executed, the program search processing is stopped and the tuning state of the CS digital tuner 5 is changed to the above-described step. After returning to the original tuning state stored in step 2, the tuning process of the CS digital tuner 5 according to the request for viewing the CS digital broadcast program is executed. As described above, when the program search processing is interrupted in the middle, the program search processing is performed from the beginning when the CS digital tuner 5 enters the standby state thereafter.

[0043]

According to the present invention, a desired program can be easily narrowed down.

Further, according to the present invention, a program search can be performed without hindering viewing of a digital broadcast program.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a television receiver.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a program search screen.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a search setting screen.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a search setting screen after search setting.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a search result screen.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a program search process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 antenna 5 CS digital tuner 6 digital signal processing unit 20 CPU 24 OSD display circuit 25 memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] An input means for allowing a user to input a genre and a keyword of a digital broadcast program desired to be viewed in a television receiver provided with a digital tuner for receiving a digital broadcast. A television receiver comprising: searching means for searching for a program based on the above; and display means for displaying a list of searched programs. 2. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the search means searches for the program only when the digital tuner is in a standby state. 3. A television receiver having a digital tuner for receiving a digital broadcast and having a program search function of a digital broadcast program, searches for a program only when the digital tuner is in a standby state. A television receiver characterized in that: