JP2000261736A - Sound controller for television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically listen to the sound in a way easy to recognize an exciting scene especially even when a mute circuit is operated due to the arrival of an incoming telephone call. SOLUTION: The sound controller for a television receiver is provide with an FM detection circuit 1, a sound low frequency circuit 2 connected to the circuit 1, a sound output circuit 3 connected to the circuit 2, a speaker 4 connected to the sound output circuit 3, a mute circuit 5 that is connected between the FM detection circuit 1 and the speaker 4 and is controlled by a remote controller or the like to mute a sound signal, and a signal level detection circuit 8 that is connected to an input terminal of the mute circuit 5 or a pre-stage of the mute circuit 5 to detect a level of the sound signal. When the signal level of the sound signal detected by the signal level detection circuit 8 is higher than a prescribed level, the mute circuit 5 is released to output the sound from the speaker 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sound control device for a television. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling a sound of a television when receiving a telephone call while receiving a television broadcast. It is necessary to mute the sound. For this purpose, a mute circuit is usually used. When the mute circuit is higher than a predetermined reference sound signal level, the mute circuit is canceled and the sound is output. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a telephone call is received during reception of a television broadcast, it is necessary to reduce the volume of the television or to eliminate the sound. For this purpose, a mute circuit is provided in the receiver. Have been.

Conventionally, the following techniques are known. For example, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 2-145877 discloses a technique for setting a volume control level after mute release according to a volume control level before mute when releasing the mute state.

In Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 2-93814,
When the volume down key or the remote control light receiving unit outputs a volume reduction instruction signal during the mute operation, the volume level information stored in the register is canceled and the volume becomes zero.
Alternatively, a technique is disclosed in which the sound amplification device is controlled after setting the sound volume to a low volume.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-233875 discloses a technique in which a volume level at the time of mute can be arbitrarily set in advance, or a plurality of volume levels can be selected as a volume level at the time of mute. Is disclosed.

However, in such a conventional mute circuit, once the mute circuit starts operating,
The sound will be inaudible or fixed at a faint volume, and viewers will be unable to do anything if they want to listen to the sound, even in exciting scenes. For example, if a home run is hit in baseball and the hall is excited by applause or cheering, the viewer wants to hear the situation of the excited audience, whether on the phone or not. also, there is a problem that can not be to do because is not tied up in the phone.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention detects a level of an audio signal, and even if the muting circuit is in operation, if the scene becomes an excitement, the scene which is raised from the audio signal of the excitement scene is obtained. If, for example, a home run was hit in baseball and the hall was excited by applause or cheering, even if it was on the phone,
Since the viewer sometimes wants to hear the situation of the state of the excited audience, an exciting scene is detected from the sound so that the audio signal of the scene can be heard.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an audio control apparatus for a television, comprising: an FM detection circuit; an audio low frequency circuit connected to the FM detection circuit; An audio output circuit connected to the circuit, a speaker circuit connected to the audio output circuit, a mute circuit connected between the FM detection circuit and the speaker circuit and controlled by a remote controller or the like to delete an audio signal; A signal level detection circuit connected to an input terminal of the mute circuit or a stage preceding the mute circuit and detecting a level of the audio signal, wherein a signal level of the audio signal detected by the signal level detection circuit is provided. Is larger than a predetermined value, the mute circuit is released and sound is output from the speaker circuit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the television sound control apparatus according to the first aspect, a fade-in circuit or a fade-in circuit is provided so that the output sound of the speaker does not change abruptly when the mute circuit is released or when the operation is started. A fade-out circuit is connected after the mute circuit to control the audio signal.

[0010] Further, the sound control device for a television according to claim 3 is provided with a sound volume switching circuit for switching the sound volume when the mute circuit is released to a plurality of stages, according to claim 1 or 2.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing an embodiment of a television sound control device according to the present invention. In the figure, an antenna circuit, a frequency conversion circuit, a video intermediate frequency circuit, a video detection circuit, and an audio intermediate frequency circuit (all not shown) are provided at a stage preceding the FM detection circuit 1.

The FM intermediate frequency signal of the television is frequency-detected by an FM detection circuit 1, converted into an analog audio low-frequency signal, amplified by an audio low-frequency amplifier circuit 2, further amplified by an audio output circuit 3, and amplified by a speaker 4. Sound is emitted from. Usually, the muting circuit 5 is connected between the FM detection circuit 1 and the audio low frequency amplification circuit 2. And
These circuits are implemented as IC circuits, and when viewed from the function, they are circuit blocks as shown in FIG.

When a remote control signal is transmitted from the remote control transmission circuit 6 by a remote control operation when a customer or a telephone call is received, and the remote control reception circuit 7 receives the command signal, the remote control reception circuit 7 receives the signal. A control signal is issued from the circuit 7, the muting circuit 5 starts operating, and the audio signal is erased.

In the apparatus of the present invention, a signal level detecting circuit 8 for an audio signal is provided, and its input signal is supplied from an input terminal of the muting circuit 5 or a stage preceding the input terminal. Now, for example, if a home run was hit in baseball and the inside of the stadium is excited with applause and cheers,
An audio signal higher than the level of a normal audio signal is input to the input terminal of the comparator 9 of the signal level detection circuit 8. Reference level signal generating circuit 10 composed of a Zener diode
Is compared with the audio input signal (Vin) input to the comparator 9 if the audio signal (Vi) is larger than the reference signal level (Vs).
n) is input to the comparator 9, the signal level detection circuit 8
Generates a control signal (Vc), and the operation of the muting circuit 5 is released by the control signal. Therefore, when an audio signal (Vin) larger than a predetermined reference signal level (Vs) is supplied to the signal level detection circuit 8, the muting circuit 5 is released and the audio is emitted from the speaker 4. That is, the voice of an announcer at the baseball stadium, the cheers of the spectators, and the like can be heard from the speaker 4. At this time, if the muting circuit 5 is suddenly released, the sound becomes too loud. Therefore, the sound is gradually increased by the fade-in circuit 11a, and the audio signal (Vin) supplied to the signal level detection circuit 8 ) Is smaller than the reference signal level (Vs), the control signal (Vc) is no longer generated from the signal level detection circuit 8, and when the muting circuit 5 suddenly starts operating, the sound suddenly disappears and ends. In response to the decrease in the control signal from the signal level detection circuit 8, the operation of the fade-out circuit 11b is started to control the sound to gradually decrease.

Further, if the volume switching circuit 12 is provided so that the volume at the time of releasing the muting circuit 5 can be controlled in a plurality of stages, the volume can be set in advance to a volume desired by a viewer when the muting circuit is released. Can be done. The volume control circuit 12 may be operated by being controlled by a control signal of the signal level detection circuit 8 as shown in the drawing,
Alternatively, the operation may be controlled by a control signal of the remote control receiving circuit 7 as indicated by a broken line.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the audio control device for a television according to the present invention. That is, step (a)
When a telephone call is received in step (b) while receiving a television broadcast, the muting circuit is operated by operating the remote controller. Then, in the step (c), the input audio signal (Vi
n) is compared with a reference signal level (Vs), and
If the input audio signal (Vin) does not exceed the reference signal level (Vs) (No), the process proceeds to step (d) and the mute state is maintained. Also, if the input audio signal (Vi
n) exceeds the reference signal level (Vs), (Ye
s), the process proceeds to step (e), and the operation of the muting circuit 5 is released to release the mute state.

In this way, when an exciting screen appears during reception of a television broadcast and the sound suddenly becomes louder, for example, when a home run is hit by baseball, and the inside of the hall is excited by applause or cheering, etc. In the meantime, even if you are on the phone, the viewer can hear the excitement of the announcer and the cheers of the audience.

[0018]

As described above, the audio control apparatus for a television according to the present invention is provided with the audio signal level detection circuit. When the input audio signal exceeds the reference signal level, the operation of the muting circuit is canceled. Since the sound is emitted from the speaker, the viewer can automatically hear the sound of the lively screen of the television without performing any operation. Also,
When a fade-in circuit or a fade-out circuit is provided, even when the operation of the muting circuit 5 is canceled, a sudden change in the volume is not accompanied, and a smooth change in the volume can be heard without disturbing the sound. Furthermore, when the volume switching circuit is employed, there is an effect that the sound can be heard at a volume that suits the listener's preference when the muting circuit is released.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram of an audio control device for a television according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the television sound control device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 FM detection circuit 2 audio low-frequency amplification circuit 3 audio output circuit 4 speaker 5 muting circuit 6 remote control transmission circuit 7 remote control reception circuit 8 signal level detection circuit 9 comparator 10 reference level signal generation circuit 11 a fade-in circuit 11 b fade-out circuit 12 Volume switching circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] An FM detection circuit, an audio low-frequency circuit connected to the circuit, an audio output circuit connected to the audio low-frequency circuit, a speaker circuit connected to the audio output circuit,
A mute circuit connected between the FM detection circuit and the speaker circuit and controlled by a remote controller or the like to delete an audio signal; and an input terminal of the mute circuit or a mute circuit connected to a stage preceding the mute circuit and configured to output the audio signal. A signal level detection circuit for detecting a level, wherein when the signal level of the audio signal detected by the signal level detection circuit is higher than a predetermined value, the mute circuit is released to output sound from the speaker circuit. Television audio control device. 2. A fade-in circuit or a fade-out circuit is connected to a stage subsequent to the mute circuit to control an audio signal so that the output sound of the speaker does not change abruptly when the mute circuit is released or when operation starts. The television audio control device according to claim 1. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a volume switching circuit for switching a volume when the mute circuit is released to a plurality of stages.
A sound control device for a television according to claim 1.