JP2000350110A - Electronic program guide display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an electronic program guide with excellent user-friendliness by providing a display means, which can display program contents with reduced display areas except a broadcast time of a program selected at present, to the electronic program guide display device so as to increase number of programs able to be displayed at once in the electronic program guide. SOLUTION: A cell size decision section 23 extracts program information stored in a program information storage section 31 and discriminates whether or not the extracted program information is the same as a program selected at present and stored in a cursor position storage section 34. In the case that the extracted program information is the same as the program selected at present, number of cell lines enough to display the program information of the program that is selected is calculated and the calculated line number is outputted as cell size information. In the case that the extracted program information is not the same as the program selected at present, the cell size information of one line is outputted. A program table provision section 35 receiving the program information outputted from the program information storage section 31 and the decided cell size information generates cells to display contents of each program information and provides an output of the result as a program table to a monitor 36.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic program guide display device, and more particularly to an electronic program guide display device capable of displaying a large amount of program information in a character size that is easy to view on one screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a television system, a user prints on a newspaper or various magazines to check the contents of a program currently being broadcast as a television broadcast or to know what program will be broadcasted. In recent years, we have seen program listings, but in recent years, we superimpose program information that is scheduled to be broadcast on satellite broadcast or terrestrial television broadcast signals, broadcast them, convert digital television signals into digital signals, Information is also converted into digital signals and broadcast, and a system for displaying an electronic program guide as program information on a television receiver that is currently being viewed is becoming widespread, so that a user can view a broadcasted program without having to keep a program guide at hand. It has become possible to check the contents and select a desired program from programs scheduled to be broadcast.

Here, a display example of the electronic program guide will be described with reference to FIG.

In the program guide screen shown in FIG. 8, time is displayed in the vertical axis direction, and channels are displayed in the horizontal axis direction. At the position defined by these two axes, the program name and other program information of the program broadcast or scheduled to be broadcast on that channel at that time are displayed. The viewer selects a desired program by operating a cursor displayed on the screen using an input device such as a remote controller in a cell indicating the content of each program partitioned and displayed on the screen. It is possible to confirm the content of the performed program, make a viewing reservation, make a recording reservation, and the like. Here, the program guide screen shown in FIG. 8 shows only a part of the program guide for one day on the day as shown in FIG. 9, and allows the user to confirm or select program contents other than the currently displayed part. When performing, the display part in the program guide for one day on the day in FIG.
Using the input device, the user moves the cursor to a position where a desired program is displayed, and confirms and selects the program.

[0005]

However, in the display form of the electronic program guide shown in FIG. 8, if the size of each displayed character is too small, the character itself cannot be read, so that a sufficiently readable one character can be read. It is necessary to secure the size of. For example, if the resolution of the monitor is 640 × 480
If the width of the dots and the electronic program guide is 400 dots, one character is difficult to see if it is less than about 16 × 12 dots, so a larger size is required. At that time, if the channel width is set to four channels, as shown in FIG. 8, one screen has 100 dots per channel, and only six characters can be displayed.

[0006] In order to confirm the contents of one program, at least the program title must be displayed completely. However, since the width of one channel is small, the program title often extends over a plurality of lines. The number of programs displayed according to the time taken in the direction becomes very small. For this reason, the electronic program guide displayed on the screen at a time is only a part of the electronic program guide for one day on the day, and there are a large number of parts that are not displayed, and the desired program is displayed. For this purpose, it is necessary to scroll the display portion shown in FIG. If the displayed character size is reduced, the number of programs that can be displayed on the screen at one time increases, but it is not practical because the characters are difficult to see.

[0007] In order to solve this problem, the present invention maintains the program information of the selected program with a sufficient amount of information, and furthermore, keeps the size of the characters to be displayed in an easy-to-view size while keeping the size of the displayed characters in the time axis direction. It is an object of the present invention to increase the number of programs that can be displayed at a time, and to increase the number of programs that can be displayed at one time in an electronic program guide for one day, thereby obtaining an electronic program guide that is easy to use.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, an electronic program guide display device according to the present invention is a program guide display device for controlling display of an electronic program guide for selecting a program on a display device. The display device is provided with display means capable of reducing the display area of the program content of a program other than the broadcast time of the currently selected program and displaying it.

Further, the display means is configured to be able to automatically scroll and display the program contents of the program.

[0010] According to the above configuration, the currently selected program and the program being broadcast in the same time zone can display detailed program contents in a sufficient display range, and at the same time, the time zone of the currently unselected time zone can be displayed. Many programs can be displayed.

[0011]

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a first embodiment of an electronic program guide display device. In the figure, the program information is, for example, extracted from a transmitted signal, and is a signal in which broadcast channels, program names, broadcast times, and the like of a plurality of programs are input in a predetermined format. The program information may be transmitted simultaneously with the video signal, audio signal, and data signal of the program, or may be transmitted alone.

Reference numeral 31 denotes a program information storage unit which receives and stores the program information. An operation unit 33 outputs a user instruction given through a remote controller or a front button. Numeral 34 denotes a cursor position storage unit in which one program in a program table displayed on the monitor 36 is stored as a currently selected program. A cell size determination unit 32 determines the cell size for each program using the program information output from the program information storage unit 31 and the currently selected program information output from the cursor position storage unit 34. Reference numeral 35 denotes a program guide providing unit which assigns each program information to each cell and displays it on a monitor 36.

Next, the operation of the electronic program guide display device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1, the cell size determining unit 32 extracts the program information stored in the program information storage unit 31.

Next, in step S2, it is checked whether or not the retrieved program information is the same as the currently selected program stored in the cursor position storage unit 34. In the case of the currently selected program, in step S3, the number of rows of cells sufficient to display the program information of the currently selected program is calculated, and is output as cell size information. On the other hand, if the program is not the currently selected program, one line is output in step S4 as cell size information for displaying the program information. Such processing is performed for each program.

Next, in step S5, receiving the program information output from the program information storage unit 31 and the cell size information determined in step S3 or S4, a cell for displaying the contents of each program information is created. Is output to the monitor 36 as a program table. For example, when the program of "6 channel: 10:00" is selected in the program guide of FIG. 8, only four hours are displayed as shown in FIG. 8, but in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. Display for 10 hours will be possible.

When a cursor movement instruction is given from the operation unit 33, a new cursor position is stored in the cursor position storage unit 34, and the program table is updated in steps 1 to 5.

As described above, according to the electronic program guide display device of the present invention, the height of the cell for displaying each program is determined based on whether or not the program information transmitted is currently selected. Program information can be displayed in one screen.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an electronic program guide display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the program information is, for example, extracted from a transmitted signal, and is a signal in which broadcast channels, program names, broadcast times, and the like of a plurality of programs are input in a predetermined format. The program information may be transmitted simultaneously with the video signal, audio signal, and data signal of the program, or may be transmitted alone.

Reference numeral 61 denotes a program information storage unit which receives and stores the program information. An operation unit 63 outputs a user's instruction given through a remote controller or a front button. A cursor position storage unit 64 stores one program in the displayed program table as a currently selected program. Reference numeral 62 denotes a cell size determination unit, which is a program information storage unit 61.
The size of the cell for each program is determined using the program information output from the program and the currently selected program information output from the cursor position storage unit 64. Reference numeral 65 denotes a program guide providing unit which assigns each program information to each cell and outputs it to the cell display unit 66. A cell display unit 66 displays the program information on the monitor 67 as it is when each cell width is sufficient for displaying the program information, and performs scroll display when the cell width is insufficient for displaying the program information and displays it on the monitor 67.

Next, the operation of the electronic program guide display device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S6, the cell size determination section 62 extracts the program information stored in the program information storage section 61.

Next, in step S7, it is checked whether or not the extracted program information is the same as the currently selected program stored in the cursor position storage unit 64. If the program is currently selected, in step S8, the number of rows of cells sufficient to display the program information is calculated and output as cell size information. If the program is not currently selected, one line is output in step S9 as cell size information for displaying the program information. Such processing is performed for each program.

Next, in step S10, receiving the program information and the cell size information determined in step S8 or S9, a cell for displaying the contents of each program information is created, and further, the program information to be displayed is displayed. Is checked to see if it fits in that cell.

When the program information fits within the cell, the program information is displayed on the monitor 67 in step S11. On the other hand, when the program information does not fit in the cell, the scroll display shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows a cell for displaying all the program information of a certain program. In this case, three rows are required.

FIG. 7 shows a method of scroll-displaying the same program information as in FIG. First, a character string to be displayed like 9a is displayed from the beginning as much as possible. Next, after a certain time has elapsed, the display portion is shifted one character to the left as shown in 9b. By doing this up to 9k, all information is displayed. By repeating this display processing, a program can be displayed even in a cell having a small display area. When a cursor movement instruction is given from the operation unit 63, a new cursor position is stored in the cursor position storage unit 64, and the program table is updated in steps S6 to S12. Here, for example, in the program table of FIG.
When the program on channel 10:00 is selected, the electronic program guide display device of the present embodiment displays 4 as shown in FIG.
What was displayed only for the time can now be displayed for 10 hours, and the program information of all programs is displayed within a fixed time.

As described above, according to the electronic program guide display device of the present invention, the height of the cell for displaying each program is determined based on whether or not the transmitted program information information is currently selected, and the display width is insufficient. The cells are scrolled and displayed, so that all the program information of a large number of
It can be displayed on the screen.

[0028]

As described above, the electronic program guide display device according to the present invention reduces the display area of the program content of the program other than the broadcast time of the currently selected program, or automatically displays the program content of the program. The program that is currently selected and the programs that are broadcast in the same time zone can be displayed in a sufficient display range, so that the program contents can be displayed in detail. It is possible to display many programs in the time zone that is not
This has the effect that the usability of the electronic program guide is further improved for the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an electronic program guide display device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the electronic program guide display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example of an electronic program guide displayed using the electronic program guide display device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an electronic program guide display device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the electronic program guide display device;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing one mode of displaying program information using an electronic program guide display device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a transition of display of program information displayed using the electronic program guide display device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of an electronic program guide as a conventional example.

9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a program table in the electronic program guide shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 31, 61 Program information storage unit 32, 62 Cell size determination unit 33, 63 Operation unit 34, 64 Cursor position storage unit 35, 65 Program table providing unit 36, 67 Monitor 66 Cell display unit 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d, 9e , 9f, 9g, 9h, 9i, 9j, 9k Program guide

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic program guide display device for controlling the display of an electronic program guide for selecting a program on a display device, wherein a display area of a program content other than a broadcast time of a currently selected program is displayed in a reduced size. An electronic program guide display device, comprising a display means capable of performing the operation. 2. The electronic program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein the display means scrolls and displays the program contents.