JP2001045391A - Receiving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a receiving device equipped with a tuning means for easily and quickly selecting and tuning the program of a desired CH among plural CH. SOLUTION: A microprocessor 7 reads genre information related with the genre of each program from an auxiliary information storage memory 11 based on a tuning operation by a remote controller 10 of a user, and reconstitutes tuning information stored in a tuning information storage memory 12 based on the genre information, and controls a tuner 3 to selectively execute tuning. That is, according as the tuning speed is slowed by the operation of a jog shuttle 10a of the user, genres to be tuned are narrowed down to a large classification, middle classification, and small classification, and each channel in the genre is successively tuned so that each tuned channel video can be displayed at a display means 5. Thus, it is possible to easily and quickly select and tune a CH based on a desired program among plural CH.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus capable of receiving digital broadcasting signals of a plurality of channels, and more particularly to a receiving apparatus using an electronic program guide based on program information transmitted together with program data by transmitting means. The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus provided with a channel selecting means capable of easily and instantaneously selecting and selecting a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, in the broadcasting field, digitization and high-efficiency compression coding have been advanced, and accordingly, various digital broadcasting services capable of broadcasting a large number of programs using multiple channels in various countries around the world have been developed. Has been started.

[0003] Such a digital broadcast has an advantage in that an electronic program guide can be displayed to facilitate selection of a desired program from a large number of programs, as compared with a conventional analog broadcast. That is, in digital broadcasting, additional information data relating to these broadcasting contents is transmitted together with video signals and audio signals. Among them, there is SI (Service Information) information data necessary for generating an electronic program guide. , A program table for the next week, and data on the detailed contents of the program. A program guide is created on the broadcast receiving terminal device side based on the SI information data, and generally, an electronic program guide (Elec
tronic Program Guide, also referred to as EPG), and the user can use such an EPG to select a program or make a program reservation, and use it as an auxiliary means necessary for program selection. it can.

In general, in such a receiving apparatus capable of displaying an EPG, a digital broadcast signal is received by a receiving unit, and received data of a selected channel is subjected to signal processing such as demodulation processing and error correction processing. After that, it is given to a control unit such as a microcomputer. When the program guide button is pressed, the control unit extracts program information from the output signal of the receiving unit, creates program guide data based on the extracted program information, and outputs it to the display unit.

At this time, the program information may include data on the genre of the program.
In this case, since a code corresponding to a preset genre is assigned to each program in the program information,
Under the control of the control unit, the receiving device performs processing such as creating a table for each genre as shown in FIG. 5 and color-coding for each genre, and generates program guide data for displaying an EPG required for program selection. It is generated and output to the display unit.

The display unit outputs display data based on the received program guide data to a monitor. Thus, an electronic program guide based on the program guide data can be displayed on the screen of the monitor, and the user can obtain program information for several hours on a certain channel. When selecting a channel or the like using the electronic program guide, the control unit selects a desired program using a remote controller or the like, and the control unit causes the receiving unit to select a channel of the selected program data. , And a desired program video can be viewed.

However, in the above-described channel selection method using the EPG screen or the EPG screen in which a program is displayed for each genre, when the user wants to see what he wants to see or a certain genre is determined. Is effective, but not very useful if you haven't decided what to look at. That is, when a user wants to view a program from among about ten or more channels (CHs), he or she can search and select a channel as a whole. It is almost impossible to select a channel by searching, since it becomes extremely difficult for the user to select a channel.

[0008] Even when the genre and contents of a program are displayed on a screen, it is impossible to display all the program information on one screen at a time in view of the display capability of the display. It is also conceivable to add a print port or a facsimile line port so that the information of all programs can be printed out. Outputting a table can be cumbersome. Furthermore, in the case of character information, since an actual video is not displayed on a screen, information for a user to select a program may be somewhat insufficient.

When actually selecting a program from among a small number of channels using an up / down key or the like, it is often the case that the actual video is selected rather than the content of the program. With that in mind,
It is conceivable to display reduced images on the screen at once using an image compression device, but again, the number of images that can be displayed at one time is limited, and there is also a problem that it is difficult to determine the contents of the images when reduced. . In addition, in the channel selection method in which a channel is selected from a large number of channels using a normal up / down key or a 10 key, the number of channels is large, so it takes too much time to select a channel. In some cases, it became difficult to select.

[0010] For the above reasons, it has been desired to provide a receiver which can select a program that the user wants to watch from many channels and select a channel easily and quickly. As described above, at present, the problem has not been solved.

[0011]

As described above, the conventional receiving apparatus receives a digital broadcast signal having a large number of channels, and when a user selects and selects a desired program from the digital broadcast signal, a conventional up-down key is used. In the case of the channel selection method using 10 keys, it takes a long time to select a channel due to the large number of channels, and if the channel selection speed is increased, it becomes difficult to understand the contents and it is difficult to select, and display the program information in the form of characters. In such a case, there have been inconveniences such that it is not possible to display all at once, it is complicated to output each time from a printer or the like, and it is insufficient as information for selecting a program because it is not accompanied by video information. That is, in the conventional tuning method,
There is a problem that a desired channel program cannot be easily and quickly selected from many channels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is directed to a receiving apparatus provided with a channel selecting means capable of easily and quickly selecting a desired channel program from a large number of channels and selecting a channel. For the purpose of providing.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a receiving apparatus for receiving a broadcast signal of a plurality of channels on which program information including genre information is superimposed, and a signal of a predetermined channel based on the signal received by the receiving means. Tuning means, which can be operated in a normal tuning mode and a program selection mode, and in the program selection mode, which sequentially selects signals of a plurality of channels and can change a tuning speed thereof, A video signal processing unit that processes a video signal of each channel selected by the tuning unit and supplies the processed video signal to a display unit; a detection unit that detects the program information included in the signal selected by the tuning unit; First storage means for storing program information; second storage means capable of storing channel selection information necessary for selecting each program using the program information; And control means coupled to the first and second storage means, and operation means coupled to the control means and having an operation unit capable of designating a tuning speed in the program selection mode. The program of each channel is subdivided into a plurality of hierarchies for each genre based on genre information included in the program information stored in the first storage means, and the program is selected from the second storage means. By controlling the reading of station information, when a fast tuning speed is designated by the operation means, programs of the genre classified into the large classification hierarchy are sequentially tuned at a fast speed, and a slow tuning speed is designated. In this case, the tuning means is controlled so as to sequentially tune programs of the genre classified into the small classification hierarchy.

According to the present invention, information relating to the genre of each program contained in the program information stored in the first storage means is read, and each program is subdivided into a plurality of layers for each genre and divided. The reading of the channel selection information stored in the second storage means is controlled so that programs of each genre are sequentially selected.
In addition, the channel selection speed can be set to be high in a genre of a large hierarchy, and conversely, the channel selection speed can be set to be low in a genre of a small hierarchy. Therefore, the user can narrow down and select a desired program while changing the tuning speed by only a simple tuning operation using the variable means, so that the time required for the tuning operation can be greatly reduced. In addition, since the selected program can be recognized while watching the video displayed on the display means without depending on the character information such as the EPG screen, it greatly contributes to the simplification of the tuning operation.

[0015]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a receiving apparatus according to the present invention, and showing a schematic configuration of the receiving apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 1, an antenna 2 for receiving a digital broadcast signal broadcasted by a transmitting means (not shown) is connected to the receiving apparatus 1, and a digital broadcast signal (RF television signal) received from the antenna 2 is received. )
Is supplied to the tuner 3 via the input terminal 1a.

In this embodiment, the transmitting means includes:
Program information (also referred to as auxiliary information) is superimposed on a digital broadcast signal and transmitted. The program information includes information necessary for displaying the electronic program guide (for example, program channel information,
Broadcast date / time information, identification information indicating program contents, etc.), and further includes information indicating program attributes (eg, program outline information for explaining program contents, genre information indicating program genre, etc.). And sent.

The tuner 3 selects a predetermined CH signal from the input RF television signal under the control of the microprocessor 7, and converts the selected CH signal into an intermediate frequency (hereinafter, referred to as IF) signal. By converting and performing video detection, a video signal is obtained, and this video signal is supplied to the video signal processing circuit 4 and the auxiliary information detection circuit 6. Note that the tuner 3 in the present embodiment can freely switch the tuning speed when selecting any one of a large number of channels.

The video signal processing circuit 4 processes the supplied video signal and supplies the processed video signal to the display means 5. After adjusting the brightness, contrast, etc. of the video output signal, the video signal processing circuit 4 is driven via a drive circuit (not shown). To be supplied to the display means 5. This makes it possible to display the color image of the received channel on the screen of the display unit 5.

On the other hand, the auxiliary information detecting circuit 6
When the above-mentioned program information (auxiliary information) is superimposed on the television signal received by the above, the program information is detected, and the detected program information is given to the microprocessor 7.

The microprocessor 7 constitutes a control means. The microprocessor 7 can perform channel selection control by the tuner 3 and on-screen display control and display position control on the display means 5. Writing and reading control of program information and tuning information to the connected auxiliary information storage memory 11 and tuning information storage memory 12 are also possible.

When the program information is supplied from the auxiliary information detecting circuit 6, the microprocessor 7 supplies the program information to the auxiliary information storage memory 11 and temporarily stores it. At the same time, the microprocessor 7 supplies tuning information necessary for tuning of each channel to the tuning information storage memory 12 and stores it. That is, the auxiliary information storage memory stores program information including program genre information necessary for displaying the EPG, and the channel selection information storage memory 12 stores channel selection information necessary for channel selection of each CH. It will be stored once.

Further, in the present embodiment, the remote controller 10 and the remote controller light receiving section 8 are provided,
When the channel selection operation is performed by using 0, the microcomputer 7 reads the genre information of each program from the auxiliary information storage memory 11, and based on the genre information, stores the channel selection information for selecting a program of the genre. The tuner 3 is read out from the tuning information storage memory 12 and sequentially controls the tuner 3 based on the tuning information to perform a tuning operation.

Further, the reconstruction of the EPG information will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The genre codes in the general EPG information are largely classified by genre as described with reference to FIG. 5, and the genres that have been largely classified are further subdivided. In other words, in the EPG information classified into two tiers, an enormous channel selection time is required to select a really desired program, and the desired program cannot be narrowed down.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, under the control of the microprocessor 7 as described above, each of the genres of the three layers of at least large, medium and small as shown in FIG. Subdivide and reorganize the channel program. In other words, each code is divided into genres of major categories such as, for example, movies, sports, culture, etc., and these major categories are further divided into medium categories such as serious, variety, major works, and non-genres in movies. Sports are divided into middle classes such as ball games and martial arts, and liberal arts are divided into humanities and sciences. Furthermore, these middle classifications are divided into small classifications such as drama and action in serious, comedy and animation in variety, and spectacle in large works, etc., and are reconfigured so as to have three layers as a whole. In addition, reading of tuning information from the tuning information storage memory 12 is controlled so as to be sequentially read for each of the divided genres.

Therefore, the channel selection control by the microprocessor 7 is performed based on such reconfigured channel selection information. Further, in the present embodiment, the channel selection speed is controlled by the hierarchized large, medium and medium. It is characterized in that it is effectively changed according to the small classification.

That is, the remote control 10 used in the receiving apparatus 1 of the present embodiment includes operation buttons such as numeric keys,
A slide switch is provided as a means for changing the tuning speed as shown in FIG. 2, as well as being able to operate a normal tuning operation and various settings. As the slide switch, for example, a rotation operation button of the jog shuttle 10a or the like is provided, and the tuning direction and the tuning speed of the tuner 3 are controlled according to the rotation direction and the rotation amount (rotation angle) of the jog shuttle 10a. A remote control signal can be emitted.

For example, in the remote controller 10, the more the jog shuttle 10a is rotated to the right, the faster the tuning speed of the tuner 3 is. If the program is tuned in the up direction, and conversely, the program is rotated to the left. The faster the channel, the faster the channel selection speed, and emits a remote control signal for selecting a program in the down direction. When the jog shuttle 10a points to the base point, that is, the center scale, the channel selection operation is fixed,
A remote control signal for selecting a desired channel is emitted.

The remote control signal from the remote control 10 is
After being received by the remote control light receiving section 8 shown in FIG. 1, it is supplied to the microprocessor 7, and the microprocessor 7 recognizes the remote control signal. The microprocessor 7 performs channel selection control so as to execute a mode based on the remote control signal. In the program selection mode which is a feature of the present embodiment, for example, the remote control signal indicates that the rotation speed of the jog shuttle 10a by the user is the highest. When the tuner 3 recognizes that the channel is fast, the tuner 3 is controlled so as to tune each channel at a high speed.
When it is recognized that the rotation speed of a is slow, the tuner 3 is controlled, for example, to select a channel at a low speed for each of the most subdivided sub-classified channels. In addition, the channel selection speed for each of the large classification and the middle classification channels is sequentially changed according to the rotation angle of the jog shuttle 10a.

The tuner 3 is controlled based on the channel selection control.
Since the detection output of the selected channel is sequentially supplied to the video signal processing circuit 4, the selected video is sequentially displayed on the screen of the display means according to the tuning speed. That is, the user can recognize this and instantly recognize the program information.

Therefore, according to the above configuration, based on the operation of the jog shuttle 10a of the remote controller 10 by the user, the tuning speed is slower as the program genre is smaller, and the tuning speed is faster as the genre is larger. Since the channel selection operation can be performed, desired program selection can be easily narrowed down, and the channel selection time can be greatly reduced. In addition, since the image of each channel is displayed in accordance with the channel selection operation, the user can recognize the program by watching the image regardless of the character information, and can easily select the program.

In this embodiment, the EPG display control and the channel selection control using the EPG screen are not described. However, the microprocessor 7 controls an OSD display control circuit (not shown) to control the auxiliary information. Storage memory 11
EPG information is read out from the EPG to generate EPG display data, and an EPG screen is displayed on the screen of the display means.
It is also possible to control the tuner 3 so as to select a desired channel by specifying a cursor on the G screen or by specifying an operation unit such as a remote controller or the like, thereby performing channel selection.

Next, the tuning operation of the receiving apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a channel selection operation which is a feature of the receiving apparatus in FIG. In the operation description of FIG. 4, the program information is extracted from the television signal received in advance, and under the control of the microprocessor 7, the tuning information in the tuning information storage memory 12 is determined based on the program information. As shown in FIG. 4, the description will be made assuming that the information is reconfigured to be the channel selection information hierarchized by genre.

Now, using the remote controller 10 shown in FIG.
Tuning shall be performed.

For example, it is assumed that the user has turned the jog dial 10a of the remote controller 10 to the rightmost base end.

Then, in the receiving apparatus 1, a remote control signal emitted from the remote controller 10 is received by the remote control light receiving section 8, and the received remote control signal is supplied to the microprocessor 7, and the microprocessor 7 converts the remote control signal into the remote control signal. The tuning control is performed so as to execute the tuning mode based on the tuning.

That is, the microprocessor 7 recognizes that the remote control signal has the highest tuning speed, and for example, as shown in FIG. 4, tunes the individual channels sequentially at high speed in the up direction as shown in FIG. Control. In this case, the microprocessor 7 selects the tuner 3 at high speed in the order of the individual channels shown in FIG.

As described above, when the individual channels shown on the left side in FIG. 4 are selected at high speed, the images of the channels selected in order are displayed on the screen of the display means 5, but the genres of the same or similar genres are displayed. Since the video based on the program is continuously displayed, the user can easily recognize the contents of the program even if the tuning speed is somewhat high in this way.

Then, the user selects a certain number of stations by operating the remote control by the jog shuttle 10a, and when the genre of the program desired by the user is determined, the jog shuttle 10a is gradually rotated leftward from the current position by gradually turning the jog shuttle 10a to the left. , Slow down the tuning speed.

Then, the microprocessor 7 controls the tuner 3 so as to enter the channel selection mode based on the remote control signal at this time. That is, the microprocessor 7
As shown in the second from the left in FIG. 4, the large classification genre selected at the time of slowing down the tuning speed is sequentially tuned at the slowed down tuning speed.

In this manner, in a state in which programs of the genres of the broad major categories are sequentially selected at a moderate speed, the user further rotates the jog shuttle 10a leftward from the current position to further reduce the channel selection speed. be able to.

Then, the microprocessor 7 controls the tuner 3 so as to sequentially tune programs of the middle category shown in FIG. 4 at a tuning speed lower than the previous time.

When the genre desired by the user is substantially determined, the user further rotates the jog shuttle 10a to the left. Then, the microprocessor 7
Controls the tuner 3 so as to sequentially tune programs of the genre further subdivided in the determined medium classification, that is, the genres of the small classification at the lowest tuning speed. Then, on the screen of the display means 5, the program videos of the small classification are sequentially displayed slowly in accordance with the tuning speed. That is, as the genre is narrowed down, the time for checking one channel becomes longer as the channel selection speed becomes slower.

By repeating such an operation, the user can subdivide the genre to be tuned as the tuning speed becomes slower, and finally select the desired program. In this case, the final selection operation of the channel selection is performed using the jog shuttle 10a as a base point (knob center point).
, The desired program can be selected, and the microprocessor 7 controls the tuner 3 so as to keep the channel selection state constant.

Thus, the user can select a desired program from the E
It is possible to select and tune to a channel using only video information and a simple operation method without relying on character information on the PG screen. When the jog shuttle 10a is rotated leftward from the base point, predetermined channels can be sequentially selected in the down direction.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, by the user's operation using the jog shuttle 10a of the remote controller 10, in the large category genre hierarchized by genre, the channel selection speed is divided at high speed and conversely. In the genre, it is possible to sequentially select the channel so that the channel selection speed is slowed down and simultaneously display the selected video simultaneously, so that the user can reliably recognize a desired program without knowing the genre. Can be chosen. In addition, the time required for the channel selection can be greatly reduced, and a receiving apparatus having a channel selection method that can easily and quickly select a desired program can be provided.

Although the present invention has been described with respect to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus which multiplexes broadcast information with program information and transmits the multiplexed broadcast information, the present invention is not limited to this. VBI (Vertical B
It is also possible to adapt to analog broadcasting in which program information is superimposed and transmitted on a (lanking interval) or the like. However, in this case, a plurality of tuners and a plurality of detection circuits for extracting the superimposed program information from the television signal selected by these tuners are required.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, a case has been described in which a tuner having a function of changing the tuning speed and having a function of tuning at a high speed is used, but the functions of the tuner and the image processing circuit and the like are described. If the tuning speed cannot be made too high due to restrictions, as an example, a plurality of tuners, a plurality of image processing circuits, an image memory, and the like may be used in combination to increase the tuning operation.

[0052]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to easily and quickly select and select a desired channel program from a large number of channels. This makes it possible to provide a receiving device that is very convenient for the user to select a channel.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a main part of a remote controller used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a correspondence diagram showing a subdivided classification hierarchy of EPG information used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a correspondence diagram showing each genre and code of EPG information hierarchized by general genre.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Receiving device, 2 ... Antenna, 3 ... Tuner, 4 ... Video processing circuit, 5 ... Display means, 6 ... Auxiliary information detection circuit, 7 ... Microprocessor (Control means), 8 ... Remote control light-receiving part, 10 ... Remote control, 10a: jog shuttle, 11: memory for storing auxiliary information, 12: memory for storing channel selection information.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A receiving means for receiving a broadcast signal of a plurality of channels on which program information including genre information is superimposed, and selecting a signal of a predetermined channel from the signal received by the receiving means, and selecting a normal channel selection mode. Operating in a program selection mode, wherein in the program selection mode, signals of a plurality of channels are sequentially tuned and the channel selection speed can be changed; and video of each channel tuned by the channel selection means. Video signal processing means for processing a signal and supplying it to a display means; detecting means for detecting the program information included in the signal selected by the tuning means; first storage for storing the program information Means, second storage means capable of storing channel selection information necessary for selecting each program using the program information, and coupling to the channel selection means and the first and second storage means. And control means coupled to the control means and having an operation section capable of designating a channel selection speed in the program selection mode, the control means being stored in the first storage means. Based on the genre information included in the program information, the programs of each channel are subdivided into a plurality of hierarchies for each genre and divided, and reading of channel selection information from the second storage means is controlled to perform the operation. When a fast tuning speed is specified by the means, programs of the genre classified into the large classification hierarchy are sequentially tuned at a high speed, and when a slow tuning speed is specified, the genre classified into the small classification hierarchy is selected. Receiving means for controlling the tuning means so as to sequentially tune the programs. 2. An operation unit of said operation means, comprising a slide switch, wherein said tuning speed can be switched according to a moving distance from a base point of said slide switch. The receiving device according to the above. 3. The operation unit of the operation means includes a slide switch, and slides the slide switch in a first direction or a second direction around a base point.
2. The receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the channel selection in the up direction or the down direction can be sequentially performed, and the channel selection speed can be switched according to the distance from the base point. 4. In order to change a tuning speed, a plurality of tuning means having a normal tuning function, said video signal processing means and a plurality of image memories for recording image data from said video signal processing means are provided. 2. The receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit switches between these circuit groups to speed up a channel selection operation.