JP2001136458A - Television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a television receiver that allows a viewer to easily recognize a different channel program of the same kind of the program viewed at present by the viewer. SOLUTION: The television receiver is provided with a means that recognizes a category of a program viewed at present from a key word table when a title of the program viewed at present includes a keyword in the keyword table and that retrieves a program whose title includes at least one of keywords corresponding to the category of the program viewed at present among programs on different channels, and a means that displays the title of the program on a different program whose title includes at least one of keywords corresponding to the category of the program found out by the retrieval by superimposing the title onto the program image viewed at present.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Broadcasts received by television receivers have been diversified not only from conventional so-called terrestrial broadcasting but also from CATV (cable television) and satellite broadcasting. In such a diversified broadcasting system, it takes a long time to search for a desired program or it is not possible to obtain real-time program information only with a program guide using a paper medium such as a newspaper or a magazine. There is.

Therefore, apart from program information on paper media,
A system for displaying EPG (electronic program guide), which is program information transmitted from a broadcasting station, on a screen of a television receiver, so-called OSD (on-screen display), has been put to practical use.

In a conventional EPG on-screen display,
It is possible for a viewer to visually select a desired program from a program table on the screen. However, in a state where the EPG display is erased after a desired program is selected from the program guide and the selected program is displayed on the entire screen,
The viewer cannot know what program is being broadcast on a channel different from the channel of the selected program.

[0005] For example, when a viewer is interested in a program related to baseball, if the viewer is watching a baseball broadcast, there is a high possibility that another baseball broadcast being broadcast at the same time will be missed.

Conventionally, when a certain program is selected and viewed, another program being broadcast simultaneously is displayed in a rectangular area provided in a part of the screen of the currently viewed program. (PIP: Picture in picture) has been put to practical use.

[0007] However, as shown in FIG. 6, when only one PIP screen B is displayed in the screen A of the currently viewed program, only one of the counter-programs is displayed.
Cannot confirm on IP screen. In addition, since there is no means for selecting and displaying a program of interest to viewers, that is, a program relating to baseball in the above example, among programs broadcast simultaneously, the program displayed on the full screen and the program displayed on the PIP screen are not displayed. There is a drawback that a program that a viewer wants to watch is likely to be mixed in a program other than the program that the user is watching.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, by displaying a plurality of PIP screens B in a screen A of a program currently being viewed, a method of simultaneously displaying a plurality of back programs in a PIP method has been put to practical use. I have. However, since there is no means for selecting and displaying a program of interest to the viewer, that is, a program relating to baseball in the above example, among programs broadcast simultaneously, a large number of programs that are not of interest to the viewer are displayed. As a result, there are disadvantages in that it is difficult to view the program currently being viewed, and it is troublesome to check whether or not the viewer is interested in the program from the program contents in the PIP screen that is displayed in large numbers.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a television receiver which enables a viewer to easily recognize a counter program of the same kind as that currently being watched while watching a certain program. The purpose is to provide.

Further, the present invention makes it possible for a viewer to easily recognize a back program of the same type as that currently being watched while watching a certain program, and to provide the same type of back program as that being viewed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a television receiver capable of easily selecting a counter program.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A television receiver according to the present invention comprises, for each preset program category, a keyword table for storing, as keywords, typical words considered to be included in a title of a program belonging to the category. Means for acquiring the title of the program being broadcast and the title of each currently broadcast program, means for determining whether the title of the program currently being viewed includes a keyword in the keyword table, If the title of the current program includes a keyword in the keyword table, the category of the program currently being viewed from the keyword table is recognized.
Means for searching for a program whose title includes at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being viewed, and at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the currently viewed program found by the search And a means for displaying the title of the counterprogram including the one in the title on the currently viewed program screen.

[0012] When the title of the counterprogram including at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the currently viewed program is displayed on the currently viewed program screen, the display screen is displayed. Above, it is preferable to provide means for allowing the viewer to select the title of the counterprogram, and means for automatically selecting a program corresponding to the selected title of the counterprogram.

[0013] A means is provided for displaying, in a PIP format, a still image or a moving image of a counterprogram whose title includes at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently viewed, which is found by the search. preferable.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

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

A tuner 1 receives a broadcast wave from an antenna and outputs a signal. A demodulation unit 2 demodulates a signal input from the tuner unit 1 and outputs a transport stream (hereinafter abbreviated as TS). Reference numeral 3 denotes a TS separation unit that separates the TS output from the demodulation unit 2 into video, audio, and other additional information. The additional information includes program guide information (EP
G information).

Reference numeral 4 denotes a video TS output from the TS separation unit 3.
Is a video decoding unit that decodes and outputs video.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an OS for superimposing an on-screen image on a video output obtained by the video decoding unit 4 for screen display
It is a D multiplex processing unit.

Reference numeral 5 denotes the audio TS output from the TS separation unit 3.
Is an audio decoding unit for decoding and outputting audio. Reference numeral 7 denotes an EPG information acquisition unit for acquiring and accumulating the EPG information separated by the TS separation unit 3.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a program title comparison processing unit. The program title comparison processing unit 8 determines whether or not the currently viewed program title includes a specific keyword characterizing a certain program category based on the program title obtained from the EPG information acquisition unit 7, and When the keyword is included, it is determined whether or not the specific keyword is included in another program title being broadcast simultaneously, and a group of program titles including the specific keyword is extracted.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a keyword table having a plurality of program categories and corresponding keywords used in the program title comparison processing unit 8. Reference numeral 10 denotes an operation unit for the viewer to perform operations such as displaying an EPG and selecting a program therefrom. The operation unit 10 includes a remote control and an operation panel provided on the entire panel of the television receiver.

Hereinafter, the operation of the television receiver will be described.

After turning on the power, the tuner 1 and the demodulator 2
Selects the channel set as the specified value, and
The TS is output to the separation unit 3. When the input TS is a stream in which a plurality of channels are multiplexed, the TS separation unit 3 extracts a stream corresponding to a channel set as a specified value from the input TS, and outputs video, audio, and The streams related to the information are separated and output to the video decoding unit 4, the audio decoding unit 5, and the EPG information obtaining unit 7, respectively.

When a channel change is input from the operation unit 10, the following operation is performed. When a channel selection operation is required in the tuner unit 1 and the demodulation unit 2 due to the channel change, that is, when the currently demodulated T
If the target channel is not multiplexed on S, the tuner unit 1 and the demodulation unit 2 perform a channel selection operation, and
The S separation unit 3 extracts a stream corresponding to a target channel.

When the channel selection operation is unnecessary, that is, when another stream multiplexed on the currently demodulated TS is a stream corresponding to the target channel, the TS separation unit 3 The stream corresponding to the channel to be extracted is extracted.

The EPG information acquisition unit 7 controls the OSD multiplex processing unit 6 to extract EPG information from the additional information output from the TS separation unit 3 and output the EPG information as a program guide table on a screen. Further, the EPG information acquisition unit 7 displays the E
When a command such as a channel change command is input from the operation unit 10 while the PG is displayed, the tuner unit 1, the demodulation unit 2, and the TS separation unit 3 are controlled.

The program title comparison processing section 8 obtains, from the EPG information acquisition section 7, a program title of the program currently being viewed and a program title list of other receivable programs. Further, it is determined from the keyword table 9 whether the currently viewed program title includes a specific keyword that characterizes a certain program category. If the currently viewed program title includes a specific keyword that characterizes a certain program category, it is determined whether the specific keyword is included in another program title that is being broadcast simultaneously. I do. Then, a program title group including the specific keyword is extracted, and the respective program titles of the extracted group are multiplexed and displayed on a normal screen as shown in FIG.

The multiplexed program title is displayed on the operation unit 1.
The viewer can select from 0. The program title selected by the viewer can be distinguished from other program titles by flashing the title frame or the like, and in this state, the viewer presses the enter key or the like,
The program corresponding to the program title is selected.

It should be noted that, instead of outputting only the program title on the screen as shown in FIG. 4, in addition to the program title as shown in FIG. 5, a PIP for displaying a still image or a moving image of the program is displayed.
The screen B may be displayed. In this case,
When another system is provided with a tuner, a decoding unit, and a TS separation unit, and still images are to be PIP-displayed, still images of counter-programs to be PIP-displayed may be sequentially acquired and PIP-displayed. In the case of displaying a moving image by PIP, the video of the counterprogram to be PIP-displayed may be acquired at predetermined time intervals, and the counterprogram may be PIP-displayed in a time division manner.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the contents of the keyword table 9.

The keyword table 9 stores, for each program category such as baseball, golf, news, and weather forecast, typical keywords considered to include the program titles of those programs as keywords.

For example, a program title belonging to the category "baseball" is considered to include the words "baseball" and "nighter", so if the program title includes any of these words, A program having a program title can be determined to belong to the category of "baseball".

FIG. 2 shows a procedure for displaying a back program executed by the program title comparison processing section 8 every time a new program is selected.

When a new program is selected, the program title comparison processing section 8 obtains the program title of the newly selected program from the EPG information acquisition section 7 and obtains the keyword table 9
A search is made to determine whether the keyword in the list is included in the program title (step 1).

If the keyword in the keyword table 9 is not included in the program title of the currently selected program (NO in step 2), the process ends.

If the keyword in the keyword table 9 is included in the program title of the currently selected program (YES in step 2), the category name corresponding to the keyword is stored (step 3). Among the receivable programs other than the program newly selected from the EPG information acquisition unit 7, the title of another program (counter program) currently being broadcast and information for selecting the program (channel selection information) ) Is obtained (step 4).

From among the acquired titles of the counter-programs, the titles containing at least one keyword corresponding to the category name stored in step 3 are searched for each program (step 5).

If a program title including a keyword corresponding to the category name stored in step 3 is found (YES in step 6), the title of the counterprogram and channel selection information are stored (step 7). . If there is an unsearched counter program (step 8
YES), and returns to step 5.

In this manner, when the search for all the titles of the counter-programs acquired in step 4 is completed (NO in step 8), each of the counter-program titles stored in step 7 is placed at a predetermined position on the screen. OSD is displayed (step 9). As a result, the title of the counterprogram of the same type as the currently viewed program is displayed. Then, the current process ends.

When one or more program titles displayed on the screen are displayed and the viewer selects one program title and then presses the enter button, the program The title comparison processing unit 8
Recognizing which program title was selected from the cursor position information, and performing control for selecting the program based on the recognized program tuning information (stored in step 6). .

In the above-described embodiment, the title of the counterprogram of the same type as the currently viewed program is displayed on the OSD or, in addition, the still image of the counterprogram of the same type as the currently viewed program is displayed. Although the moving image is displayed in the PIP mode, the still image or the moving image of the same program as the currently viewed program may be displayed in the PIP mode. Also in this case, when one PIP screen is selected by the viewer, it is preferable to automatically select the counter program corresponding to the selected PIP screen.

[0041]

According to the present invention, when a certain program is being watched, the viewer can easily recognize the same type of back program as the program currently being viewed.

Also, according to the present invention, when a certain program is being viewed, the viewer can easily recognize the back program of the same kind as the program currently being viewed and can view the same. The same type of counter program can be easily selected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a counter-program display process executed by a program title comparison processing unit 8 every time a new program is selected.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the contents of a keyword table.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which titles of counter-programs of the same type as the currently viewed program are displayed.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which the title of a counterprogram of the same type as the currently viewed program and its program image are displayed.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which one counterprogram is displayed by PIP in a conventional television receiver.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which a plurality of counter-programs are displayed by PIP in a conventional television receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tuner part 2 Demodulation part 3 TS separation part 4 Video decoding part 5 Audio decoding part 6 OSD multiplex processing part 7 EPG information acquisition part 8 Program title comparison processing part 9 Keyword table 10 Operation part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A keyword table for storing, as keywords, typical words considered to be included in a title of a program belonging to each preset program category, a title of a currently viewed program, and a currently broadcasted program. Means for acquiring the title of the program being viewed; means for determining whether the title of the program currently being viewed includes a keyword in the keyword table; title of the program currently being viewed includes the keyword in the keyword table , The program recognizes the category of the program currently being viewed from the keyword table,
Means for searching for a program that includes at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being viewed in the title of each of the back programs, and a category of the currently viewed program found by the search. Means for displaying a title of a counterprogram including at least one of the corresponding keywords in a title on a currently viewed program screen. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the title of the counterprogram including at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the currently viewed program is displayed on the currently viewed program screen in a superimposed manner. 2. The television according to claim 1, further comprising: means for allowing a viewer to select a title of a counterprogram on the display screen; and means for automatically selecting a program corresponding to the title of the selected counterprogram. Receiving machine. 3. A means for displaying, in a PIP format, a still image or a moving image of a counterprogram whose title includes at least one of keywords corresponding to a category of a currently viewed program, which is found by a search. The television receiver according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein: