JP2001197395A - Television reception device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a television reception device which prevents the missing of a program which is viewed every week. SOLUTION: The device is provided with a channel storage means storing channel information showing a received channel in accordance with day information showing a received day and time information showing time, a channel judgment means (S3) judging whether or not the channel that previous week channel information shows is matched with the channel which is received at present with channel information where the day that corresponding day information shows correspond to the present day and time at corresponding time information shows correspond to present time as previous week channel information among stored channel information and an information signal generation means (S4) generating an information signal showing previous week channel information when a judged result shows non-matching.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiving apparatus capable of selecting a channel to be received from a plurality of channels, and more particularly, to receiving a channel different from a channel received one week ago. The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiving apparatus that generates an information signal for displaying a channel received a week ago.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A video cassette deck (hereinafter referred to as a VCR) having a recording reservation function has a function of receiving and recording the same channel every week at a certain time on a certain day of the week. Is provided. Therefore, when this function is used, it is possible to automatically and continuously record only programs broadcast at one-week intervals on one video cassette (the first related art). ).

Further, there is a conventional technique proposed as Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-145689. In this technique, a channel storage unit for storing information of a plurality of previously selected channel is provided. Also, an OSD display unit for displaying the channel information stored in the channel storage unit on the screen, and a plurality of channel information displayed on the screen,
And a channel selection unit for selecting one channel information. Therefore, when one piece of information is selected from the plurality of displayed channel information, it is possible to easily return to the program that was being viewed before the program that is currently being viewed (the second related art). .

[0004]

However, when the first prior art is used, the following problems have occurred. In other words, there are many programs that are not recorded even if they are always viewed at weekly intervals. For this reason, when not recording, the user may set
The channel to receive must be set to the corresponding channel. On the other hand, for example, when the baseball broadcast is extended, a program that is being watched weekly on a different channel may start during the extended baseball broadcast. In such a case, since it is easy to forget that there is a program that is being watched every week, a situation occurs in which the user fails to view the program.

The second prior art aims at easily returning from a currently viewed channel to a previously viewed channel. For this reason, the channel information displayed on the screen is limited to the channel information of several channels that have been viewed before, and the channel information that has been viewed earlier is not displayed. For this reason, a program viewed every week is not displayed as channel information on the screen even when the start time of the program is reached. Therefore, when the currently watched program continues beyond the start time of the program that was being watched every week, the program that was being watched every week could be missed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and has as its object to receive a channel different from the channel received one week ago.
By generating an information signal for displaying the channel information received one week ago and using this information signal to alert the user, it is possible to prevent a program being viewed every week from being missed even when recording is not performed It is an object of the present invention to provide a television broadcast receiving apparatus capable of performing the above.

[0007] In addition to the above object, a period shorter than a broadcast time of a program having a short broadcast time and close to the broadcast time is used as a criterion for determination, and only a channel received continuously for a longer time than this reference period is considered. By avoiding unnecessary display, even for programs with a short broadcast time,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a television broadcast receiving device that can alert a user.

[0008] In addition to the above object, a television broadcast receiving system capable of reducing the amount of information to be stored without impairing the effectiveness of attention by targeting only the time range in which the audience rating of the television broadcast is high. It is to provide a device.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a television broadcast receiving apparatus capable of selecting a channel to be received from a plurality of channels. Channel storage means for storing channel information indicating the received day of the week in association with two pieces of information, ie, day information indicating the day of the week received and time information indicating the time of reception, and the channel information stored in the channel storage means. When the day of the week indicated by the assigned day of the week information corresponds to the current day of the week, and the time indicated by the associated time information is the channel information corresponding to the current time, the channel information indicates the week before the week. Channel determining means for determining whether the channel matches the currently receiving channel, and determination by the channel determining means When the result indicates a mismatch, it has a configuration in which an information signal generating means for generating an information signal indicating the week before channel information.

[0010] That is, the week-before channel information indicates the channel of the program which was watched one week ago. Therefore, the discrepancy in the judgment result of the channel judgment means means that a channel different from the channel of the program watched one week ago is being received. Then, in this case, an information signal indicating the week ago channel information is generated. For this reason, when this information signal is led to a display and displayed, information indicating the channel of the program watched one week ago is shown to the user. In other words, the user is notified that there is a risk of missing the continuation of the program watched one week ago.

In addition to the above configuration, when a period that is shorter than the duration of a program whose broadcast has a short duration and is close to the duration is set as a reference period, the channel storage means stores the reference period. It is configured to store only channel information indicating a channel that has been continuously received for a longer time.

That is, even a program having a short broadcast duration is stored as channel information. Channels received in a very short time are not stored as channel information.

[0013] In addition to the above configuration, the time range in which the channel storage means stores the channel information is a time range in which the audience rating of the television broadcast is high.

That is, in a time range in which the audience rating of a television broadcast is not high, such as when working or sleeping, one-week channel information can be used without paying attention to the user. It's extremely unlikely that you'll miss the continuation of the show you watched a week ago. Further, when the time period for storing the channel information is shortened, the information amount of the stored channel information decreases.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
This will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a television section 2 includes a tuner for channel selection, an IF amplifier circuit, a video signal processing circuit, and a CR.
It is a block provided with T and the like. Then, a channel according to the output of the control unit 4 is received from the plurality of channels and displayed on the CRT. Further, an OSD display circuit 3 is provided therein. The OSD display circuit 3, as shown in FIG.
This is a block for generating an information signal for simultaneously displaying the character information 22 specified by.

The channel storage means 1 is a memory capable of holding data even when the power is turned off. Then, the channel information indicating the channel received by the television unit 2 is stored in association with two pieces of information of the day of the week indicating the reception day and the time information indicating the time of reception. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the time and the channel are stored in association with the tag 15 indicating the day of the week.

The input unit 5 is a block serving as an interface with a user, and includes a channel up / down key, a volume up / down key, a power key, and the like provided on an operation panel (not shown). ing. Further, a receiving unit for receiving the infrared signal transmitted from the remote controller 7 is provided. Clock section 6
Is a block for measuring the day of the week, time, and the like.

The remote controller 7 is a block provided with a plurality of key switches such as a numeric key for selecting a channel, an up / down key for a channel, and an up / down key for a volume. When the key switch is operated, an infrared signal corresponding to the operated key switch is transmitted.

The control section 4 is a block composed mainly of a microcomputer, and controls main operations as a television broadcast receiving apparatus. That is, control is performed to cause the television unit 2 to receive the channel selected by the remote controller 7 or the like. In addition, the channel information indicating the received channel is stored in the channel storage unit 1 in association with two pieces of information of the day information indicating the received day of the week and the time information indicating the time of reception.

In the following, in order to simplify the explanation,
Of the channel information stored in the channel storage means 1, the day of the week indicated by the associated day information corresponds to the current day of the week, and the time indicated by the associated time information corresponds to the current time. Is referred to as week ago channel information.

Returning to the description of the configuration, the control section 4 configures the above-described means and also configures channel determination means for determining whether or not the same channel as the channel watched one week ago has been received. That is, the control unit 4
Determines whether the channel currently being received by the television unit 2 matches the channel indicated by the channel information a week ago.

The control section 4 constitutes information generating means in cooperation with the OSD display circuit 3. That is, when the control unit 4 determines that the channel currently being received by the television unit 2 does not match the channel indicated by the weekly channel information, the control unit 4 generates an information signal indicating the weekly channel information on the OSD display circuit 3. Let it. Therefore, the received image 21 is displayed on the CRT 23 of the television unit 2.
And the character information 22 indicating the week-before channel information.

The following is a supplementary explanation. When the same channel as the channel watched one week ago is not received, the purpose of displaying the channel information indicating the channel watched one week ago is, for example, 9 pm on Thursday.
This is to prevent a program broadcasted at a certain time on a certain day of the week from being overlooked, such as hour and time. The channel information is stored in the channel storage means 1 at substantially constant time intervals. Therefore, when the received channel is stored for 24 hours for each day of the week, the total amount of data stored in the channel storage unit 1 increases.

From the above, in the present embodiment, in order to reduce the amount of data stored in the channel storage means 1 without reducing the effectiveness of the object, the present embodiment is used in a time range where the general audience rating of a television broadcast is high. Only the channel information is stored in the channel storage unit 1.

That is, the time zone from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm, at which the audience rating of the program broadcast at one week interval is high, is set as the minimum time zone, and the time zone with a margin before and after that is set as the channel. It is set to a time zone for storing information. More specifically, in the present embodiment, six hours from 7:00 pm to 1:00 am of the next day are set as a time zone for storing channel information (hereinafter, referred to as a target time range). I have. Channels received at times outside the target time range are not stored.

In addition, even when the duration of receiving one channel is short, and when the received channel is stored, for example, when a different channel is received for several seconds, this channel is stored. One week later, the possibility that the channel stored at this time is displayed as the channel of the program watched one week ago becomes extremely large. In such a case, the display becomes troublesome. For this reason, in the present embodiment, the reference period is set, and the received channel is stored only when the period for continuously receiving the same channel exceeds the reference period.

Each time a period for continuously receiving the same channel satisfies the reference period, the received channel is stored. That is, when the channel to be received is not changed, the channel information is stored at intervals of the reference period. Therefore, when the reference period is shortened, the amount of data stored in the channel storage unit 1 increases. Therefore, from this viewpoint, it is desirable to lengthen the reference period.

On the other hand, among the programs broadcast at weekly intervals, there are short programs whose broadcast duration is, for example, only 3 minutes. Also, it is necessary to be able to store such a program channel as an object.

From the above, the above-mentioned reference period is set to a period shorter than the duration of a program having a short broadcast duration and close to the duration. That is, in the present embodiment, the above-described reference period is set to 2
For example, a program having a broadcast time as short as 3 minutes can be stored as a target without increasing the amount of data stored in the channel storage unit 1.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the main operation of this embodiment, and shows the operation of a subroutine program. This subroutine is, for example, a program executed at time intervals of several milliseconds. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a relationship between a received channel and time. The operation of the embodiment will be described with reference to these drawings as necessary.

Now, it is assumed that the channel information is not stored in the channel storage means 1. In this state, when the power of the television unit 2 is off, no operation is performed (step S1). On the other hand, when the power of the television unit 2 is on, it is determined whether or not the time zone for storing the channel information has been reached. That is, it is determined whether the current time is within the time range (target time range) from 7:00 pm to 1:00 am on the following day (step S).
2). If the time is not within the target time range, the operation ends.

On the other hand, if it is within the target time range, the operation proceeds to step S3. When the channel information is not stored in the channel storage means 1, the operation is as follows.
Move to step S5. Then, it is determined whether or not the channel currently being received by the television unit 2 has been continued for more than two minutes, with the last time when the channel information was stored being the start time of the continuation determination. If it does not exceed two minutes, the operation is terminated.

On the other hand, if the time has continued for more than two minutes, the time indicated by the clock unit 6 at that time (seconds are rounded down) is read. Then, a time two minutes before the read time is calculated as time information. Next, a numerical value (channel information) indicating the reception channel at that time is stored in the channel storage unit 1 in such a manner as to correspond to both the day information indicating the current day of the week and the calculated time information (step S6).

That is, assuming that the current day of the week is Thursday, the numerical value indicating the received channel is stored in an area to which the tag 15 of the day of the week information indicating Thursday is added in association with the time information.

That is, if the channel to be received changes after 7:00 pm as shown in FIG.
At hour and two minutes, the channel storage means 1 stores the numerical value “8” as the channel information. The time information at this time is 7:00. At 7:04, the channel storage means 1 stores a numerical value "8" as channel information. Also,
The time information at this time is 7:02.

Channels received between 7:04 and 7: 5 (channels 4 and 2)
Is not stored because the received duration is 2 minutes or less. Then, at 7:07, a numerical value “6” is stored as channel information in association with 7: 5 of the time information.

The operation in the case where the channel information is not stored in the channel storage means 1 has been described above. Next, the operation in the case where the channel information has already been stored in the channel storage means 1 will be described. For the sake of simplicity, in the following, it is assumed that the current time is 9:00:00 and the channel information stored in the channel storage means 1 has the contents shown in FIG. It is also assumed that the current reception channel is eight channels.

When the power of the television section 2 is off, the process is terminated as it is. In this case, since the power is on, the process shifts from step S1 to step S2 to determine whether or not the time zone for storing the channel information has been reached. Is determined. That is, it is determined whether the current time is within the target time range. In this determination, when the current time is not in the target time range, for example, at 6:00 pm, the operation ends. However, since the current time is 9:00 pm and is within the target time range, the operation shifts to step S3.

In step S3, the current time 9
The channel information associated with the time information corresponding to 0:00 (from 9:00 to 9: 2, the channel information associated with 9:00 of the time information) is read. Then, it is determined whether or not the read channel information is different from the currently received channel. Therefore, for example, if the number of channels being received is four, the channel being received matches the channel indicated by the channel information, and the operation shifts to step S5. However, since the number of channels currently being received is eight, the operation shifts to step S4.

At step S4, the control unit 4
The OSD display circuit 3 is caused to generate an information signal indicating the channel information a week ago. For this reason, on the CRT 23, on the image 21 currently being received, "I was watching 4 channels a week ago. The previous week's channel information is character information 2.
It is displayed as 2. Thereafter, the operation shifts to the operation of step S5. After shifting to step S5, the channel information indicating the received channel is stored in the channel storage unit 1 in association with the day of the week information and the time information by the same method as described above.

As described above, when a channel different from the four channels, such as eight channels, is received at 9:00 pm, the previous week's channel information is displayed on the image 21 being received. , Are displayed as character information 22. Accordingly, the user is informed from the character information 22 that the program being watched every week starts on channel 4. As a result, the user sets the receiving channel to 4
You can change to a channel and receive the continuation of the program you watched a week ago.

As described above, when the power is off, the contents of the channel storage means 1 are not changed. Therefore, if the user is away on the broadcast day of the program being watched every week and does not watch the television, the channel of the program watched one week before the absence week is changed to Displayed as information. For this reason, even when the power of the television is not turned on on the broadcast day of the program, the channel information of the program being watched every week can be displayed in the next week.

The target time range has an initial value of 7 pm
The range is from 00:00 to 1:00 am the next day. However, this range can be changed by the user as required by the user. Also, the reference period can be changed by the user as required by the user.

When the target time range or the reference period is changed by the user, all the channel information already stored in the channel storage means 1 is discarded.
It is assumed that the channel information is not stored in the channel storage means 1. Therefore, in this case, one week after the change is a period for storing the channel information, and the weekly channel information is not displayed.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and has been described in the case of having the television unit 2 provided with the CRT 23. However, the configuration of the television unit 2 is changed to a tuner for channel selection, an IF amplifier circuit, and The present invention can be similarly applied to a configuration including a video signal processing circuit, a configuration including an OSD display circuit 3 and no display such as a CRT, that is, a configuration in which a received video signal is output to the outside. Has become. Therefore, in the case of this configuration, the week-old channel information is displayed on the device to which the video signal is guided.

[0047]

As described above, the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention uses the channel information indicating the received channel as two pieces of information, the day information indicating the received day and the time information indicating the received time. Channel storage means for storing in association with, and among the channel information stored in the channel storage means, the day of the week indicated by the associated day of the week information corresponds to the current day of the week, and the time information of the associated time When the channel information corresponding to the current time is used as the weekly channel information, the channel determination unit determines whether the channel indicated by the weekly channel information matches the channel currently being received, and And an information signal generating means for generating an information signal indicating the week ago channel information when the determination result indicates a mismatch. Therefore, when a channel different from the channel of the program watched one week ago is received and there is a possibility that the program that was watched one week ago may be missed, the channel of the program watched one week ago is changed. The information shown will alert the user, so even when not recording,
It is possible to prevent a program being viewed every week from being missed.

Further, when the duration of the broadcast is shorter than the duration of the program having a short duration and the duration close to the duration is set as the reference period, the channel storage means keeps the duration longer than the reference period. Only the channel information indicating the received channel is stored. Therefore, even a program having a short broadcast duration is stored as channel information. Channels received in a very short time are not stored as channel information. Therefore, the user can be alerted to a program with a short broadcast time while avoiding unnecessary display.

Further, the time range in which the channel storage means stores the channel information is a time range in which the audience rating of the television broadcast is high. In other words, in the time range where the audience rating is low, the possibility of missing the continuation of the program watched one week ago is extremely low without paying attention to the user due to the weekly channel information. Further, when the time period for storing the channel information is shortened, the information amount of the stored channel information decreases. Therefore, the amount of information to be stored can be reduced without impairing the effectiveness of the attention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing main operations of an embodiment of a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of data stored in a channel storage unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a receiving channel and time.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a display screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Channel storage means 3 OSD display circuit serving as information signal generation means by cooperating with control section 4 Control section serving as channel determination means S3 Step constituting channel determination means S4 Step constituting information signal generation means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A television broadcast receiving apparatus capable of selecting a channel to be received from a plurality of channels, wherein channel information indicating a received channel is divided into two pieces of day information indicating a received day of the week and time information indicating a received time. Channel storage means for storing the information in association with the information, and of the channel information stored in the channel storage means, the day of the week indicated by the associated day of the week information corresponds to the current day of the week, and When the channel information corresponding to the current time is the week ago channel information, the channel determination unit determines whether the channel indicated by the week ago channel information matches the channel currently being received, and the channel determination unit. When the result of the determination indicates a mismatch, information for generating an information signal indicating the channel information a week ago Television broadcast receiving apparatus characterized by comprising a No. generation means. 2. When the duration of a broadcast is shorter than the duration of a program having a short duration and a period close to the duration is set as a reference period, the channel storage means continues to be longer than the reference period. 2. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein only the channel information indicating the received channel is stored. 3. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a time range in which the channel storage unit stores the channel information is a time range in which a TV broadcast audience rating is high.