JP2002057956A - Television broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve problems of a conventional television broadcast receiver that requires image display switching operations to view program information and a user is unable to recognize what is broadcast on a channel especially when the channel selected at channel switching is broadcasting a CM. SOLUTION: In the digital broadcast receiver of this invention, a program information memory 23 stores electronic program guide(EPG) information included in an information channel separated by a data separation section 13 during reception of a television broadcast. A CM detection section 24 detects a CM broadcast from a video signal of a channel when the channel for current broadcast reaches a CM broadcast program or the channel selected at channel switching is broadcasting a CM broadcast program, a program information image forming section 25 captures program information broadcast at present from the program information memory 23, outputs it to an image forming section 21 and an image display section 22 displays the program information. Furthermore, when the CM broadcast program is finished, the original program is restored.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a receiver for various television broadcasts, such as terrestrial broadcasts and satellite broadcasts, which can provide program information to users at an appropriate time. Regarding the receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, television broadcasting is performed using various broadcasting media such as terrestrial broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, and cable television broadcasting. In addition to general analog broadcasting, there are multiplex broadcasting such as text multiplex broadcasting and data multiplex broadcasting that transmit a digital signal in the analog broadcast signal. In such text multiplex broadcasting, hundreds of text broadcasts can be transmitted in parallel on one channel, so that information in many fields can be updated and broadcast at intervals of about several seconds per screen, and analog terrestrial broadcasting can be performed. Broadcasting is expected to be widespread in the future as another mode of broadcasting.

[0003] Also, terrestrial broadcasting will soon be OF
Digital broadcasting by the DM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) transmission system is about to start, and since this OFDM system is strong against ghosts and suitable for mobile reception,
It is expected to be widely used for broadcasting for in-vehicle televisions and transmission of various data. In addition, since this broadcast is a digital broadcast, it is expected to be broadcast on many channels.

[0004] For satellite broadcasting, BS broadcasting and CS broadcasting are already widely used, and among them, high-definition broadcasting is also performed as well as general broadcasting by analog, which is currently widely broadcast. In addition to the analog broadcasting, the BS broadcasting has already been carried out as a digital broadcasting. The BS digital broadcasting is also carried out on a high definition television (HDTV) such as a high definition television in addition to a standard definition television (SDTV). ing.

[0005] Among satellite broadcasting, CS broadcasting has already broadcasted more than 300 channels including audio broadcasting. However, it is expected that the number of channels will be further increased in the future, and that it will become more popular with BS digital broadcasting in the future. Is expected. In addition, cable television broadcasting is used as a medium for the above-mentioned various broadcastings as well as performing its own broadcasting. Since the transmission capacity is large due to the use of the optical cable, various types of communication such as personal computer communication are used. It is also being used.

[0006]

As described above, the number of television broadcasts will increase in the future, from the current broadcast form to multi-channels due to the development of digital technology, and to the use of various information and data as communication media. It is expected to change significantly over the years.

[0007] As described above, a television broadcast is going to be multi-channel in each of various broadcasting systems, and a television broadcasting receiver can receive a large number of channels for each broadcasting system. A receiver capable of receiving a larger number of channels has been developed in response to the reception of the broadcasting system.

[0008] Therefore, selecting a program that one wants to watch from among these many channels has become a problem, for example, in CS broadcasting which currently broadcasts a very large number of channels. It is expected that this will be a problem in various broadcasting systems such as. This means that even in terrestrial analog broadcasting with a relatively small number of channels, if you do not carefully consider the TV program guides such as newspapers or TV program magazines, you will be able to make your own hobby among the currently broadcast programs. It is difficult to select and watch a suitable program, and the same problem occurs here. As for the TV program guide, comprehensive information of programs, detailed program guides for each station, and the like are provided from each homepage on the Internet, and users also use these to refer to the selection of viewing channels.

As a countermeasure, program information can be displayed on a television without separately viewing a television program list in a newspaper or magazine, and a user can select a desired program by referring to the program information. Already done, the provision of such program information is being enhanced. When using the program information displayed on the screen as described above, a remote controller or the like is used to control a list of the program guide displayed on the screen or a plurality of divided screens displaying images of many channels. By selecting a program list or a split screen, the user selects and receives the channel.

As means for providing such program information,
For example, in CS broadcasting, electronic program information (EPG: Electronic Program) transmitted in each broadcasting
ram Guide) is received by a receiver, reconstructed as data, and displayed as a program guide in an easily understandable manner.

[0011] In addition, the same broadcast is also used for BS broadcast as G
Broadcasting as a guide, and receiving it, a method of displaying the program information of each station on the screen is performed, and it is expected that this method will also spread, and receivers corresponding to it will be released . Furthermore, in general terrestrial analog broadcasting, there is also a receiver that can receive program information transmitted by teletext and display the information on a screen. Further, there is also a program in which program information is provided from the Internet, and the TV broadcast receiver is provided with an Internet connection function so that the information can be displayed on a television.

As described above, in various television broadcasts, a user can easily select an appropriate program.
This can be displayed on the television screen by means of providing various kinds of program information, but in order to view this program information, it is usually necessary to overlay this on the screen currently being broadcast. Use it by means such as watching, splitting the screen into multiple screens and displaying them side by side, or switching the current program viewing screen to the screen for viewing program information and viewing it Becomes

[0013] For this reason, it is common that the screen for displaying program information is not displayed during normal TV viewing, and it is necessary to separately perform a screen display switching operation or the like to view the program information. I have to be. Also, for example, when switching from the currently viewed channel to another channel, and when that channel is broadcasting a CM, it is not possible to know what program is currently being broadcast on that channel. At that time, the screen display operation of the program information as described above must be performed again, which also has to be troublesome, and waiting for the end of the CM broadcast without performing this operation is further imposed on the user. It will be frustrating.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the program information can be automatically viewed when the selected channel is broadcasting the CM without any special operation by the user, and the original screen is returned when the CM broadcasting ends. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a television broadcast receiver capable of viewing program information at an appropriate timing.

[0015]

According to the present invention, there is provided a program information memory for recording program information of a program being broadcast, and a CM detecting means for detecting a CM broadcast of a selected channel. And a program information image forming means for outputting the program information read from the program information memory when the CM detection is detected by the CM detection means and stopping the output when detecting the end of the CM broadcast. It is a receiver.

In another aspect, the program information is a television broadcast receiver which is electronic program information in digital broadcasting.

In another aspect, the program information is a television broadcast receiver that is text multiplex broadcast program information.

In another aspect, the program information is a television broadcast receiver taken from the Internet.

In another aspect, the program information to be output as an image is provided with a means for identifying a program of a selected channel to provide a television broadcast receiver for displaying an image.

In another aspect, the program information to be output as an image is a television broadcast receiver which is program information of a channel in a CM broadcast selected at the time of channel switching.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing, as blocks, the main functions of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a digital broadcast receiver, and showing the relationship between the functions. The signal of the digital broadcast received by the demodulation unit 12 is demodulated by a demodulation unit 12 that demodulates an RF signal and then a baseband signal. In the signal, the data separation unit 13 separates the information channel data 16 from the audio data 14, the video data 15, and the information channel including the management information of the data and various types of information.

The separated audio data 14 is output from a speaker 19 via an audio decoding unit 17 and an amplifier 18, and the video data 15 is output to a video signal decoding unit 20. An image is displayed on the image display unit 25 by combining an appropriate image or the like from the image forming unit 26. Also, of the various information data of the information channel data 16, new program information is recorded in the program information memory 23 by a memory capacity.

The CM detector 24 detects a CM broadcast based on the video signal decoded by the video signal decoder 20. Conventionally, this detection means has been widely used in video recording devices. For example, since CM broadcasting is often performed in stereo broadcasting, switching of stereo broadcasting from normal broadcasting is detected, or two-way broadcasting of movie programs or the like is detected.
A CM broadcast is detected by detecting a switch from a multilingual broadcast or an audio multiplex broadcast to a stereo broadcast, and detecting a switching of each pilot signal. In addition,
In consideration of the malfunction by the above method when the movie is a stereo broadcast, a signal that converts the film of the movie from 24 frames per second to 60 frames per second of the television signal is detected. Means for detecting the disappearance of the signal and performing CM broadcast detection has also been proposed, and these known various CM broadcast detection means can also be employed in the present invention.

In the program information image forming section 25, when the CM detecting section 24 detects a CM broadcast, it receives the signal and reads out the currently broadcasted program information recorded in the program information memory 23. A predetermined program information image is formed based on the information, and the program information image is output to the image forming unit 21 that forms the normal television broadcast image. At this time, in the image forming unit 21, switching is automatically performed when a predetermined signal instructing display of program information is input from the screen switching unit 28 based on a signal of the CM detection unit 24. Further, after the display is automatically switched to the program information display when the CM broadcast is detected, when the CM detection unit 24 detects that the CM broadcast has ended, the screen switching unit 28 uses the detection signal to display the normal television. Switch the display on the screen.

In this embodiment, when switching from the normal television broadcast screen to the program information display screen in the image forming section 21, the program information is changed in various ways by the setting signal from the setting operation section 30 arbitrarily operated by the user. Can be displayed. That is, in the program information display method selection section 27, for example, a method in which a normal television screen and a program information display screen are completely switched and displayed in the image display section 22, or the screen is divided into two and the television broadcast is directly displayed on one screen. Such as a system in which the image of the other side is displayed and a program information display screen is used for the other side, and furthermore, a normal TV screen is displayed thinly, and the image is used as a back screen to display characters and frames of the program information. Is prepared in advance, and is selected in advance by the setting operation unit 30 so that the screen switching unit 21 can switch the screen output to the image display unit 22 according to the selected display method. I have.

In this embodiment, the signal of the program information display content selecting section 26 is output to the program information image forming section 25, thereby selecting and displaying various display methods of the program information. In the program list, selection of display contents such as scrolling to a portion not displayed on the screen can be performed by an instruction of the setting operation unit 30.

The setting operation unit 30 issues a selection instruction to the program information display method selection unit 27, a selection instruction to the program information display content selection unit 26, and a display content instruction as described above. Digital broadcast receiver 10
A channel instruction signal is output to the channel selection unit 31 of, and a desired channel is selected. At this time,
In addition to the user directly outputting a channel selection instruction signal from the channel selection operation unit, a part of the channel list displayed on the screen is selected by moving the highlight display unit, moving the cursor, etc. It is also possible to output the signal to the channel selection section 31 assuming that the channel is selected by pressing the confirmation key at the position. Although not shown, similar to a conventional television broadcast receiver, the user operates the setting operation unit 30 so that program information can be displayed on the screen and viewed at any time. I have.

The digital broadcast receiver 10 composed of the functional blocks as described above can be operated according to, for example, an operation flow as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, a description will be given together with the functional blocks of FIG. 1 and an actual image example shown in FIG. In the screen display processing of the television broadcast receiver, first, the video of the selected channel is displayed (step S1). This is the reception / video display processing of the normally operating television before the display operation of the program information is performed in the present invention.

When such normal television image display is performed, in the present invention, collection of program information and its memory are performed (step S2). This is performed by recording program information such as EPG in the program information memory 23 among the information data separated by the information channel data 16 in FIG.

Next, it is determined whether or not the program currently being broadcast has become a CM broadcast (step S3). This determination is made by the CM detection unit 24 in FIG.
Detects that the broadcast is a stereo broadcast, where C
When it is not detected that the broadcast is the M broadcast, it is determined whether or not the channel has been changed next (step S).
4). If there is no channel change here,
Returning to step S1, the display of the video of the selected channel is continued, the collection of program information is continued, and the contents of the program information memory are updated.

If it is determined in step S4 that the channel has been changed, it is determined whether or not the changed channel is a CM broadcast (step S5). If it is determined that the broadcast is not a CM broadcast, step S
Returning to step 1, the video of the selected channel is displayed.

If it is determined in step S3 that the video of the currently viewed channel has changed to a CM broadcast, or if the user performs a channel change operation in step S5, the changed channel is the CM broadcast. If it is in the middle, the program information is read from the memory (step S6). At this time, predetermined program information data is read out according to an instruction from the program information image forming unit 25 shown in FIG.

Next, the program information is displayed in a predetermined format based on the read program information data (step S).
7). The display contents and the display format are set by the program information image forming unit 25, and the image display device 22 uses a screen switching display method for erasing a normal television picture and displaying program information instead, or a screen switching unit. 2
2 screen is divided into, for example, the right and left at an appropriate division ratio, and the CM broadcast screen currently being broadcast is displayed on one side and the program information is displayed on the other side. Further, the CM broadcast screen currently being broadcast is displayed thinly. Then, the display is performed by a method selected in advance by the user from various methods such as an overlapping display method for clearly displaying the program information thereon. At this time, the sound of the CM broadcast can be output as it is, but this is linked with the normal screen, stopped at the end of the normal screen, and the program information of the channel which the user is instructing to select is displayed. Can also be voice-guided.

FIG. 3C shows an example in which the program information is displayed by the overlapping display method among the various display methods. In FIG. 3, when a normal program is first displayed as shown in (a), when the screen ends and the CM broadcast screen as shown in (b) is displayed, or (a)
When the user performs an operation to change the channel from the state of the normal screen as shown in (b), if the CM broadcast screen is exactly as shown in (b), the CM broadcast as shown in (c) An example is shown in which an image is displayed thinly and a program is displayed thereon. In addition, by displaying in this manner, even when the CM broadcast detection is not properly performed, the CM broadcast ends because the user naturally views the screen that is the back screen of the program information. , So that the screen can be forcibly switched to the normal screen display.

In the program display in the example shown in FIG. 3C, only the channels which can be viewed by this receiver are selected and listed in order of channel number. The title of the program is shown, as well as the start time and end time of the program. When there is a viewable program such as 912 channel other than the channel displayed here, this screen is scrolled and displayed by operating a scroll key of a remote controller or the like, and a display change operation of the program information of the channel is performed. (Step S8). When displaying the program information, the user can know the program information of the selected channel at least if the program of the currently selected channel is displayed on the screen. At that time, only the program information of the channel can be displayed on the screen, but when the program information of another channel is also displayed, the color to be displayed is changed to identify the portion of the currently selected channel from the others. Alternatively, the user can easily know what the currently selected channel is a program being broadcast by performing a flash display for displaying the portion particularly brightly.

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the CM broadcast has ended (step S9). If not, it is determined whether or not an operation for forcibly terminating the program information display has been performed (step S10). If it is determined that the operation of terminating the program has not been performed, the process returns to step S7 to continue the state in which the program information is displayed on the screen, and repeats the above operation. In this process, when the end of the CM broadcast is detected, the display of the program information is forcibly ended automatically, or when the CM broadcast is not ended but the channel is selected and viewed. Is instructed by the user, the program information display screen is terminated by the instruction, and a normal screen is displayed (step S11). FIG. 3D shows a state in which the CM broadcast has ended and the next program after the end of the CM on the same channel as in FIG.
This shows a state where the M broadcast is not being performed or the CM broadcast is ended after the CM is broadcast and the program information is displayed.

The program information can be displayed in various manners conventionally performed. For example, as shown in FIG.
It is also possible to divide the program and display the same list as in FIG. 3C in the lower column, and to display the detailed program information on the currently selected channel in the upper column. In the embodiment shown in the figure, an example is shown in which the channel selected by the user is highlighted or the display color is changed during the list display in the lower column of the program information display screen. By displaying the detailed information on the selected channel in the upper column, the contents of the program of the currently selected channel can be easily known.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, an example in which the present invention is applied to a CS digital broadcast receiver is shown. However, for example, a character multiplex broadcast such as that performed in terrestrial television broadcast is received and transmitted there. By storing and updating the program information in the program information memory during normal television broadcast reception, when the currently receiving television broadcasts a CM or when a channel changes and hits a channel on which the CM is being broadcast, Display program information in the same way as
It is possible to know program information being broadcast on the channel without performing any special operation.

Further, for example, a G guide providing program information for terrestrial broadcasting or BS broadcasting can be received and stored in a program information memory. In such a case, it is also possible to take in arbitrary information from among various kinds of program information provided on many homepages on the Internet and use it.

In each of these various modes, the means for taking in the program information is different, so the functional block diagram shown in FIG. 1 is changed in accordance with the mode. However, the operation flow shown in FIG. The screen display shown in (1) can be applied almost in common to them.

[0041]

The present invention is configured as described above.
The user can automatically view the program information when the selected channel is broadcasting a CM without any special operation, and return to the original screen at the end of the CM broadcasting, at an appropriate timing. Program information can be automatically viewed.

In the case where the program information is electronic program information in digital broadcasting, program information such as EPG is extracted from information data included in a digital broadcasting signal, and the extracted program information is used. Since program information can be obtained, accurate and accurate program information can be displayed in digital broadcasting.

When the program information is text multiplex broadcast program information, it is possible to obtain the text broadcast program information multiplexed and transmitted in the television broadcast signal. In this case, accurate and accurate program information can be displayed.

When the program information is taken from the Internet, the program information provided from various homepages connected to the Internet can be used, and various program information can be displayed.

Further, when the program information to be output as an image is provided with a means for identifying a program of the selected channel and the image is displayed, the currently selected channel information among the various program information displayed is displayed. Can be easily identified and viewed by the user.

In the case where the program information to be output as an image is the program information of the channel being broadcast during the CM broadcast selected at the time of the channel switching, when the channel selected during the channel switching is performing the CM broadcast, the current channel information is It is not known whether the program is being broadcast, but in such a case, the program information currently being broadcast on the channel is automatically displayed. And the selection of the channel becomes easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing functional blocks and their interrelationships when the present invention is applied to a digital broadcast receiver.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed according to the present invention, wherein (a) is an example of a screen of a normal television broadcast, and (b)
Shows an example of a screen when the channel becomes a CM broadcast or the channel selected at the time of channel switching is a CM broadcast, and (c) shows a screen on a television screen currently being broadcast by detecting the CM broadcast. Shows an example in which the program information display screen is superimposed and displayed, and FIG.
An example is shown in which a normal broadcast is displayed on the screen after the end of M broadcast.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of a display screen of program information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Digital broadcast receiver 13 Data separation part 16 Information channel data separation part 20 Code part by video signal 21 Image formation part 23 Program information memory 24 CM detection part 25 Program information image formation part 26 Program information display contents selection part 27 Program information display Method selection unit 28 Screen switching unit 30 Setting operation unit 31 Channel selection unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/03 7/035

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A program information memory for recording program information of a program being broadcast, a CM detecting means for detecting a CM broadcast of a selected channel, and a program information memory for detecting a CM broadcast by the CM detecting means. A television broadcast receiver comprising: a program information image forming means for outputting read program information as an image and stopping the output when a CM broadcast end is detected. 2. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein said program information is electronic program information in digital broadcasting. 3. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program information is text multiplex broadcast program information. 4. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program information is obtained from the Internet. 5. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program information to be output as an image is provided with means for identifying a program of a selected channel and is displayed as an image. 6. The television broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program information to be output as an image is program information of a channel during a CM broadcast selected at the time of channel switching.