JP2002305692A - Method for generating digital broadcast program guide digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of a conventional digital broadcast receiver that a user has had difficulty in selection of programs only preferred by the user in digital broadcasting that broadcasts many number of channels. SOLUTION: A user enters a plurality of reception desired category the receiver by placing priority on them and a memory 27 stores them. In the case of generating a program guide, an electronic program guide retrieval/program selection section 30 retrieves programs with the reception desired category from data in an electronic program guide data storage section 28. When programs are broadcast in duplicate in the same time zone in the obtained program guide, a program that is rebroadcast is retrieved in the duplicate programs, and the program that is rebroadcast is selected when existing and the other of the duplicate programs is excluded. When the duplicate programs exist furthermore, the program with a category of lower priority is excluded according to the priority of the category and a program guide from which duplicate programs are excluded is obtained. The program guide is displayed for the user as a menu and a program viewing management section 33 controls the reception operation of the digital broadcast receiver based on the data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver for receiving digital broadcasts broadcasting a large number of programs such as CS digital broadcasts and BS digital broadcasts, and more particularly to a digital broadcast receiver for selecting a desired program by an electronic program guide. The present invention relates to a digital broadcast program guide creating method for creating a program guide by using the digital broadcast receiver and a digital broadcast receiver capable of receiving a digital broadcast using a program guide created based on this method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, digital broadcasting has various features such as simultaneous transmission of a plurality of broadcasts on one channel, good image quality, and little disturbing of images on a transmission path. 2. Description of the Related Art Digital broadcasting has become widespread, and programs with more than 200 channels are broadcast day and night. In addition, BS digital broadcasting has become a main broadcasting, and is going to spread rapidly along with the high image quality of digital high definition television.

[0003] Further, terrestrial digital broadcasting has been broadcast in the United States for some time, and in Japan, the start time of the main broadcasting has been determined. In particular, digital terrestrial broadcasting is suitable for mobile reception, so it is expected that on-board receivers will receive high-quality, multi-channel audio broadcasts. It may be an important function and is attracting attention. As described above, it is expected that most of the broadcasts will be digitized in the future, and it is expected that an extremely large number of broadcasts will be receivable since digital broadcasts are being multi-channeled.

[0004] In addition, with the increase in the number of recipients and the competition among the companies, various programs and various services according to the tastes and preferences of the users are increasing, and for example, movies, sports, music, news, dramas, variety, and the like. A large number of genres, such as music, education, theater broadcasting, hobbies, and animation, are broadcast on many channels. A user who receives such a digital broadcast has to select his / her favorite channel from among a great many channels as described above. There is a problem that requires much trouble such as searching for a program to be performed.

[0005] For this reason, in a CS broadcast, a specific channel is used. In a BS digital broadcast, an electronic program guide (EPG: Electronic Program Guide) is multiplexed with video and audio data.
In this case, a desired program can be selected from various programs by displaying this data.

Therefore, most of recent digital broadcast receivers have an EPG reception function, and receivers of various companies arrange EPG program data in various ways to form original usage guides. Digital broadcast users can display this program table by operating remote control keys and the like, receive desired programs,
In addition, recording settings are made as needed.

[0007] Such an electronic program guide (EPG) is a type of data broadcasting, and the content of each EPG has some differences. However, most of them are based on the broadcast date, day of the week, The start / end time, station ID, program title, subtitle, program content, cast, genre information of the program, etc., including a still image in part, are repeatedly transmitted several times a second. In addition, contents included in the EPG are scheduled to be added as appropriate in the future, so that various types of information can be used. In a digital broadcast receiver, which has become difficult, the effective use of the EPG is an extremely important factor that appeals to users as a function of the digital broadcast receiver and as a means for guiding digital broadcasting.

[0008]

As described above, the effective use of an electronic program guide is an extremely important function in a digital broadcast receiver, and many users use the electronic program guide to receive a large number of signals. A desired program is selected from available channels. In particular, since this electronic program guide includes data of a channel and date and time, most digital broadcast receivers can make a program viewing reservation directly using this data.

[0009] In addition, many users often determine the time zone of watching television on a weekly basis along with their behavior patterns. For example, a specific office worker is Monday to Friday at 7 am in the morning. It is customary to watch TV from 8:00 to 11:00 at night from 8:00 to 8:00, and a housewife with a preschool child turns on TV for a children's program from 9:00 to 11:00. There is a habit of turning on the TV to watch the housewife's program during the time between 4 and 4 o'clock, and school children watch children's programs at an appropriate time from 5 to 8 o'clock after returning from school. However, the viewing time zone tends to be constant according to the behavior pattern of each person. The broadcasting station also broadcasts programs according to the time zone in accordance with such a behavior pattern of the viewer.

[0010] For this reason, television users often make program reservations, such as making a one-week viewing reservation for the receiver in advance, in accordance with their own behavior patterns. When making such a viewing reservation, it is necessary to select a particularly desired program from a program table for one week of available channels. It is extremely difficult to select a favorite program.

At this time, it is also possible to select a specific channel by designating a genre, and to select a desired program from among them. Even in this case, when selecting a program for one week, only one genre is selected. For example, for adults, genres such as movie programs, documentary programs, and variety programs are often selected, and for children, genres such as animation programs, game programs, and educational programs are often selected. Thus, even when a viewing reservation is made by specifying a genre, there are often a plurality of channels that can be viewed in a specific genre, and it is often difficult to select the channel.

In this way, for example, when a viewing reservation for one week is made, a particular genre such as a movie is selected so that the program can be easily selected, and program duplication is performed in the same time zone. It is difficult to select a desired program while considering it not to occur. Moreover, some of these programs
Some programs have reruns in most cases, such as large documentary programs and large concert broadcasts, and some channels broadcast the same movie several times a week, such as movie programs. I do. Therefore,
When selecting a program, it is necessary to select the program in consideration of rebroadcasting. Even if a program is broadcasted in the same time zone as described above, it is decided that one program will be rebroadcasted. If it is clear that the content can be viewed at the time of the rebroadcast, a viewing reservation can be made so as to view the content at the time of the rebroadcast.

As described above, it is necessary to make a program reservation in consideration of rebroadcasting. At this time, it is necessary to check whether or not there is a rebroadcast for each program whose broadcasting time zone overlaps. It is extremely difficult to select an appropriate program by looking at a program table like this. In particular, in the case of a movie or a large program as described above, re-broadcasting is often performed, so that checking is important and indispensable. In addition, when selecting a plurality of genres, it is difficult to make a selection so that broadcast times do not overlap, and it is also possible to select a program without specifying a genre. Has to make a selection from many channels, which is a very difficult task.

[0014] A similar problem occurs not only when a viewing reservation is made for one week, for example, as described above, but also when a normal television is watched. It is difficult to select a desired program from the genre. Also, in this case, even if a specific genre is selected and narrowed down in advance and then a program desired to be viewed is selected, in a genre in which many programs such as a movie exist, a contract for constantly receiving the channel is made. Even if they are not, there are many programs that can be viewed only by paying a fee for a specific program. Therefore, it is difficult to select a program because there are so many programs that can be viewed at that time. In particular, as described above, it is more difficult to select a program while reviewing a program having a rebroadcast for later viewing.

Therefore, according to the present invention, in a digital broadcast in which many programs are broadcast, it is possible to create a program table in which a user can easily select a program to be viewed from those programs. It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a digital broadcast program guide creating method and a digital broadcast receiver capable of receiving a digital broadcast by a program guide created based on this method.

[0016]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a digital broadcast program guide creating method according to the present invention assigns priorities to a plurality of genres of a program desired to be received and inputs the genres. The program of the selected genre is searched and selected from the data of the electronic program guide, and it is determined whether or not a program overlapping in the same time slot exists in the selected program, and a program overlapping in the same time slot exists. When it is determined that the program has a lower priority, the program having the lower priority is excluded based on the priority of the genre.

In another digital broadcast program guide creating method according to the present invention, a condition of a program desired to be received is input, and a program matching the input condition is searched and selected from data of an electronic program guide. Then, it is determined whether or not there is a duplicate program in the same time zone in the selected program, a program in which a rebroadcast exists in the duplicate program is searched, and as a result of the search, a rebroadcast exists. In this case, a program which is not re-broadcast and which overlaps with a certain program is excluded, and a program in a time zone in which a broadcast time zone does not overlap with another program is selected.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention provides priority-input genre input means for assigning priorities to a plurality of genres of a program desired to be received and inputting them. Program selection means for searching and selecting a program of the selected genre from the data of the electronic program guide, and duplicate program discrimination means for discriminating whether or not a program overlapping in the same time zone exists in the selected program. The program selecting means excludes low priority programs based on the priority of the genre when the overlapping program discriminating means determines that there are overlapping programs in the same time zone.

In another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, the genre to which the priority is assigned is arbitrarily selected from a genre of an upper genre and a genre of a lower sub-category, and is assigned an order. .

In another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, a program selection input means for inputting a condition of a program desired to be received, and a program matching the input condition is searched from data of an electronic program guide. Program selection means for selecting
The duplicate program discriminating means for discriminating whether or not there is a duplicate program in the same time zone in the selected program, and the program selection unit searches for a program in which a rebroadcast exists among the duplicate programs. A rebroadcast search unit and a program for setting reception of a program in which a rebroadcast searched by the rebroadcast search unit exists in another time zone that does not overlap with other programs.

In another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, the condition of the program desired to be received is a genre of the program desired to be received.

Further, another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention includes a viewing history memory for storing a program received by the receiver, and the program selection means overlaps in the same time zone by the overlapping program discrimination means. When it is determined that a program exists, the program existing in the viewing history memory is excluded.

Further, another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention comprises a viewing history memory for storing a program received by the receiver, and a series program search means for searching for a series program from data recorded in the viewing history memory. The program selecting means excludes programs other than the programs detected by the series program detecting means when the overlapping program determining means determines that there are overlapping programs in the same time zone.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the functional blocks of a digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention and their interrelationships. In this figure, as in the prior art, in the digital broadcast receiving unit 10, the radio waves of the digital broadcast received by the antenna 11 are processed by the RF signal demodulation unit 12 and the baseband signal demodulation unit 13 controlled by the system control unit 20, respectively. Then, the data separating section 14 separates the audio data 15 and the video data 16 included in the signal and the information channel data 17 including various information such as management information of these data.

The separated audio data 15 is output from a speaker 22 via an audio signal decoding unit 18 and an amplifier 21, and the video data 16 is output to a video signal decoding unit 23. An appropriate image or the like from the front screen output unit 32 is synthesized and a video is displayed on the image display unit 25. The information channel data 17 is input to the system control unit 20. The information channel data 17 includes program control data, and the program control data includes information such as a program name, a start time, and a program genre. Also,
For example, in BS Digital, an electronic program guide (EP
G) is transmitted after being multiplexed with video data and audio data. In CS broadcasting, data is transmitted on a specific channel, and these electronic program guides can also be taken in from here.

An operation signal input unit 26 is further connected to the system control unit 20. From here, at least the genres and their priorities used in the present invention described below, the viewing time period during which the user can watch television, The instruction of the original program guide display request according to the present invention, and the final arbitrary selection instruction when a plurality of programs are selected in the same time slot and duplication cannot be eliminated by each method, etc. input. Among these inputs, the genre priority order and the viewable time zone are recorded in the memory 27. The memory 27 also stores a viewing history for storing a program that the user has viewed so far for a predetermined period of time, if necessary. Do. An electronic program guide data storage unit 28 for storing the electronic program guide separated by the information channel data 17 is connected to the system control unit 20. The data is automatically updated to new data at any time from the start of operation of the receiver. While accumulating electronic program guide data.

An electronic program guide search / program selection unit 30 is connected to the system control unit 20 and stores signals relating to search conditions among various operation signals input by the user from the operation signal input unit 26. A predetermined electronic program guide is searched from the electronic program guide data storage unit 28 according to the setting condition of the search condition setting unit 28 which refers to the data in the memory 27. The data of the electronic program guide searched in this way is arranged in a predetermined program table format in a program table forming unit 31, output from the program table screen output unit 32 to the image synthesizing unit 24, and combined with a video signal as appropriate. Is displayed on the image display unit 25. Further, the program table data obtained by the program table forming unit 31 is output to the program viewing management unit 33, and the program viewing management unit 33 selects a predetermined channel at a predetermined time according to the created program table. Perform a series of management to receive.

In the digital broadcast receiver having the above-described configuration, the production of a program guide performed by a genre setting instruction or the like according to the present invention can be performed according to, for example, an operation flow shown in FIG. Hereinafter, this operation flow will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and other drawings.
In the program table creation process in the digital broadcast receiver shown in FIG. 2, the user first inputs a desired genre with priority, directly inputs a desired program, and further inputs a viewable time zone based on the user's life pattern. The recording of these data is performed in advance (step S1).

Of these data, in the present invention,
It is preferable to input at least the priority of the genre. When it is not necessary to particularly specify the desired program, the direct input of the desired program is not performed, and the user does not need to particularly input the viewable time zone. This data is not entered when you think. The input of these data is performed from the operation signal input unit 26 in FIG.

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not there is an input of a program guide display request from the user (step S2). If there is no request for display of the program guide from the user, the input is awaited. Here, when it is determined that there is a request to display the program guide,
An electronic program guide is searched (step S3). The search of the electronic program guide is performed by the search condition setting unit 29 in the memory 2.
7, the genre priority, the program desired to be viewed, the viewable time zone, etc. are read to set search conditions, and the electronic program guide search / program selection unit stores the data in the electronic program guide data storage unit 28 based on these conditions. Perform by searching.

Next, a temporary program table is created based on the result of the search. As the temporary program table, for example, a program table as shown in FIG. 5B is created. That is, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, for example, as shown in the example of the entire program table in FIG. An example is shown. The electronic program guide search / program selection unit 30 performs a search based on the electronic program guide data of all such program guides, and a temporary program guide as shown in FIG. The example of FIG. 2 shows an example in which the first priority is set to sports and the second priority is set to drama as the priority of the genre.
Only the sports and drama programs are selected from the programs in (a), and a temporary program table as shown in FIG.

Next, it is determined whether or not programs are overlapped in the same time zone based on the above-mentioned temporary program table (step S6). In the example of FIG. 5 described above, in the provisional program table as shown in FIG. 5 (b), sports 1 on channel 1 and drama 1 on channel 15 are available from 9:00 to 10:00.
In the time period from 10:00 to 11:00, 9-channel sports 2 and 15-channel sports 3 and 20-channel drama 2 overlap, and in the 12:00 to 13:00 time period, Drama 3 of 9 channels
This shows an example in which drama 4 of channel 20 overlaps with drama 4. In the same figure, the drama 1 broadcasted from 11:00 to 12:00 on the 15th channel is searched from the information on the program stored in the memory that the drama 1 is a rebroadcast of the drama 1 from 9:00 to 10:00 on the same channel. As will be described later, this information can be used in the present invention.

If it is determined in step S5 in FIG. 2 that the programs do not overlap in the same time zone, the program table for viewing reservation can be created using the temporary program table as it is. A program table without duplicate programs is created in the final same time zone. Also,
In the state shown in FIG. 5B in the above step S5, when it is determined that the programs overlap in the same time zone, in the illustrated embodiment, the program to be rebroadcast during the overlapping program is used. It is determined whether or not there is (step S6).

When it is determined that there is a rebroadcast as a result of the determination, duplication elimination processing is performed for a program having a rebroadcast (step S11). For example, in the time zone from 9:00 to 10:00 in FIG.
And drama 1 on channel 15 overlap, but drama 1 on channel 15 will be rebroadcast from 11 o'clock on the same day, so drama 1 in the time zone from 9 o'clock will be stopped here and 11:00 To watch the rebroadcast from. By this processing, a duplicate program in the time zone from 9:00 to 10:00 can be eliminated. Thereafter, it is determined whether all duplications have been eliminated (step S12). If it is determined that all duplications have been eliminated, the process proceeds to step S10, and a final program table without duplicate programs is created based on the program table. Is performed.

In step S6, when it is determined that there is no program to be rebroadcast among the overlapping programs, and when it is determined in step S12 that the rebroadcasting has been adjusted but the overlapping program still exists, step S7 is performed. Then, it is determined whether or not the genres of the overlapping programs are the same. Here, when it is determined that the genres of the overlapping programs are not the same, the higher priority is retained based on the genre priority data of the genre with the priorities input in advance in step S1, and Exclude others. As a result, in the example of FIG. 5B, the drama 2 is excluded from the sports 2 of 9 channels, the sports 3 of 15 channels, and the drama 20 of 20 channels which are duplicated in the time zone from 10:00 to 11:00. be able to.

Next, it is determined whether or not all duplications have been eliminated (step S9). If all duplications have been eliminated, the process proceeds to step S10, where the program table created as described above is replaced with a final program table without duplicate programs. I do. In the example of FIG. 5 (b), an example is shown in which sports 2 and sports 3 are overlapped between 10:00 and 11:00, and drama 3 and drama 4 are still overlapping between 12:00 and 13:00. However, if, for example, there are only 9 sports programs for sports and only 20 channels for dramas, all duplications have been eliminated in step S10, and this is the final In this case, a program table as shown in FIG. 5C is obtained.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S7 that the genres of the overlapping programs are the same, and when it is determined in step S9 that the elimination of duplication is performed according to the priority of the genre but that there is still an overlapping program, it is necessary (Step S13). Even if the special duplication elimination process is not performed thereafter, the program list in which the duplicate program obtained as described above remains is displayed, and the user is allowed to select any program in the duplicate portion. In addition, it is also possible to create a program table without duplicate programs in the final same time zone.
When a program table without duplicate programs is created in this way, the viewing reservation process ends.

By performing another duplication elimination process / operation in step S13 as described above, for example, FIG.
As illustrated in (c), duplication of sports 2 and 3 in the time zone from 10:00 to 11:00 is eliminated, and duplication of drama 3 and drama 4 in the time zone of 12:00 to 13:00 is eliminated. As a result, a program table without duplication is obtained. Thereafter, this data is displayed on the screen in a desired size and form as an original program guide, and is used as data for managing the operation of the receiver in the program viewing management section 33 of FIG.

Although the operation flow shown in FIG. 2 shows an example in which the basic operation of the present invention is performed, other deduplication processing in step S13 can be carried out in various other modes. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, deduplication can be performed based on data of a sub-category genre obtained by further subdividing the genre. That is, in the example of the deduplication processing / operation 1 shown in FIG. 3, as a countermeasure when a plurality of programs of the same genre are duplicated in step S13 of FIG. It is determined whether or not to perform (step S1).

This determination is made in the example of FIG. 5 (b) by the duplication elimination processing based on the genre priority order as described above.
When there are two sports programs even after drama 2 of channel 0 is eliminated, or when there are two dramas in the time zone of 12:00 and 13:00, the user is searched by the genre sub-classification. Display a selection screen for whether to perform
The determination can be made depending on whether or not the user selects a method of performing a search by sub-classification.

When performing the search based on the sub-category in the genre as described above, the user inputs the priority of the sub-class in the same genre in step S22. This input is performed, for example, in accordance with the data of the genre classification and the genre sub-classification which are determined in advance as shown in FIG. FIG. 7 exemplifies the data. For example, sports 1 and 2
Genre, and for sports 1, baseball,
Soccer, golf, basketball, volleyball,
Particularly major sports such as tennis are included, and sports 2 include other sports such as winter sports, motor sports, marine sports, swimming, sumo wrestling, professional wrestling, and the like. In addition, drama / drama includes trendy, historical drama, science fiction, comedy / comedy, youth / school, suspense, and the like.

When an actual user inputs a sub-category, when a duplicate program exists in a sport as described above, the above-described sub-classification table of the sport is automatically displayed on the screen, and the duplication in the drama is performed. When a program is present, the above-described sub-classification table of the drama is automatically displayed on the screen, and the user can easily perform the ranking by giving a ranking to the drama by key input or the like. FIG. 6 shows a program table including data obtained by further subdividing each genre with respect to the example of the program table shown in FIG. 5, and as shown in FIG. The two overlapping sports programs are soccer on channel 9 and golf on channel 15. The two dramas still overlapping between 12:00 and 13:00 are 9
A trendy drama on the channel and a suspense drama on the 20th channel.

Accordingly, the temporary program table after selection according to the priority of the desired genre as described above is created as shown in FIG. 6B in the same manner as in FIG. By the priority assignment, the user selects and sets golf in the first rank for sports, and baseball in the second rank, and sets the trendy and second rank for the drama in the first rank.
When the youth item is selected and set, the search and selection based on the data are performed, and finally, FIG. 6 (c)
A program table as shown in FIG. The data input at this time is used in the same manner for all program reservations for one week outside the range shown in FIG.

In the example of FIG. 3, as described above, duplicate programs in the same genre are subjected to the duplicate elimination processing in the priority order of the fine classification (step S23), and it is determined whether or not all the duplications have been eliminated (step S23). S24). If it is determined at this determination that all duplications have been eliminated as shown in FIG. 6 (c), this program table is changed to a program table having no overlapping programs in the final same time zone (step S25), and the operation flow ends. (Step S27). If there is still a duplicate, the process ends after performing another duplicate elimination process / operation (step S26).

Note that, in the example shown in FIG. 3, an example is shown in which selection by genre subclassification is performed when there is still a duplicate program after various deduplication processes are performed in step S13 in FIG. For example, step S1 in FIG.
When inputting a desired genre with a priority order in, it is possible to set so as to perform the ordering based on the genre subclassification for all genres or for some genres. At that time, for example, the first rank may be set to golf and the second rank to baseball for sports, and the sub-classification may not be ranked here for dramas.

For example, when two programs overlap in baseball of the same sports genre and in the same genre sub-category, or when two programs overlap in the same genre of the same drama genre and further in the trend of the same genre, As a duplicate elimination process / operation, a duplicate program can be displayed to the user in the same manner as described above, and one of the duplicate programs can be directly selected. Alternatively, for example, a process shown in FIG. 4 may be performed. it can.

That is, in the example shown in FIG. 4, as the deduplication processing / operation 2, the viewing history memory is first searched (step S31), and it is determined whether or not there is a rebroadcast of the previously viewed program (step S31). Step S32). In this viewing history memory, for example, in the memory 27 of FIG. 1, a history of the user viewing the digital broadcast receiver for a predetermined period of time, such as three months, is recorded, and the viewing condition search is set in the search condition setting unit 29. In this case, the search is performed by searching the data of the electronic program guide data storage unit 28 in the electronic program guide search / program selection unit 30.

As a result of the determination in step S32, when it is determined that a re-broadcast of the previously viewed program exists in the overlapping program, this program is excluded (step S38). That is, for a program that has been viewed before, when a viewed program is duplicated as described above, this program is excluded because priority is given to the other programs. If it is determined in step S32 that there is no program that has been viewed before, it is determined whether or not the program is a series program of the previously viewed program (step S33).

Here, for example, a specific trendy drama or a series of documentary programs that are broadcast continuously for several months every week, etc., should be viewed continuously by the viewer in principle, and these programs should be given priority. Exclude other programs. Here, for example, in baseball of the sports genre, when a plurality of programs overlap, for example, each of the live broadcast programs of Giants and Dragons, Tigers and Carp overlap, for example, the programs of Giants are mainly based on the viewing history. When it is determined that the user is watching, Giant's broadcast can be selected in the same manner as in the series.

After the previously viewed program is eliminated in step S38, and after the series program is prioritized and eliminated in step S34, it is determined whether or not all duplications have been eliminated (step S35). . If it is determined that all the programs have been eliminated, the program table is output as a program table without duplicate programs, and the process ends (step S39). In addition, when it is determined in step S33 that there is no series program of the previously viewed program among the duplicate programs, and when there is still a duplicate program after excluding others in priority in the series program in step S35, Another duplication elimination process and operation are performed (step S37). Here, the program selection screen can be displayed, and the user can directly select and input.

The present invention relates to CS digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting,
In digital broadcast receivers such as terrestrial digital broadcasts that will be broadcast in Japan in the future, it will be possible to easily create an optimal program guide for users, but in the future there will be one such digital broadcast receiver Is expected to be able to receive everything, and when it is put to practical use, the digital broadcast receiver will collect electronic program guides for all digital broadcasts and make a common program reservation That is, the present invention can be effectively used in that case as well.

Further, in the above embodiment, a provisional program table is created by retrieving data of the electronic program guide based on a plurality of desired genres previously input by the user. Adjusting the viewing time zone of a certain program and then performing deduplication based on the genre priority was shown, for example, a search was performed based on a desired genre with multiple priorities, and The present invention can also be implemented by simply performing the deduplication processing according to the priority immediately.

The adjustment of the viewing time zone of a program with rebroadcasting is performed after narrowing down according to the desired viewing genre as in the above embodiment, and then adjusting the overlapping program in the genre. In addition, any narrowing means can be adopted as long as it is used for adjusting a program whose time zone overlaps among programs narrowed down by some means, for example, narrowing down by a series that has been watched before. Also, after narrowing down by a favorite actor or a favorite director, the adjustment by rebroadcasting as described above can be performed.

In digital broadcasting, audio is also broadcast on a large number of channels. Upon receiving the audio, for example, the genre sub-category in “12. Digital Audio” in FIG. The present invention can be similarly applied when used. Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example of program reservation made by the digital receiver for the time when the user actually watches the television is shown. However, for example, when the user wants to record a favorite program by one video, Can be applied as a receiver function. Further, the digital broadcast program guide creation method according to the present invention can also be applied to a program display screen creation used when a user views a program guide and selects a program to be viewed from now on. It can also be used as a program for creating software.

[0055]

According to the digital broadcast program guide creation method according to the present invention, a plurality of genres of a program desired to be received are assigned with priorities and input, and the programs of the input genre are converted from data of an electronic program guide. Search and select, determine whether there is a duplicate program in the same time zone in the selected program, and when it is determined that there is a duplicate program in the same time zone, the priority of the genre In order to eliminate low priority programs based on, in a digital broadcast where many programs are broadcast, it is possible to display a program of a genre that the user wants to view from among those programs, A program to be viewed can be easily selected. At this time, narrowing down is performed by a plurality of genres, and although the selection range is expanded, priority is given to each genre, so that a program that meets the user's wish can be selected, and the same time period can be selected. When programs overlap, programs with lower priorities are excluded, so that it is possible to create a digital broadcast program guide that is easy for the user to see and use.

In another digital broadcast program guide creating method according to the present invention, a condition of a program desired to be received is input, and a program matching the input condition is searched and selected from data of an electronic program guide. Then, it is determined whether or not there is a duplicate program in the same time zone in the selected program, a program in which a rebroadcast exists in the duplicate program is searched, and as a result of the search, a rebroadcast exists. When re-running, the program that overlaps with a certain program is eliminated and the program of the time zone where the broadcast time zone does not overlap with other programs is selected.
If there are multiple programs in the same time zone in the program guide that has collected only the programs that you want to view and have been narrowed down by some means, if there are rebroadcast programs that can be viewed at other times, It can be set so as to be received, and a program table of a digital broadcast with reliable duplication elimination can be created.

Further, the digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention provides priority-added genre input means for assigning priorities to a plurality of genres of a program desired to be received and inputting the genres, and electronically converting the programs of the input genre. Program selection means for searching and selecting from data of a program guide, and overlapping program discrimination means for discriminating whether or not a program overlapping in the same time zone exists in the selected program, wherein the program selection means comprises: When the overlapping program discriminating means determines that there are overlapping programs in the same time slot, the program having the lower priority is excluded based on the priority of the genre. In broadcasting, it is possible to easily narrow down and select a program of a genre that the user desires to view from among those programs. The priority is given to each genre in spite of the fact that the selection range is widened, so that the program according to the user's request can be selected, and the program overlaps in the same time zone. Sometimes, programs with lower priorities are excluded, so that the user can easily see them, and by eliminating duplicate programs, it is possible to use the same as reservation data for receiving operation of the receiver.

In another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, the genre to which the priority is assigned is arbitrarily selected from the genre of the upper genre and the genre of the lower sub-category, and is assigned the order. In the upper genre, a program in a wide field such as sports can be selected. On the other hand, a program selected in a specific narrow field such as baseball can be selected as necessary. The most suitable selection can be made according to the situation.

Further, another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention comprises a program selection inputting means for inputting conditions of a program desired to be received, and a search for a program meeting the input conditions from data of an electronic program guide. Program selection means for selecting
The duplicate program discriminating means for discriminating whether or not there is a duplicate program in the same time zone in the selected program and the program selecting means search for a program in which a rebroadcast exists among the duplicate programs. The rebroadcast search means and the program in which the rebroadcast found by the rebroadcast search means is present are set to be received in another time zone which does not overlap with other programs. When there are a plurality of programs in the same time slot in the program table in which the program has been collected, it can be set so that a program with a rebroadcast that can be viewed at another time is received in that time slot.

In another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, the condition of the program desired to be received is set to the genre of the program desired to be received. After narrowing down, when there is a duplicate program of the same time zone in it, a program with rebroadcast can be set to be received at another time zone as described above, and it is easy to use It can be a digital broadcast receiver.

Another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention includes a viewing history memory for storing a program received by the receiver, and the program selection means overlaps in the same time zone by the overlapped program discrimination means. When it is determined that a program exists, the program existing in the viewing history memory is excluded, so that appropriate duplicate program elimination can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to view an appropriate program without eliminating unnecessary viewing.

Further, another digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention comprises: a viewing history memory for storing a program received by the receiver; and a series program searching means for searching for a series program from data recorded in the viewing history memory. In the program selecting means, when the overlapping program discriminating means determines that there is an overlapping program in the same time zone, the program other than the program detected by the series program detecting means is excluded. It is possible to automatically and preferentially receive a program that is considered to be viewed, thereby providing a highly usable digital broadcast receiver.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a relationship between main functional blocks and an embodiment of a digital broadcast receiver for implementing a digital broadcast program guide creation method according to the present invention and receiving digital broadcasts based on the program guide.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of a program table creation process of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart for supplementing a part of the deduplication processing / operation in the program guide creation processing of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is another operation flowchart for supplementing a part of the deduplication processing / operation in the program guide creation processing of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an example of a program table showing a process of generating a program table created by the present invention.

FIG. 6 is another example of a program guide showing a process of creating a program guide created by the present invention.

FIG. 7 is used for a genre search according to the embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a table showing examples of genre classification and genre subdivision.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Digital broadcast receiving part 14 Data separation part 17 Information channel data 20 System control part 26 Operation signal input part 27 Memory 28 Electronic program guide data storage part 29 Search condition setting part 30 Electronic program guide search / program selection part 31 Program table formation part 32 program guide screen output unit 33 program viewing management unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 7/035 17/00 F term (reference) 5C025 BA25 BA27 BA28 BA30 CA09 CB09 DA01 DA04 DA05 5C061 BB03 5C063 AB03 AB07 AC01 AC05 AC10 CA23 EB33

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of genres of a program desired to be received are assigned priorities and input, and a program of the input genre is searched and selected from data of an electronic program guide, and It is determined whether or not there is an overlapping program in the same time zone, and when it is determined that there is an overlapping program in the same time zone, it is determined that a program with a lower priority is excluded based on the priority of the genre. Characteristic digital broadcast program guide creation method. 2. A condition of a program desired to be received is input, and a program matching the input condition is searched and selected from data of an electronic program guide, and is overlapped in the selected program in the same time zone. It is determined whether or not there is a program to be replayed, and a program in which rerun is present is searched for in the overlapping program. When the rerun is found as a result of the search, a duplicate program is eliminated for a program with rerun. And selecting a program in a time zone in which the broadcast time zone does not overlap with another program. 3. Prioritized genre input means for assigning priorities to a plurality of genres of a program desired to be received and inputting them, and a program for searching for and selecting a program of the input genre from data of an electronic program guide Selecting means, and overlapping program discriminating means for discriminating whether or not a program overlapping in the same time slot exists in the selected program, wherein the program selecting means selects the same program in the same time slot. A digital broadcast receiver characterized in that when it is determined that a duplicate program exists, a program with a low priority is excluded based on the priority of the genre. 4. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 3, wherein the genre to which the priority is assigned is arbitrarily selected from a higher genre and a lower categorized genre and is assigned a priority. 5. Program selection input means for inputting a condition of a program desired to be received, program selection means for searching and selecting a program matching the input condition from data of an electronic program guide, Duplicate program discriminating means for discriminating whether or not there is an overlapping program in the same time slot in the program; and said program selecting means, wherein a rebroadcast search means for searching for a program in which a rebroadcast exists among the overlapping programs. A digital broadcast receiver for setting reception of a program in which rebroadcast searched by the rebroadcast search means exists in another time zone that does not overlap with another program. 6. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 5, wherein the condition of the program desired to be received is a genre of the program desired to be received. 7. A viewing history memory for storing a program received by a receiver, wherein said program selecting means, when said overlapping program determining means determines that an overlapping program exists in the same time zone, said viewing history memory. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 3, wherein programs existing in the digital broadcast receiver are excluded. 8. A viewing history memory for storing a program received by a receiver, a series program searching means for searching for a series program from data recorded in the viewing history memory, and said program selecting means, 6. The digital broadcast according to claim 3, wherein when it is determined that there is an overlapping program in the same time zone, programs other than the program detected by the series program detecting means are excluded. Receiving machine.