JP2003032508A - Inter-device controller and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems arisen in a conventional system form where a television receiver and an STB(Set Top Box) are interconnected because a user has had to prepare a remote controller for the STB in addition to a remote controller for the television receiver to control the entire system, the user has had to operate the STB remote controller toward the STB, the user has had the two remote controllers and required to execute complicated jobs to select the required remote controller for the required operation on each occasion. SOLUTION: A serial bus such as a 12C bus interconnects a display device and the STB or a DVD player and the display device sends a command to the STB or the DVD player to control the STB and the DVD player.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inter-device control apparatus and method in a system in which a video display device such as a television monitor and a video output device such as a set top box or a DVD player are connected by wire. In particular, it relates to a connection method having a serial bus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, set top boxes (hereinafter referred to as ST
It is becoming more common with the diversification of services that the video display device and the receiving device are not integrated, such as the connection of a television set (referred to as B).

A conventional device control method will be described below with reference to FIG. In the figure, 501 is a DVD player, 502 is an optical disk unit (hereinafter referred to as ODU), 503 is an MPEG decoder which is connected to the ODU and reconstructs an image from a compressed stream, 504 is a CPU for controlling the DVD player, and 505 is a DVD player. The remote control interface that I have, 506 the remote control attached to the DVD player, 507 the MPEG decoder 503
Output terminal for outputting the video signal output by the DVD player to the outside of the DVD player, 508 an external input terminal for inputting the video signal output from the DVD player to the television, 509 a tuner with a built-in television, and 510 an image from the tuner Input selector 511 for switching between a signal and a video signal from an external input terminal is a display processor that performs signal processing on the output signal of the input selector, 512 is a display device such as a CRT that displays the output of the display processor, and 513 is a television. A CPU for controlling the CPU, 514 is a remote control interface of the television, 515 is a remote control attached to the television, and 516 is a television configured by combining these. (DVD
(Explanation of the procedure for input switching + reproduction depending on whether the remote control or the TV remote control is used separately) For the sake of simplicity, the operation of the conventional example will be described taking as an example the case where the user wants to perform the reproduction operation of the DVD player.
First, the user operates the remote controller 515 of the TV, and the CP from the remote controller interface 514 via the host bus.
For U, the input selector 510 is controlled so as to pass the signal from the external input terminal 508.

Next, the user operates the remote controller 5 of the DVD player.
Operate 06 and press the "Play" button. The remote control interface 505 informs the CPU 5 that the "play" button is pressed.
04 is notified of "reproduction", and the CPU 504 controls the ODU 502 and the MPEG decoder 503 appropriately so as to perform the reproduction operation. As a result, the video output terminal 50
The reproduced video signal flows to 7, and as a result, the external input terminal 50
8 and the input selector 510 and the display processor 511, the reproduced image is displayed on the display device 512.
As described above, a desired reproducing operation can be performed.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, in order to control the entire system, in addition to the remote controller for the television, the remote controller for the DVD player must be provided. Also, the remote control of the DVD player must be operated towards the DVD player, not towards the television. In other words, the user must have two remote controllers in order to perform the desired control, and the user has to perform a complicated operation of selecting which remote controller to operate each time.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems by providing I2 between the display device and the STB or DVD player.
Connect with a serial bus like C, and from the display device side to ST
The purpose is to enable control of the STB or DVD player by sending a command to the B or DVD player side.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, the inter-device control apparatus of the present invention comprises, on the television side, an I2C transmission controller connected to a remote control interface for converting a remote control command into a protocol on an I2C serial bus. , STB side is connected to the remote control interface of the TV, and the signal sent by I2C from the TV side is STB
And a remote control interface for converting into a remote control command.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an inter-device control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 101 is a DVD player and 102
Is an optical disk unit (hereinafter referred to as ODU), 103
Is an MPEG decoder that is connected to the ODU and reconstructs an image from a compressed stream; 104 is a CPU that controls a DVD player; 105 is a remote control interface that the DVD player has; 106 is an I2C signal that is received by the DVD player; An I2C reception controller that converts the remote control command and sends it to the remote control interface 105; 107 is a video output terminal for outputting the video signal output from the MPEG decoder 103 to the outside of the DVD player;
Reference numeral 8 is an external input terminal for inputting a video signal output from a DVD player to the television, 109 is a tuner built in the television, 110 is an input selector for switching between a video signal from the tuner and a video signal from the external input terminal, 111 Is a display processor that performs signal processing on the output signal of the input selector, and 112 is a CR that displays the output of the display processor
Display device such as T, 113 is a CP for controlling the TV
U and 114 are TV remote control interfaces, and 115.
Is a remote control attached to the TV and has buttons for "play", "stop", "fast forward", "rewind" in addition to the buttons for normal TV control. 116 is a signal from the remote control interface 114. An I2C transmission controller 117 for converting and outputting the I2C protocol is a television configured by combining these.

The digital signal receiving apparatus configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a conversion table from the remote control command to the I2C register value by the I2C transmission controller.

For the sake of simplicity, the operation of this embodiment will be described by taking as an example the case where the user wants to perform a reproduction operation on the DVD player. First, the user operates the remote controller 115 of the television, and the CPU from the remote controller interface 114 via the host bus.
On the other hand, the input selector 110 is controlled to pass the signal from the external input terminal 108. Up to this point, the operation is the same as the input switching operation using the conventional remote controller of the television.

Next, the user operates the remote controller 115 of the television and presses the "play" button. Remote control interface 1
14 notifies the I2C transmission controller 116 that the "play" button has been pressed. I2C transmission controller 11
6 corresponds to writing "0x03" to address 0xf0 according to the conversion table shown in FIG. 2, so that I2 of the DVD player is read via I2C bus 117.
Write 0x03 to address 0xf0 of C reception controller.

The I2C reception controller 106 recognizes that the data has been written and sends a "play" command of the DVD player to the remote control interface 105. The remote control interface 105 notifies the CPU 104 of "reproduction" in the same manner as when receiving the "reproduction" command from the light receiving unit,
The CPU 104 appropriately controls the ODN 102 and the MPEG decoder 103 so as to perform the reproducing operation. As a result, the reproduced video signal flows to the video output terminal 107, and as a result, the reproduced image is displayed on the display device 112 via the external input terminal 108, the input selector 110, and the display processor 111.

From the above, the remote control 115 attached to the television
It is possible to control the moving image reproduction from the DVD player only by the control from.

The signal sent on the I2C line may be the IEEE 1394 pass-through command itself instead of the register value table shown in FIG. IEEE 1394
By passing the pass-through command, the S connected to the DVD player 101 by IEEE1394
When controlling the TB, the S command is not required to be converted into the pass-through command again in the DVD player.
There is a merit that it can be transferred to TB.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an inter-device control apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, 301 is a flash memory that stores a device ID number and an icon image corresponding to the ID, 302 is an I2C reception controller that has a ROM section that internally stores the ID number, and other components are the first. The operation of each block is also the same as that of the above embodiment.

The inter-device control apparatus configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is an example showing which device each ID number represents.

For simplicity, the I2C reception controller 302
It is assumed that the device ID is stored at address 0xf1. In the present case, it is assumed that it is a DVD player, so 0x from FIG.
03. First, the user operates the remote controller 115 of the television to control the CPU from the remote controller interface 114 via the host bus so that the input selector 110 passes the signal from the external input terminal 108. Up to this point, the operation is the same as the input switching operation using the conventional remote controller of the television.

At the time when the CPU 113 of the television sets the input selector to the external input terminal 108, the CPU 113 simultaneously operates to read the connected device, in this case, the device ID of the DVD player side, via the I2C bus. Figure
When address 0xf1 is read from the correspondence of 4, 0x03 can be read. The CPU 113 can recognize that the connected device is a DVD player by comparing the value 0x03 with the contents of the flash memory. The CPU 113 develops the icon image of the DVD player stored in the flash memory and displays it on the screen signal by superimposing it on the screen of the DVD player to inform the user that the external input currently selected is the DVD player. it can.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the user can visually know what is connected to the external port.

If the device ID is a new product that was not available when the television was manufactured, the I2
D device ID and device image data using C bus
By transferring from the VD player side to the TV side, the TV side flash memory can be updated and a new icon can be created on the TV side.

Since the device code has already been standardized in a device equipped with IEEE 1394, by following this value, this embodiment can be realized without increasing the memory on the DVD player side.

Also, at least the remote control of the TV
Prepare "Up", "Down", "Left", "Right" and "Enter" keys. It may not be assigned to the remote controller that is attached to the signal source side such as a DVD player when the TV is shipped. When there is a new function, the DVD player displays the on-screen menu and highlights the currently selected button on the on-screen display, whereas the method of this embodiment displays the information of the remote controller key pressed down on the DVD. By notifying the player, the highlight position is changed and the function at the time when the enter key is pressed can be realized by the DVD player.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, by transmitting a command from the television side to the DVD player side via the I2C bus, the DVD player can be controlled only by the remote controller attached to the television. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an inter-device control device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an inter-device control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 DVD player 102 optical disk unit 103 MPEG decoder 104 CPU 105 Remote control interface 106 I2C receiver controller 107 Video output terminal 108 External input terminal 109 Built-in tuner 110 input selector 111 display processor 112 display device 113 CPU 114 remote control interface 115 remote control 116 I2C transmitter controller 117 TV

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04Q 9/00 301 H04Q 9/00 321B 321 H04L 13/00 305B (72) Inventor Akihisa Kawamura Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Daiji Kadoma 1006 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hidekazu Suzuki Kadoma City Osaka Pref. 1006 Kadoma Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 5C025 BA30 CA09 DA08 5C056 AA07 BA01 BA10 CA06 DA06 5D044 AB05 AB07 BC06 CC04 GK11 HL11 5K034 AA17 AA20 CC02 CC03 DD01 HH01 HH02 HH61 5K048 AA13 BA02 DA02 DA05 DB04 EA14 EB02 HA04 HA06

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. In a system in which a video display device and a video output device are connected by a control bus, the video display device converts an input signal from a remote controller attached to the video display device into a protocol prescribed in advance and outputs the video. A control device comprising a video display device equipped with a command generation means for outputting in response to a crisis, and a video output device equipped with command conversion means for receiving the command and converting from the protocol prescribed in advance into a command peculiar to the device. 2. The inter-device control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control bus is an I2C bus. 3. The protocol defined in advance is I
The inter-device control device according to claim 1, wherein the inter-device control device is the same as the EEE1394 pass-through command. 4. The pre-specified protocol is I
2. The inter-device control device according to claim 1, which is represented by a register map on a 2C bus. 5. In a system in which a video display device and a video output device are connected by a control bus, the video display device reads the identification number of the connected video output device via the control bus, and an icon corresponding to the identification number. An inter-device control device in which an image is displayed on a screen by an image display device. 6. The inter-device control device according to claim 5, wherein the icon image is transferred from the video output device to the video display device side via a control bus. 7. An inter-device control method in which a video display device and a video output device are connected by a control bus, wherein the video display device converts an input signal from a remote controller attached to the video display device into a protocol prescribed in advance. And outputting a command to the video output device, receiving the command, and converting the protocol defined in advance into a command specific to the device.