JP2003110980A - Receiver and charging system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system capable of meeting needs such that viewers select a desired commercial message to view it to reduce the view charge accordingly and sponsors bear sponsor charges according to the quantity of commercial messages utilized actually. SOLUTION: The system stores commercial messages of genres and sponsors selected by viewers and records contents by setting them to a commercial insertion part of the contents. The utilized amount is notified to a charging management means, which conducts settlement processing to due shares of both the sponsors and viewers.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for transmitting digital information such as video and audio, a device for transmitting, a device for receiving, a device for recording, and a billing system for viewing digital information, and more particularly to a commercial system for viewers. Instead of watching, the viewing fee can be reduced.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of television broadcasting and apparatuses for recording and reproducing the same, digital broadcasting has started,
Consumer digital recording / playback devices have been put on the market. Digital broadcasting and digital recording devices
The advantage is that there is no or very little quality deterioration during the information transmission process or recording / reproduction process. However, when a large number of high quality copies of information are created and distributed in places where the copyright holder does not know, and when the copying is repeated, there is a problem that the profit is not returned to the copyright holder. Therefore, there has been considered a method of preventing the viewer from recording in the device when the copyright must be strictly managed. However, if recording cannot be performed on the device at all, the broadcast cannot be viewed when the work is unexpectedly performed, and the viewer is inconvenient.

[0003] Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-149417 discloses a method called temporary recording for time-shifting the information during broadcasting so that the information can be viewed. In this method, information is physically recorded once on a recording medium, but a period of 90 minutes or the like is set during the reproduction and viewing, and the information is erased after the reproduction or the time limit. That is, instead of storing it for a long time and recording it for multipurpose use, it operates equivalently by delaying the viewing of the broadcast within 90 minutes. Since the information on the medium does not remain for a long time, the above inconvenience to the viewer can be solved without giving a disadvantage to the copyright holder. Due to its nature, temporary recording is often performed using a hard disk recorder built in the receiving device.

By the way, producers of digital broadcasting are now required to obtain information suitable for their quality.
The production cost will increase, and the demand for cost burden on sponsors will increase. Therefore, it is necessary for the producer and the sponsor side to devise more than ever in order to ensure that the viewer can watch the sponsor commercial. Especially, as time-shifted viewing by temporary recording becomes common as described above, it is important that there is an increased chance that the commercial recording portion will be skipped by fast-forwarding when playing back and viewing. It becomes a matter.

In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-235676, when reproducing the information once recorded in the recording / reproducing apparatus, a part where the sound is silent is detected, and switching between normal broadcasting and commercial is detected and reproduced. A method of switching operation is disclosed.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
The matter disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 35676 detects a portion in which a commercial is recorded at the time of reproduction and skips this portion,
The purpose is to pick up and watch only the normal broadcast part. In contrast, there has been no disclosure of a method for viewers to reliably watch commercials.

On the other hand, as described above, one of the causes for the user to skip commercials is that it is determined only by the producer side, and the viewer cannot select the commercial of the type and field desired. It is impossible for a person to expect to watch commercials of unnecessary products. Also, in the case of broadcasting without a sponsor, the viewer pays the viewing fee, but this is also more expensive than the conventional broadcasting. In the future, it is thought that there will be a problem that the amount of money that viewers will bear will rise.

An object of the present invention is to enable a viewer to watch a desired commercial, and not to impose an excessive viewing charge on the viewer. If necessary, the sponsor and the viewer can pay a charge commensurate with the content. It is to provide an information transmission system and device that can collect information from both parties.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a digital content information which is video and audio and a digital C which is a commercial by a sponsor.
In the receiving device for receiving the M information, the digital content information is provided with video / audio related information including CM position information indicating a position where a commercial is inserted on the time axis, and the digital CM information includes: CM related information including CM identification information for identifying a commercial and first field information indicating a target field of the commercial is attached, and a second field indicating a desired target field of the commercial to be recorded. Specifying means for specifying information,
Based on the first field information and the second field information,
A storage unit that stores the digital CM information, a recording unit that inserts the digital CM information stored in the storage unit into the digital content information based on the CM position information, and records the digital CM information, and a recording unit that records the digital CM information. There is provided a receiving device comprising a reproducing means for reproducing the digital content information and the digital CM information.

Further, in the receiving apparatus for receiving the digital content information which is the video and audio and the digital CM information which is the commercial by the sponsor, the digital content information is CM position information indicating the position where the commercial is inserted on the time axis. Is attached to the digital CM information, CM related information including CM identification information for identifying a commercial and first field information indicating a target field of the commercial is added, and Designating means for designating second field information indicating a desired field to be recorded, and the digital C based on the first field information and the second field information.
Recording means for recording the M information and the digital content information on the same recording medium, and the digital CM information and the digital content information recorded on the same recording medium by the recording means are reproduced to obtain the CM position information. Based on the above, there is provided a receiving apparatus characterized by comprising a reproducing means for inserting and outputting the digital CM information in the digital content information.

Further, in the digital information charging system of the present invention, there is provided a transmitting device for transmitting digital content information which is video and audio and digital CM information which is commercial with sponsor information indicating a sponsor of commercial, and the transmission. When the digital content information and the digital CM information transmitted by the device are received and the received digital CM information is a desired target field to be recorded, the digital CM information is stored in the same recording medium as the digital content information. A receiver for recording and transmitting the sponsor information attached to the recorded digital CM information, and a sponsor indicated by the user of the receiver and the sponsor information based on the sponsor information transmitted from the receiver. A billing processor that calculates the amount to charge Providing a billing system, characterized in that it comprises a and.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings as necessary. First, the entire system to which the present invention is applied will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the entire system used in the present invention, showing a case where created information is transmitted / received by broadcasting, recorded / reproduced, and charged as needed. The transmission method according to the present invention is applied to this, and the apparatus including the present invention is also included. 1 is an information providing station such as a broadcasting station, 1
X is content creation means, 1Y is CM (commercial)
Creating means, 2 is a relay station, 3 is a receiving device, 4 is a first recording / reproducing device, 5 is a display, 6 is a second recording / reproducing device, 7 is an accounting management device, and 8 is a settlement processing device. In addition, we record broadcasting here (including temporary recording mentioned above)
In doing so, it is possible to record on both the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 and the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6, or on either one of them. The first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 will be described here as a digital recording system built in the receiving apparatus 3. The recording medium may be a non-removable medium such as a hard disk. A removable device such as a video disk or a video tape may be used, but the recording / reproducing device built in the receiving device may be used for storing information for a relatively short period of time. For example, the temporary recording described above is mainly used. You can also use something that cannot be removed, such as when doing. Second recording / reproducing device 6
Will be described here using the digital recording method. The present invention realizes the intended operation even if either the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 or the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6 does not exist, or is present and not operating. it can.

The information providing station 1 such as a broadcasting station transmits a signal wave modulated by information via a relay station 2 such as a broadcasting satellite. Of course, other transmission methods such as cable transmission, telephone line transmission, and terrestrial broadcast transmission may be used. The information in the information providing station 1 is created by both the content creating means 1X and the CM creating means 1Y. In the former, the main body of programs such as dramas and news is created, and in the latter, sponsor commercials are created. Both may be provided inside the information providing station 1. Also, even when provided externally, these are not necessarily electrically connected and transmitted between the information providing station 1 and the information providing station 1 may be exchanged in the state of being contained in a recording medium such as a disk or a tape.

This signal radio wave received by the receiving device 3 on the receiving side is demodulated into an information signal as described later, and then, if necessary, the first recording / reproducing device 4 or the second recording device. It is recorded as a signal suitable for recording in the reproducing device 6. It is also sent to the display 5. Here, the user can directly view the information content. Information reproduced by the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 and the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6 is displayed on the display 5 via the receiving apparatus 3.
And the information such as the original video and audio is viewed. When a removable recording medium in which information is recorded in advance, for example, package software, is provided, the reproduction operation in the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6 to which this is attached, for example, is performed. Information is often exchanged between devices by digital signals, but for example, the receiving device 3 and the display 5 may be connected by analog signals.

From the receiving device 3 to the charge managing means 7, commercial viewing information and the like are sent via communication means such as a telephone line. As will be described later in detail, based on this, information such as the number of viewers of programs and commercials is sent to the information providing station 1 to provide data that contributes to future broadcast planning. In particular, information such as the number of viewers is also sent to the content creating means 1X. Further, to the settlement processing means 8, sponsors of commercials recorded in or reproduced from the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 or the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6, viewers, and, if necessary, the number of times, etc. Information is sent, and in response, the sponsor fee for the sponsor or the viewing fee for the viewer is settled. The result is also sent to the CM creating means 1Y, and information such as the frequency with which each commercial is viewed is provided. In this way, while providing data that contributes to future broadcast planning, the sponsor bears the sponsor fee according to the commercial information actually used, and the more the viewer uses the commercial, the less the viewing fee. The system is working.

This makes it possible to solve the conventional problem that the sponsor bears the same sponsor fee and the viewer bears the same viewing fee regardless of whether the commercial is used or not. Of course, viewers are given the option of viewing information in the absence of commercials, knowing that the viewing charges will be high.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the information providing station 1 such as a broadcasting station in the above system. 10
Is a management information giving circuit, 11A is content (or C)
M) generating unit, 11B a CM (or content) generating unit, 12A and 12B an encoding circuit that performs compression by the MPEG system or the like, 13 a multiplex circuit, 14 a scramble circuit, 15 a modulating circuit, 16 a transmitting antenna, 1
Reference numeral 7 is an input terminal, 18 is a viewer counting circuit, and 19 is an input terminal.

Content information such as video and audio that supplies news, movies, dramas, etc. generated in the content generation section 11A can be transmitted in a smaller occupied band.
The encoding circuit 12A compresses the data amount. On the other hand, the encoding circuit 12B compresses the data amount of the information such as the video and audio which supplies the CM of the sponsor generated by the CM generating unit 11B. Further, the management information adding circuit 1
Management information from 0 is given. As will be described later, this is copy control information for the above content information, C
For the information of the M insertion position and CM information, a code for CM identification, field information, sponsor company information, etc. are given. After that, both are multiplexed into one channel by a method such as time division or spread spectrum in the multiplexing circuit 13. Then, if necessary, the scramble circuit 14 performs transmission encryption so that only a specific viewer can view. Further, after being modulated by the modulation circuit 15 to be a signal suitable for transmission, it is emitted as a radio wave from the transmission antenna 16 toward the relay station 2 such as a broadcasting satellite.

Although omitted in FIG. 1, the request information is input from the input terminal 17 to the content generator 1X via a telephone line or the like. This is utilized in systems such as video-on-demand that determine the information to be sent in response to the viewer's request. When changing the commercial to be multiplexed according to the content to be transmitted or when determining the commercial to be transmitted in response to the request of the viewer, the commercial generation unit 1
It is also input to Y. The viewer tabulation circuit 18 tabulates the information input from the billing management means 7 of FIG. 1 via the input terminal 19 so that the content, the number of viewers of commercials, and the like can be known, and is useful for future broadcast planning. To do.

If the information providing station 1 includes the content creating section 1X and the CM creating section 1Y shown in FIG. 1, these become the content generating section 11A and the CM generating section 11B, respectively. Further, each is not limited to one handling only contents or CM. Both may generate content such as news and drama that are not CMs at the same time, or both may be CMs. The former content may continue to be generated for a long time, and a CM may be rarely generated. Further, for example, some commercials may be continuously streamed at midnight so that they can be accumulated on the receiving device 3 side.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the receiving device 3 in the system of FIG. 301 is RF
/ IF conversion circuit, 302 is a demodulation circuit, 303 is an error correction circuit, 304 is a descramble circuit for canceling the transmission code applied to the signal, 305 is the first demultiplexing circuit, 306 is an input / output terminal, and 307 is The second demultiplexing circuit, 308 is a decoding circuit, 309 and 310 are output terminals, 311 is a control circuit for controlling the entire receiving apparatus 3, 312 is an information management circuit, 313 is a command input circuit, 314 is an input terminal, 315 is a use information generation circuit, 3
Reference numeral 16 is a modem circuit, and 317 is an output terminal. Reference numeral 4 is a first recording / reproducing apparatus, and here, as described in FIG.
It is assumed to be built in the receiving device 3. In the figure, the solid line shows the flow of main information such as video and audio, and the dotted line shows the flow of control signal information between each component.

First, the flow of information such as video and audio shown by the solid line will be described. Radio waves from a relay station such as a broadcasting satellite are input to the RF / IF conversion circuit 301. Here, radio waves in the RF band are in the IF band (Intermedia
te Frequency) and becomes a signal in a constant band that does not depend on the receiving channel, and the modulation operation performed for transmission by the demodulation circuit 302 is demodulated. Further, the error correction circuit 303 detects and further corrects a code error occurring during transmission, and then the descramble circuit 304
It is input to and the transmission encryption is released. Then, it is sent to the first and second demultiplexing circuits 305 and 307. As mentioned above, especially in the case of digital broadcasting,
Information such as a plurality of contents and CMs is often multiplexed on one channel by a method such as time division or spread spectrum. The demultiplexing circuit separates only the desired information from this. The reason for providing the two demultiplex circuits is not only to enable so-called back program recording but also to use the first demultiplex circuit 305.
This is to remove information that is not worth recording. That is,
In many cases, additional information such as weather forecast and program broadcast schedule is attached to the information, which is good to see at the time of broadcasting, but it is not worth recording and watching at a later date, so remove it here. It is also possible.

The output of the first demultiplexing circuit 305 is given to the first recording / reproducing device 4, and if necessary,
It is recorded on the recording medium. The signal is also given to the input / output terminal 306, and signals are transmitted / received to / from the second recording / reproducing device 6 connected thereto. The input / output terminal 306 is a bidirectional terminal, and exchanges information to be recorded / reproduced, control information, and the like with the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6 as digital data, for example. Generally, the connection according to the IEEE 1394 standard is often used. In the second demultiplexing circuit 307, the information currently viewed is separated from the received channel. In the next decoding circuit 308, the data compression of the moving image performed before the transmission is decoded, and the output terminal 309,
It is sent to an external device via 310. For digital broadcasting, HD (High
Definition) information and SD (Standard) of about 500 lines
Definition) information is available. Accordingly, if the former is HD output and the latter is SD output, it is preferable to supply the information of the output terminal 309 to the HD compatible display and the information of the output terminal 310 to the SD compatible display. Therefore, the information of the output terminal 310 is preferably converted into analog, but the information of the output terminal 309 may be digital or analog depending on the input of the display.

Next, the control signal shown by the dotted line will be described. The control circuit 311 uses 305, 3
Control signals are exchanged with the respective constituent elements 07 and 308, and the entire receiving apparatus 3 is controlled so as to perform a desired operation. The information management circuit 312 supplies management data when the control circuit 311 performs control in response to a request. For example,
Here, timer reservation information by the user is managed. This reservation designation is input from the input terminal 314 and sent to the control circuit 311 via the command input circuit 313.
It is stored in the information management circuit 312. At the reserved time for viewing, the control circuit 311 sends a control signal to each of the above-mentioned components to start the receiving operation.

Further, the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 is the receiving apparatus 3
If it is built in, the recording / reproducing operation is performed according to the user's instruction input from the input terminal 314. Therefore, the output of the command input circuit 313 is supplied. This control signal may be supplied from the control circuit 311. Further, the control circuit 311 notifies the usage information generation circuit 315 of the usage status of the information. For example,
Data that indicates whether the content being broadcast is received and recorded / reproduced and used, and what kind of CM is received and recorded / reproduced are provided as data, for example, by a transmission line such as a telephone line. Modem circuit 31 for sending
It outputs to the output terminal 317 via 6 and is sent to the charging management means 7 of FIG. Particularly in the case of CM, a detailed description of the data sent here will be given later.

Next, the recording / reproducing operation of the digital recording / reproducing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. The first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 and the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6 shown above may have the same basic circuit block configuration, and an example using a digital recording system is shown here.

FIG. 4 is a circuit block diagram of the digital recording / reproducing apparatus. In particular, it is suitable for using a disk as a recording medium. Reference numeral 41 is a recording circuit, 4101 is an input terminal for a signal to be recorded, 4102A and B are first and second storage means including semiconductor memories, 4103 is an encryption circuit, 4104 is an encryption key input terminal, and 4105 is a recording An encoding circuit, 4106 is an output terminal of a signal to be recorded on a recording medium, 4107 is a medium detection circuit, 4108 is a control detection circuit, 4109 is a recording control circuit, 4110 is a control signal input / output terminal, and 4111 is a control signal output terminal. Is. 42 is a reproduction circuit, 4201 is a reproduction signal input terminal,
Reference numeral 4202 is a reproduction / decoding circuit, 4203 is a block reproduction circuit, 4204 is storage means such as a semiconductor memory, 4205.
Is an error correction circuit, 4206 is an encryption / decryption circuit, 4207 is an input terminal of a key for decrypting an encryption, 4208 is a signal output circuit, 4209 is an output terminal for sending a reproduction signal to a receiver or the like,
4210 is a control signal detection circuit, 4211 is a clock, 42
Reference numeral 12 is a reproduction control circuit, 4213 is a control signal input / output terminal, and 4214 is a control signal output terminal.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the periphery of the recording medium of the recording / reproducing apparatus. 43 is a recording / reproducing unit, 4301 is an input terminal, 4302 is a recording amplifier, 4303 is a recording medium drive on which a recording medium such as a hard disk, a video disk, a video tape is mounted, 4304 is a reproducing amplifier,
4305 is an output terminal, 4306 is a mechanism control circuit, 430
Reference numeral 7 is an input terminal.

Before describing these operations, information signals to be recorded and reproduced will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, the horizontal direction indicates the time axis. FIG. 6A shows the CM generator 11 of FIG.
The CM information after being generated in B and added with the information from the management information adding circuit 10 is shown. CM generated by the former
The main body of FIG. 5 corresponds to this. The items given from the latter correspond to 101 to 104 in FIG. What follows is a CM identification 101 for indicating that it is a CM, a category code 102 for indicating in which category CM such as food, furniture, furniture, books, etc., for indicating a sponsor company. Company code 103, a code number 104 indicating which one of several CMs of the company is, and the like.

FIG. 6B shows the content generator 11 of FIG.
The content information after being generated in A and added with the information from the management information adding circuit 10 is shown. What occurred in the former is the main body of the content, and the content 1,
The portions marked 2, 3 correspond to this. The part given from the latter is the part shown by hatching in the figure, which indicates the position to insert the CM. In this embodiment, the content information and the CM information are sent separately, and the information indicating the field is added to the CM information, so that the viewer can select the desired CM. However, even in the current broadcasting format in which a CM is inserted and transmitted from the beginning, the present invention can be applied if the content information and the CM are separated.

Before recording the information on the recording medium, FIG.
As shown in (c), the CM desired by the viewer is inserted at the designated CM insertion position. Alternatively, FIG.
Of the CM information of (a), the information of the field or sponsor desired by the viewer and the content information of FIG. 6 (b) are recorded at different positions on the disc which is the recording medium, and are reproduced at the time of reproduction. The information of the configuration of c) may be reassembled and output. As described above, the CM desired by the viewer is inserted in the process of recording or reproducing.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. The recording circuit 41 will be described first. Information to be recorded is input from the input terminal 4101. This is supplied from the first multiplex circuit 305 of FIG. In the case of the second recording / reproducing device 6, this information is further input / output terminal 3
It is supplied via 06. In addition, a reproducing circuit 4 described later
The output of the output terminal 4209 of the information reproduced in 2 is also given to the input / output terminal 306 of FIG. Therefore, in the second recording / reproducing apparatus 6, 4101 and 4209 may be integrated and used as input / output terminals. It may be defined by the IEEE 1394 standard.

The input information is once stored in the first storage means 4102A for each block. In addition to digital information such as video and audio, various control information is attached to this. In the case of broadcasting, for example, some are added by the management information adding circuit 10 in FIG. 2, and in CM, FIG.
Nos. 101 to 104 are added. For contents other than CM, in addition to the code indicating the CM insertion position as shown by the shaded area in FIG. 6B, a code for specifying the content and copy control indicating whether or not this information can be recorded Information may be added. This is given to the control detection circuit 4108, and the control information is detected.
Based on this, the recording control circuit 4109 determines whether or not this signal can be recorded, whether or not to encrypt it at the time of recording, and outputs the result to the encryption circuit 4103 and the recording / coding circuit 4105. send.

Of the detected control information, at least C
The detection results of the M identification 101 and the field code 102 are returned to the first storage means 4102A. Here, the CM identification 10
1 indicates that the information is a commercial, and if the field code 102 is what the viewer desires, this commercial
The information is moved to the second storage means 4102 and accumulated. The field desired by the viewer is given from the input terminal 314 of FIG. 3 to the first recording / reproducing apparatus 4 via the command input circuit 313, and the input / output terminal 4110 of FIG. Informed by the control information to the means 4102A. In the first storage means 4102A, this is compared with the detection result of the previous field code 102, and then moved to the second storage means 4102B. Even if the CM information that does not meet the viewer's request is stored in the first storage unit 4102A once, the CM information is overwritten and erased later without being utilized any more.

Content information other than CM is usually read sequentially from the first storage means 4102A and given to the encryption circuit 4103. However, when the control detection circuit 4108 detects the code indicating the CM insertion position shown in FIG. 6B, the CM information is accumulated in the second storage unit 4102B in order to insert the CM here. in the meantime,
Content information is only stored in the first storage unit 4102A. After the reading of the CM information is completed, the content information is sequentially read again from the first storage unit 4102A. As a result, the information given to the encryption circuit 4103 is obtained by inserting the CM desired by the viewer stored in the second storage means 4102B at the prescribed position as shown in FIG. 6C.

Although the time axis is moved backward by the amount of the CM inserted, it is possible to process the CM information and the content information immediately after the CM information at a high speed and record them on the recording medium. , The first storage means 41, for example
The problem that the capacity of 02A becomes huge does not occur.

The information shown in FIG. 6C is then encrypted in the encryption circuit 4103, if necessary, according to the control signal from the recording control circuit 4109. The encryption is performed based on the information from the input terminal 4104, for example. This is when high security is required
This is to prevent it from being used by a third party.

The encrypted information is recorded in the recording / coding circuit 41.
Given to 05. In the recording encoding circuit 4105, based on the control information from the recording control circuit 4109, when recording is not performed, the information is interrupted here, and when recording is performed, modulation suitable for the medium used is performed and output to the output terminal 4106. .

From the recording control circuit 4109 to the recording coding circuit 4105, a clock 4211 is added in addition to the copy control information.
The current time at the time of recording output from is also given, and if recording is possible, this is also recorded at the same time if necessary.

Further, the information signal at the output terminal 4106 is
It is given to the input terminal 4301 of the recording / reproducing unit 43 shown in FIG. This signal is amplified by the recording amplifier 4302 so as to drive the laser generating element and the magnetic head, and then recorded on the recording medium as described above by the recording medium drive 4303. Reference numeral 4306 denotes a mechanism control circuit such as a motor for driving the recording medium drive 4303, which has an input terminal 430.
The recording medium is controlled by the control signal from 7.

The recording control circuit 41 shown in FIG.
The output of 09 is given to the output terminal 4111. If necessary, this is given to the input terminal 4307 of FIG. 5, and when the information whose recording is prohibited is inputted, the mechanism control circuit 43
You may instruct 06 to stop the recording operation. Also,
The input / output terminal 4110 in FIG. 4 also inputs / outputs control signals from / to external devices. For example, there is a method in which the control information is not detected by the control detection circuit 4108 and is externally provided separately from the data such as video and audio, which is utilized in this case. IE
According to the EE1394 standard, it can be shared with the input terminal 4101 and the output terminal 4209.

Next, the operation of reproducing the recorded information will be described. The information signal reproduced from the recording medium drive 4303 of FIG. 5 is amplified by the reproduction amplifier 4304 to a level at which signal processing in the subsequent stage is possible, and then output terminal 4305.
Is output to. A control signal from the output terminal 4214 of FIG. 4 is input to the input terminal 4307, and the mechanism control circuit 43
Control 06. This is generated by the reproduction control circuit 4212. In general, the recording control circuit 4109 and the reproduction control circuit 4212 are actually on the same semiconductor device, and in this case, the output terminals of 4111 and 4214 can be common.

The information signal at the output terminal 4305 in FIG. 5 is given to the input terminal 4201 of the reproducing circuit 42 in FIG. This is supplied to the reproduction decoding circuit 4202. Here, the modulation applied on the recording side for recording and reproducing on the medium is demodulated,
Equalize the waveform and fix the data with the clock. Next, the block reproducing circuit 4203 detects a sync signal, an ID signal, etc., and based on this, the reproduced data is temporarily stored in a predetermined position of the storage means 4204. The error correction circuit 4205
From the stored data, an arithmetic operation is performed to detect a sign error that has occurred during the recording / reproducing process and correct it to a correct value. The data after the error correction is given to the encryption / decryption circuit 4206. This is for decrypting the recording encryption performed by the previous encryption circuit 4103 during recording. Here, decryption is performed by the key from the input terminal 4207. If this is not a recorded device or user specific
It cannot be viewed without normal decryption.
Therefore, the recorded device can be viewed by the user, but it is extremely difficult for another device or user to reproduce and watch the recorded medium.

On the other hand, the control signal detection circuit 4210 detects, for example, the copy control information and the time of recording from the previously error-corrected data. Next, the reproduction control circuit 4212 determines whether reproduction output is possible based on the detected information, the current time from the clock 4211, and controls the output of the signal output circuit 4208.
Alternatively, the encryption / decryption circuit 4206 is operated or stopped. For example, there is a time limit for playing and watching,
When this has passed, the signal output circuit 4208 does not output at least information that can be viewed normally. If necessary, control information is sent from the output terminal 4214 to the input terminal 4307 of FIG.
The reproduction operation of 3 itself may be stopped.

When it is permitted to output the reproduced information, this information is given to the output terminal 4209 and supplied to the display 5 through the receiving device 3 of FIG. MPEG performed by the encoding circuits 12A and 12B of FIG.
The operation of compressing the data amount due to, for example, is restored by the decoding circuit 308 of the receiving device 3. The decoding circuit 30
8 may be built in the display 5. Therefore, the user can set the information content as shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), the CM in the field desired by the viewer can be viewed with the CM inserted in a predetermined position.

The input / output terminal 4213 exchanges control information with an external device. For example, it is used when the reproduced information is further recorded in an external recording device. The input / output terminals 4110 and 4213 can be shared. In addition, for example, according to the IEEE 1394 standard, the information including the information of the input terminal 4101 and the output terminal 4209 can be transmitted / received in one system, or can be transmitted / received wirelessly using infrared rays or the like.

The control signal supplied from the reproduction control circuit 4212 to the recording / coding circuit 4105 is an instruction to erase information during reproduction, for example. It is used to erase information that has passed the time limit for viewing, and to erase information that has been played once regardless of the time limit. In the case where the recording medium is a disc or the like, the recording / coding circuit 4105 generates a meaningless signal as information in accordance with this control signal, and erases the information by recording it on the medium. In this case, the recording medium must be erasable. Medium detection circuit 4
107 is provided for this purpose. This is effective for a device in which the recording medium is removable, such as the second recording / reproducing device 6. In the case of recording the information which is permitted to be recorded on condition that the information is to be erased eventually, if a medium such as a CD-R in which the information cannot be erased is attached, the recording is not performed. These are realized by sending control signals from the medium detection circuit 4107 to the recording encoding circuit 4105 and the reproduction control circuit 4212. The above is the description of the basic operation of FIGS. 4 and 5.

As described above, as shown in FIG. 6C, the CM desired by the viewer or the CM of the sponsor is inserted at the designated position on the original content for viewing. be able to. It is possible to eliminate the waste of watching CMs in fields that are not of interest. Although an example in which the information shown in FIG. 6C is formed before recording on the recording medium has been described here, on the recording medium, the CM information of FIG. 6A is desired by the viewer. There is also a method of recording the fields or sponsors and the content information of FIG. 6 (b) at different positions, and configuring and outputting as shown in FIG. 6 (c) during reproduction. This is particularly effective when a disc is used as the recording medium. This is also within the scope of the present invention.

According to the present invention, the CM is selected as desired by the viewer, and it is expected that the opportunity of fast-forwarding and skipping the CM is reduced even when viewing information reproduced from the recording / reproducing apparatus, for example. it can. This is a benefit for sponsors. Further, in order to enhance this effect, there is a method of prohibiting fast-forwarding of a CM during reproduction. As shown in FIG. 6A, CM is CM identification 1
The starting point can be known from the information of 01. Although the information indicating the end of CM is not shown in FIG. 6, some information may be considered. For example, the CM shown by hatching in FIG.
The end point can be known by leaving the code indicating the insertion position in the portion where the CM ends in FIG. 6C. These detections can be performed by the control detection circuit 4210 of FIG. The reproduction control circuit 4212 controls the device so that the fast-forward reproduction is prohibited and the reproduction is performed at the normal speed at least while the CM is being reproduced. This has the effect of solving the problem that the CM is skipped and the profit is not returned to the sponsor.

As described above, in the present invention, the CM information and the content information are recorded on the same recording medium regardless of the positional relationship between them. On the other hand, a method of recording on different recording media and synthesizing at the time of reproduction, and a method of recording only CM information and synthesizing on content information currently being broadcast can be considered.
The present invention requires less number of recording media for the former of these, and is more suitable for a system that performs billing processing at the time of reception or recording, and for the latter,
It is excellent in that it can be viewed repeatedly.

Next, the portion related to charging will be reviewed again with reference to FIG. The information sent from the receiving device 3 to the billing management means 7 is sent out from the output terminal 317 of FIG. This is because the company code 103, code number 104, etc. in FIG. 6A of the CM information selected by the viewer, which is once stored in the second storage means 4102B in FIG. 4 and is subsequently recorded in the recording medium. The recording control circuit 4109 of FIG.
It is informed to the control circuit 311 of FIG. 3 via the input / output terminal 4110 and further output via the use information generating circuit 315 and the modem circuit 316. Although omitted in FIG. 6B to avoid complication, if the code for identifying the content is added to this, the viewed content can be notified to the charging management means 7. Charge management means 7
Calculates the amount to be charged to the user of the receiving device, the CM creator, or the sponsor based on the information sent from the receiving device 3.

Further, the charging management means 7 transmits CM information, information of viewed contents, etc. to the information providing station 1, the contents creating section 1X and the like. Based on these pieces of information, the information providing station 1 and the content creation unit 1X can grasp the usage status of each content and contribute to future broadcast planning. In addition, the information of the calculated amount is transmitted from the billing management means 7 to the settlement processing means 8. Based on the information, the payment processing means 8 makes payment to the CM creator or sponsor based on information such as the number of times the sponsor or each CM has been used, the amount of money calculated by the charging management means 7. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the charge management means 7 is also obtained by deducting the amount of CM viewing from viewers.
Settle the amount of money calculated as

According to the above method, when the CM information is newly recorded on the recording medium, the billing information is generated only once. However, in contrast to this, the billing information is generated each time the CM information is reproduced. is there. This is the reproduction control circuit 42
Similarly, necessary information may be sent from 12 via the input / output terminal 4213. As the number of times the CM is viewed increases, the system can reduce the burden on the viewer for the amount of money.
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a system for collecting the amount of money commensurate with the provision of information by broadcasting from sponsors and viewers.

So far, examples have been given on the premise that the recording / reproducing apparatus records once. It can be expected that the need for utilizing the first recording / reproducing device 4 built in the receiving device 3 as a temporary recording device using a hard disk as a recording medium and time-shifting a broadcast for viewing will increase in the future. It is valid.

[0055]

As described above, according to the present invention, the viewer can select and watch the commercials in the field of interest, and the waste of watching the commercials in the field of no interest can be eliminated. Further, it is possible to make a payment to the sponsor according to the number of cases actually used, and it is also possible for the viewer to make a payment with a reduced burden according to the usage status of the CM. It is possible to prevent the CM from being skipped when viewing the information reproduced from the recording / reproducing apparatus. This has the effect that the content creator can grasp the viewing situation and contribute to future broadcast planning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an entire digital information transmission / reception recording / reproducing system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an information providing station 1 such as a broadcasting station in FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a receiving device 3 in FIG.

4 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a recording / reproducing device 4 in FIG.

5 is a block diagram showing an example of the periphery of a recording medium of the recording / reproducing apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of information in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ・ ・ Information stations such as broadcasting stations 11A ・ ・ ・ ・ Information generator 11B ... ・ CM generator 12A ... Encoding circuit 12B ... Encoding circuit 13 ... Multiplex circuit 14 ... Scramble circuit 15 ... Modulation circuit 16 ... Transmission antenna 17: Input terminal 18 ... Viewer counting circuit 19: Input terminal 1X ・ ・ ・ Content creation department 1Y: CM generation unit 2 ... Relay station 3 ... Receiving device 301 ... RF / IF conversion circuit 302 ··· Demodulation circuit 303 ... Error correction circuit 304 ... Descrambling circuit 305 ... First demultiplexing circuit 306 ... I / O terminals 307 ... Second demultiplexing circuit 308 ... Decoding circuit 309 ... Output terminal 310 ... Output terminal 311 ··· Control circuit 312 ··· Information management circuit 313 ... Command input circuit 314 ... Input terminal 315 ... Use information generation circuit 316 ... Modem circuit 317 ... Input terminals 4 ... First recording / reproducing device 4102A ... First storage means 4102B ... Second storage means 5 ... Display 6 ... Second recording / reproducing device 7 ... ・ Charging management means 8 ・ ・ Payment processing means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04N 7/16 H04N 7/08 Z 7/173 630 5/91 Z 7/20 630 (72) Inventor Yoshioka Atsushi 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-Term (Reference), Hitachi, Ltd. Digital Media Development Group 5C025 DA01 DA04 DA10 5C052 AA01 AB04 DD10 5C053 FA23 FA30 GB01 HA29 JA01 JA21 JA30 KA04 LA14 LA20 5C063 AA20 AB03 AB07 AB10 AC01 AC05 AC10 5C064 BB01 BC04 BC18 BD03 BD08 BD09

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A receiving device for receiving digital content information which is video and audio and digital CM information which is commercial, wherein the digital content information includes CM position information indicating a position where a commercial is inserted on a time axis. Video-audio related information including the CM-related information is added to the digital CM information, and CM-related information including CM identification information for identifying a commercial and the first field information indicating a target field of the commercial is added. Based on the first field information and the second field information, specifying means for designating second field information indicating a desired target field of the commercial to be recorded,
A storage unit that stores the digital CM information, a recording unit that inserts and records the digital CM information stored in the storage unit into the digital content information based on the CM position information, and a recording unit that records the digital CM information. A receiving device comprising a reproducing means for reproducing the digital content information and the digital CM information. 2. A receiving device for receiving digital content information which is video and audio and digital CM information which is commercial, wherein the digital content information includes CM position information indicating a position where the commercial is inserted on the time axis. The digital CM information is attached with CM-related information including CM identification information for identifying a commercial and first field information indicating a target field of the commercial, and should be recorded. Specifying means for specifying second field information indicating a desired target field of the commercial; and based on the first field information and the second field information,
Recording means for recording the digital CM information and the digital content information on the same recording medium, and reproduction of the digital CM information and the digital content information recorded on the same recording medium by the recording means, and the CM position A receiving device comprising a reproducing means for inserting the digital CM information into the digital content information and outputting the information based on the information. 3. The CM related information includes sponsor information indicating a sponsor of a commercial, and a billing management device for managing the billing for the commercial viewing of the sponsor information attached to the digital CM information recorded by the recording unit. The receiving device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: a transmitting unit that transmits to. 4. The receiving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transmitting means transmits the sponsor information attached to the digital CM information recorded by the recording means to the billing management apparatus. 5. The transmitting means transmits the sponsor information attached to the digital CM information recorded by the recording means to the billing management device every time the reproducing means reproduces the digital CM information. The receiving device according to claim 3, wherein: 6. The video / audio related information includes an identification code for identifying a video / audio content, and the transmission means uses the identification code attached to the digital content information recorded by the recording means. The receiving device according to claim 3, wherein the receiving device transmits the received data to the receiving device. 7. A transmitter for transmitting digital commercial information, which is commercial, to which digital content information which is video and audio, and sponsor information which indicates a sponsor of commercial, is transmitted, and digital content information and digital CM which are transmitted by the transmitter. When information is received and the received digital CM information is in a desired target field, the digital CM information is recorded on the same recording medium as the digital content information and added to the recorded digital CM information. A receiving device that transmits sponsor information, and based on the sponsor information transmitted from the receiving device,
An accounting system, comprising: a user of the receiving device; and an accounting device that calculates an amount to be charged to the sponsor indicated by the sponsor information.